Carbohydrate Counting Diet

                                       Carbohydrate Diet

 TO GET the maximum benefits from stretching to minimize the loss of  flexibility caused by aging and accelerated by diabetes, include  stretching exercises into your new, healthier lifestyle a minimum of two  or three days per week. This will also help you maximize your strength  gains from any concurrent resistance exercises you may be doing.

Exercising with diabetic or other health limitations 

            Is your health your main excuse for not being more physically active?  Whether your biggest health complaint is high blood pressure, loss of  feeling in your feet, or arthritic knees, it’s time to change your way  of thinking. There is mounting evidence that older individuals with  chronic health problems respond just as well to exercise training as  their younger counterparts, yet many older people still choose not to be  physically active. While it’s true that 85 percent of people over the  age of sixty-five have a health problem that they may view as a  deterrent to exercise, diabetes should definitely not be among them, and  neither should almost all of the others.

            Although most everyone can exercise safely and effectively, diabetes  does bring additional risks, as discussed in the preceding step.  However, you can still exercise to your potential—as long as you respect  your limitations. To stay safe and get the most out of your activities,  follow the exercise guidelines published by the ADA. The remainder of  this section will address how you can overcome other common health  concerns, allowing you to be as physically active as possible.

Cardiovascular disease

.  If you have diabetes or prediabetes, you may also have cardiovascular  disease. Remember that about a third of all people with diabetes are not  even aware of having it; sadly, many of them first learn of their  condition while in the hospital after suffering their first heart  attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular event. Does having heart disease  mean that exercise is not for you? Absolutely not. Resistance training  is now recommended for everyone, even people with known cardiovascular  disease who have had a heart attack or stroke.

            Diabetic people in supervised cardiac-rehabilitation exercise programs  engage in various forms of exercise, and you may choose to join such a  program if you know you have cardiovascular disease; you may also prefer  to exercise on your own. It’s important to know that you’re more likely  to experience 

angina

(chest pain) due to reduced blood flow to your heart muscle 

(ischemia)

during  an aerobic activity like treadmill walking than during weight training.  Studies have shown that lifting a heavy weight ten to twelve times may  increase your blood pressure more than aerobic work, but it doesn’t  raise your heart rate as much. Ironically the higher blood pressures  reached during resistance training ensure that your heart muscle gets  more blood than it would during aerobic activities. If you know that you  have some coronary artery blockage from plaque buildup, moderate weight  training may actually be a safer activity for you than most  high-intensity aerobic ones.

 If you prefer aerobic activities or if you do both types, use pain as  your guide. In general, if reaching a certain heart rate (in number of  beats per minute, or bpm) causes you to develop chest pain during  exercise, always exercise at an intensity that keeps your rate at least  10 bpm below that pain threshold. For example, if slow jogging causes  you to feel angina at a heart rate of 140 bpm, then lower your exercise  intensity by walking briskly instead, to keep your heart rate at 130 bpm  or below at all times. In addition, be aware that a heart attack may  have symptoms other than pain localized in your chest, such as pain that  radiates down one arm or shoulder or your neck or that feels like bad  heartburn. If you experience any unusual pain or other symptoms during  or following exercise, get checked out by your doctor as soon as  possible. 

 

 Diabetes can also potentially cause you to experience silent ischemia,  a reduction in blood flow to the heart muscle through the coronary  blood vessels that is painless and symptom-free. If you experience a  sudden, unexplained change in your ability to exercise, without any  other symptoms, immediately stop exercising and consult with your  physician as soon as you can to rule out silent ischemia.