Pre-Diabetes Consider Yourself Warned
Posted by on November 14th, 2009
I was just reading a recent news release from the BBC news regarding statistics on numbers of people in the UK that will develop diabetes. Combine this with the 2 full days I recently had in a diabetes management seminar, where we were told that almost half of the room will develop diabetes and it got me thinking. Metabolic syndrome described the parameters used to diagnose the syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is increasing as obesity rates rise. As it continues to increase, the amount of people with type 2 diabetes increases as well.
The BBC referred to the “pre-diabetes time bomb” as a warning. Apart from a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, being overweight or obese goes hand in hand with the disease. Considering that almost 3 million people in the UK already have the disease and 7 million are on the brink, it is starting to sound like an epidemic. The facts also tell us that long term complications such as heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and amputation can occur in many diabetics and the risks of these complications increase over time from diagnosis. In fact, the risk of a person with pre-diabetes developing coronary artery disease is almost equal to the risk faced by a diagnosed diabetic.
It all sounds rather doom and gloom, but there is a ray of hope for all of us. Type 2 diabetes is generally related to lifestyle and weight. Thus, if we can change the way we live, we can reverse or prevent the disease in the first place. Risk of moving from pre-diabetes to an actual diagnosis is reduced by 60% through implementing healthy diet choices and exercise. Simple changes such as reducing your breakfast from 2 slices of bread to just one slice can reduce your weight by 12 pounds over the course of one year. Adding 20 minutes of walking per day, for 5 days of the week can also go a long way to preventing diabetes and reducing overall weight as well.
According to a diabetes spokesperson for the Royal College of GP’s, we have to keep in mind that small weight gains can create large risks later on. On the flip side, small changes can go a long way to keeping us healthy. Losing weight does make us feel better, and we all want to look good. However, despite the urge to fit into a smaller dress size, I think that we should also be aware of the good that we are doing for our entire body by losing some weight. High blood pressure or high blood sugar levels are not something we can generally see or feel. Healthy amounts of weight loss are not only easily measureable, but also something we can see. Let’s keep losing a few pounds and keep ourselves healthy, not only for us, but also for our families.
Tags: develop diabetes, how much weight loss, how to lose weight, pre diabetes, why lose weight