How an Active Lifestyle Supports an Integrative Approach to Diabetes Care

Learn why your diabetes care plan should include more than monitoring insulin levels. 

Diabetes doesn’t have to be a diagnosis to hide behind. With a personalized and integrative approach to diabetes care, a lifestyle of positive actions that have the potential to help you become your best self is possible. 

When your body is no longer able to automatically regulate blood glucose levels for you, it creates a need for constant attention and frequent decisions directed towards your current physical feelings and future long-term health. 

Living with diabetes requires more than adding steps to your daily life, it teaches you perseverance and dedication to a life of consistent commitment to health. 

How movement and exercise are a critical part of diabetes care. 

Movement is a foundational structure in metabolic health regardless of a diabetes diagnosis. 

Exercise provides your body with the ability to mobilize, burn and create energy molecules in the way that it was designed to. This can be reflected in your ability to balance blood glucose levels not only during exercise, but throughout the following day and night. 

A well-rounded movement routine includes:

• Strength Training
• Aerobic Exercise
• Mobility
• Lack of Sedentary Behavior  

Movement and exercise play a key role in the enhancement of both physical health and quality of life for people living with diabetes.   

However, too much movement can increase your stress hormones like cortisol, which may increase blood glucose levels and make it difficult for your body to recover from exercise. There is an upper limit when it comes to finding the right movement strategies for your body and blood glucose levels. 

This is why it’s recommended to work with an integrative health professional to determine what type of daily movement and exercise patterns are ideal for you. 

An integrative approach to diabetes care for the lifestyle you want. 

Integrative medicine looks at nutrition, movement, hydration, stress perception, sleep quality, relationships, and purpose all in the context of your goals and lifestyle choices. 

An integrative approach to diabetes care includes you as a whole person by evaluating the habits and patterns you have that can impact blood glucose. Instead of just focusing on how much insulin or other blood glucose lowering medicine you are taking, an integrative provider looks at the big picture of your life.

 The focus starts with you and your goals – not just your blood sugar variance. Once your priorities have been outlined, a group discussion takes place to strategize how you can achieve your goals with diabetes by adopting habits and patterns based on evidence-based literature and clinical experience.

It’s possible to create health and optimize your life within the context of a diagnosis, learn how with functional and integrative medicine.