Exercise your way to healthy blood sugar levels

If the health benefits of exercise could be put in a pill, you would have perhaps the most powerful anti-aging medicine available. Regular physical activity supports virtually every system in your body, from your bones and muscles to your heart and cardiovascular system. Exercise improves immune function, aids digestion and elimination, increases endurance and energy, and enhances mood. It also builds lean tissue and burns fat. What's more, for every hour of exercise, there is a two-hour increase in longevity.

Exercise not only helps to maintain healthy blood sugar levels at the time you're active, it also increases your body's overall sensitivity to insulin. Athletes, we know, need less insulin when they are physically active. And exercise stimulates weight loss, which is highly beneficial.

Exercise by doing what you enjoy: dancing, brisk walking, tennis, slow jogging, bicycling, or swimming. More important than what type of exercise you do is that you do it regularly. I highly recommend that you exercise at least four times a week, for at least a half hour each time. A brisk 10-minute walk alone has been shown to lower blood sugar levels dramatically in some people, and if it's done after a meal it can help keep blood sugar levels in the normal range. If you have blood sugar levels over 300, I don't recommend that you exercise until this level is reduced. For the majority of patients, though, exercise is as important as any other aspect of your treatment regimen.