Exercise planning for chronic disease

Hi, again. This will be my last post which is the end of my assessment..

So, today I am going to suggest few exercise plannings for diabetes, hypertension and heart disease by using FITT principle, which is considered as the most important thing to be concerned about when you're doing exercise.

First and foremost, what does FITT stand for?
F - Frequency
How often you perform your exercise
I - Intensity
How hard or intense you exercise
T - Time
How long you exercise
T - Type
Type of exercise and also methods you choose

Exercise planning for diabetes :
F - Three to five times a week 
I - Low to intense 
T - 15 - 30 minutes 
T -  Any 

Example for a planning for diabetes: 

	Intensity	Time	Type
Monday	Low	5-10 minutes	Strengthening exercise / stretching
Tuesday	Medium	15-30 minutes	Aerobic exercise
Wednesday	Medium	15-30 minutes	Aerobic exercise
Thursday	Medium	30-45 minutes	Aerobic exercise
Friday	-	-	-
Saturday	-	-	-
Sunday	-	-	-

( - ) = rest day 

People for diabetes can do whatever exercise as you want to, but remember not to overdo exercise as required to my suggestion above.

Despite you can choose what exercise to do, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't control when to do the exercises you choose. You have to also manage the intensity of your exercise so that you won't get hurt and injured very easily. For example, in the schedule above, you can see that I arrange the intensity from low to medium, then back to low. If you do a very intensive exercise in sudden, your body muscles will get irritated very easily. If you have followed my planning well, you can change the intensity into high if you think you can do it. :)

Please do remember, the duration of your exercise is also very important. If you have just started doing some exercises, please don't spend too much time on doing exercise in the beginning, it might hurt your body muscles as well.

Adding a side note, patients with high blood glucose levels, should avoid exercise your blood glucose is too high. For patients with diabetes type 1, you should avoid exercise if fasting blood glucose is higher than 250 mg/dl. While for patients with diabetes type 2, should avoid exercise if blood glucose is higher than 400 mg/dl. So, you should check your glucose level before you start doing exercise before getting yourself into trouble!

Exercise planning for hypertension : 
F - twice to thrice a week 
I - Low
T - 10 - 15 minutes
T - Strengthening exercise / stretching 

Example for a planning for diabetes: 

	Intensity	Time	Type
Monday	Low	5 – 10 minutes	Stretching / strengthening exercise
Tuesday	-	-	-
Wednesday	Low	10 – 15 minutes	Stretching / strengthening exercise
Thursday	-	-	-
Friday	Low	5 – 10 minutes	Stretching / strengthening exercise
Saturday	-	-	-
Sunday	-	-	-

( - ) = rest day 

As mentioned in the last post, patients with hypertension should aware of every exercise you do; however, that doesn't mean you can't do any exercise. You can choose to do some exercise like walking and stretching which have very low intensity. At least do some movement, there are some very great exercise that could help improve your body system like tai chi, so get your butt off the chair now! :P

Exercise planning for heart disease : 
F - four to five times a week 
I - Low to high
T - 30 - 45 minutes
T - Any 


Example for a planning for diabetes: 

	Intensity	Time	Type
Monday	Low	15 – 30 minutes	Strengthening exercise
Tuesday	Medium	20 – 30 minutes	Aerobic exercise
Wednesday	High	30 – 45 minutes	Aerobic exercise
Thursday	Medium	30 – 45 minutes	Aerobic exercise
Friday	High	30 – 45 minutes	Aerobic exercise
Saturday	Medium	20 – 30 minutes	Aerobic exercise
Sunday	-	-	-

( - ) = rest day

Patients with heart disease should do more exercises, especially aerobic exercises because they can help strengthen your heart muscles to become stronger. Moreover, doing more intensive exercise can help your body systems to work more effectively. However, please remember to follow your schedule before you start doing any exercise. :)

I really hope that I could really help people with chronic diseases, I wish people are reading everything I have been posted recently so that they would be aware of all the prevention. Lastly, before I end my last post today, I would like to say that I am really proud of myself because I haven't done something like this before, I have never had this feeling that I am playing a role in my community helping them to prevent diseases that are very dangerous. I hope you guys have been enjoying my blog, thank you, bye. :)

All the best! - Mich

Source: 

1. "Exercises to Avoid When You Have Diabetes." Diabetes Research, Care, Education & Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://www.joslin.org/info/exercises_to_avoid_when_you_have_diabetes.html>.

