Diabetes More than just sugar overload
walk every day, eat a healthful diet, and have no diabetes in my immediate family. I’m not model skinny (truth be told, I’ve been known to pack on a few extra pounds), but I’m certainly not a couch potato or junk food addict. So, imagine my surprise when a routine blood test showed that my blood sugar was elevated and I was officially prediabetic.
Prediabetic, meaning I have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels that put me at risk of developing diabetes, the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States. Yikes!
The fact that I’m not alone doesn’t make me feel any better — 57 million Americans have prediabetes and another 24 million have diabetes (90 to 95 percent of all diabetes diagnosed is type 2, which typically appears in adults and is associated with obesity, physical inactivity, family history, and other factors). Being part of what’s shaping up to be a diabetes epidemic in America isn’t a club I want to join. Health.com: How to lower your risks for developing diabetes
Another wake-up call
It turns out Wholesale pet suppliesthat prediabetes isn’t really “pre” anything, according to Mark Hyman, M.D., author of “UltraMetabolism” and “The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First.” “It’s a danger in and of itself that sets off a whole cascade of problems,” he says.
In fact, there’s now evidence that a prediabetic patient’s risks for eye, kidney, and nerve damage, as well as heart disease, are nearly as great as a diabetic’s, says Alan J. Garber, M.D., chairman of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists task force that’s currently writing new guidelines for managing prediabetes.
What’s more, diabetes can be especially dangerous for mothers and their unborn children, potentially leading to miscarriage or birth defects.belly fat Women with diabetes are also at higher risk of having a heart attack at a younger age. And elevated insulin levels have been shown to put postmenopausal women at increased risk of developing breast cancer.
The more I learned gain muscleabout diabetes, the more determined I was to lower my blood sugar levels. But how? What was I doing wrong in my so-called healthy life? Here’s what I found out that can help you, too.
I’m not alone in my surprise at having blood sugar troubles. Virginia Shreve was in the same boat when she went to a walk-in clinic with a bad backache and found out she had full-blown diabetes. “I had no clue,” says the 52-year-old from Lynchburg, Virginia. During her exam, the doctor tested her blood sugar and found that it was 280. (A normal, nonfasting blood glucose level is less than 140 mg/dl.)
“I felt like a deer in the headlights,” Shreve remembers. “I’d always been healthy. I knew thirst was a symptom, but I thought it was healthy that I was drinking so much water. And I’d been a good walker for years, so it wasn’t like I never got any exercise.”
When she returned to the doctor the following week, Shreve was given the results of her hemoglobin A1c test, which shows how blood glucose is controlled over two to three months. Normal for nondiabetics is 6 percent or lower — but Shreve tested at 9.6, enough to require medication.
Diabetes symptoms include being hungrier than usual, urinating frequently, and losing weight without trying, as well as fatigue, irritability, blurred vision, tingling or numbness in hands or feet, persistent infections, and slow-healing cuts or bruises. But some people have no symptoms or don’t equate the symptoms they do experience with diabetes.
“A lot of penis enlargementpeople feel fine with prediabetes or even when they’re diagnosed with type 2 diabetes,” says Sue Kirkman, M.D., of the American Diabetes Association. “It’s not a painful disease early on, so people don’t realize how serious diabetes is and what kind of bad complications it can cause.”
Experts say the nation’s obesity epidemic is certainly partly responsible for the rise in diabetes. “As weight climbs, so does diabetes risk,” says Lauren Richter, D.O., a family practitioner at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in Baltimore. “My goal with patients is to get the people at risk to make lifestyle changes even before we notice higher blood sugar on a blood test because by the time we find diabetes, they’ve already lost 50 percent of the function of their pancreas.”
Yet not everyone who gets type 2 diabetes has a sugar- or carb-laden diet, or is even overweight. Up to 20 percent of people with the disease have a normal weight. Genetics and environment play a part. And additional risk factors include a family history of diabetes, certain ethnic backgrounds, and having gestational diabetes or giving birth to a baby that weighs more than 9 pounds. The risks increase with age, too. And some studies suggest that environmental toxics, such as arsenic (sometimes found in drinking water and seafood), may be related to an increased risk for diabetes. Other factors (such as being stressed or sick, or taking certain medications, such as steroids) also affect blood sugar, and they can push you over into prediabetes or diabetes if you’re already borderline.
The good news is that in many cases the progression from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes can be prevented with a few lifestyle changes. How? By losing 7 percent or more of your body weight, in addition to exercising and following a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, high-fiber diet. Research has shown that people with prediabetes who took these steps had a 58 percent success rate in avoiding progressing to type 2 diabetes, AACE endocrinologist Garber says. Prescription medication — such as metformin, acarbose, or thiazolidinediones — may also be required for those in high-risk groups or those not successful with lifestyle changes. Health.com: 20 little ways to drop the pounds and keep them off
Even if you do end up taking meds, the ADA’s Kirkman says, “don’t think you can take a pill and then eat whatever you want. It’s not a substitute for trying to be healthy.”
Fighting stress and getting enough sleep may also help control blood sugar,Build Muscle an idea embraced by Richter, who has prediabetes. “For me, sleep is critical for managing stress and maintaining proper insulin levels,” she says. “I get a minimum of seven hours, preferably eight, a night. I also get massages and acupuncture routinely — I have one or the other every six weeks. This is not a luxury. If you’re going to try to manage blood sugar, you have to manage stress.”
Get moving
If you have diabetes or prediabetes, exercise does more than just help control your weight, says Tim Church, M.D., Ph.D., of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and co-author of “Move Yourself: The Cooper Clinic Medical Director’s Guide to All the Healing Benefits of Exercise (Even a Little!).” “It increases muscle mass — and healthier muscle is more responsive to insulin, lowering blood sugar levels.”
How much do you need? Church recommends 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (such as walking) at least five days a week and 20 to 30 minutes of resistance training one to two days a week. Combining aerobic exercise with resistance training yields a bigger drop in blood sugar than either type of exercise alone, according to a recent study. Health.com: Why getting rid of belly fat may lower type 2 diabetes risk
If you can exercise even more often, do it, says Nadine Uplinger, R.D., director of the Gutman Diabetes Institute at Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “We’re finding that some people, especially those who may not be on any medication, need closer to an hour of aerobic exercise a day, seven days a week to combat diabetes.” Also, strive for a body mass index of less than 25.
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