Statistic or Survivor?

As of January 2011 there were 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—with diabetes.  Over 18.8 million people were diagnosed with diabetes and it was estimated that 7.0 million people were undiagnosed.  Seventy nine million people had prediabetes and there were 1.9 million new cases diagnosed in people age 20 years and older in 2010.¹

These numbers are growing as are the complications that go along with diabetes.  Some of the illnesses that go along with diabetes are obesity, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, nervous system disease (neuropathy), and amputation.

Not only does diabetes take a toll on physical health, it is expensive!  In 2007 diabetes cost $147 billion!  Direct medical costs were $116 billion and then an additional $58 billion in indirect costs (disability, work loss, and premature mortality).

What really hurts is that diabetes is entirely preventable AND reversible!  You cannot, however, reverse diabetes on accident.  You have to do it on purpose.

“If you have type 2 diabetes, there is only one cause—lifestyle.  That means the wrong diet, the nutritional deficiencies caused by the wrong diet, and lack of exercise.”²

You must change lifestyle to prevent diabetes as well as reverse it.  Eat a low-carbohydrate diet.  Skip the grains like wheat, corn, rice and even oats; these feed the imbalance that leads to diabetes.  I know ‘they’ say to eat whole grains, but if you already have diabetes this is too much for your body to process.  If you must have grains, eat only whole grains and keep it to a minimum.  Stick to whole foods in general:  meat, veggies, nuts/seeds, and some fruits.  If you already have diabetes, avoid the starchy vegetables such as potatoes and beans as they will make it difficult to maintain healthy blood sugar.  Stick to berries when it comes to fruit as these are naturally lower in fruit sugar.

Start exercising.  Start out with simple weight bearing exercises: walking, push-ups, pull ups, squats.  Start with just a couple of minutes of exercise if you haven’t done any recently.  You don’t have to do hours of exercise!  Mercola.com has a good write-up on Peak 8 fitness.  I use a similar workout plan using Dr. Al Sears PACE program myself.  My workouts are always under 20 minutes and yet it gets the job done.

Nutritional supplements may be necessary to help restore balance to the body as quick as possible.  If you haven’t done so already, ask us about Nutrition Response Testing.  A nutrition program can be developed that is specifically tailored to your body’s needs.

Diabetes does not have to be a life sentence or inevitable.  You do not have to be a statistic.  To not be a statistic, however, you must DO something about it!

1.      Statistics taken from American Diabetes Association, http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/diabetes-statistics/

2.      Dr. Bruce West, Health Alert, July 2012/Volume 29, Issue 7, pg 1

August Healthy Tip

Many believe salt must be eliminated from the diet.  Believe it or not, not salting your food on the table does NOT make a dent in sodium consumption —decreasing processed foods does!  Our bodies actually need some salt, but the sheer amount of sodium in processed foods is way too much.  Switching to sea salt can give you added minerals with less sodium for the same amount of salt.  Eat whole foods, not processed, and enjoy some sea salt on your veggies!