Exercise to prevent chronic diseases

Exercise is the best activity to improve social, mental, emotional, and physical health among all activities. Exercise can help control weight, combat health conditions, improve mood, boost energy, etc. Exercising is also one of the ways to keep a strong and healthy lifestyle!

Exercise to do list to prevent chronic diseases 

Hypertension
ü  Stretching

Doing some stretches are very helpful before and after exercising, they can help to prepare your muscles for activity and will also help to prevent you from injury and muscle strain.  

ü  Cardiovascular or aerobic exercise 

Doing some cardiovascular or aerobic exercises would use a large muscle group like your legs and arms, which is a good thing for strengthening your muscles. Furthermore, they also can help strengthen your heart and lungs and can also help to improve the ability of your body to use oxygen. 

Aerobic exercise benefits your heart the most, it can help to lower down your heart rate,  blood pressure and at the same time, improving your breathing. Some examples for exercise benefits would be jogging, skipping rope, swimming, bicycling, etc. 

ü  Strengthening exercise

According to WebMD, strengthening exercises are repeated muscle contractions (tightening) until the muscle becomes tired.

Strengthening exercise includes: weightlifting, sit ups, push ups, etc. Strengthening exercise can strengthen your musculoskeletal system, improving muscle's toning, endurance and flexibility. 

Heart diseases
People having a heart disease, you should be aware of what exercise you do because some of them would be intensive for you which could be very very very threatening to your life. You could follow my suggestion below if you want to keep a healthy lifestyle through exercising! :)

ü  Stretching
I suggest stretching to be the most suitable exercise for people with heart disease
ü  Strengthening exercise 
Heavy lifting could be a great exercise too, especially for a strengthening exercise. As I have mentioned above, heavy lifting can help you to strengthen your muscles, but remember, too much of heavy lifting could be a bad thing as well. Doing some chores could be considered as a strengthening exercise too :)

ü Low intensity exercise 
Low intensity exercise could help you to improve your cardiorespiratory fitness, simply means it can help our heart to transport more oxygen to our muscles and also to help our muscles to absorb oxygen better during some sustained physical activity. There are few examples of a low intensity exercise like walking and jogging.

Diabetes

There's not actual instruction mentioning what exercise you should and shouldn't do for diabetes, you can just do anything you want! Make you sure keep your intensity of not doing exercises that are too intense in sudden which could irritate your body muscles very badly. I would recommend 30 minutes of aerobic exercise per day which is more than enough to keep a healthy lifestyle :) Don't forget, you have to keep your diet too!

Next post: Exercise planning for chronic diseases

Source: 

1. "Cardiorespiratory Fitness." Cardiorespiratory Fitness. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/articles/cardiorespiratory-fitness.aspx>.
2. "Exercising When You Have High Blood Pressure." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/safe-exercise-tips>.
3. "Safe Exercise for Heart Disease Patients." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. <http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/safe-exercise-patients>.

Dietary requirements

A balanced diet is the most important thing to have in your entire life because "you are what you eat". According to Health Central,  a balanced diet means getting the right types and amounts of foods and drinks to supply nutrition and energy for maintaining body cells, tissues, and organs, and for supporting normal growth and development.

It is very important to have a balanced diet because it is where we get to have all the essential nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, vitamins, and more to maintain a healthy body. If we do not have the knowledge of keeping a balanced diet, we might get sick easily. For example, if we eat too much, the percentage of getting chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity will be higher. However, if we eat way too less, our body will not be getting enough nutrients and we might eventually get sick very quickly and lack of energy may lead to dysfunction of vital organs and proper growth and development. That is why, having a balanced diet is very important to maintain health. 

