Have You Been Newly Diagnosed?

Live Your Best Life and Physical Therapy Can Help!

Whether you’ve been newly diagnosed, have been fighting against type 1 or type 2 diabetes for a while, or are helping a loved one. You can live a healthier life—with some tools, health tips, and food ideas! Wherever you’re at with your diabetes, know that you have options. You can still live your best life and physical therapy can help in the comfort of your home.

Per the Diabetes.org, “In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin. The body breaks down the carbohydrates you eat into blood glucose (blood sugar) that it uses for energy—and insulin is a hormone that the body needs to get glucose from the bloodstream into the cells of the body. With the help of insulin therapy and other treatments, everyone can learn to manage their condition and live long, healthy lives.

Remember: this is a condition that can be managed. By living a healthy lifestyle filled with exercise and proper diet, you can live a normal life and do everything you set out to do.”

Diabetes Can Affect Anyone!

Diabetes can affect anyone at any age. Physical problems related to diabetes include weakness, loss of endurance, obesity, and balance problems. Diabetes often leads to the problem of lower physical activity (which causes many other diseases). Physical activity and exercise are effective ways to lower high-blood sugar levels. Physical therapists help people with diabetes improve or avoid related problems and can do a program from the comfort of their own home. Home Health Physical Therapy will teach people how to safely add physical activity to their lives in effective and enjoyable ways.

According to Harvard Health, benefits of exercise for those with diabetes may include:

• Improves ability to control weight
• Lowers blood pressure
• Lowers harmful cholesterol and raised healthy cholesterol
• Strengthens muscle and bones
• Reduces anxiety
• Lowers blood glucose levels
• Raises body’s sensitivity to insulin, helping to overcome insulin resistance

How Can Home Physical Therapy Help?

Physical Therapists help people with diabetes to participate in their home safe, effective exercises to improve their ability to move, perform daily activities, reduce their pain and possibly lower their blood glucose levels.

Physical Therapists will conduct assessments of your strength, flexibility, endurance and balance and use the results to design an individualized treatment program that will address your problems and needs.

The Treatment Program Can Help Improve:

Motion: Your physical therapist will choose specific activities and treatments to help restore normal movement.

Strength: Your physical therapist will choose and teach you the correct exercises and equipment to use to steadily and safely restore your strength.

Balance and coordination: Regaining your sense of balance is important in order to prevent falling. Your physical therapists will teach you exercises to improve your balance and ability.

Pain levels: Your physical therapists may use different types of treatments and choose the most effective and safe exercises for you to perform to control and reduce pain. If you have diabetic nerve pain (neuropathy), your physical therapists can teach you how to protect painful areas and make them less sensitive.

Blood glucose levels: Physical activity, such as prescribed exercise, can help lower your blood glucose levels. Your physical therapist can design a safe, individualized exercise program for you to help control and lower your blood glucose levels each day.

Home exercise: Your physical therapist will teach you strengthening, stretching, and aerobic exercises to perform on your own at home.

Ability to perform daily and work activities: Your physical therapist will discuss your activity goals with you and use them to set your recovery goals. Your treatment program will help you reach your goals in the safest, fastest, and most effective way possible.

If you would benefit from physical therapy in your home to help manage your glucose levels and feel and move around better call our office today at 580-279-1928 to sign up to have a physical therapist come assess you!

Clarie