OPSA Essentials Practice Test

Regular aerobic and resistance exercise improves how the body uses insulin and helps control blood glucose in people with type 2 diabetes. Working muscles take up more glucose during activity, and with training the body becomes more insulin sensitive, which lowers blood glucose levels during exercise and in the hours afterward. Over time this leads to better overall glycemic control, often shown by lower HbA1c.

Hypoglycemia risk is generally low if you’re not using insulin or certain diabetes pills, but it can become a concern when insulin or insulin secretagogues are part of the treatment. In those cases, exercise can tip glucose levels downward, so monitoring before, during, and after activity and adjusting meals or medications as needed is important.

Exercise does not eliminate the need for medications; for many people it complements pharmacotherapy and can even allow some adjustments, but it’s not a substitute.

Statements that say exercise decreases insulin sensitivity, or that it always carries a higher risk of hypoglycemia regardless of meds, or that it eliminates medication, don’t fit how exercise actually affects diabetes management. The best understanding is that both aerobic and resistance exercise improve insulin sensitivity and glycemic control, with a variable hypoglycemia risk depending on medication use.