November is National Diabetes Month and World Diabetes Day is Nov. 14.    Nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes, and more than one-quarter of them do not know it. Left untreated, diabetes can lead to serious complications, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness and amputation. An estimated 79 million adults have pre-diabetes, a condition that places them at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Some important resources to help are listed below.

Making lifestyle changes — whether to manage or prevent diabetes — is not easy. Even if you know what to do to improve your health, figuring out how to do it and fitting it into your daily routine can be a big challenge. Making changes in how you care for your health is a matter of trying and learning.

For example, people know that being physically active can help them lose weight. But do they know how to become more active and keep it up over time? In support of this effort, the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP), is providing tools and resources to help people find ways to deal with the stress that can prevent people from achieving their health goals — whether they have diabetes or are at risk for it.

The NDEP offers the following tips for making a plan and taking small, but important steps to help you reach your goal:

Think about what is important to you and your health.
What changes are you willing and able to make?
Decide what steps will help you reach your health goals.
Choose one goal to work on first. Start this week. Pick one change you can start to make immediately.
Don't give up. It's common to run into some problems along the way. If things don’t go as planned, think about other ways to reach your goal.

The NDEP provides videos, tips sheets, and other educational materials to help people make a plan to prevent type 2 diabetes and diabetes related complications. To  access, click HERE.

 

Tags: 

Comments

It's great that there's been a national push for awareness about diabetes, and it's important to mention that many who have it don't even know. What info regarding lifestyle changes would you give to some of our more traditional families? For example, some families from Latin and South America tend to have diets that may increase risk of certain conditions. Are there resources to guide them in ingredient substitutions and/or healthier alternatives?

Great to see that there is a month that brings awareness to diabetes in America. We don't have anything like this in the UK but it would be really good to have a national health push on this side of the pond. I think it when it comes to diabetes and pretty much any health disorder people will always say it's difficult to make positive lifestyle changes. However, when you way these difficulties up against the potential health risks it really is a no brainer. Fitting in regular exercise and avoiding unhealthy foods most of the time is a very small price to pay if it keeps you safe from cancer, diabetes, organ failure and more.

I love the fact that there is such push for this information to put out there for many people who don't know the facts of diabetes. Diabetes runs in my family and one thing they do to stay healthier is using a juicer because some people don't like the taste of all fruits and veggies. This is also a way to promote an all around healthier living. Coupled with regular exercise this will help prevent cancer, diabetes, organ failure, and more.

The effect of diabetes on the educational development of affected children is still a subject not sufficently addressed. The extreme mood swings and depression are oftimes misunderstood and taken for behavior issues. Teachers need to be educated to see the signs .

People who are suffering from diabetes, will benefited if they do exercise regularly. Regular exercise reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Reason behind this is that muscles which are working, uses more glucose than the resting muscles.

Lifestyle changes are the cornerstone of diabetic management but often patients are overwhelmed by simply being told to lose weight, improve diet and exercise. For the best chance of making a lasting change it is important to set small, realistic goals. It is so much easier to make little changes and to stick with it. Trying to overhaul the diet and exercise and set a huge weight loss goal will frustrate the patient so quickly. The materials should be helpful to many diabetic patients!

What is done as far as testing those with reactive diabetes? I've been tested with low glucose levels but had to push for further testing.

Excessive juice consumption is also not good for diabetics, typically contain high sugar in the juice

I was told by my doc that i was at a significant risk for type 2 diabetes due to the fact that I was obese and have a family history. I started P90x the next week and I am doing great now. I have lost about 60 ponds so far. I urge everyone on here to keep up the good work

I have a family member that has diabetes. For the people who are newly diagnosed, it is very frustrating and scary. From just watching my brother, he went through many obstacles when first diagnosed, as it took him awhile before he began on a good diet and exercise plan. The best thing to do, from my perspective is writing a plan down and following to the best of your ability. Everyone's plan will be different, and it might seem hard a first, but as time moves on it becomes easier and the plan actually seems to make life so full of joy. I wish everybody the best of health. Take care!

I agree with the idea of making lifestyle changes to improve your overall health, but those making the changes will need to be a bit patient and make one or two changes at a time. Losing weight for example requires a number of changes to make the results last. Diet, exercise, cutting out junk food, making time to work out, is a bit much to do all at once. When my girlfriend suffered sudden hearing loss and had to change a bunch of things in her life, I advised making one change, sticking to it for two weeks and then focusing on another change. This way the change becomes habit and therefore it is easy to maintain.