Janet Still FNP
Lifestyle Modification Support http://stilljanet.com
Can Exercise Improve Your Diabetes?
Easy answer …yes! But you knew I would say that. And that answer is just not enough, is it? Or for some of you, maybe it is and you are reading this article simply to get to the facts and suggested resources in hopes of finding something you can easily incorporate now into your everyday life. For both camps of readers, the purpose of this article is to briefly lead you to your unique goal of improving your health and your prognosis report.
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First, for those of you that are reading with a feeling of angst regarding exercise, I understand that this condition of diabetes has likely already created much more upheaval to your lifestyle than you ever imagined you would have to endure. This article is purposefully brief with a goal of providing you some simple directions you can take today to retake control of your body.
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For those of you that have already accepted change is your choice and who are seeking a way to turn around this character in your life called Diabetes, this writing is to provide you some resources and information that you can implement quickly, for your short term goals, and also that can be used to refine your direction over the long term.
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When your healthcare provider mentions that exercise improves glycemic control, she/he is sharing a key to your taking some of your body back. Plenty of research over the years continues to evaluate the specific details of how physical exercise alters blood sugar levels and reduces the body’s requirement for anti-diabetic medications. Reread that, yes, I said that exercise so changes your blood sugar levels that you will have to take LESS of your diabetes medications. Write that on a piece of paper and tape it to your morning mirror as motivation.
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Three days a week, 30 minutes of moderate exercise, this is the repeated consensus of the minimum to reduce blood sugar. If you do not know, the way exercise works is that your muscles use the blood sugar! too, so that means less work on your pancreas and less work for your medication. Sounds good; let’s keep going with the good news….. what does “moderate exercise” mean exactly? My favorite way to define moderate exercise is: activity that allows one to engage comfortably in conversation while doing the activity. Easily one can see many activities one could incorporate into daily life that allow talking. Walking briskly with a friend or with your dog or how about from the far end of the parking lot are simple changes to include this moderate exercise. Playing with the kids or the neighbors’ kids an easy game of catch ball for 15 – 30 minutes and voila` you have just improved your body’s ability to manage its blood sugar level. Using stairs instead of the elevator; add up your time spent with household or office chores like vacuuming, dusting, and tidying at the end of the day; there are many normal activities that you can do with a focus to increasing your time spent moving.
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I already do all that, you say. Or some of you say that thinking about it makes you tired. This is your body, your health, your independence, so I am assuming you read this with hopes for something unique to your situation. Taking a class is often a great way to have someone do all the calculating and training for you. Classes and trainers are a great idea to wake up your mind regarding what moderate exercise feels like; how to protect your body from injury so that you can keep exercising and taking back your life; and to just get you moving in a new direction. Choose the activity and teacher with an eye to gradual progression from your level of fitness to a moderate routine. Interview the teachers. Any trainer worth their salt cares about the people in their class and is also a great resource for more appropriate classes for your individual circumstances.
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There are some standard resources for everyone regarding exercise and many other health topics, so keep them in mind as a back-up when making decisions about your health plan. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) always has brief and current statements available online with links to more detailed resources. The National Institute of Health also keeps abreast of research on health topics and routinely posts simple information. An example of the type of information you can find online is this very short info sheet on how much activity is sufficient for adult health: http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html which outlines specific types of activity to meet the minimum requirements of adult health. The CDC also has a phone line dedicated to providing information at: 800-CDC-INFO (800-232-4636).
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Yoga gets you moving and gently waking up those unused muscles, which can protect you from injury. Tai Chi is actually considered to be resistance exercise, so adds the benefit of keeping your bones healthy too. Dance classes with a focus on fun, movement, and progressive strength building are a happy way to keep your muscles using up blood sugar while having a good time meeting new folks. If a swimming pool is available to you, aqua aerobics is easy on the sense of working hard because water lessens the gravity while absorbing heat. And always walking is the simplest, most flexible, and very affordable exercise for changing your lifestyle into something you can still call your own.
