First, certain diabetes risk factors like age, family history, and ethnicity cannot be changed. However, changing other diabetes risk factors by eating a healthier diet and increased physical activity -- with or without weight loss -- may help prevent type 2 diabetes.
In addition, if you have high blood pressure or are overweight, modifying your lifestyle habits may help in type 2 diabetes prevention. Your doctor can make specific recommendations that are right for you including diet changes and specific exercises. Medications to help you quit smoking, lower your cholesterol, and lower your blood pressure help reduce your risk of complications.
A study done by the Harvard School of Public Health and published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that being overweight and obese was the single most important risk factor that predicted who would develop type 2 diabetes. During a 16 year follow-up period, study results showed that regular exercise -- at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week -- and an improved diet that's low in fat and high in fiber significantly helped with type 2 diabetes prevention. The bottom line: type 2 diabetes prevention could be as easy as adopting healthy lifestyle habits.
In another study, the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study Group, researchers reviewed the effects of weight loss, diet, and exercise on type 2 diabetes prevention in more than 500 people who were overweight and also had pre-diabetes or borderline diabetes with an impaired oral glucose tolerance test. They concluded that with changes geared at weight loss and improving physical activity levels, people at high risk of developing diabetes could reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes by more than 50%.
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