This year, with hundreds of thousands of teachers all around the world moving from the physical to the virtual classroom in order to educate their students, one thing that I believe has been overlooked by many is how online classes and the consequences of associated sedentary behavior affects the health of teachers and students who live, every day, with diabetes.
Firstly, let me explain that I am neither a doctor nor an expert on diabetes, but what I am is a diabetic teacher, who for many years, has successfully controlled my glucose levels, a reality that started to change during online classes, therefore requiring a new approach.
Prior to quarantine, and the months of inactivity due to long days connected to my laptop, I spent my days in our school running up and down stairs and corridors, visiting classes, watching presentations, reading to students, accompanying students on field trips and generally being very physically active.
Due to this constant physical activity, when combined with a sensible diet and lifestyle, I was able to maintain my glucose levels in the PRE-DIABETIC range, a fact that allowed me to live a relatively normal life-style that was comparable to non-diabetics of my age.
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But now, due to the restrictions of quarantine, I found that my blood
glucose levels began to slowly rise, a fact that alarmed me into action. I
spoke to some other Type 2 diabetic teachers, and whilst some were worried, some
others merely shrugged off the situation saying that it is only temporary, and
that in time, they would eventually return to their normal, more physical life,
and ultimately, they would be able to once again control their blood glucose
levels.
For me, that was not an attitude that I could accept, I have a family, and they
need me to live, healthily, until I am 100 years old.(That’s my plan)
What
are the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle for diabetics?
1. Being sedentary is
the opposite of being active, a natural state for most teachers in their normal
working lives. What happens when we have prolonged inactivity? The two most
obvious consequences are firstly an increase in blood glucose levels due to the
fact that we are not burning energy due to inactivity, and secondly, sitting
around all day with limited movement will always result in progressive weight
gain. Whilst the consequences of increased blood glucose levels are well known
to all diabetics, excessive weight gain brings its own dangerous problems for
existing diabetics, therefore living a sedentary lifestyle during quarantine has
obvious health risks like obesity, restricted painful movement, high blood
pressure, and heart disease. The more weight you gain the harder your heart has
to work just to achieve the most basic of our daily physical activities. The
only time when it is healthy for a heart to work harder is during exercise, a
situation that is the total opposite to when a heart is overloaded due to
obesity.
2. Muscular flexibility. Blood
doesn’t flow as freely when muscles are tight, especially when it is a
consequence of inactivity and/or stress. If you do not prevent this from
occurring, then inflammation and pain become a part of your daily lives. The
more hours you spend sitting down at a computer, the more the muscles of your
hips, lower back, and knees become tight and painful. A secondary consequence is
that over time, your chest and stomach muscles also become weaker.
3. Lower Metabolism. A sedentary lifestyle leads to a slower metabolism ultimately causing fewer calories to be burned. A lot of your body’s ability to break down fat simply stops working well in these conditions. In addition, when our metabolism slows down, we tend to gain weight in areas where we shouldn't such as the stomach, around the vital organs or in the liver(Non-alcoholic fatty liver syndrome), and that type of weight gain is associated with serious complications such as increased glucose sensitivity, high blood pressure and heart disease.
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So, what did I do? I searched the Web for any, and every piece of information that I could find in order to control my blood glucose levels. I looked at exercises that can be done in the home, natural teas that I could make, management tips etc., and in this article, I would like to share some of the things that have helped me to once again, control my blood glucose levels to pre-diabetic levels.
Exercising
at home
Exercise can make it
easier to manage stress as well as the symptoms of diabetes. As I explained
earlier, prior to the quarantine, I was extremely active in our school, the
major contributing factor to me being able to control my diabetes. In general,
many people are able to live well with diabetes due to a combination of
medication, education, diet, and exercise.
Every article that I
read says that regular exercise can increase our muscles sensitivity to insulin,
which means that your blood sugar is allowed to enter your muscle cells and
provide you with energy instead of causing the spiking of blood sugar levels.
