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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.


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