As a diabetic, I am always reading the latest tips to help me manage this disease. Fortunately, at this time I have been able to avoid medication through careful monitoring of my diet. A few months ago, I read several articles about using exercise to control diabetes. With great enthusiasm, I waved a magic wand, turned myself into a lab rat, and began conducting experiments.

Simple sugars, like those found in most fruits, will raise my blood sugar very quickly. I used to eat a banana every morning with my breakfast. However, my body could not handle its sugar content.

Currently, I do not fare any better with complex carbohydrates either. Those include whole grains, like the shredded wheat I used to eat for breakfast.

I decided to test both shredded wheat and a banana first thing in the morning, and then monitor the changes in my glucose an hour later. I would eventually learn that my blood sugar peaked around ninety minutes after eating. Therefore, the measurements were still climbing when I took them.

After eating just one-half cup of shredded wheat (barely enough to whet the appetite of this hungry lab rat) my sugar shot up 77 points (from 102 to 179) in one hour.

The next day I ate a medium-sized banana for breakfast. Within fifty minutes, it skyrocketed 129 points (from 98 to 227). I cannot even guess what it would have been at the ninety-minute mark.

For both of those tests, I did not exercise that morning.

A few days later, I decided to go all out. I ate both a medium-sized banana and one-half cup of shredded wheat for breakfast. Hey, even lab rats have to eat. I expected my sugar would soar over 200 and possibly reach 300. However, that time I chose to exercise, return every thirty minutes to take my sugar, and then go back out and exercise some more. The results were startling.

My sugar was 113 before eating. After breakfast, I went outside and began a good-pace walk, avoiding any hungry stray cats looking for a rat to nibble on. I stopped at thirty-minute intervals to test my sugar, and then continued my walk. After two full hours, my blood sugar dropped to 83, and the highest it reached was only 117.

I was both excited and skeptical. Could I really keep blood sugar in check by simply engaging in continuous exercise after eating?

A few days later, I repeated this experiment, and the results were similar. My blood peaked at a satisfactory 125 an hour into the experiment, and dropped to 109 after two hours.

As an additional control experiment, I repeated the banana test without exercise eight days later. As expected, without exercising my sugar went from 104 to 163 in sixty minutes, just from eating a very small banana.

Now, I admit these experiments will hardly pass peer review for publication in any science magazine. However, I have repeated this test many times since then, and each time I recorded a dramatic reduction in my blood sugar after exercise.

In addition, the benefits of exercise last longer than just one day. Continuous exercise brought my overall sugar down over time. My blood sugar continues to improve, and I even impressed my doctor with my ability to manage my diabetes through diet and exercise.

Sure, I treated my body like a lab rat. However, this is one very satisfied rat, who feels like he has some control over his disease. Now if Mr. Lab Rat can find a Mrs. Lab Rat who is willing to share her cheese, he will have reached Rat Nirvana.

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