TEN STEPS TO HELP YOU ESCAPE THE TYPE 2 DIABETES DANGER ZONE
AN ESTIMATED 3.5million Britons are living with type 2 diabetes, which occurs when your body struggles to control the amount of sugar in your blood, either because you don’t produce enough insulin or due to it not working properly.
The number of people living with diabetes rose by nearly 60 per cent in just a decade, analysis published in 2017 by the charity Diabetes UK shows. And NHS England said last year that a record two million people were at risk of developing type 2 diabetes in England.
Obesity is estimated to be responsible for 80-85 per cent of an individual’s risk of developing the condition.
Other complications of diabetes include loss of sight, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and limb amputations. If you are overweight, urinating more than usual, always feeling thirsty, have blurred vision, find wounds are taking longer to heal and feel tired for much of the day, these are all signs you might be at risk of type 2 diabetes.
If so, you might be eligible for a free nine-month NHS diabetes prevention programme under a partnership between the NHS and WW. You can refer yourself for treatment under the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme via the WW website. WW’s PersonalPoints programme can be tailored to those with diabetes, guiding you to eating foods that are less likely to have a negative effect on blood sugar levels.
Here are ten steps to help keep type 2 diabetes at bay:
1 DON’T SKIP BREAKFAST MISSING breakfast regularly can increase your chances of developing type 2 diabetes. This is because blood glucose levels are low in the morning — so when you skip your first meal, it falls even further. It also means that when you do finally eat, your blood glucose will rise quickly, which could increase your risk of diabetes.
2 THINK BEYOND SUGAR ADULTS should eat no more than seven teaspoons of added sugar a day. Foods high in added sugar are usually high in calories, and so are linked to weight gain, a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
3 WORK THOSE WEIGHTS RESEARCHERS have found that women who do muscle-strengthening exercise on top of 150 minutes a week of aerobic activity cut their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by a third.
4 LOAD UP ON VITAMIN D PEOPLE with low vitamin D levels are more likely to have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. Scientists believe missing out on the vitamin affects the body’s glucose tolerance and insulin production.
5 TURN OFF THE TV STUDIES show that each hour spent watching TV could raise your risk of type 2 diabetes by more than three per cent.
6 EAT THE RIGHT FAT RESEARCH has found eating oily fish at least once a week can lower your risk of type 2 diabetes. And the type of saturated fat found in high-fat dairy products such as cheese has been shown to help protect against the condition.
7 P OP A PROBIOTIC RESEARCHERS have found bacteria that breaches the colon’s protective mucus layer can cause inflammation, which may contribute to insulin resistance. Probiotics can help reduce this inflammation and boost the ability of cells to respond to insulin. Aim to eat one portion of fermented foods, such as yoghurt, each day.
8 STOP STRESSING YOU probably know stress can affect your health, but one surprising effect is that the stress hormone, cortisol, can increase the concentration of glucose and fats in the bloodstream. Over time, this makes your cells less sensitive to insulin.
9 MAKE YOURS A LATTE DRINKING one-and-a-half cups of coffee a day could reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes by 54 per cent. Scientists think this is because coffee can damp down the internal inflammation that is sometimes connected with type 2 diabetes.
10 FIVE RISK SIGNS PEEING more than usual; being very thirsty; feeling very tired; cuts or wounds taking longer to heal; blurred vision and an inability to see fine details.