Diabetes...it’s a word that causes anxiety as we get older. Especially if it’s aimed at you from a doctor’s mouth. Sure, there are medications to help control it. But, what else can be done? As health professionals you may recommend to your customers that exercise can help combat the ravages of diabetes, but how will they easily monitor how much it is helping? What are the particulars?

This article aims to deliver what your customers need to know about exercising and more importantly, how to measure the benefits of it with a state of the art bioscan system. 

Let’s recap briefly about the different types of diabetes for clarification. As you know, Diabetes in general is a condition of high blood sugar that lasts over an extended period of time. There are 3 primary types of diabetes with some pretty big differences. Type 1 diabetes results when the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin whereas, in type 2 diabetes, the cells fail to respond to insulin (a condition known as insulin resistance). A lack of insulin usually also develops as the disease progresses. The third type can suddenly affect pregnant women and is not discussed here.

Can Exercise Help?

Many experts believe that exercise can greatly benefit those with type 2 diabetes. Exercise stimulates the depletion of glycogen in the muscle cells and simultaneously builds the size of muscle cells. This creates more space for the muscles to store glycogen. Proper exercise also helps the cells become more efficient at creating and using energy.

If you have type 1 diabetes or type 2 that has a cause other than insulin resistance, exercise may have little effect. It certainly is still beneficial in other ways, but since in these cases the disease is seen to be a type of auto-immune response, exercise appears to be ineffective.

So let’s address the group for whom exercise would likely help. What types of exercise are recommended and can we measure the effects?

First Steps and Tracking

With any effort, in order to track progress, you need to have a starting point. The best way to track benefits is to get a baseline describing your customers current level of health. Weight is one small factor and by itself doesn’t tell much of the story. Much more helpful is a bioscan with a “smart” body composition analyzer. It sounds like an involved test, but there is now a way to get a full-body composition report easily...and in just minutes.

A body composition analyzer sends very low electrical currents through parts of your body and measures the impedance or resistance to electrical flow. Electricity flows easily through water, encounters slight resistance travelling through fat, and somewhat more through muscle. By measuring the differences through various parts of the body, you can gain valuable insights as to the amount of fat, where it is, how deep in the body it is, and so on.

This information is analyzed in light of your customers weight and height to give an accurate picture of their overall health.

What Type of Exercise is Most Beneficial for Type 2 Diabetes?

While simple aerobic exercises have been shown to help, in fact even a good daily walk is definitely beneficial, there is a method of exercise that appears to far outperform all others when it comes to combating diabetes-and in cardiovascular improvement. It is called high-intensity interval training or HIIT. This is not so much an exercise as a method of exercise. 

It involves doing a high-intensity exercise like running on a treadmill, a stair stepper, jumping rope, or pedaling a stationary bike for anywhere from 15 seconds to 1 minute depending on your fitness level. Then either rest or pedal slowly, walk or do the activity at a very leisurely pace for an interval from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Allowing the participant to “catch their breath”. The process is then repeated again. High intensity for the specified time and low intensity. This process is repeated for 15 minutes and then they're done. 

This method of training is so successful that even many professional athletes use it to stay in shape. And it is very simple, just 15 minutes 2 to 3 times a week. It is recommended that your customers do periodic bioscans, perhaps every 2 weeks to monitor their progress.

The Evolt 360 Body Scanner

The Evolt 360 Body Scanner is the analyzer of choice for many professionals because it is so simple to use. It is no more difficult than standing on a scale. There are sensors on the footpads and handles that can do the readings and your customers are getting their weight checked at the same time. The results can be sent right to their smartphone.

Best of all, the Evolt 360 also makes suggestions to help them to improve. It suggests the number of calories they might want to limit themselves to each day, the percentages of protein and fat they should be eating, and even supplements that may help them achieve their goals - an ideal opportunity for you to upset products to them!

As always, it’s best to consult their doctor before starting any new diet or exercise program, but now their visits to your store  can be more productive when armed with accurate and current data on their body composition.

For tips on how to use the scanner as an income generator, to attract new and retain existing customers, contact Susan at susan@evolt360.com.