If you are prone to diabetes mellitus, it will be a good idea to take certain steps and adjust to a lifestyle so that you can prevent it, or at least, you can reduce its severity. Steps for its prevention are not rigid, and all it requires is a disciplined adjustment to your daily lifestyle.
However, you should know the impact diabetes has on health. You will then know why prevention has become so important. This prevention becomes all the more relevant when you are associated with any risk factors that make you prone.
Tips to prevent diabetes
Having explained the importance of prevention, you need to follow these natural tips that will make you resistant to the causes and less prone to developing this metabolic disorder.
1. Breastfeed your child
If you are a diabetic, you, as a parent, would not want your children to catch this disorder. Studies indicate that babies who have been breastfed till the required age are less prone to have diabetes in later life than babies who have been started on cow’s milk. This indicator should be kept in mind.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is mounting evidence to show that breastfeeding may have longer-term benefits such as reducing the risk of childhood obesity and obesity in later life.
This not only protects against diabetes type 2 but also makes your child less prone to diabetes type 1.
2. Diet and foods to prevent diabetes
If you have a family history of diabetes, you must stick to a diet of high fiber and low carbohydrates. The fiber in your diet will make you feel full so that you eat less, thereby preventing obesity, helping control blood sugar, and reducing the risk of heart disease.
Avoid foods, which have saturated fats and, if you are obese or overweight, reduce the fat intake in your diet. Know how to choose your healthy fats. Refer to the details in the diabetes-friendly diet plan.
3. Get rid of extra weight
Obesity and diabetes often coexist. Obesity is the single most independent contributing risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Follow an aggressive regime of a weight-reducing diet and an exercise plan to reduce weight gradually.
Besides diet and physical activity, following certain tips to lose weight will go a long way in a synergistic manner in maintaining an ideal weight.
4. Exercise daily to prevent diabetes
Exercise daily for about 30 minutes. Choose any diabetes-friendly aerobic exercise you enjoy that involves physical activity to burn calories. Strength training exercises also help and a combination of both should be worked out.
The benefits of exercise are enormous, especially so if you have diabetes. It definitely helps in keeping this health disorder at bay. It helps in reducing any additional pounds that you have gained, lowers blood pressure, and increases your sensitivity to insulin.
All these benefits help lower your blood sugar. After a workout of exercise, your spirits rise and you feel a sense of well-being.
According to the Mayo Clinic, moderate weight loss and exercise can help prevent or delay the onset of diabetes type 2 in people who are at a higher risk of developing it.
5. Avoid alcohol and smoking
You should avoid smoking and drinking alcohol. However, due to a long-time habit, if you have to drink, follow the drinking limitations.
- Alcohol. The American Diabetes Association allows men up to 2 pegs per day and women up to one peg per day (each peg is 60 ml). This concession is allowed if you regularly maintain your blood sugar levels within control. Alcohol can also contain a lot of calories, which when consumed in excess can lead to putting on excess weight, a risk factor for diabetes. Excess alcohol intake is also independently associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
- Smoking. According to the U.S. Food Drug Administration (FDA), smoking cigarettes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Chronic smokers are 30 to 40 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers. The risk increases with the number of cigarettes – the more you smoke, the higher the risk
6. Avoid stress
Stress does not cause diabetes, but if you have diabetes or are prone to it, then it can increase your blood sugar levels. Therefore, avoid stressful situations and learn how to deal with stress in an effective and healthy way. Meditation will be helpful.
As mentioned above, stress alone doesn’t cause diabetes. However, there is some evidence that stress may increase your risk of type 2 diabetes. Researchers think that high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, might stop insulin-producing cells in the pancreas from functioning properly and reduce the secretion of insulin.
7. Have small frequent meals
Having small and more frequent meals helps in keeping insulin production proper and healthy. Benefits of such eating include decreased blood sugar levels after meals, reduced requirement of insulin secretion during the day, and lower blood cholesterol levels.
Over the long term, all these consequences of eating frequent small meals go a long way in making you less prone to developing diabetes,
8. Monitor blood sugar, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure
You should regularly monitor your blood sugar, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure. Any untoward rise should be promptly dealt with.
Elevated cholesterol and diabetes often co-exist. Similarly, high blood pressure is a frequent companion of diabetes. Prompt control of one often helps in controlling the other.
Maintaining a healthy lipid profile and normal blood pressure readings will significantly reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes.
9. Get proper sleep
Sleep deprivation is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Lack of sleep increases insulin resistance, which raises blood sugar levels and the risk of diabetic complications.
You need 7 to 9 hours of good sleep as a healthy person as well as one who is suffering from diabetes.
Lack of sleep, such as in insomnia, throws your hormonal balance out of gear. Chronic sleep loss results in less insulin secretion after you eat. It also causes an increased secretion of stress hormones (such as cortisol), which reduces the efficacy of insulin. Result: increased blood sugar levels in blood making you prone to developing type 2 diabetes.
This is usually seen in people who sleep for only 4.5 to 6 hours every night and do not get the required hours of deep sleep.
Deep sleep is the most health-building stage of sleep, which plays a major role in maintaining insulin sensitivity and good blood sugar control.