Preventing Diabetes

You can help prevent developing pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes by making healthy lifestyle choices. They’ll also lower your risk of developing heart disease and improve your mood and general mental health. Follow these steps to stay diabetes-safe.

Can Losing Weight Prevent Diabetes

For overweight or obese people, losing weight – even in small amounts – cuts your risk of developing pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes.

Weight Gain and Diabetes

People with an apple body shape, who gain weight around their middle, have a higher diabetes risk (Read more: Healthy weight Goes Pear-Shaped). As a general guideline, women should have a waist measurement of less than 31.5 inches, and men less than 37 inches. Anything over is considered overweight

How Do I Cut my Risk of Diabetes

Achieve your weight-loss by making small healthy lifestyle changes, rather than by unhealthy dieting. Consulting a dietician may help you to reform your eating habits. Try to work up to a minimum of half an hour of moderate exercise every day if you really want to see results.

Reduce Symptoms of Diabetes: A Healthy Diet

• Eat lots of fruit and vegetables
• Eat lots of wholegrain breads, rice, pasta and noodles
• Eat lean meat, fish and poultry, or healthy vegetarian alternatives
• Eat reduced-fat dairy products like milk, cheese and yoghurts, or healthy vegetarian alternatives
• Keep your intake of unhealthy fats like saturated and trans fats to a minimum
• Drink lots of water
• Keep your salt intake to a minimum
• Drink as little alcohol as possible
• Eat as little sugar and foods with added sugar as possible

Fitness and Diabetes

People who are active and energetic have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes. Try to exercise for at least half an hour a day, if possible every day of the week. Go for moderate types of exercise like swimming, cycling or going for a brisk walk, and slowly build up more activity into your day by climbing the stairs, walking an extra stop to the tube station and washing the dishes by hand instead of putting them in the dishwasher.

Treatment of Diabetes

It is not possible to cure diabetes, but careful treatment can reduce symptoms and the risk of any complications.

Type 1 Diabetes

People with Type 1 diabetes need insulin injections (usually between two and four a day), a carefully controlled diet and consistent exercise to stay healthy.

Type 2 Diabetes

People with Type 2 diabetes can treat their condition by sticking to a healthy lifestyle, including a healthy diet and exercise regime. Losing weight helps to keep Type 2 diabetes under control. Some also require insulin injections or tablets. Diabetes is a progressive disease, meaning that if it is not managed well it can get worse over time, sometimes making it necessary to begin having insulin injections even if this was not required previously.

Living with Diabetes: Blood Sugar Control

People with diabetes need to keep their condition under control by managing their blood sugar level effectively. This takes careful diet, exercise, insulin regulation and blood testing – running a drop of blood on a test strip through a blood glucose meter. Efficient control helps to maintain blood sugar levels and avoid possible health complications associated with diabetes. Mismanagement of medications can cause blood sugar levels to drop or spike too quickly, possibly causing hypoglycaemia or hyperglycaemia.

Affect of Diabetes: Hypoglycaemia

Hypoglycaemia or "Hypos" refers to unhealthily low blood sugar levels, caused by delayed meals or exercise that is too strenuous. It can cause dizziness, slurred speech, sweating, nausea, a dazed feeling and even sudden fainting.

Symptoms of Diabetes: Hyperglycaemia

Hyperglycaemia occurs when blood sugar becomes unhealthily high, caused by illnesses like flu, too little blood insulin, too little exercise or a sudden large food intake. It causes dehydration, skin infections and even blurred vision, but in the long term it’s much more fatal: continuing hyperglycaemia can cause organ damage, possibly resulting in blindness, arm and leg amputation (caused by nerve damage), heart disease and kidney failure.

Read More on Diabetes

Diabetes - Who is at Risk? Find out the main risk factors.

The Symptoms of Diabetes: Find out what the symptoms of diabetes really are with our quick at-a-glance guide.

Understanding Diabetes: There are currently over 2 million diabetic people in the UK, and up to another 750,000 who have the condition and don’t know it yet. Find out more about this disease.

Tips to Prevent Diabetes: Some forms of diabetes cannot be prevented, however, follow these tips to help minimise the risk of developing the disease.

Sex & Diabetes: Men with diabetes face many difficulties, but few problems are more frustrating than erectile dysfunction, especially for younger men.