Hi All
You may have noticed that we have been focusing on information about type two diabetes in the last couple of newsletters. Many years ago, more than three decades ago, I could see that we were heading towards an epidemic of diabetes. I became very interested in the research that was being done in Melbourne by Dr David Dunstan and the Baker IDI Institute. Their mission was to find out what person was more likely to be diagnosed with blood glucose problems and to find some avenue of treatment.
The common denominator appeared to be related to our age since the problems appeared to manifest in our late 40s. Something was happening which affected our ability to turn the blood sugar to good use. It was starting to build up in our bloodstream, affecting our eyes, our kidneys, our circulation especially in our legs causing numbness in the feet and causing any sores or skin eruptions to develop into abscesses that wouldn’t heal.
Doctor Dunstan and his team realised that you couldn’t just pop a pill to address the ageing process. They discussed what could possibly be a common problem as people get older, and they came up with the idea that our diminishing muscle mass (our flabbier muscles!) might be one of the key reasons. So, they gathered a group of T 2 diabetics for their study, separated them into a “test” group and a “control” group and set up a strength program, which they did in a clinical environment. Over a few months, they discovered that if they helped people progress from their base strength level, by slowly increasing the load (the resistance), that the blood glucose levels definitely responded. The improved muscles in the body were utilising the sugar in the blood better!
When the research reached the stage where they were ready to roll it out across the state of Victoria, and then when they brought the training to the Medical Faculty at Herston in Brisbane, I took a Green Apple team to be trained in the program, and we have been involved in providing support to diabetics in the community ever since. The number of diabetics in the world is growing rapidly and it is one of the areas that Green Apple is very serious about wanting to help and support, and also educate.
We have so many members here working on managing their blood glucose levels, both with conventional medical pathways as well as dietary and physical activity pathways.
We have completely overhauled our Type 2 Diabetes Group Education Course to accommodate enrolments from our current members. In fact, we developed the one session of physical activity as a coaching session for any client who wants to understand exactly what “overload and progression” means. This is critical information for anyone using strength training to help manage their T2D.
The course doesn’t start till April however I am bringing it to your attention right now to give you time to visit your doctor and to ask for the “Type 2 Diabetes Group Education referral” so you can enrol in the course and be BULK BILLED.
It would be a good idea to talk to your doctor about this course that we are providing because they may have many patients who would benefit from attending. And if doctors don’t know about it, then it is a pity because I know they want to use community pathways to help their patients where they can.
Cheers
