Running to change diabetes, this is the premise of Team Novo Nordisk that, for the second consecutive year, will participate in the 56th edition of the Cycling Tour to La Rioja this Sunday, April 3.Unique professional cyclist team in the world integrated only by runners with type 1 diabetes travels thousands of kilometers to serve as an example and motivation to other people with diabetes.
Only in La Rioja it is estimated that some 36,000 people live with diabetes, a pathology that suffers more than 5.3 million in our country and 415 million worldwide.Therefore, with each pedaling the Team Novo Nordisk wants to show them that diabetes and sport are good allies and that they become aware that, with an individualized monitoring and properly structured nutrition, they can perform any physical activity no matter how demanding it may be.
Therefore, sport helps both prevent the disease and control it among those who already live with it.
In words, Dr. Rafael Castol, medical director of Team Novo Nordisk, "sport practice is beneficial in any person's life to maintain an optimal state of health. Specifically, in a person with diabetes, always with medical supervision, it isA sugar level control mechanism helps reduce the risk of diabetes derived diseases. "
For cyclists of the Novo Nordisk team, in addition to these benefits, professional sport represents a constant challenge.Competing at the highest level, without diabetes being a condition that affects their performance, requires them to find the appropriate balance between the optimal management of their blood glucose levels and individualized nutrition.
In any case, "all the team members - the Spanish David Lozano, born in 1988 and diagnosed at age 22 - we are like any other athlete. I do not believe that diabetes influences performance if you control it well. We simply have toBe more disciplined and always have well calculated what and how much you can and need to eat at every moment. "
Meanwhile, his partner, the Spanish Javier Mejías, born in 1983 and diagnosed at age 14, has been living with diabetes for so long that, he says, "today I almost don't realize that I live with diabetes. They told meThat I would never become a professional athlete.alternative".
This year the team, sponsored by the company Novo Nordisk, world leader in the research and treatment of diabetes, participates for the fourth season in the professional continental circuit of the International Cycling Union (UCI), which will take them to numerous countries inEveryone (Europe, America, Asia and Australia) in their mission of educating, inspiring and encouraging people with diabetes.
