EXERCISES FOR DIABETICS WITH SPECIAL PROBLEMS: LEGS AND EYES
Legs
Atherosclerosis of the large blood vessels of the legs may cause pain in your calves (and sometimes thighs or buttocks) when you walk. This is called intermittent claudication. I cannot ever remember seeing someone with intermittent claudication who did not smoke. As I said before, people with diabetes do not smoke.
If your legs hurt, you do not want to walk, but with this condition it is important that you do. While you keep exercising the legs, collateral vessels will open up to bypass the blocked and narrowed ones and improve the circulation. Walking is one of the best exercises to help intermittent claudication. Set yourself a target distance to walk and add a few yards to it every day. You will find that you have to stop less and less frequently to let your legs recover.
Exercises at home can help too. Hold on to the back of a firm chair and raise yourself up and down on your toes several times. Sit down and lift your legs up and down off the floor. Then lift them straight up in front of you and make circles with your toes, rotating your feet at the ankles. Go to the bottom of the stairs or find a firm stool to put near your chair and do a few step ups. Start gently at first and then do more of each exercise and move more quickly.
Eyes
If you have proliferative retinopathy you should not exercise until your ophthalmologist says you can. Vigorous exercise could cause new vessels to bleed.
*89/102/5*