Diabetes

By Susan Burke March MS, RD, LD/N, CDE
eDiets Contributor

According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes is a serious disease that affects the body's ability to produce or respond properly to insulin, a hormone that allows blood glucose (sugar) to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy. Nearly 24 million children and adults in the U.S. have diabetes, while only about 10 percent have type 1 diabetes. Diabetes is the fifth deadliest disease in the U.S., and it has no cure.

Health researchers think that there are more people walking around in the U.S. who will eventually have type 2 diabetes than are currently diagnosed with the disease. Luckily, however, there are things you can do to prevent diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes has a slow onset unlike type 1, or insulin-dependent diabetes, with dramatic weight loss and possible death from diabetic coma. With type 1 diabetes, the pancreas stops producing hormone insulin, which means insulin must be administered via injection, usually two or more times daily. Type 2 diabetes is commonly diagnosed about six years after the onset of the disease. That means for about six years, your body has produced less insulin than you need, or your cells are resistant to the insulin you are producing. Often, insulin resistance and insufficiency happen simultaneously; the result is high blood glucose.

Chronically high blood glucose from uncontrolled diabetes is the danger for people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes because it damages your tiny arteries and veins, eventually leading to organ disease (most commonly heart and kidney); eye damage leading to blindness; nerve damage leading to ulceration/amputation; and early death.

With type 2 diabetes, the symptoms are gradual and often easily missed. You may be more tired than usual, have some vision changes, more frequent urination, but you learn to live with the symptoms and adjust your lifestyle to accommodate them. When you live with symptoms, you're essentially ignoring the signs. Sadly, that's the worst thing you can do because it staves off treating the disease, a disease that eventually takes its toll on your circulatory, nervous and even your immune system.

Although recent advances in diabetes research has produced more effective drugs to help people manage their disease, unfortunately, the incidence of diabetes shows no sign of slowing down.

5 Things You Can Do to Prevent Diabetes

1. Lose Weight: We can't control our genes, but we CAN control the size of our jeans! Losing just 5 percent of our current weight can lower your risk for complications from diabetes. That's a start. There are a number of different eDiets plans that are great for weight loss and even a Living With Diabetes Plan that's especially dedicated to information and support for people living with diabetes.

Keep track of your waist size along with your weight. For women, a waist size of 35 inches or greater increases the risk for heart disease and diabetes, especially if your BMI is equal to or greater than 25. For men, a waist size equal to or greater than 40 inches with a BMI equal to or greater than 25 compounds your risk.

2. Exercise: New research shows that any type of exercise improves blood glucose control. You don't have to run every day or join a gym, but you do need to get out and walk, and if you add resistance training -- not heavy weights, but light weights and bands -- you can strengthen muscles.

3. Get Tested: This goes back to your genes... or your jeans! If you have a first-generation relative (parent, sibling) with type 2 diabetes, you have a genetic link. If you are overweight, your risk is doubled. Get tested now, and hopefully you'll be normal. But keep vigilant, enjoy a balanced diet, stay active and keep your weight within a couple of pounds of your goal. If your blood glucose is higher than normal but not at type 2 diagnosis (pre-diabetes=100-125mg/dl), it means you need to take control now to avoid complications.

4. Take Control: If you do have diabetes, you can manage the disease instead of letting it manage you; you control diabetes. Control your diet, your activity and how often you test. Then, you can control the controls. Follow your physicians' and your diabetes educators' recommendations and test your blood glucose frequently. Many blood glucose monitors have sophisticated software that lets you download your readings and create reports.

5. Connect: You can do it alone, but having support makes it better and more fun. eDiets Living with Diabetes Plan helps people by giving them a supportive, secure place online to get together and share their experiences.

Nov. 14 is World Diabetes Day. As bad as the epidemic is in the U.S., it pales in comparison to global diabetes related to obesity, or globesity. According to PR Newswire Europe, globesity is exploding, with more than 231 million people diagnosed. Obesity, formerly a disease of the affluent, is now a disease of most of the developed world's poor citizens.

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) says, "Contrary to the widely held perception that diabetes is a disease of the affluent, studies show that the economically disadvantaged are at higher risk. The global picture reveals that within 20 years, 80 percent of all people with diabetes will live in low- and middle-income countries, where in many cases there is little or no access to life-saving and disability-preventing diabetes treatments.

"In affluent countries, people who are relatively poor are at greater risk of type 2 diabetes. In the United States, for example, households with the lowest incomes have the highest incidence of diabetes."

Increased intake of refined foods and decreased intake of whole grains, fruits and vegetables combined with less physical activity leads to type 2 diabetes, which is now one of the most significant causes of death, responsible for a similar number of deaths each year as HIV/AIDS.

The former President of the IDF, Professor Pierre Lefebvre, says, "The total number of people living with diabetes is increasing by more than seven million per year. If nothing is done, the global epidemic will affect over 350 million people within a generation. Unchecked, diabetes threatens to overwhelm healthcare services in many countries and undermine the gains of economic advancement in the developing world."

Continue to these related posts:
-- Diabetes Care: Early Weight Loss Has Lasting Benefits
-- Diabetes and Exercise: How it Can Help
-- 10 Power Foods to Beat Diabetes

Sources:
American Diabetes Association: www.diabetes.org
Diabetes Care: November 2006 care.diabetesjournals.org
International Diabetes Federation: www.idf.org

Labels: blood, blood sugar, diabetes, diabetic, diet, exercise, preventing, prevention