I wanted to start doing something new now that I'm in school for something I find super exciting and interesting. Since I'm going to school all online, we have to submit our assignments to a forum board and then we have to comment on two other posts from our fellow students. When I was in the Legal Studies program that SUCKED.In my Criminal Law class things could get interesting because we would be arguing how we felt about the outcomes of different cases, but sometimes it just got real dry and I was miserable trying to come up with 250 words to say back to people.
In Physiology, and even most days in my Sports Stats class I don't have that problem! Everyone is so enthusiastic about the topics. This week we had to look at disease and physical activity and how exercise can help prevent or reduce various diseases. So, I went with diabetes, not sure why because I have zero experience with it, and high intensity interval training. I figured that Google search had to return something good and guess what...it did! So, here's my homework. Don't judge too much, even though I enjoy it, I still make the mistake of waiting until the last minute to do my homework. Today, I came home from a 90 minute hike in 90 degree weather with Ryker and my very pregnant friend Jade to Vic finishing up our floors (yay!) and a sleepy baby. I forced myself to get my stats homework done first and then moved on to the fun stuff.
Here you go :)
According to the American Diabetes Association, 8.3% of our population, or 25.8 million American adults and children, are living with diabetes and seven million people are suspected of having, but being undiagnosed with, diabetes. In 2010, nearly two million cases of diabetes were diagnosed in American adults over the age of 20. With a diabetes epidemic that is costing Americans $245 billion, what is there that can be done to help treat the disease outside of medications? (ADA, 2014)
Diabetes, which can be extremely life threatening on its own, can also lead to a number of other health issues, such as stroke, amputations and heart disease. With scary fluctuations in blood sugar, high intensity interval training was not the typical recommendation for patients looking to start or continue a fitness regimen while living with diabetes. “Low to moderate intensity exercise for at least 30 minutes a day five days a week” has been suggested to help manage the disease, but was rarely accomplished by the average diabetic. (Day, 2011) Canadian doctors set out to find a new way to tackle the issue of managing diabetes with exercise and began a study of the use of low volume, high intensity exercise. With a small sample of individuals with type 2 diabetes, they had the subjects keep a journal of their diet, did a number of blood tests and skeletal muscle tests and provided a fairly detailed suggested diet plan for the subjects to follow as they added the training into their routine. The exercise never lasted longer than 25 minutes and the high intensity intervals totaled to less than 30 minutes over the week. (Day, 2011)
What the researches found was huge when it comes to being able to manage diabetes with exercise in a small amount of time. Across the board, average blood glucose levels were lower after a session, and post meal levels were also lower after a session. The subjects ability to work harder, with more weight or more speed increased, while their heart rates decreased, their muscles were showing a higher protein content, but most importantly, the subjects were enjoying themselves getting their exercise in! (Day, 2011)
High intensity, low volume training is nothing new. Trainers and coaches have been using it for years, but recently the explosion of this training technique is allowing everyone, the elite athlete, soccer moms, CEO’s and couch potatoes to find the time to get an effective workout in. While most are finding they can change their body composition through this kind of training, its extremely exciting to find that the addition of a HIIT workout plan can also aid in the treatment of diabetes and can possibly allow for less reliance on treatment with medications!
References...you know, so you don't think I made it all up!
Day, K. (2011, September 14). High Intensity Exercise Effective in Managing Diabetes. . Retrieved May 7, 2014, fromhttp://www.peakhealthadvocate.com/1896/high-intensity-exercise-effective-in-managing-diabetes/
Statistics about Diabetes. (2011, January 26). . Retrieved May 7, 2014, fromhttp://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/
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