A diabetes specialist

Type 2 Diabetes and Family Health

Type 2 diabetes is the commonest of all diabetes types. If you are not diabetic and serious about leading a life without diabetes, you should know how to stay free from diabetes.

You should be well-informed about diabetes, and ways to protect yourself and prevent type 2 diabetes from affecting you and your family.

Prevention of diabetes demands attention from individuals and governments who must make necessary efforts to ensure that people, including those at risk, stay free from diabetes.

This post is therefore a must-read for everyone interested in type 2 diabetes and ways to prevent it and improve family health.

What You Will Learn

• You will learn the risk factors for type 2 diabetes and how you can be protected from diabetes
• The role of the health system, the governments and health providers in creating a conducive environment for people to make easier lifestyle choices in efforts to prevent type 2 diabetes and improve family health

Below is a list of 7 best ways to prevent diabetes and its complication:

Diabetes educator with participants in a diabetes class

1. Diabetes Awareness Creation

Many people may lack knowledge of type 2 diabetes and its prevention strategies. As a result, they may not know how to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.

If you fall in this group of people, then this post is for you. You need to be aware of type 2 diabetes and how you can keep a safe distance from the disease.

How do you gain knowledge of diabetes and its prevention? This can come from awareness creation, and your receptivity to awareness messages.

In communicating with the people on health issues, the governments and health providers should intensely propagate messages of type 2 diabetes awareness among the general population.

It is important to target people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and the general population when implementing awareness programmes.

No efforts should be spared in informing the public about diabetes prevention. This can be done at the community level using the platform of town criers, community radios, market associations, neighborhood associations, churches and mosques.

Diabetes awareness creation should focus on prevention. This will benefit the general population including at risk people and those unlikely to become diabetic.

When aware of diabetes, its control and prevention, you are well prepared to take informed decisions concerning your health and wellbeing.

Healthy diet will help prevent type 2 diabetes

2. Dietary Practices and Type 2 Diabetes

Excess body fat is a major determining factor for type 2 diabetes while diet and exercise are major factors in determining weight loss. Studies have shown that dietary composition affects the development of type 2 diabetes. For example, dietary fat influences the metabolism of glucose by altering, enzyme activity, the cell membrane function, gene expression and insulin signaling.

There is need to replace trans fatty acids and saturated fats with unsaturated fats to improve insulin sensitivity and reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Simply put, you should take foods rich in vegetables, nuts, fruits, whole grains, seeds and non-hydrogenated margarines instead of foods rich in saturated fats such as fat-rich dairy products and meats. Cut down on whole milk, fried foods and cheese.

Good dietary practices should be encouraged among the populace. Good dietary practices will help keep the body healthy and forestall development of diabetes. Therefore, make healthy food choices and prevent type 2 diabetes.

It is important to take note of the good and bad diet, and to stick to the good diet. There is need to eat balanced diet. Do not eat junk food, and other high carbohydrate food. Try and eat healthy foods with less fats to reduce amount of calories taken each day and help you lose weight.

For a balanced diet, it is important to choose a mix of food classes such as protein, carbohydrates, essential minerals and multivitamins as well as fruits and fresh vegetables. Do not forget to drink lots of water which helps to cleanse the body system.

Drink wisely. For example, drink lots of water every day instead of regular soda and juice, eat orange instead of drinking orange juice. If you must drink milk, go for fat-free (skim) milk.

3. Regular Diabetes Screening

You need to understand your risk of developing diabetes. This knowledge will help you take appropriate action concerning your risk or otherwise. You need to undergo regular diabetes screening to determine if your blood glucose is rising or not.

You will also find if you have prediabetes wherein your blood glucose level is high but not high enough to qualify as diabetes.

Prediabetes affects millions of people worldwide. When discovered you have prediabetes you are lucky because it is an opportunity to make lifestyle changes that will help you reverse the disease.

