You Can Prevent Or Reverse Diabetes
November is Diabetes Awareness Month.
In the United States 24 million people have diabetes. One out of four don't even know it. As the rates of obesity go up, the number of people with prediabetes is increasing.
The figures for adolescents are the most alarming, coinciding with the higher rates of obesity. 16% of adolescents have prediabetes, almost double since the year 2000.
"Prediabetes represents abnormal blood sugar, but not yet to the degree of having formal diabetes," said Dr. Michael Bergman, of the NYU Langone Medical Center. Dr. Bergman offers hope for people who find themselves with this condition. " This offers the possibility of reversing the onset of disease," he said.
"An early diagnosis comes from getting blood tests done during a routine physical exam. Levels of 100 or higher are of particular concern," Dr. Bergman continued.
"If there is the presence of one or more additional risk factors that is of particular concern.
"Those factors include being overweight and a family history of diabetes for one. Also do you have high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol?
"The recommendation for screening is also somewhat arbitrary but in general, individuals who are under 45 are advised to have a screening for diabetes, or prediabetes.
And, according to Dr. Bergman, every individual over the age of 45 should be screened regardless, of whether or not they're overweight or have any other risk factor.
Dr. Bergman cites the body mass index as a good measure. " The body mass index, which is a relationship between height and weight, so if the body mass index is in the overweight category, or higher than 25, those individuals should be screened. If they are overweight and if they have one other risk factor which is high blood pressure or high cholesterol, it's a concern.
So, Dr. Bergman urges people to keep their weight down.
"The way to prevent the disease or even reverse it in individuals who have prediabetes is clearly to watch your weight," he said. "Weight reduction is probably thee most important thing anyone can do in terms of not only preventing the disease but also reversing the disease.
"What we've learned from recently completed clinical studies, is that somebody who loses about 2.2 pounds can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by about 15-16%.
"Weight reduction, even very modest weight reduction is important. If that's accompanied by exercise, which facilitates weight reduction, which facilitates the body's ability to respond to insulin, that also will help in preventing diabetes or reversing pre-diabetes. It's phenomenal. And it only needs to be about 150 minutes of exercise a week. Modest exercise; walking is good. Even if it's done over 10-15 minutes a day, as long as it averages about 150 minutes a week.
"Nutrition is important, certainly avoiding simple sugars, concentrating on legumes, fiber, berries, fruit, minimizing amnd of fat, especially saturated fat. One of the ways to lose weight and also to improve your lipid profile is by decreasing the amount of saturated fat, the recommendation is to have less than 10% total calories in fat.
"Children are not immune from diabetes. The incidence of diabetes is really much higher today than it was even a decade ago. In younger children, the prevalence, the number of individuals who have prediabetes is much higher than it was. Over the age of 13, it's about 13% in school age children who already have prediabetes. I think to be successful in avoiding diabetes later on in life is by focusing really on the school age children.
"Children need to exercise more. The school diet needs improvement. A lot of the nutritional information has to be done at home. We really need to focus on younger children before they become adults and it becomes a much more serious problem.
So again, Dr. Bergman urges everyone to know what their fasting blood sugar is. "If your fasting blood sugar tends to be borderline, if it's 100 or over, it's clearly abnormal but even individuals that have in the mid or upper 90 range, it's higher than it should be.
"As we get older there's a tendency to become more resistant to the insulin we make and the blood sugars run a little higher.
"The ranges vary a little bit but in general between 65 or 70 is more of the normal range.
"The lower the blood sugar the better. Once you start exceeding levels that are around 90, or into the 90 range, although that's still is a normal blood sugar, that still is in the higher end of the spectrum, **
"It's the weight that drives it. Family history is important but it's really the weight that drives it. And again, it's largely reversible.
"Unfortunately, we spend a tremendous amount of time, money and energy treating the disease and not enough on prevention.
"Prevention is essential in terms of minimizing risk. It's not only just the prevention of diabetes, it's even prevention of cardiovascular disease which is a hallmark of diabetes.
Know the symptoms of diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes develops slowly. The first signs are usually excessive thirst and frequent urination. Some people also experience a flu-like illness, weight gain or loss, blurred vision, fatigue, frequent infections or slow-healing sores, nerve damage and/or swollen gums. In many individuals, however, diabetes may be present without any signs or symptoms.
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Comments: 1
I have Diabetes, and I must admit that I don't always watch my diet. I get scared before a doctor's visit, so then I am very vigilant, watching what I eat. I only found out about 2 years ago, that I had this, but I suspect that I had it longer. It runs in the family, so I got the bad gene from the family gene pool. I take a pill for this, and I'm really scared that someday I will have to take shots for this illness. I wish they would find a cure.
I always say, if they can send a man into outer space, why can't they find cures for this and other illnesses.