Physical Activity

What if your patient's mode of transportation could help to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease? What if an enjoyable daily health habit could help them avoid these chronic lifestyle-related diseases?

At least an hour of physical activity needed to offset risk for several chronic conditions and mortality.

We have studies that show exercise for older women is very beneficial; new study shows benefits for the young.

The topic of insulin action (resistance and sensitivity) has come up multiple times over the years in my articles, but it is admittedly much more complex than I often make it out to be. In a DIC article last summer, you can find a short list of all the factors that can potentially improve insulin action (basically insulin sensitivity). In reality, though, sometimes it is impossible to know exactly what is causing your reduced insulin action from day to day and how to easily and consistently manage it.

Is there a best time to work out, based on circadian rhythms?

Is moderate exercising helping or hurting cardiovascular outcomes?

For many years, I have focused on aspects of lifestyle and health management that can enhance quality of life, especially when living with a chronic disease like diabetes, rather than simply on living a long time (longevity). Much of my motivation is derived from the personal experience of watching my maternal grandmother suffer through six (long) years of severe disability related to cardiovascular complications of diabetes starting at the age of 70 that left her unable to feed herself or communicate, bed bound, and with almost no quality of life for her final six years of life. Really, what is the point of simply being alive when you’re really not experiencing life under such conditions?

Exercise shown to have some AFib-specific benefits.

Higher level of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) over two decades was shown to reduce risk for developing prediabetes and T2, even after adjusting for changes in BMI.

A recent study published in Obesity in May 2016 reported very discouraging findings for a group of participants who had lost weight on “The Biggest Loser” (TBL) reality TV show: not only did almost all of them regain a significant amount of weight over the 6-year period following the show, but they also had lower resting metabolic rates than expected for their body weights, even six years later. With the way the media ran with this story, it will not be a surprise if everyone just gives up staying thinner and blames excess weight on a faulty, and unchangeable, metabolism.