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Call up your local hospital or your provider’s clinic to ask for recommended exercise groups, trainers, and/or classes. Schools and colleges offer adult education classes all year nowadays and usually include at least a few exercise classes at a reasonable cost to get you connected to your community’s resources. As mentioned before, classes offer the added benefit of meeting others with like goals as well as networking connections in general. Some gyms offer less expensive memberships for attending workout classes only. And just get out and walk….take notice of how you feel before and after the walk. Chances are very good that you will be glad you now have a good reason to get back into using your body…because it plain ‘ole feels good.
Resources and References:
American Diabetes Association; 2013. Fitness; American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness. Retrieved from: http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/fitness/
American Diabetes Association; 2013. Success story: Sarah Boison; American Diabetes Association: Success Stories. Retrieved from: http://diabetesstopshere.org/2013/03/25/success-story-sarah-boison/
Casteneda, C., Layne, J., Munoz-Orians, L., Gordon, P., Walsmith, J., Foldvari, m., Roubenoff, R., Tucker, K., and Nelson, M. 2002. A randomized controlled trial of resistance exercise training to improve glycemic control in older adults with type 2 diabetes; Diabetes Care 25, 12; 2335-2341.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC; 2011. How much physical activity do adults need?; CDC 24/7: Saving Lives, Protecting People: Physical Activity. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html
National Institute of Health NIH, 2013. Get active; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Retrieved from: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/get-active/
van Dijk J, Tummers K, Stehouwer C, Hartgens F, van Loon L.; 2012. Exercise therapy in type 2 diabetes: is daily exercise required to optimize glycemic control? Diabetes Care 35, 5; 948-54.
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A curious observation of healthy vital folks is that they seem to love, thrive on, life, and its challenges. While those that are "tired" and describing they just want to stop thinking or working at the end of the day (some the beginning or middle of their day sadly) appear to censor aspects of life, especially anything challenging. Why, this one wonders. Some of you are answering, well that is normal, isn't it? We work all day; we get tired; and we go home to eat, drink, and sleep. IS this normal? Whose normal? When did this become normal? What else was going on historically when this picture became normal? A few points to contemplate. I am not here to do all of your homework; I am here to stimulate your attention.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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http://www.onebillionrising.org
via One Billion Rising Short Film - YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl2AO-7Vlzk&feature=colike
...reading The New Midwifery (Page & McCandlish 2006) and how the "technocratic" system furthers the oppression of women, a subtle violence against women by silencing their voice, their right to have a say in their life. In so many aspects of life, we have choice but are unsupported to take it.
There is a One Billion Rising event happening near you February 14.... or you can start up your own. Please join us in dancing our truth that violence against women is not okay.
Pay careful attention to the details on the current controversy regarding claims made by a former "Big Tobacco" pseudo-science propagandist who is employed at Stanford? The good thing about this controversy is people are talking.... and what the corporate "persons" have not considered is: now real science can be brought into a public discussion....because the commercial interests [read: greed] stepped up and threw mud where there is a battle...the battle for truth regarding how biotech in agriculture has little to do with what is best for all of us and more to do with commercial profit. Want attention? okay, let's start talking science. And while we are at it, let's talk logic; and let's talk freedom of choice; and let us broach the difficult expectation of truthful advertising. More to come...
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[Today September 14, 2012] Ben Paynter of http://www.benpaynter.net/ who blogs/writes in many venues shared a particularly enlightening bit about the health of his intestines...or as he stated it, his "POOP BUGS". You can find the short piece as number 14 of Living by Numbers: The Wired Guide to Health in Wired's October 2012 issue (p 126). The article is apparently unavailable on wired.com, so I contemplated copying it in its entirety here because, honestly, in such a brief, and comical, description of his stool analysis, he provides a great deal of tips about why gastro-intestinal health is so crucial to overall health. [I strongly encourage you to get this issue and read his quipped essay.]
