If you are diagnosed with diabetes, you are usually told to exercise. With insulin and a good diet however, the idea of exercise can seem somewhat redundant. A study done by researchers in the Life Sciences Institute in Michigan however, say otherwise.
Weight training is found to actually keep blood sugar in check. Bench presses, biceps curls and other body building exercises maybe the right go-to when trying to manage diabetes and blood glucose.
The study was to look at the effects of metabolic disorders when teamed with weight training and exercise. According to NewsMaxHealth, Jiandie Lin, a Life Sciences Institute faculty member and associate professor at the UM Medical School said that, “We wanted to figure out the relationship between muscle types and body metabolism, how the muscles were made, and also what kind of influence they have on diseases like type 2 diabetes.”
The body has two types of muscles, comparative to red and white meat. Red muscles are often prominent in marathon-runners and endurance sports, whilst white muscles dominate weight lifters and sprinters – people that engage in short bursts of energy.
The reason why endurance sportsmen have red muscles is due to the mitochondria in the nucleus. Mitochondria takes the oxygen that you breathe and converts it into energy, which is then pumped through the body as a red blood cell. In other words – more oxygen, more red.
As you grow older, your muscles will become whiter; originally, this was thought to suggest that less blood was being transported around the body. The research in Michigan found however, that the increase in protein meant that blood glucose could be controlled.
As it turns out, curling your guns may be the best thing for your diabetes. When your doctor advises you to do exercise, there is method to their madness, where your body can respond well – not just to exercise, but also to insulin. In the end, the body will thank you – and you will thank yourself.
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