Exercise also increases the ability of our muscles to store and use glucose for energy which ultimately stabilizes our blood sugar levels.
During the times of restricted movement that have been a consequence of quarantine,
you can still do aerobic or strength training at home. If you don’t own a set
of weights, use anything that you have in your home, even one or two-liter bottles
full of water.
I am fortunate enough
to have some weights in my home which I use every afternoon when I finish
online. I also go for an early morning walk every day for 90 minutes, this
being a great start to the day for both myself and my little dog Jade.
The reason that I walk in the mornings, and then use weights in the afternoon
is that I read on the internet that weight training can lead to better blood
sugar control and lower the risk of complications for people with diabetes.
This is because weight training builds muscle mass, which makes it much easier
to achieve steady blood sugar levels. This of course, in my personal
experience is more beneficial at the end of my working day after many hours
sitting at a laptop, hence my daily routine of a 90-minute walk at 6 a.m. in
the morning, and 30 minutes of weight training in the afternoon.
A few extra tips for muscle building
exercises that you can do indoors.
- Start out with a few simple stretching exercises.
Exercise your joints and muscles for 5 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening. I found some excellent stretching/ yoga videos on Youtube that made this a fun daily exercise routine. This has also become a
regular daily activity for my daughter who studies online every day.
- Also on Youtube, I found videos that demonstrated many different varieties of general exercises that offered boredom preventing variety and were extremely helpful.
- Try to do exercises every day. If you can’t find the time or motivation, push yourself, start with a few minutes a day and increase it as you get into a regular routine. Also, play your favorite music whilst exercising, personally, I love to play some classic ACDC which really motivates me to want to exercise.
- Drink plenty of water. Good hydration is essential to controlling your blood sugar levels before, during, and after physical activity. Water should also be drunk during your online classes,
even though you are not being physically active. Being well hydrated is essential to controlling blood sugar levels for diabetics.
- When exercising, where possible, try to get your heart rate up too. Walking or running around the streets, or up and down stairs is a great way to manage diabetes in the privacy of your own home.
Sensible
eating
As all diabetics know, a
sensible meal plan is essential for controlling blood glucose levels, but
during quarantine, and the negative emotional consequences such as depression
that many teachers and students I have spoken to are suffering from, then it
becomes easy to change our eating habits in a negative way. If you already have
a meal plan that works for you, there is no need for you to change it. When
things get hard, when you want to snack due to boredom or inactivity, when you
feel a little sad, or depressed, stay strong and stick to your plan. When
shopping for food, search for, and buy food containing carbohydrates with a low
glycemic index. These carbs are also called complex slow-release carbs and are
essential for maintaining healthy blood glucose levels. DON’T BUY SWEET SNACKS,
no matter how much you crave them during difficult moments.
Here are some foods that are rich in
slow-release carbs and easy to find in markets and supermarkets all over the
world.
Brown rice, oatmeal, quinoa,
millet, bulgur, barley, peas, beans, lentils, sweetcorn, wholemeal bread,
sweet potato, yucca, and pumpkin. Wholemeal bread, pasta, and crackers should
also be a priority, not just for main meals, but also for those snacks that we
all reach for during times of inactivity.
This is a link to a list of
low GI foods that I found to be extremely helpful.
https://documents.hants.gov.uk/hms/HealthyEatingontheRun-LowGlycemicIndexFoodList.pdf
Also, a great idea is to search for interesting
recipes online so can you can have variety by having different options for
turning your low-GI ingredients into the most interesting and delicious meals.
These are a few of the websites that I find interesting for diabetic recipes to try.
https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/food-activity/cooking/recipes/
https://www.healthyfoodguide.com.au/health-information/diabetes-friendly
http://www.eatingwell.com/gallery/2061144/low-carb-one-pot-diabetes-friendly-recipes-dinner/
https://diatribe.org/low-cost-low-carb-19-diabetes-recipes-fit-bill
Snacking
In times of inactivity, or
when we may be feeling a little bit emotionally down, it is normal for people
to reach for snacks. Snacking between meals is extremely dangerous for
diabetics, something that I discovered myself during the early days of
quarantine.
