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By Sheri Colberg, PhD 
Diabetes is a complex metabolic condition, and your blood glucose levels can impact you not only physically but also emotionally and mentally. Often, feeling depressed or anxious about diabetes management can be demotivating for taking better care of yourself. Whether that care involves getting more physically active or making more healthful food choices, getting and staying more motivated can only benefit you and your blood glucose. 

By Sheri Colberg, PhD
This time of year, all of the fitness clubs and gyms run specials to bring in new members, and they know—and even count on the fact that—most of those people will no longer be regularly attending classes or doing workouts by the time spring hits. How do you help your patients avoid joining those exercise dropouts? Here are some tips from our diabetes exercise expert that you can download in PDF format to hand out to your patients.

By Sheri Colberg, PhD
What is a better topic to discuss after the gluttony most of us experience over the Thanksgiving and other fall/winter holidays than carbohydrate loading? (Actually, it probably should be excess calorie consumption in general, but you get the idea.) The following is excerpted from The Athlete’s Guide to Diabetes (2019) and gives you a better understanding of the topic from an exercise physiology (and diabetes) point of view.

By Sheri Colberg, PhD
I often get asked, “What is the best time of day to exercise?” Like most things related to physical activity—especially with diabetes as an added variable—the answer often is, “It depends.” What is your goal for being active? Are you trying to better balance your blood glucose, or is weight loss your goal? Do you take insulin? What is your normal diet? How much time do you have? Which activities? There are so many questions that likely need answering before you may be able to ascertain the best time for you personally to be active.

FDA has approved a new treatment for diabetic kidney disease, which affects one in three patients with type 2 diabetes.

By Sheri Colberg, PhD

For all the time that I spend praising the “miracle” of being physically active to help better manage diabetes and health, there are times when exercising does lead to better managed blood glucose and times when it does not. It is not always possible to predict the glycemic outcomes in all cases either, although individual patterns and responses can be determined over time. It is helpful to know the main factors that are predictive of outcomes.

by Sheri R. Colberg, PhD
Adequate fluid intake is essential to living well at any age, and being dehydrated can impact your health and your athletic endeavors. While it is harder to stay hydrated when exercising in the heat, you can dehydrate under other conditions—even during exercise in cold temperatures if you wear lots of clothing and sweat underneath it. As people grow older, they also begin to lose some of their normal thirst sensations, thereby increasing the risk for dehydration unless they make a conscious effort to drink more.

By Sheri Colberg, PhD, FACSM
The human body only has insulin to lower blood glucose but has five hormones that raise it (with some overlap). This hormone redundancy tells you that, at least from a survival standpoint, your body is desperate to make sure you do not run out of blood glucose; it is not as concerned about you having too much.

How often have you heard things about physical activity and exercise training that you thought sounded correct, but found out later they were totally wrong? If you hang out at a gym or even talk with training coaches, you’ll hear about everything, including contradictory statements about how to be active the right way. Should you work out in a “fat burning” range? Is weight training going to make you bulk up? Will your muscles turn to fat if you stop working out? Do you need to eat a lot more protein to get bigger muscles? Confused? Here is the truth about some of the more common myths you’ll hear about being active.

By Sheri R. Colberg, PhD, FACSM
If you take any other medications to help lower your blood cholesterol, manage your blood pressure, or control other health problems, be aware that some of them can potentially impact your ability to be physically active. Although most drugs do not affect exercise, several common nondiabetes medications with such potential effects are statins, beta-blockers, diuretics, vasodilators, and blood thinners.