But the BIG reason I bring the article up here is the last sentence. In four short columns, Ben quickly shared the telling results of his Metametrix test....his "Adiposity Index," his "Predominant Bacteria Analysis," his "Yeast/Fungi" count, and last but so definitely NOT least, his "Drug Resistance" panel. What? drug resistance? in a stool sample? you remark avidly curious as to how drug resistance could be revealed in a stool sample. Never fear, I will not bore you with the details of how the DNA of the bacteria shows this....at least, not now.... suffice it to say, that the DNA in Ben's gut bacteria were the source of all this fascinating information! By now, as highly intelligent as you have demonstrated yourself to be by your choice of reading materials, you have no doubt sleuthed the connection between Ben's discovered drug resistance and the title of this blog "Organic vs Biotech"... I will let Ben's words say it so simply, "I can't turn my superbugs back into Clark Kent bugs, but I can eat organics to avoid future exposure to antibiotics." !!!! and thus, prevent further antibiotic resistant bacteria from getting a toe-hold in his body, thereby preventing the antibiotic's effectiveness in future should he need it. Remarkably, Ben thought it significant to mention that he likely acquired his particular superbugs via eating a food that had been exposed to said antibiotic, since apparently Ben has never taken the antibiotics for which he has discovered that he has a thriving resistance.
Yes, one more reason to eat organic.... a reason which can be measured....should anyone be interested in actually doing so rather than taking candy from the drug pushers, so to speak; meaning accepting without question a poorly structured "Study" by researchers of questionable motivations.
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Additional articles commenting on the organic vs biotech question:
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/09/five-ways-stanford-study-underestimates-organic-food
http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2012/09/04/michael-pollan-organic-study/?
http://geneticroulettemovie.com/
http://www.naturalnews.com/037108_Stanford_Ingram_Olkin_Big_Tobacco.html
More will be added to this blog.......
5 surprising everyday things that are toxic | MNN - Mother Nature Network. Education and information on just what is in the products we use innocently, trustingly.
Cervix Photo Galleries | Beautiful Cervix Project. Wondering about your reproductive health and unsure whether you have a problem? or just do not know enough about your own body?
Here is a fantastic website that shows you that all parts of your woman's body are beautiful and worthy of becoming as familiar with as any comparative body.
This article discusses what is healthy about balanced compatible relationships for all of you with the new flush of romance and giggles going on this Valentine's Day. Click on the link below to read the article by Laura Schocker and to view the fun and informative slide show.
5 Healthy Reasons To Love Love.
More writing to come today on Love!
HO! HO! HO!
Prevention is still and always will be the most practical and promising cure. Why We Are Still Losing the Winnable War Against Cancer | World-Wire.
Treating ADHD With Bicycling & Exercise | Bicycling Magazine. Yes! Bicycling is a fantastic cure for depression too. Please enjoy reading this lengthy article.
The information is well worth the effort, but take it in bits and chunks, so that you allow all the implications to sink in.
May this message find you well and content this late Autumn 2011.
natural flu remedies | 5 Herbs That Cure The Flu | Rodale News. Short simple article with specific herbs listed.
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After three and a half days away from home to gather with future Certified Midwives and Family Nurse Practitioners in Hyden, Kentucky, I look on life with new eyes. The Frontier Nursing University is the oldest proponent and educational program for Family Nursing and Midwifery in America.... for mother/child centered healthcare. A long time admirer of Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier School, I am now included in its rosters as a post masters student of midwifery.
You may wonder at this seeming "turn in direction"... but this is not a tangent or byway for my healthcare focus. Lifestyle Modification Support has always supported holistic healthcare which begins at home... in the choices one makes to support one's well-being, one is also making choices that support one's family, one's small circle of friends and network, and thereby, one's community. The mother is the heart and soul of the family. What she does cannot be replaced or imitated easily. To support community health, care of the mother and her health/balance, the mother and those around her must be educated as to the great value of her role in the family as the source of unconditional love that centers and directs the attention and attitude of the whole family. With this focus, the individual members of family go out into the community bolstered and nurtured by the true gift of life.... universal, unconditional Love.
