Type 2 Diabetes is Preventable

More than 90 percent of adult onset cases of diabetes are preventable and if caught early enough, are curable (Archives of Internal Medicine, May 2009). Usually, you can tell if you are pre-diabetic or diabetic because you store fat primarily in your belly, rather than in your hips. This is a sign of high insulin levels since insulin specifically causes fat to be deposited in the abdomen. The first sign of diabetes occurs when your body loses its ability to respond to insulin, causing your pancreas to release increasing amounts of insulin to keep your blood sugar levels from rising too high. When blood sugar levels rise too high, sugar sticks to the surface membranes of cells and can never get off. It eventually is converted to sorbitol that destroys cells to cause heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease, blindness, deafness and the other consequences of diabetes. The following actions help to prevent and treat diabetes:nn1) Exercise. Contacting muscle draw sugar from the blood so rapidly that they usually prevent a high rise in blood sugar.nn2) Don't be overweight. Full fat cells release hormones that cause inflammation and block the body's insulin receptors from responding to insulin. You should not be able to pinch more than an inch of abdominal fat.nn3) Get sunlight (with appropriate cautions to prevent skin cancer). Lack of vitamin D causes ionizable calcium levels to drop. This causes the parathyroid glands to put out huge amounts of parathyroid hormone that prevents cells from responding to insulin.nn4) When you are not exercising, avoid foods containing refined carbohydrates that cause the highest rise in blood sugar. The worst offenders are sugar in liquid form (fruit juices, sugared soft drinks, sugar in coffee or tea) and foods made from flour.nn5) Do not take more than two alcoholic drinks in a day. A drink is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 2/3rds of a shot glass.nn6) Do not smoke.nn7) Eat plenty of vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts and other seeds.