In the absence of other risk factors it is recommended you do a blood glucose test every year. Also, from the age of 45, conduct regular fasting blood glucose test every year. If you are overweight or at risk of diabetes, the test will be done from the age of 30 and twice every year.

Fasting blood glucose test provides an early sign of high glucose level and may indicate an increased risk for type 2 diabetes.

It is recommended that you check for diabetes every year if your blood glucose levels are within normal range. If confirmed you have prediabetes, check for type 2 diabetes every 6 months.

Governments and health providers should promote regular check-up among the populace. This will ensure early diagnosis and prevention of complications.

It is important to highlight that fasting blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) are the most common blood tests used to diagnose prediabetes and diabetes.

A negative blood glucose test is when HbA1C (%) is <5.7. and fasting blood glucose (mg/dl), <100. With this test result, I recommend that you maintain a healthy lifestyle, and retest within one year of last negative test.

For prediabetes, HbA1C (%) will read between 5.7 and 6.4, while fasting blood glucose will read between 100 and 125. In this case, you should participate in intervention programmes and retest every 6 months to check for diabetes.

For diagnosis of diabetes, HbA1C (%) is ≥ 6.5 while fasting blood glucose is ≥ 126. When confirmed, counselling of the patient is done by the healthcare provider followed by therapy initiation.

Exercising keeps away type 2 diabetes

4. Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes

If you are overweight with BMI greater than 25, take steps to lose weight by being more physically active. With increased physical activity, you are likely to lose 5% to 10% of your body weight and therefore reduce your risk of diabetes.

Exercising plays a key role in preventing type 2 diabetes. The benefits of exercise cannot be overemphasized. Exercise helps you lose weight, and helps you to use insulin better by increasing your body’s sensitivity to insulin.

Exercise makes you sleep better. It puts you in a better mood and keeps your heart strong. Therefore, exercise regularly, and control your weight.

Why would you not want to exercise in spite of the benefits? This may be because it is tough to start and stick to an exercise plan.

Therefore, to start an exercise plan, consider your overall health. You should start slowly and build a workable plan that keeps you motivated. Aim at 30 minutes or more of aerobic exercise four or more days of the week.

If you are unable to find 30 minutes once in a day, you can break the exercise into parts of 10 minutes each. After reaching your goal of 30 minutes of physical activity, add strength training to build your muscle mass.

You can lift weights for 20 to 30 minutes three times a week. This is adequate to help you get all the benefits of strength training and building muscle mass.

It is noteworthy that lifestyle changes are the best and most important way to prevent type 2 diabetes. If you know or have been told you have a high risk for diabetes, or that you already have prediabetes, get started right away on your diabetes prevention plan.

Remember to seek advice and approval from your health provider before developing and starting an exercise plan. Your health provider can help you to develop your exercise plan.

5. Inclusion of Diabetes Programs at all levels of Healthcare

Studies have shown that people living with type 2 diabetes and attending diabetes clinics at the primary level of care have poor knowledge of diabetes due largely to inadequacies in healthcare professionals and organizational interventions.

At the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of healthcare, patients and relatives should be exposed to diabetes care and this requires strengthening of health system with focus on primary healthcare. The primary level of healthcare is particularly important because it is the first point of contact for patients, family members and their relatives.

Therefore, diabetes programmes should be integrated into primary, secondary, tertiary and private healthcare centres. Integration of diabetes at all levels of healthcare system will help in primary prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Also, diabetes imposes a huge public health burden and justifies an action at the population level. Lifestyle modification helps to prevent type 2 diabetes, and reduces risk of hypertension, heart disease, certain cancers and hyperlipidemia. The general population should be able to learn more about diabetes in any level of care they visit.

Public health strategies produce policies and supportive changes in behavior. Let me quickly add that with the integration of primary care with public health, efforts at preventing type 2 diabetes will yield positive results.

Studies have shown that many people access healthcare services at the primary and secondary levels of healthcare, and go to tertiary hospitals for care mostly on referral.