If the mother is not supported to remain whole and healthy, she will lose her ability to perform her vital role. In losing her ability to provide such precious spiritual sustenance, she will "lose face"...will lose spirit, hope, faith. It is a rare family that can rearrange its dynamics to compensate for that loss.
The grass roots movement swelling across the country for the rise of community health as priority will be greatly supplemented by a focus on the family's role in community. At the heart of the localvore culture, support of the family supports the development of self-esteem in the individuals of the family unit; supports what is strong, intelligent, and genius in their inherited culture and traditions; supports (thereby) community, and local economic growth, which in turn doubles back the benefit to the community again!
All of these benefits support education and the expansion of human awareness for what is valuable among us, including our diversity. Diversity is survival in a community, and truly diversity is a necessary environmental trait. That we must survive via harmony and intelligent integration with our environment seems so self-evident that I hesitate to spell it out. For any unable to follow my logic in this discussion to this point, I will explain my statements this way…...
If we are to survive physically, our planet must remain viable and able to continue in its diversity of microbiology to continue to provide sustenance to our physical bodies. Thus, in this logic, did I support preserving small traditional communities in the South when I was a young adult and so I continue to support all areas of practical community health which impact physical, intellectual, economic wholeness for its individuals as well as spiritual freedom. Spiritual freedom is a key component in holistic health. The top tier of Maslow's Hierarchy pyramid is self-actualization. Our community's whole health supplies the lower levels of the pyramid so that one may attain that austere top goal.
I support Farmer's Markets and Market Co-operatives of all kinds that feature the local community and uphold its unique traits and strengths as well as act as central commerce areas and places of meeting to encourage success and healthy positive activities. Our own Leucadia Farmer's Market takes place on a local school ground. Activities of music, crafts, arts, and child play are as integral as the commercial participants. Providing these elements in a festive, clean, harmonious manner induces further local support by making it easier to participate (for example, young mothers can bring their children to a safe atmosphere to play while the mothers shop); and also, by making the experience more relaxed, entertaining, and sociable.
My personal and professional role in my community continues to grow and evolve as is the nature of a healthy and balanced life. Returning to study the healthcare of mother and baby is coming round a full circle for me and for my work in the world. By supporting the center of the family’s well being, I continue to give my part to the solution of maintaining and improving and taking community health to the next level.
I will see you “out there” … Please say hello and chat with me about your ideas and hopes. May we find a way together to continue to complete the circle.
[ fnpstilljanet@gmail.com ]
http://www.frontiernursing.org/History/MaryBreckinridge.shtm
http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Breckinridge-Frontier-Nursing-Appalachia/dp/0807832111
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3427875
http://www.stamponhistory.com/articles/article.php?article_id=6
http://www.truthaboutnursing.org/press/pioneers/breckinridge.html
More ideas on natural ways to improve immunity....... 5 Natural Ways To Boost Immunity For Cold And Flu Season.
Halloween recipes for Home: (^.^)
Here are some very useful, make at home recipes with a Halloween twist this year since these are known as Wiccan remedies..... though I have known these recipes from other herbal sources too.
wiccan recipes | 3 Wiccan Herbal Remedies to Try This Halloween | Rodale News.
Following stories on a blog can be frustrating when the blog keeps rolling along down the page.
><><><><@< I am cloistered writing many articles on philosophy of healing right now. Because the focus of my work continues to grow into a community health focus, look for more articles in future that discuss supporting local events, commerce, family, and people.
><><><@< Feel free to write to me with your ideas and reflections at: fnpstilljanet@gmail.com . The website does not allow for quick comments if one is not registered.
><><@< Of course, respect and courtesy is expected in any correspondence you make with the Lifestyle Modification Support website, its commenters, as well as with me personally/professionally.
