According to EatingWell, walking is one of the simple, easy-to-perform and cost-free forms of exercise. For people who need blood sugar control, especially people with pre-diabetes or diabetes, regular walking can bring many health benefits.
Nutrition expert Toby Smithson said that walking can support maintaining healthy blood sugar by improving the body's ability to use insulin. In addition, this habit is also beneficial for the cardiovascular system, supporting weight control.
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, responsible for bringing glucose from the blood into cells to create energy. In many people with diabetes, the body becomes insulin resistant, making this hormone work less efficiently and increasing blood sugar.
According to Dr. Vanessa Curtis, exercise such as walking helps improve insulin sensitivity. This helps muscles use glucose as energy and improve insulin signals in the body.
A notable benefit is that walking can help lower blood sugar after meals. Dr. Rekha Kumar explained that when walking, muscles will take glucose from the blood as fuel, thereby helping to lower blood sugar levels.
Dr. Andres Splenser said that walking about 15-30 minutes after meals can help reduce post-eating glucose spikes better than walking at other times. Even short walks of about 10 minutes can have a significant impact.
The reason is that after meals, blood sugar usually rises. When doing light exercise, the body uses this amount of glucose more effectively, thereby helping to limit the rapid increase in blood sugar after eating.
Walking also supports weight control. When exercising, the body uses energy, thereby helping to balance the amount of energy consumed from food. Overweight and obesity can increase the risk of diabetes, and make disease control more difficult.
In addition, walking also helps reduce stress. Stress can affect blood sugar and reduce the ability to maintain health care habits.
For beginners, experts recommend gradually increasing exercise time. You can start by getting up from your chair for at least 30 minutes or walking for a few minutes a day. Some studies show that just walking for about 6 minutes can be beneficial for people with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
People taking hypoglycemic medication should monitor their blood sugar before, during and after exercise, especially when they are not used to exercise, to avoid the risk of hypoglycemia.
In general, walking is a simple, easy-to-maintain habit and can become an important part of a healthy lifestyle to support blood sugar control.
