February 12, 2010

Early Lifestyle Intervention Key to Diabetes Prevention and Metabolic Memory

Susan Dopart Diabetes Prevention & Care, Wellness Blog

This year’s annual diabetes conference brought me to San Francisco. I’ve attended it for the last 10 years, rotating one year in San Francisco and next New York. Good thing it was in San Francisco since NY was blanketed with snow.

Previous conference years have provided cutting edge research on new therapies and drugs for diabetes. Research is changing faster than ever which is why I attend. This year’s theme came as a surprise.

EARLY LIFESTYLE INTERVENTION is the key to metabolic memory! What exactly does that mean?

Many of us wait until the last possible moment when the doctor states those 3 dreaded words: “you have diabetes.” But why wait? What’s the point of working too much, exercising too little or putting your health on the back burner? I hear this sentence every day: I know I should exercise and work on my food but something always gets in the way.

Fortunately or not our health does not go on vacation. The studies clearly show lifestyle is the MOST effective treatment for the prevention of type 2 or adult onset diabetes.

When you eat “clean” or in an anti-inflammatory way and exercise on a regular basis the body builds up metabolic memories. The great news is that these memories actually get reserved for a rainy day. A recent diabetes study showed that good control of blood sugars through healthy lifestyle can cut the risk of heart disease in half. Sounds pretty good to me!

Metabolic memory keeps the healthy and unhealthy behaviors in its memory bank- like credits and debits. If your body has early healthy metabolic memories/credits it actually prevents and helps your body in the future – even if you have unhealthy behaviors/debits later on.

Healthy Lifestyle behaviors now prevent later diabetes complications of the heart, kidney, and eyes.

Why mess with your body’s memory? Why not start developing great health memories this moment? The resolve to start Monday may come and go and the body’s metabolic memory is ticking away. It is waiting and ready for you at this moment -the choice is all yours to live in the black.