Many blessings to you and yours! j
Today I began my Farmers Market shopping, as I do most Sundays, with the egg man. There's only one egg seller at our Leucadia market and he is so reliable that he only misses two Sundays a year. An honest farmer who grows many vegetables that my family enjoys each week; he feeds his chickens from his gardens, harvests the eggs Friday eve before Sunday market, and answers everyone's questions about gardening, chickens, and the weather. I was pleased to see yellow Yukon potatoes back today. His wife explained to me that the curious weather has all their crops out of order so they keep planting and they harvest whatever's growing this week. This stand often offers potato fingerlings and purple potatoes and many other potato varieties. I encourage her to keep trying because we love all of them.
Next, I cross the aisle to my sweet potato man. He's such a sweet soul himself; always knocking off the extra cents on the total and helping everyone find what they're looking for. He seems quite proud of his purple sweet potatoes, I feel I should buy more of them, but in keeping with conservation, I only buy what I know my family will eat.
Today I also looked forward to the winter squash lady. She grew up on a Kansas farm and she knows her vegetables. Enthusiastically she describes what's growing back on the farm, and what she's about to be out of, to be replaced on the stand with something else special next week. She's unusual because she sells organic nuts and exotic fruits in addition to all her beautiful winter squash. The price on the walnuts is so good, I try to splurge by filling a bag with them, but I still pay less than $5 and we will enjoy these all week, if I don't decide to bake some cookies with them!
Carrots from another local farm look long and strong today. My spouse shows up and I show him our plunder so far. He takes one canvas bag while I take another and we hit each side of the aisles.
There's a dear family that I always buy beans from; today she has huge flat beans. I drop the overflowing basket, enough for two to three meals, into one of my recycled plastic bags and happily pay the husband $4 small dollars...I hope these prices keep them farming.
We are on the lookout for avocados and do not have to look very far to find another little family's booth selling healthy organic avos for a worthwhile price. I choose three medium sized avos of different ripening levels and appreciatively hand over a five dollar bill.
Sending my spouse to Kristie's booth for greens, I relax in Suzy's Organic stand to the music of the women growers' voices describing the weekly harvest box and fielding recipe questions from the customers. I cannot locate the fresh stevia but one of the wholesome gals smilingly shows me that stevia is front and center of the pepper and herb table. I choose some fresh mint too, to go with the stevia for an infusion “cool drink” this hot autumn week. I see Suzy has gorgeous cucumbers this week too and grab one to slice up for our eye treatments. Suzy's broccoli is knock 'em dead voluptuous this Sunday...four large full crowns will go into the Thursday casserole...mmmMm! And a pepper is suggested to fill in the last ten cents to make the total of all these choice items an even ten dollars.
One of the many organic fruit stands continues to offer all their stone fruit for $2.50 a pound across the board; yellow peaches, white peaches, yellow nectarines, white nectarines, plums of all sorts, pluots, the juices of which dribble down your chin regardless how proper your table manners.
There was plenty more today: including the Englishman’s coffee, a burrito for our 15 year old, breakfast special crepes made on the spot to order using the farmers market foods; an upbeat musician playing his original songs from New Orleans; happy children dancing and playing; neighbors and new folks to meet.
This description barely scratches the surface of all the healthy goodies out each week. I purchase what I know will feed my family for seven days and look forward to returning every Sunday for more fresh, as fresh as you can get without growing it yourself, nutrition. I call this the fun way to grocery shop. There's organic or free range meats, breads, cheeses, oils, teas, coffee beans or ground; there's multi national meals and fresh-made refrigerated spreads to take home; pastries; homemade pastas; pet food; seasonings and other herbals; flowers, garden starts, and worm castings; local made crafts including clothing, purses, kitchen tools. The list goes on and it's all at the weekly Farmers Market.
Are you with me yet? Let's keep our community thriving and our families healthy. Your participation is vital and we'd all enjoy your input. So please come on down! I will meet you at the coffee cart, if you like....or would you rather a gluten-free sugarless pastry that melts in your mouth? Too healthy? There's 5 or 6 other pastry stands any week to choose from. Think of this as a party and you are our beloved guest.
See you all soon!
