Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Can Diabetes Be Prevented and Even Cured?

Type-2 diabetes is usually caused by overweight or obesity. Being a diabetic, he or she is at a much higher risk of getting high blood pressure, kidney failure, and even heart disease.

According to the statistics released by the diabetes association, nearly 57 million people in the United States are pre-diabetic and 18 million have been diagnosed with diabetes. Meanwhile, there are almost 6 million Americans, who have diabetes, but they are not aware of it. About 90 to 95 percent of diabetics are classified as Type-2 diabetes, which is closely related to obesity.

Generally, when a person is diagnosed as pre-diabetic, he or she would not really bother because technically, he or she would not be classified as diabetic just because of a slightly higher than normal blood sugar level.

A 55-year-old woman Jane (not her real name) in Dallas was diagnosed as pre-diabetic by her doctor who advised her to lose 3 kilograms through changing her lifestyle and diet. Nevertheless, this did not really alarm her even her sister had died of diabetes.

9 months later, she was confirmed having Type-2 diabetes. By then, she was shock and took the advice from her doctor seriously. On a regular basis, she exercised and her weight had slimmed down. More importantly, her blood sugar level fell back to normal and healthy range without taking any diabetes medications.

In fact, the medical community is expressing its interest in diabetics like Jane who manage to get their blood sugar under control, either escaping the need for drugs or improving enough to keep away from the medication. The task force from American Diabetes Association will focus on this group of patients to see if they can be considered cured.

The future is definitely not promising with one study had estimated that 1 of every 3 children born in the United States in the year of 2000 will eventually develop diabetes. On the other hand, a diabetes prevention study had revealed that daily exercise for 30 minutes and a 5 to 10 percent loss in body weight could actually reduce the risk of getting diabetes by nearly 60 percent and it is more effective than medicine in delaying its onset.

Though some health experts do admit diabetes could be prevented with diet and exercise, they also stressed that this is a one-way road and there is no turning back! Other doctors caution that for some diabetics, lowering of blood sugar may be temporary. If they later on experience stress, weight gain or any other factors, their blood sugar would surely be push back to the unhealthy level.

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