Diabetes Prevention: A How-To Guide
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Diabetes is a very debilitating disease that can destroy people’s lives and cause early death. There are two main types of diabetes as well as gestational diabetes. Unfortunately individuals that are afflicted with type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) are victims of an autoimmune disease that does not seem preventable, although there are theories and research currently underway on this subject.
The Prevention of type 2 Diabetes
Unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes is preventable. First of all, early detection of diabetes can be a key factor in diabetes prevention. If you have a family history of diabetes doctors recommend that you get screened starting at age 30 for type 2 diabetes. Prevention of type 2 diabetes falls into two general categories. These categories include lifestyle and medications.
By changing their lifestyle, diabetes prevention is possible in most cases. There are risk factors that cannot be reduced such as age, ethnic background, and family history, but these risks are far outweighed by the lifestyle activities that can be changed. Some of these include:
Obesity – If you are overweight or obese you can reduce your risk of acquiring diabetes by reducing your weight. This can be done by improving your diet and starting an exercise regimen.
High Blood Pressure – High blood pressure is a leading risk factor for developing diabetes. This can be reduced as obesity can by improving diet and exercising. It can also be reduced by quitting smoking and drinking alcohol. Medication (discussed later in this article) can also help to reduce your blood pressure.
Sedentary Lifestyle – This is a factor that can lead to the factors listed above, but deserves its own paragraph because it’s so important. By increasing your daily physical activity levels you can reduce your chances for getting type 2 diabetes.
High Fat Diet and High Blood Fat Levels – These two risk factors are obviously connected. By reducing your fat intake you can thereby reduce your body’s blood fat (triglyceride) levels. This will aid in diabetes prevention.
Diabetes Prevention Medications
There is evidence now that certain medications can help to prevent diabetes, not just treat it. One medication (Glucophage) has been shown to reduce a person’s chance of acquiring diabetes by 31%. Diet medications have also been shown to assist with diabetes prevention, although this is most likely due to the medication’s reduction of other risk factors such as obesity.
Gestational diabetes cannot generally be treated with medications, however by reducing certain risk factors (most notably obesity); a person can reduce their chances for acquiring this illness.
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