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Wear the Gown: The importance of exercise with diabetes

For Type-2 diabetics getting your diet under control is imperative to beating the disease. But exercise is just as important.

SAN ANTONIO — For Type-2 diabetics patients, getting your diet under control is imperative to beating the disease. But exercise is just as important.

"I was doing minimal exercise, but like most people I enjoyed my breakfast tacos, my Whataburgers," said 56-year-old John Costello, who was diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes three years ago. "I also had heart complications, and that played a factor in my having to have bypass surgery."

Eventually he found the Texas Diabetes Institute.

"They have this gym and they really work with you to reach those goals and to help you become a healthier person," he said.

Irene Lopez, an exercise physiologist and manager of the fitness center at the Texas Diabetes Institute within the University Health System, said exercise plays a pivotal role in preventing diabetes from progressing.

"Aerobic exercise, which is a type of exercise which uses large muscle groups in a rhythmic fashion for an extended period of time—we would like to get 30 continuous minutes of that kind of movement," she said.

If you have diabetes, being more active makes your body more sensitive to insulin, which helps control blood sugars and makes the disease more manageable. It also lowers your risk of heart disease.

Other benefits to being active include better sleep, feeling happier, improved memory, controlled blood pressure, and lowering your LDL, or bad cholesterol, and raising your HDL, or good cholesterol.

Both Costello and Lopez say you don't need to go to a gym to keep that body moving.

"There are the basic movements like walking, parking far away in a parking lot, walking a little extra distance." Costello said. "Just going out and walking 30 minutes or an hour a day. The point is you're getting out there and doing something."

For more men's health information call 210-358-3045. You can also find the rest of our Wear the Gown stories, just go to WearTheGown.com.

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