Abstract
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease with a significant growth in countries with high standard of living. Recently, DM 1 occurrence has increased probably due to antigenic pressure but DM 2 is on the increase due to bad lifestyle.
Physical activity is an important tool in prevention and treatment of this disease. Many studies monitor the positive impact of regular physical activity on disease progression.
However, there is a lack of comprehensive recommendations of physical activities taking into account different stages of the disease and exist risk factors. Authors of this review present the importance of physical activity in individuals with diagnosed prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus.
There are physiotherapy recommendations for individual patient types (outpatients without complications, outpatients with complications, in-patients, amputees, prediabetes patients). The most recommend physical activities include alternating low to moderate intensity aerobic exercise with low-impact weight-bearing exercise.
The advantage of physical activities (PA) lies mainly in the prevention of diabetes mellitus, improvement of diabetes control and reduction of treatment costs. However, not every PA is suitable for type 2 diabetic patients, especially those with late complications.
This regards namely intensive PA, PA including high-resistance breath holding. Also, diabetes patients should pay attention to appropriate footwear and socks, and should especially frequently check lower limbs to avoid the diabetic foot development.
Appropriate footwear should meet the requirements for healthy preventative footwear for diabetes patients, especially for diabetes neuropathy. It is recommended to use footwear with fixed counter in order to stabilize the foot in walking, with lacing or velcro.
The shoe should have sufficient width and height, with solid sole.