Dietary requirements 

Dietary recommendation for children and teenagers

	1 Year	2–3 Years	4–8 Years	9–13 Years	14-18 Years
Calories	900 kcal	1000 kcal
Female			1200 kcal	1600 kcal	1800 kcal
Male			1400 kcal	1800 kcal	2200 kcal
Fat	30-40% kcal	30-35% kcal	25-35% kcal	25-35% kcal	25-35% kcal
Milk/Dairy	2 cups	2 cups	2 cups	3 cups	3 cups
Lean Meat/Beans	1.5 oz	2 oz		5 oz
Female			3 oz		5 oz
Male			4 oz		6 oz
Fruits	1 cup	1 cup	1.5 cups	1.5 cups
Female					1.5 cups
Male					2 cups
Vegetables	3/4 cup	1 cup
Female			1 cup	2 cups	2.5 cups
Male			1.5 cup	2.5 cups	3 cups
Grains_	2 oz	3 oz
Female			4 oz	5 oz	6 oz
Male			5 oz	6 oz	7 oz

(Source: American Heart Association) 

Dietary recommendation for adults

Age group	Energy * (kcal)	Protein (g)	Total Fat (g)	SFA (g)	Carbo- hydrates (g)	Dietary fibre (g)	Choles- terol (mg)	Ca (g)	Na (mg)	Fe (mg)	Vit A (mcg)	Folic Acid (mcg)	Vit C (mg)
Men
18- 29 yrs	2550	68	71	23.6	351	26	300	0.4-0.5	1700	6	750	200	30
30- 59 yrs	2500	68	69	23.0	344	25	300	0.4-0.5	1650	6	750	200	30
60 yrs and above	2100	68	58	19.3	289	21	300	0.4-0.5	1400	6	750	200	30
Women
18 - 29 yrs	2000	58	56	18.6	275	20	300	0.4-0.5	1350	19	750	200	30
30- 59 yrs	2000	58	57	19.0	275	20	300	0.4-0.5	1350	19	750	200	30
60 yrs and above	1800	58	50	16.7	248	18	300	0.4-0.5	1200	6	750	200	30
Pregnant women
- full activity	+285	+9	+8	+6	+39	+3	300	1.0-1.2	+200	19	750	400	50
- reduced activity	+200	+9	+6	+2	+28	+2	300	1.0-1.2	+150	19	750	400	5

(Source: Nutrition) 


Tips to achieve a healthy balanced diet

Keeping a balanced diet is the key to maintaining a healthy life, and it doesn't have to be so difficult, just follow these 5 tips I will be suggesting!

Before I start, I would like to share a picture describing the most relevant tip to achieve a healthy balanced diet:

The "fancy version" of a food pyramid

So this is actually the fancy version of a food pyramid, well this is very important because it will guide you how much amount of nutrients you should be having daily :) Follow this and live healthily together! :D (i don't really follow it sometimes, shh)

1. Eat how much you can burn 
Eat the right number of calories based on how active you are, so that you will not have the chance of gaining weight or losing weight which is very unhealthy.

2. Get hydrated all the time
"Water is the best medicine to cure any diseases." Water is the best superfood ever if it was a food, it can help digestion, promotes clear skin and can even help to prevent heart diseases. Some researches have even mentioned that water can help to boost metabolism which could help us to lose weight easily. So, get hydrated all the time! It could help you a lot. Get some healthy fluids like milk, and try to avoid those sweetened drinks that can be high in calories.

3. Take more vegetables and fruits 
Taking more vegetables and fruits is also one of the way to keep hydrated because 80% of them are made out of fluids filled with rich Vitamins and 20% of solids filled with fibers which is also one of the important nutrients. Vitamins are very important for our body because they are the one help to maintain and strongen our immune system so that we won't get sick easily.

