Your Real Risk of Diabetes; Don’t Wait Until You Have it… Try to Prevent it.
Diabetes is becoming a nationwide epidemic with over 25 million cases in the US and quickly increasing.
Diabetes is when the pancreas does not function properly and glucose (sugar) levels fall outside the normal range. There are simple blood tests that are used to diagnose diabetes.
When we think of people who are obese and inactive, we often think the main risk is heart disease. However, uncontrolled diabetes can ravage your health by damaging blood vessels all over your body causing complications. It can severely damage your eyes, kidneys, nerves, and other body parts; and nearly triple the risk of heart attack and stroke.
There are different types of diabetes:
- Type I diabetes — this is often called childhood diabetes. Children are sometimes born with this infliction.
- Type II diabetes — this is developed over time. Being overweight is a very large factor in developing type II diabetes. When a person is obese, the body has a harder time using the insulin produced by the pancreas.
There are a few ways to prevent or delay diabetes. Two effective methods are:
- Losing body fat—the more body fat you have, the more the pancreas has to work to control blood sugar levels. The harder the pancreas works, the likelier it will eventually stop working properly. Once this happens, you have diabetes forever.
- Exercise—whether it be aerobic exercise or lifting weights. Exercise helps tremendously in a few ways. One, it helps you lose body fat. Two, it helps reduces blood sugar levels, which reduces or eliminated the strain on the pancreas. By moving your body, you are burning a lot of the sugar in your bloodstream. Some say you should think of regular exercise as the most effective method to prevent diabetes, even if the exercise doesn’t produce weight loss.
If you are overweight, talk to your doctor about the risk and he/she can assess your situation. Don’t wait until you have it… try to prevent it.