Diabetes and Prevention

Let's take a moment to clarify exactly what diabetes is and how it affects your body. Diabetes is a medical disorder which causes the body to produce an excessive amount of urine, especially Diabetes Mellitus.

What is Diabetes Mellitus?

Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disorder affecting blood sugar levels. The hormone insulin is what converts glucose (which is the same as sugar) to energy.

Diabetes Has Two Groups.

Diabetes is broken down into two groups; the first being Type 1 Diabetes. Type 1 is what causes people to stop producing insulin which is caused by a malfunctioning immune system. This is not related to obesity.

The second group is known as Type 2 Diabetes. Type 2 produces insulin for your body. The difference in the two types is that Type 2 doesn't know how to properly use the insulin.

Warning Signs of Diabetes.

• Unusual thirst; thirst that cannot be quenched, or is very difficult to quench
• Frequent urination; this can be the cause of other health problems, which is why need to consult your physician
• Unexplained weight loss; not that this is a blessing for some of us, to others it may not be
• Frequent yeast or other infections; keep a record of all of your medical problems that come up between your doctor visits.
• Slow healing of sores; you should know your body well enough to know if it seems to be an unusual amount of time to heal
• Extreme fatigue; who doesn't seem to have this more often than not, but remember combine with other symptoms is when it needs to be carefully observed
• Tingling or numbness in your hands and/or feet; if you are thought to have diabetes, on most if not all visits to your doctor he will ask you to remove your socks and shoes to check for this
• Blurred vision; keep your regularly scheduled eye exams to ensure your blurred vision isn't getting worse or related to Diabetes.

The Prevention of Diabetes

There are several steps that can be utilized for the prevention of Diabetes. They include but are not limited to weight control, exercise, and diet. These three things are very important when it comes to either having or preventing Diabetes.

First step: Weight Control

Blood Sugar levels can be improved by slow steady weight loss in already over weight diabetics. To prove this, a study was held using the participation of about 1,900 overweight college students. The study required them to lose two pounds a year for ten years. Just this alone reduced their risk of developing diabetes by a third.

Second Step: Exercise

What would you say if I told you thirty minutes a day not only reduces the risk of diabetes but lowers blood sugar, increases insulin sensitivity, reduces blood pressure, improves your cholesterol, and of coarse decreases body fat. The reason it helps reduce the risk of Diabetes is because those of who are exercising regularly metabolize sugar faster than those of who that don't. I would hope you would ask how this could be done. It's as simple as walking thirty minutes most days of the week. Your walking doesn't have to be a run, but not as slow as molasses either.

Third Step: Diet

Your diet and maintaining a healthy one is very important, not just for the prevention of Diabetes but to stay healthy in general. I know you have heard before; anything in large quantities is bad for you. So, anything you eat (or do) should be done in moderation. We are trying to teach the difference in foods and their importance. Instead of prohibiting sweets altogether, we want you to limit the carbohydrates. Examples of these would be white bread and pasta. It's because our body turns it into glucose (sugar- same thing). A complex carbohydrate would be wheat bread as apposed to white bread. That still does not mean eat all the wheat bread you want, your carbs still need to be limited, but at least now you get the picture.

Another way that helps control blood sugar is a high fiber diet. About 22 servings of whole-grain foods a week will reduce your risk of developing Diabetes by about twenty two percent.