4. Get more proteins! 
Proteins could be the most important nutrients among all because it is the one helping our body to build and repair body cells, our body won't be able to live without proteins, technically. So, get more proteins to achieve a healthy balanced diet by getting more dairies and meats!

5. If the food has a label, ignore it. 
Stop spending time watching the labels on the food, it's literally pointless, those could be lies. Start consuming foods that have no labels like vegetables, whole grains, instead of consuming foods that have been "factorized".

Right next, I am going to talk about the dietary requirements for diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases.

Dietary requirements for hypertension
Sodium: 2,300 milligrams per day (Standard diet)
            : 1,500 milligrams per day (Lower sodium diet)
Grains: 6 to 8 servings per day
Vegetables: 4 to 5 servings per day
Fruits: 4 to 5 servings per day
Dairy: 2 to 3 servings per day
Nuts, seeds and legumes: 4 to 5 servings per day
Fat and oils: 2 to 3 servings per day
Sweets: 5 or fewer a week

For people who are having hypertension shouldn't intake too much alcohols because it can increase blood pressure readily. Taking caffeine is not encouraged too though the effect of it still remains unknown, but caffeine still have the percentage or rising up your blood pressure, so the choice is yours.

Dietary requirements for diabetes 

There is no specific dietary requirements for people with diabetes, you can actually eat what you want, but you just have to balance up what you eat, just like what other people do, but you have to control your blood sugar level especially. 

So actually, people with diabetes can just follow the dietary requirements for children and adults I have given above. :) No worries! :D

Dietary requirements for heart diseases

For people with heart diseases, you should be careful of your diet because it may cause you to lose your life!

Sodium: 2,000 milligrams per day
Look through what I have suggested above about not looking at the food labels! It may help you to have an awareness of not eating foods with labels because they sometimes may have high sodium level :)
Grains: 6 or more servings per day
Proteins: 2 to 3 servings per day
Dairy: 2 or more servings per day
Vegetables: 5 or more servings per day
Fruits: 5 or more servings per day
Fats and oils: intake sparingly
Sweets: intake sparingly

Other than all these above, try to take foods that are high in fibers and potassium! If you are taking some diuretics, your potassium level may drop, so get all your nutrients well!

I suppose that's all for today, I guess I have written quite a lot already... Pheww... Hope I am helping you guys! Thanks, bye!

Next post: Exercise planning for chronic diseases

Source: 

1.  "10 Tips for a Healthy Diet." Chow The CHOW Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.chow.com/food-news/54884/10-tips-for-a-healthy-diet/>."Balanced Diet For Kids - HealthCentral." Balanced Diet For Kids - HealthCentral. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.healthcentral.com/diet-exercise/h/balanced-diet-for-kids.html>.
2. "Dietary Recommendations for Healthy Children." Dietary Recommendations for Healthy Children. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/Dietary-Recommendations-for-Healthy-Children_UCM_303886_Article.jsp>.
3. "Heart Failure Nutrition Guidelines." Cleveland Clinic. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/prevention/nutrition/heartfailureguidelines.aspx>.
4. "Importance of a Balanced Diet for a Healthy Lifestyle." Green Apple Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.greenappleactive.com/blog/tips-2/importance-of-a-balanced-diet-for-healthy-lifestyles/>.
5. "Nutrition.com.sg - Healthy Eating - Recommended Dietary Allowances - Adults."Nutrition.com.sg - Healthy Eating - Recommended Dietary Allowances - Adults. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nutrition.com.sg/he/herda-adt.asp>.
6. "What Is a Balanced Diet?" Calorie Counter UK & Food Diary. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nutracheck.co.uk/Library/Healthy-Eating/how-to-get-a-healthy-balanced-diet_1.html>.
7. "What Is a Balanced Diet and Why Is It Important?" Calorie Secrets RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.caloriesecrets.net/what-is-a-balanced-diet-and-why-is-it-important/>.