Like many people, I found
myself needing to have something in my hand, and in my mouth to make me feel
comfortable and happy. My mind was
telling me that I was hungry, that I needed to eat, but when I took the time to
actually think about these feelings, I found that they were false, and I just
wanted to eat for the sake of eating.
For this reason, I always keep some diabetic-friendly options in my home. When
shopping, look for snacks that are low carb. Personally, I snack on diabetic
friendly fruit and vegetables, but I also have dry crackers that are made from
corn or quinoa that are a great alternative when I’m searching for a tasty
alternative.
It is important to remember
that snacking can be extremely dangerous for diabetics and in many ways,
requires far more thought and planning than what we apply to our regular meals.
Researching and creating my own diabetic tea.
One day, I decided to search the internet for natural products that help to lower blood glucose levels for diabetes. I was totally amazed to find out how many different plants were recommended for diabetics to use. I admit that at first, I was skeptical, so I double and triple checked every piece of information that I could find until I was completely satisfied and then set out to create the ultimate “HEALTHY DIABETIC TEA” for me to drink.
I decided that instead of
using just individual plants in my tea, that I would combine many of them
together to make a complex tea that was made up of a multitude of diabetic
friendly plants. For me, the results were good. It took about 20 to 30 days for
my blood glucose levels to reduce and stabilize, but my daily levels consistently
dropped between 10% and 20% depending on what I had eaten, and how much stress
I had endured that day.
Basically, I just got a huge
pot added a variety of different plants (Fresh and dried depending upon local
availability) and boiled it for 2 to 3 hours until a strong, thick tea was
created. Then, once it cooled down sufficiently, I strained it into 2 liter
bottles and refrigerated it.
I drink this tea about 30
minutes before I eat, as this was an instruction that was given regarding the
use of most natural products for diabetics. I also take 2000 mg of BREWERS
YEAST at the same time as I drink my tea. These capsules are available at most
pharmacies and health stores.
Now, as I explained at the
beginning of this article, I am not a doctor or an expert on diabetes, but
someone who just wants to control my own blood glucose levels. For this reason,
I won’t share the ingredients of the tea that I made for myself, but I do invite everyone to search the
internet for plants/herbs/natural products that lower blood glucose levels. I
was extremely happy with the results that I experienced from drinking my tea.
As an example, some of the natural products that are suitable for diabetic tea include:
Mango tree leaves
Leaves of the insulin plant (Costaceae)
Mint
Sage
Cinamon
Green Tea
Black Tea
Fresh Ginger
Rosemary
Basil
Thyme
Lemon zest
Eucalyptus leaves
Stevia plant leaves
There are many different natural products, and their availability depends upon where you live in the world, but, you honestly have nothing to lose, and everything to gain by researching and experimenting like I did.
If you decide to give this a try, have patience, it takes at least 30 days for the tea to make a difference to your glucose levels, but, for me, it was well worth the time I invested in research and the time I spend each week preparing the tea.
In conclusion, we, as
diabetics know that we are in one of the highest risk groups when it comes to
not only the consequences of contracting the COVID-19 virus but also from the
associated side-effects of living and working in a sedentary manner during the quarantine. We must take care, we must maintain physical movement, our general
health in our homes, and then when we have to go outside, we must take extra
precautions to avoid crowds, practice social distancing, wear masks, avoid
public transportation, etc. An obvious reality for everyone is that we are only
born once, we live just one life, and ultimately, we all die. Let’s all take
care, and be wise and cautious to make sure that our lives are as long and as
healthy as possible.
I hope that this article
helped you in some way. As I explained at the beginning, I am neither a doctor,
nor an expert on diabetes, but what I am is a father, a husband, a teacher, and
a pre-diabetic who wants to live to 100 Years old, and this is what makes me
search, and learn how to manage my diabetes during these difficult times.
Good luck everyone.
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