Prevent: Diabetes complications

Prevention of Diabetes complications.

Get your blood glucose checked for pre-diabetes if you are:

45yrs or older and overweight/not overweight

Under 45yrs, but overweight are at increased risk for diabetes.

Checking for prediabetes is more important because the symptoms are not obvious and you may not know that you have them and often, it goes untreated.

If you have pre-diabetes it means you might get type 2 diabetes soon or later in future and you are at high risk to get heart disease or stroke.

Delay or prevent type 2 diabetes

Do you know that 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity along with a 5-10% weight loss produced a 58% reduction in diabetes!

If you weigh:	Losing 5-10% is
150 pounds (68 kg)	8-15 pounds (3.5 kg- 7kg)
175 pounds (79 kg)	9-18 pounds  (4 kg- 8 kg )
200 pounds (91 kg)	10-20 pounds ( 4.5kg – 9kg)
225 pounds (102 kg)	11-23 pounds ( 5 kg – 10.5kg)
250 pounds (113 kg)	13-25 pounds  (6 kg – 11 kg)
300 pounds (136 kg)	15-30 pounds  (7kg -14 kg)

 

You can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes with nutritious eating, regular physical activity, and moderate weight loss and balancing them is the cornerstone of prevention.

Nutritious eating is limiting saturated fats (butter, cheese, fatty meats), cutting back on total amount of fat (less oils, salad dressing, fried foods), eating more fiber, eating fruits and vegetables along with each meal.

Regular, moderate physical activity, 30 mins a day, will help you to reduce weight gradually. Brisk walking (aim for 10,000 steps a day), bicycling, jogging, dancing every day will keep your sugar level under control.

Regular physical activity will help lower your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol. It strengthens your heart, lung, and circulatory systems, strengthens bones, increases muscle tone and stamina and improves your sleep, decreases stress, improves blood flow to your brain and keeps you happy.

Reducing calories and increasing physical activity must go hand-in-hand. Weight loss happens when your energy output (activity) is greater than energy input (calories).

You have to burn 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound (0.45kg)! A combination of meal planning and physical activity is most successful.

 

Tips for Heart-Healthy Eating

• Eat breakfast
• Eat smaller portions
• Choose non-fat or low-fat dairy products
• Choose lean meats
• Remove the visible fat from meat
• Enjoy leafy vegetables along with whole grains and lean meat or beans
• Snack in between meals

Tips to increase your activity

• Be active every day
• Take stairs instead of elevator
• Take 5-10 minute walk after each meal
• Go dancing, cycling with family or friends

Monitor your success

• Keep a diary of your eating and physical activity
• Track your weight loss
• Be patient and don’t give up

Get the Glow

Physical activity is defined as the movement of the body that uses energy and physical fitness is defined as the condition of being physically fit and healthy. To keep you fit, you must do exercise (structured program of activity) that increases your blood flow and tones your muscle. Regular exercise will make you fit and look good! So, keep moving!

All age groups can enjoy the physical activity.  Yes, even young children can be active through floor-based and water-based activities. Adolescents can do activities like, running, jumping, skipping, volleyball, basket ball, and tennis that stimulate the bone formation. The stronger your bones at younger age, lower the risk of breaking the bones when you are older!

Adults should do exercise- combined activities like aerobics, strength, balance, and flexible exercises, every day, minimum 30mins.

Older people can still aim for aerobics and strengthening activities along with activities for flexibility and balancing.

Aerobic activities like cycling, swimming, biking, walking, dancing will make you breathe harder that keep your heart and blood vessels active & healthier.

 

Strengthening activities like lifting weights, using resistance bands will focus on arms, legs, hips, back, chest, stomach and shoulders that help you build up strength.

Flexibility workouts like shoulder stretch, upper arm stretch, calf stretch, and yoga, ensure a good range of motion in the joints.

Balancing exercise like standing on one foot, tai chi will reduce the risk of injury from falls.

Physical activities benefits you in many ways:

Weight control

Physical activity will help you to burn off excess fat stored in your body. You can reduce and maintain your weight through healthy diet and regular physical activity.

Diabetes

If you are  physically active  means you are at a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes!  If you have already been diagnosed with impaired glucose tolerance, you can still enjoy the physical activities that can improve the control of your diabetes.

High blood pressure

Physical activity will help prevent high blood pressure from developing. Regular physical activities will help lower the blood pressure if you already have a record of high blood pressure. High blood pressure is one of the risk factor for stroke and heart disease.

Coronary heart disease

Physical activities will reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease. Regular physical activity will raise the HDL cholesterol, the good cholesterol that help protect against cardiovascular disease.  If you already have heart disease, no worries, special rehabilitation programmes will help you to enjoy the activities safely and could help prevent your heart disease getting worse. Physically active people are less likely to have stroke!

Mental Health

Stressed. No worries! Physical activities will help ease the stress, boost your energy levels and improve your mood. It also makes you sleep better. Good sleep reduces stress!

You can’t store up the benefits of physical activity. So, you have to enjoy your exercise along with balanced food, every day!