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Diabetes is a disease for which there is no cure. The treatment for it must continue throughout a person's lifetime.

There are two types of diabetes. Type I, or juvenile-onset diabetes, occurs less frequently than type II, or adult-onset diabetes. All type I diabetics and some type II diabetics must control the disease with daily insulin injections. But many type II diabetics can control the disease by making certain diet and lifestyle changes. One of the most important of these changes is regular exercise. In fact, working out on a regular basis has helped some insulin-dependent diabetics reduce or even discontinue medication altogether.

The Risk Factors for Type II Diabetes

• Being overweight. About 80 percent of diabetics are overweight.
• Having a parent, brother, or sister with diabetes.
• Being over 40 years old.
• Being of Native American, African American, or Hispanic descent.
• Being a woman who has had more than one baby weighing over 9 pounds at birth.

How Exercise Can Help

Exercise burns calories, which helps to reduce one of the major risk factors for diabetes: overweight.

Regular exercise may also improve the body's response to the hormone insulin. Exercise can lower blood sugar and make oral diabetes drugs and insulin more effective, or perhaps unnecessary.

Finally, exercise can improve circulation, particularly to the extremities, where diabetics often have problems.

There are other indirect benefits of exercise that diabetics should consider. Heart disease and stroke are the most common causes of illness and death in type II diabetics, and regular exercise is a great antidote to those conditions.

Be sure to consult with your physician if you are diabetic and want to exercise regularly. If you are also over 35, ask for an exercise stress test. Even if there are complications, your physician can help you choose a type of exercise that won't intensify the problem.

Some Exercise Tips for Diabetics

• Avoid temperature extremes outdoors when exercising.

• Always wear an ID tag to ensure proper treatment in case of illness or injury while exercising.

• Avoid lifting very heavy weights as a precaution against sudden and excessively high blood pressure. And if you do lift weights, don't hold your breath.

• Diabetics with circulation problems should choose shoes carefully, check feet for blisters, redness, swelling, or breaks in the skin, and opt for exercises like swimming or bicycling, which can be easier on the feet than running.

So diabetics have every reason to be hopeful. While medical research is continuing to seek a cure for diabetes, exercise can help them manage their condition and improve their health on other fronts as well.

The Diabetes Picture

• There are 11 million people with diabetes in North America.

• About 90 percent of these are adults.

• About half of those with the disease have not been diagnosed.

• Diabetics are almost two and a half times more likely to be hospitalized than the rest of the population.

• Diabetes is the number one medical cause of blindness.

• Diabetes causes about half of all nonaccidental amputations.

• Up to half of all diabetes cases are the result of diet and lifestyle choices and are, therefore, preventable.

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