Illinois Department of Central Management Services

November is Diabetes Awareness Month

Diabetes: If You Can’t Prevent It, You May Be Able to Delay It

When it comes to diabetes, small changes in your diet and lifestyle can have a big payoff. In fact, they may be able to help you prevent the disease or delay its onset. Many people don't know they have prediabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Here's the good news: Prediabetes can be reversed.

Through a national study called the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that “millions of high-risk people can delay or avoid developing type 2 diabetes by losing weight through regular physical activity and a diet low in fat calories.” According to the NIH the three major causes of type 2 diabetes are often within our control. They include:

Excess weight;
Physical inactivity; and
Sleep problems.

Here are some diabetes basics. When we eat, most of our food is turned into glucose or sugar which the body uses as energy. With diabetes, blood sugar, or blood glucose, is too high. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, moves the sugar around the body and to our cells. For a person with diabetes, the body doesn't make enough insulin or is unable to use the insulin it does make. In either case, sugar builds up in the blood. Over time, this may lead to heart attacks, hypertension, stroke and blindness.

There are two types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2:

With type 1 diabetes, the body does not make any insulin. People with type 1 diabetes need to take insulin each day.
With type 2 diabetes, the body doesn’t make enough insulin or doesn’t use it well. This is the most common form of diabetes and the type that can benefit from lifestyle changes.

Adding more physical activity to your day and eating better aren’t new messages. Start with these small steps:

When possible, use the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator.
Walk in place while watching TV.
When you're doing errands, park a little farther away or get off the bus a stop earlier.
Eat an orange instead of drinking orange juice.
Drink plain water instead of juice, soda, flavored water or diet drinks.
Cut down your salt. Try to cook more with spices.

Delaying diabetes is the first step to preventing diabetes. Along with making healthy changes, talk with your doctor about getting your blood sugar tested. Be sure to let your care provider know if you have a family history of diabetes.

For information about how to delay diabetes, visit here.

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November is Diabetes Awareness Month

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