What role does exercise play in the management of Type 1 Diabetes?
In addition to the role that exercise plays in the maintenance of general health, it plays a critical role in the effective management of Type 1 Diabetes. Anaerobic exercise, the kind of exercise produced by weight training, stimulates muscle development, but it has very little impact on the body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates. The kind of exercise that has the greatest benefit for people who have Type 1 Diabetes is moderately intense aerobic exercise. The usual definition of “moderately intense” is exercise intense enough to raise the heart rate to 60-80% of the calculated maximum heart rate. This kind of exercise increases the efficiency of the transport of glucose from outside the cell to inside the cell both through the pathways that require insulin to open the gates as well as the pathways that do not require insulin.