As a result, diabetes education classes at the primary level, for example, should be strengthened. Any patient working into a primary health facility should be able to easily access diabetes education, get screened for diabetes and if diagnosed, commence therapy.

Finally, healthcare providers should be well trained to offer effective and efficient diabetes education and care at all levels of healthcare.

Students learning more about type 2 diabetes

6. Formation of Diabetes Clubs in Schools

Diabetes clubs should be established in secondary schools and institutions of higher learning to provide a forum for students to learn more about diabetes. Students and their teachers will benefit from diabetes intervention programmes and activities in more ways than one.

It is important to start early and educate the young ones on diabetes and its risk factors. This is because being aware of the disease and its complications early in life will improve the chances of young people adopting healthy lifestyles and preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes club makes it easy and fun for your young participants to learn together, participate in diabetes activities, help one another learn more about diabetes and seek more knowledge to surpass one another.

With diabetes clubs, students will have the opportunity to participate in well organized diabetes debate, diabetes essay competition, and diabetes awareness outreaches to local neighborhoods and community associations.

As students engage in such community diabetes programmes, they inadvertently improve their knowledge of diabetes and prevention strategies. This will motivate them to keep away from practices that may lead to the development of type 2 diabetes.

Members of diabetes clubs will learn a lot that is beneficial to not only themselves but the society at large. Their families, relatives and friends will benefit from such knowledge through socialization which has multiplier effects.

Also, with good knowledge of diabetes and its prevention, students of diabetes clubs are resources for community diabetes education classes in their respective communities. This has the potential to improve awareness of diabetes among the populace.

Finally, student-members of diabetes clubs may be motivated to toe the line of further education in diabetes or endocrinology which will help to increase the manpower level required to attend to diabetics and provide the needed professional healthcare.

Diabetes educator collaborates with a school to facilitate diabetes education

7. Incorporate Diabetes Education in School Curriculum

It is recommended that culturally appropriate diabetes education be incorporated in school curriculum at all levels of education to increase awareness of type 2 diabetes among the students and their teachers.

This curriculum will help increase the understanding of diabetes and health so that it will be easy to change or maintain a healthy lifestyle at the formative years of development.

With the inclusion of diabetes education in the school curriculum, students will come to terms with the reality of diabetes and its complications, and faced with the need to take preventive measures early in life.

Diabetes curriculum will increase students’ understanding and application of scientific diabetes knowledge tailored to community health needs and local culture. This will also increase the interest of the students in science and health professions and hence encourage health careers among the students.

It goes without saying that diabetes curriculum in schools will be of immense help in efforts to fight type 2 diabetes. However, it requires the intervention of the governments to develop diabetes curriculum and incorporate it in school curriculum, and to train teachers to deliver the curriculum effectively. Both ministries of education and health should collaborate to make this a success.

Also, it requires that teachers who are to deliver diabetes content should be properly trained on diabetes management and be willing to take the job of diabetes education seriously so that the students will get the full benefits of the course.

There is need to set up a monitoring team that will ensure that the curriculum is implemented to the letter. Teachers need to be motivated to undertake this task particularly for schools where such diabetes education is either not available or not taught in details.

Type 2 diabetes prevention will reduce hospital visits

Conclusion

This post revealed simple steps that should be taken to achieve successful prevention of type 2 diabetes. Remember the cliche that prevention is better than cure. This cannot be more apt than in type 2 diabetes prevention. It is proven that prevention of diabetes is more cost-effective than the treatment.

To achieve successful prevention of type 2 diabetes, there should be an increase in diabetes knowledge among the populace. Knowledge is power, as the saying goes. So efforts should not be spared in diabetes awareness creation and information dissemination to the general population.

The governments have a key role to play by galvanizing efforts to ensure more people not only get to hear more about diabetes but also are motivated to take actions to protect themselves, prevent or control diabetes. It is important to make the decision of staying away from diabetes an easier choice for the people.