Here are lifestyle factors that can raise your risk.
No time for breakfast and too much TV time can trigger diabetes. Fitness magazine, in its April edition, reports on nine surprising diabetes risk factors. The disease affects 21 million people in the United States.
Skipping breakfast increases our risk 30 percent to 50 percent, and watching TV for two or more hours per day boosts it 14 percent, according to Fitness.
Pam O’Brien, the magazine’s article director, says the main reason for the story was to point out that people can lower their risk in about a month.
As a former no-breakfast type, O’Brien began forcing herself to eat breakfast a few years ago and has felt much better since.
“So many of us skip breakfast because we’re busy and just grab a cup of coffee,” she says, describing her own former habit. “It’s one of the worst things you can do. People that eat high fiber cereals respond better to insulin.”
Diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association, is caused when the body doesn’t produce or properly use insulin. Insulin converts starches and sugars into fuel for the body.
While the exact cause is still unknown, the ADA points to studies that link genetics and lifestyle factors such as obesity and lack of exercise to the disease.
O’Brien says her staff based its conclusions and risk factor percentages on university research and other studies. While Fitness magazine targets women, the nine risks also affect men.
The two risk factors that most surprised O’Brien were a large waist (risk increases 330 percent) and high stress (184 percent).
“How much the waist thing raised your risk surprised me most,” O’Brien says. “We’re talking the apple-shaped body, fat in the abdomen, fat that is really dangerous.”
9 SURPRISING DIABETES RISKS
1. Watching two or more hours of TV daily Raises your risk: 14 percent.
How: More TV equals less activity.
The fix: Exercise and limit TV time to 10 hours a week.
2. Drinking one soda a day
Raises your risk: 83 percent
How: Soda adds extra calories.
The fix: Switch to diet soda, water or, even better, unsweetened tea.
3. Skipping breakfast
Raises your risk: Up to 50 percent
How: Not having that morning meal increases the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin.
The fix: Eat high-fiber cereal with low-fat milk and fruit in the morning.
4. A bout of major depression
Raises your risk: 23 percent
How: Depression may alter body chemistry in a way that makes us more prone to developing diabetes.
The fix: Take a walk.
5. A large waist
Raises your risk: 330 percent
How: Fat in the abdomen (visceral fat) produces compounds that make cells insulin-resistant. Women should keep their waist size below 35 inches (40 inches for men).
The fix: A half-hour to one hour of cardio, three to five times a week.
6. Waking up in the middle of the night
Raises your risk: 98 percent
How: You aren’t getting enough sleep.
The fix: No caffeine in the late afternoon and evening. No TV and alcohol right before bed. Try yoga, too.
7. Fast food more than twice a week
Raises your risk: 100 percent
How: People who ate burgers, fries and soda more than twice a week put on 10 extra pounds.
The fix: Eat smaller portions.
8. High stress
Raises your risk: 184 percent
How: Stress can interfere with your ability to make insulin and process glucose.
The fix: Relax 10 to 15 minutes a day.
9. Consuming a lot of processed meat
Raises your risk: 43 percent
How: These meats may destroy insulin-producing cells in your pancreas.
The fix: Cut back. Try a preservative-free type, too.
Source: Fitness magazine April 2007
Resistance training may not only help to build muscle in older people, it may also be warding off type 2 diabetes, a new study demonstrates.
Thirty-six men and women in their early 60s experienced significant improvements in glucose tolerance after a 12-week resistance-training regimen, Dr. Wayne W. Campbell of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and his colleagues found.
“The idea that you could actually improve your glucose tolerance by about 25 percent to 30 percent with 12 weeks of strength exercise without having any weight loss, which is a typical therapy for this, is very encouraging,” Campbell told Reuters Health.
People lose their ability to metabolize sugar effectively as they age, even if they’re otherwise healthy, Campbell and his team note in their report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. And the weight gain that frequently accompanies aging worsens glucose tolerance and compounds diabetes risk. One in five Americans older than 60 years has type 2 diabetes, they add.
There is evidence that resistance training can improve glucose tolerance, while adequate protein levels are necessary for resistance trainers and may even improve changes in body composition and glucose tolerance that come with weightlifting, the researchers note.
To investigate how resistance exercise and dietary protein affect metabolism, the researchers had the study participants work out on resistance machines three times a week for 12 weeks. Each workout session lasted for about an hour and 15 minutes, and included 8 exercises.
Half of the study participants consumed 0.9 grams of protein for each kilogram of body weight per day (low-protein group); the other half consumed 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram (high protein group). The current recommended amount of daily protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight.
Men and women in the high-protein and the low-protein groups experienced small but significant reductions in total cholesterol and in low-density lipoprotein, the “bad” cholesterol. The level of reduction was similar in both groups.
Changes were similar to what would have occurred with short-term weight loss. And both groups also experienced similar increases in lean body mass and reductions in fat mass.
However, the most dramatic effect was on glucose tolerance, Campbell said, with both groups showing a “profound” improvement in glucose tolerance after the 3-month training program.
The findings are especially significant, the researcher added, because the study participants were at risk of developing type 2 diabetes because of their age and, in some cases, their weight.
“Another five or ten years from now, if they follow the usual paths, they’re going to become heavier and move into the clearly overweight category,” he explained.
Campbell emphasized that all of the study participants were getting adequate amounts of high-quality protein, and urged anyone considering beginning a weight resistance program to do the same.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, April 2007.