Beating diabetes through biking
By Charles E. Buban
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:36:00 11/29/2008
Filed Under: Health, Lifestyle & Leisure
FOR as long as he could remember, Antonio Madrid spent his early years always fighting to keep his diabetes at bay. Monitoring his glucose, taking his medications regularly, jogging as well as cutting down on certain types of foods have been a part of his regular routine.
Then four years ago, the 64-year-old retiree from Bangkal, Makati City decided to add another to his repertoire of healthy behaviors: riding a bicycle.
“You are never too old to create a better you, I always hear him say. I believe him because I still remember when he had to visit me twice a week just to make sure everything is fine. But after he started biking, his diabetes improved significantly that I only require him to see me at least every three months,” attested Dr. Josephine Carlos-Raboca, president of the Philippine Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Indeed, Madrid is just one of Raboca’s patients who have discovered the joys and benefits of riding a bike.
While biking has muscular and cardiovascular benefits as well as being an economically and ecologically expedient means to move around, it is also great for one’s knees and ankles that may no longer be able to take the pounding from jogging and even walking.
“Not many people know that biking could also help delay if not prevent the onset of full-blown diabetes,” Raboca explained.
Alarmed at the unprecedented rise in incidence of diabetes in the Philippines, particularly in the younger group, the PSEM started last year supporting and advocating biking around the country’s major cities.
Early this month, the PSEM successfully staged the 2nd Go Bike Pilipinas in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental as part of celebrating World Diabetes Day, which was declared by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization last year to be every 14th of November.
A thousand bikers
“The first Go Bike Pilipinas was simultaneously held last year in Metro Manila and in cities of Cagayan de Oro and Bacolod. This year, we concentrated in Bacolod where we were able to gather a thousand bikers of all ages, even those with diabetes,” Raboca reported.
The purpose of Go Bike Pilipinas is to advocate for proper diet and regular exercise, like biking, in order to curb down the rising epidemic of obesity and diabetes, and other lifestyle diseases, such as high bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels which lead to heart disease, hypertension and osteoporosis.
The doctor reported that based on a recent national survey, 20.6 percent or one out of every five adult Filipinos (30 years old and above) suffer from diabetes.
“This is an alarming rise from the same national survey result done in 1998 that found 3.9 percent of the adult population had diabetes,” said Raboca.
Prime reasons
According to the doctor, obesity, sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet are among the prime reasons for getting diabetes, aside from genetic inheritance.
“Of late, however, people as young as 20 years have fallen prey to the type 2 diabetes, which was unheard in the last decade,” Raboca said.
Type 1 diabetes is a condition where the pancreas lose the ability to make insulin, whereas type 2 (diabetes mellitus), the insulin secretion from the pancreas is below optimal level.
Scientific basis
In fact, PSEM’s bike advocacy has scientific basis. A University of South Australia study showed that people with type 2 diabetes might be better off choosing biking for exercise.
“Pedaling exercises the heart better than walking without the pounding of jogging, especially when we take into account that a number of those with diabetes also have blood circulation problems in their legs and feet that could dull the sensation of pain and lead to ulcers and other complications,” she said.
Raboca explained that regular pedaling for 30 minutes daily, if not more, would not only help burn more than a thousand calories a week, but would also stabilize the blood sugar and make the cells more responsive to insulin.
Insulin is used by the body to move the glucose obtained from food from the bloodstream into cells throughout the body, which then use the glucose for energy.
“Of course we always tell our patients not to forget their medications, even if they feel much better. If you have type 1 diabetes, insulin therapy replaces the insulin your body is unable to produce. Insulin therapy is sometimes needed for type 2 diabetes when other therapies have failed at keeping blood glucose levels within the desired range,” Raboca reminded.
Insulin therapy, like taking the once-daily Lantus offers a significant help to adults and children (6 years and older) with type 1 diabetes or adult patients with type 2 diabetes who require insulin that could be steadily released over a 24-hour period.
“Diabetics should now realize that their condition is all about the balance between the food they eat, the medications they take and the exercise they do. Changing any one of these things ‘upsets the triad’ so to speak,” she reminded.
|
