Type 2 diabetes is a serious and expensive disease.
No single factor is leading to increased incidents of diabetes, but the two most common are obesity and sedentary lifestyles.
“Even sedentary jobs now are more sedentary than they used to be,” explains Linda MacGorman, MD, CoxHealth Endocrinologist. “A secretary was never considered an active job, but 50 years ago they were more active in their job than secretaries now sitting in front of a computer most of the day.”
MacGorman explains that diets have changed too.
“We rely on the convenience of more prepared food, which is made flavorful by being higher in fat, salt and preservatives. Also our portion sizes have gone up over the years.”
Recently the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) launched a campaign to raise awareness to the increased number of individuals with diabetes. Prevent Diabetes STAT, which stands for Screen, Test, Act Today, focuses on prediabetes. The CDC says 86 million American adults have prediabetes and nine out of 10 people with prediabetes don’t know they have it.
Prediabetes is a condition where an individual’s blood glucose or hemoglobin A1C levels are high, but not high enough to be classified as diabetes.
“In type 2 diabetes it’s still too early to know if we can completely reverse diabetes,” explains MacGorman. “We do know that in prediabetes, you can make it go away. Diabetes isn’t like you fall off a cliff. Your pancreas has been going downhill for a long time, possibly 10 to 20 years before overt diabetes or abnormal blood sugars become a problem. It makes it a lot easier to make diabetes go away if you’re only half way down the hill with prediabetes.”
The rise of type 2 diabetes is also placing a strain on the economy. In 2012 the American Diabetes Association estimated the cost of diagnosed diabetes at $245 billion through direct and indirect medical costs. The average medical expenditures among people with diagnosed diabetes were 2.3 higher than people without diabetes.
The good news is lifestyle intervention that results in weight loss and increased physical activity can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes for individuals with prediabetes.
“It isn’t a matter of ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’,” said MacGorman. “But, let’s do it this way and see if that doesn’t promote healthier behaviors in terms of your dietary selections.”
She suggests eating three meals a day with the majority of your caloric intake occurring earlier in the day versus later in the day. “We discourage high fat foods and those high in calories that don’t provide nutrient value,” she says. “A helpful way to control portions is to use a smaller plate, don’t place food on the table and wait 15 minutes before getting up to get seconds.”
Activity level is also important. “You should be exercising at least five days a week, such as 30 minutes of brisk walking or comparable.”
Plus, your weight loss goal doesn’t have to be extreme. MacGorman explains that you don’t have to get all the way down to a normal weight to receive benefits from intervention to prevent diabetes. “The recommended starting target is 7 percent of your starting weight. When you tell someone who is 200 pounds that they have to get down to 150, that’s daunting; you tell them they need to get their weight down to 185, they think ‘I can do that.’”
Act Today. Talk to your doctor about your risk for prediabetes and start today educating yourself about making better dietary choices and adding exercise into your daily activities.
Michelle Leroux is the media relations coordinator for Corporate Communications for CoxHealth.
