If you recently got bad news from the doctor that you’re prediabetic with insulin resistance or have family members that have suffered from diabetes for years, you can lower your risk of diabetes by adopting a healthy lifestyle. I’ve watched many clients in Winter Haven and Lakeland, Florida, FL change their health by changing their lifestyle. Both a healthy diet and regular exercise can help and boost your health in other areas at the same time.
You need to fight insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance occurs when the cells reduce their receptivity to insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps the cells use the glucose in the blood for energy. When the sensitivity decreases, it allows more sugar in the blood, so the body creates more insulin. It becomes a terrible cycle that snowballs into diabetes. Excess weight, pregnancy, stress and lack of activity can cause it. Exercise helps with several of those things and burns the glycogen store in the muscles, so the body uses the glucose in the blood stream. It lowers the danger of diabetes dramatically.
You need more than exercise if you want to remove the risk of diabetes.
While there’s always some risk, that’s just life, many of the diabetes risks are controllable. Exercise is one way to lower that potential and healthy eating is another. What you eat dramatically affects diabetes. If you eat junk food, high amounts of sugary treats and little whole foods, you’ll boost the potential for weight gain and diabetes. Cutting out sugar is a big step toward lowering the risk, just as losing weight is.
There’s a big difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but many of the rules to control it are the same.
Type 1 diabetes—juvenile diabetes—doesn’t have the same origins as type 2 diabetes does. It doesn’t mean that a healthy diet and regular exercise aren’t important in controlling it, because they are. One big problem with maintaining good health with type 1 diabetes is controlling the drop in blood sugar levels. One study shows that doing aerobic training last, with strength training first had a smaller drop in blood sugar than if aerobic training was first.
- Don’t forget that what you drink plays a role in diabetes. If you drink soft drinks every day, just switching to water will not only help you lose weight and lower your diabetic risk.
- Exercise can help lower blood sugar levels for as long as 24 hours after the workout.
- Getting adequate sleep and learning to control stress also can help prevent diabetes. While working out can burn off the hormones of stress, controlled breathing and meditation can deal with it immediately.
- Make sure you include insoluble fiber in your healthy diet to lower the risk of diabetes. Insoluble fiber is in fresh fruit, nuts and seeds.