Type 2 diabetes is one of the most common "silent" cardiovascular diseases: More than 24 million Americans are affected by it. It's called a silent disease because you can live with it for years before you begin to experience problems. It can have a number of dangerous complications, including heart and kidney failure, atherosclerosis, blindness and problems with your feet, hands and extremities that can lead to amputation.
Research has shown that although there isn't any way to "cure" or "reverse" diabetes, there are a number of ways to mitigate its symptoms so that you can lead a normal, healthy life. Most of these steps include things that are already considered ways to prevent diabetes.
Just as everyone should be initially screened for diabetes (especially if you have a family history of the disease), you should determine with the help of your physician or health care provider your relative risk. A simple blood test will confirm whether or not you have diabetes and how far it's advanced. There are two tests that are frequently administered: the "impaired glucose tolerance" (IGT) and "impaired fasting glucose" (IFG) tests.
Once you've determined how serious your diabetes is, your physician will help you to develop a plan for reducing its severity. For some, significant improvement is as simple as watching what you eat and getting more exercise. Almost all diabetics are told that losing weight is the easiest and most cost-effective way to reduce the severity of their diabetes.
The American College of Sports Medicine's position statement on exercise indicates that all adults (whether they have diabetes or not) should get at least 20 minutes of daily aerobic exercise within their target heart rate range. The 20 minutes can be done either in one bout or broken up into several, shorter periods. If obesity is complicating your diabetes, chances are you'll need to exercise more than 20 minutes a day. Count on adding physical activity to your DAILY schedule. Aerobic exercise has been proven to not only reduce your percentage of body fat, but it will also keep your insulin receptors from becoming so resistant to insulin, a primary problem with diabetes. Exercise will also help to raise your HDL cholesterol and lower your LDL cholesterol to mitigate your risk for heart disease.
In addition to regular exercise, making sound changes to your diet will help reverse the severity of your diabetes. The first step is to limit the total number of calories you consume on a daily basis. The average adult male should consume between 2400 and 2600 calories a day. Adult women should consume between 2000 and 2200 calories a day. If your goal is to lose weight, these will be conservative estimates, and you should try to consume even fewer calories. Talk to your health care provider about a calorie goal that is healthy for your situation.
Other changes you can make to reverse the severity of your diabetes are to include more fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet. Replace fast and processed food with whole grains, fish and lean meats. The goal should be to reduce your total dietary intake of fat to less than 20 percent. Visit the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org) for information about how to use the "Glycemic index" and the revised "food pyramid" to manage your diabetes.
If you've been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, it's not all bad news. By working with your health care professionals and making positive changes to your activity and diet regimens, you should be able to live a happy, symptom-free life.
