Preventing Diabetes?
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What would you do to prevent blindness, going on dialysis or having the nerves in your hands and feet in constant pain? Many of us would do most anything to prevent those things, but those same individuals may not realize that simple lifestyle management may help those things never come to fruition.
As we discussed yesterday, one in three individuals is at a high risk of becoming diabetic. However, even with diabetes in your history here are 3 simple things you can do to prevent diabetes and avoid ever going on medication.
1. Exercise 30 minutes per day. The Landmark study done on those with pre-diabetes looked at 3 separate groups – one group was the control group which means no intervention was given. The second group was put on Metformin, a drug that both prevents and treats diabetes. The third group was given a small amount of guidance regarding diet and lifestyle and exercised 30 minutes per day.
The results showed there was no change in group one. Group two had lowered their risk of diabetes by 30 percent. Group 3 lowered their risk of diabetes by 58 percent.
Walking just half an hour per day can lower diabetes risk by 58%? Absolutely! How does that work? Even a moderate walk can make your insulin work better by 50 percent for the rest of the day. This decrease only works for about 24 hours so near daily exercise is essential.
2.Sleep at least 7-8 hours per night. Multiple studies in the last 5 years have shown that lack of sleep lowers insulin sensitivity. These sleep studies revealed that individuals who slept less than 7 hours per night had morning blood sugars in the diabetic range in those without diabetes. When the subjects returned to over 7 hours of sleep per night their blood sugars became normalized.
3. Eat protein at each meal with non-processed forms of carbohydrate. I could talk about this one all day long and it is explained at length in my new book A Recipe for Life. If you eat some sort of protein at each meal and snack such as lean meat, poultry, fish, nuts/seeds, low fat plain yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. and balance it with fruits, vegetables, and some healthy form of fat such as avocado or olive oil it will greatly assist in keeping your blood sugars normalized. This type of eating requires shopping on the perimeter of the grocery store.
Walk a half hour per day, sleep 7.5 hours per night and eat a healthy balanced diet versus go on medications or have terrible health consequences in later years? Sounds like a slam dunk to me – remember prevention is the key to Life Style Solutions!
