Skip to main content

You Are Sweet Enough-Diabetes Prevention: Importance of Nutrition and Exercise




November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. Why dedicate a month to diabetes awareness?  According to the American Diabetes Association, over 9.4% or @ 30 million Americans have diabetes type 2.  Chances are if you have 10 people in a room, one out of the 10 will have diagnosed or undiagnosed  diabetes mellitus type 2.  Unlike diabetes mellitus type 1, an autoimmune disease, diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2) is related to lifestyle.  This means that this disease process can be reversed through changes in nutrition and exercise.

What is Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 (DMT2)?  The pathophysiology of diabetes is quite complex.  The simplest explanation is that diabetes is a disease process where there is excessive glucose (sugar) circulating in their bloodstream that is not being used properly by the cells.  Instead of the glucose (sugar) going into cells where it can be used for fuel, the glucose remains in the bloodstream where it builds up and causes damage to the body. The most common organs that are damaged include the eyes, kidneys, and other microvessels.  If not caught early, diabetes type 2 can lead to blindness, kidney failure, nerve pain and the amputation of limbs.  How does glucose get into the cell?  Blood glucose is guided into the cell by insulin.  Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas.  It acts as a "key" to "unlock" cells and enables glucose to move from the bloodstream into the cells.  Sometimes cells become insulin resistant. When this occurs insulin can no longer push the "sugar" out of the blood into the cell. This is known as insulin resistance.  If this happens, one may need medications to make their body more receptive to insulin. Some people may stop producing insulin.  If that happens, he or she will be prescribed insulin.  This information can be overwhelming, but there are things you can do.     Know your risks, exercise and make healthy food choices.

Risk Factors

There are many factors that determine your risk of developing diabetes.  Some factors are unmodifiable such as race and age while others are not.   Modifiable risk factors, factors you can control,  include your activity level, weight and fat intake,  Although some people have genetically elevated high blood pressure and cholesterol, many do not.  Most individuals have modifiable risk factors that can be changed with a healthy lifestyle.  Ask yourself...

*Are you sedentary?
*Do you have high cholesterol?
*Do you have high blood pressure?
*Is your BMI over 25?

If  you answered yes to these questions, you may be risk for developing diabetes mellitus type 2.  What can you do about it?  Let's look at exercise.

Exercise

Why is exercise an important tool for reducing one's risk of diabetes?  Exercise can reduce one's weight, increase cardio-respiratory fitness, blood flow and glucose utilization by muscles.  Just walking can decrease excess glucose in the blood stream and  facilitate the movement of excessive blood glucose into the cells where it can be used as fuel.  It is recommended that individuals diagnosed with DMT2 move every 30 minutes for 5 min or less.  This can be as simple as standing up and walking around your desk every 30 minutes while at work or doing some push ups on commercial breaks.  Other recommendations suggest a minimum of 150 minutes of aerobic and anaerobic exercise per week with no more than 48 hrs in between exercise sessions (Young-Hyman et al., 2016).

Nutrition

Nutrition is very complex.  There are NO perfect diets.   However, research shows that the Mediterranean Diet, low fat, low carbohydrate, DASH, vegan and vegetarian diets are all quite effective in the prevention and management of diabetes (American Diabetes Association, 2019). 




  
Here are the important takeaways. You have the power to reduce your risk of diabetes.  Check with your health provider to understand your risk factors.  Work with a health coach, trainer, diabetic educator or registered dietician to design a nutrition and exercise plan that works best for you. 

Author: Stacy Winters ME.d MSN CRNP, Health Coach

                                                                   References

American Diabetes Association. (2019). What can I eat? Retrieved from https://www.diabetes.org/blog/what-can-i-eat

Young-Hyman, D., De Groot, M., Hill-Briggs, F., Gonzalez, J. S., Hood, K., & Peyrot, M. (2016). Psychosocial care for people with diabetes: a position statement of the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes Care, 39(12), 2126-2140.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grit- Road to Chicago Olympic Triathlon

Definition  Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual's passion for a particular long-term goal or end state, coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective. This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming of obstacles or challenges that lie within a gritty individual's path to accomplishment, and serves as a driving force in achievement realization. Commonly associated concepts within the field of psychology include "perseverance", "hardiness", "resilience", "ambition", "need for achievement" and "conscientiousness".  This is who I am. Stacy the Grit.  Yes, I could spend a lot of time talking to you about my finish time and what I could improve upon yadda yadda yadda but anyone who reads my blog knows that I rarely focus on the outcome.  I focus on the process. I focus on how did I arrive at a specific point and time. I focus on the jour...
6 comments
Read more

Just the Facts…Only the facts.

  General Health Facts. According the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, about one out of three U.S. adults or 31.3% has high blood pressure. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, Diabetes affects 25.8 million people of all ages 8.3 percent of the U.S. population. A 2011 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the following: ·       The average male consumes 175 calories a day from drinks containing added sugar (like soda). ·       The average female consumes 94 calories from these drinks ·       About half of the population drinks a sugar-sweetened beverage on any given day. More than 45 million Americans now belong to a health club, up from 23 million in 1993. We spend some $19 billion a year on gym memberships. Of course, some people join and never go. Still, as ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Goals: A healthy lifestyle has no finish line

As a coach, I get many questions on exercise, weight loss, running, etc. All are great questions. However, I find myself asking clients the same question. What is your goal? General health and performance goals share many commonalities. To meet healthy lifestyle or performance goals, both require the following: ·       Defined goal ·       Nutrition balancing ·       Exercise ·       Consistency However, there are some key differences between general health goals and performance/sport specific goals.   ·       Goals- Is your goal to “get healthy” What does that mean?   Does it mean lose a few pounds or run a marathon? Be specific. How do you plan to measure your success? This is important. Why? Some people say they want to “get healthy” without defining what that means for them. Define what healthy means for you. Write it down. If ...
Post a Comment
Read more