Why do our tissues deteriorate if we don’t exercise, why do we, in one sense act as if we are becoming rancid? What does exercise do to us that makes it’s effects so essential? I’ll be dammed if I know, but fortunately scientists are working it out, and it’ll make you want to exercise. Sports and exercise are compatible.

Saying that exercise is healthy is too abstract a thought to be motivational. “Your body will go to hell if you don’t exercise.” is a phrase who’s motivational benefits has worn off a long time ago. But, knowing more about how we fall apart could help. And, also knowing how sports and diabetes fit together helps too.

There is a bomb making factory in many of us generating road side combustibles – systemic inflammation. This suicide bomber in you is called visceral fat. Visceral fat is the greasy globs of fat wrapped around your gut, in addition to the greasy globs of bubbly fat just below your skin.

Lots of fat is bad, but visceral fat is the worst. In fact, physical inactivity is even worse than overeating when it comes to accumulating visceral fat.

You can’t see systemic inflammation because it’s invisible unlike an infection which is usually accompanied by an acute inflammation. Memory loss, tumor growth and on and on can be the result of systemic inflammation. Visceral fat is a source of systemic inflammation.

And, here’s the kicker, when the damage finally shows up you are already way down the road. You can’t see chronic inflammation, It just smolders on unnoticed.

Biochemicals called enzymes speed things up or get things done. Beneficial enzymes called myokines are released by skeletal muscles during exercise. They suppress the systemic inflammation generated by visceral fat in a novel way, they act like a hormone.

The problem is that the anti-inflammatory effect created by the myokines enzymes is limited by the amount of exercise completed. When each bout of exercise ends so does the release of the inflammatory suppressors. The inflammatory factors are released, but only as long as the exercise continues. Sports and diabetes, they go together permanently.

Humans were not developed as blobs, we were constructed to move. To economize, some organs made themselves dependent upon organs of movement. Leg veins depend on leg muscles to squeeze blood back into general circulation. They do this because they omitted developing their own muscles during evolution, expecting they wouldn’t need them. Modern inactivity has wrecked their plans. Many of our systems are in the same fix. Nature set us up entirely for survival activities not endless inactivity. Use it or loose it is not just a saying, it’s a reality of life.

New to the thought of sports and diabetes, or pre-diabetes? To explore it in depth go to sports and diabetes here #1