Genetics determines your vulnerability to type 2 diabetes. However, such actions as amount of exercise, amount of body fat, and sugar / carbohydrate intake affect whether you will actually get it.
Some people are genetically unlucky and need to exercise like athletes, stay very lean, strictly avoid sugars and refined carbohydrates and carefully limit other carbohydrates to avoid type 2 diabetes. Others are not as unlucky and do not have to go to that level to avoid type 2 diabetes. Still others have genetics that will let them exercise minimally, get obese, and eat lots of sugars even to get to the pre-diabetic stage.
But all of them will benefit relative to type 2 diabetes from exercise, lower body fat, and being careful with the sugar and refined carbohydrate intake.
Thanks for starting this thread OP. I find this all very educational and helpful.
I just watched this trailer for this upcoming movie called, “Fed Up.” Should be a real eye opener in regards to taking care of our health. https://www.youtube.com/embed/aCUbvOwwfWM
@Marilyn Several years ago, we bought my MIL a Relion blood sugar meter and strips from Walmart. She did a lot of testing for about 3-4 weeks. She did a food diary, and took daily readings upon waking, then one hour & two hours after meals. She got a lot of good info re: what her body was doing. She was getting some very high readings post-prandial; much higher than her fasting test in the morning at the doctor’s office.
For a short term intense look, the Relion brand wasn’t outrageous $$.
My doctor told me I was getting close with an A1C of 5.9, and declared me “pre-diabetic” when I recorded a 6.0 A1C. He is more conservative than most, but he also has a lot of diabetic patients in his large practice. I got the A1C back to 5.9, which I am not sure is statistically signigicantly different from 6.0, It is very hard for me to cut back on pasta and bread, but I never drink sugared drinks and we have stopped eating regular dessert. But breakfast tomorrow is going to be hallah-bread french toast with real maple syrup! At least I will die happy!
I was but I cured it by putting lemon in my water and tea. Some people swear by apple cider vinegar., others alpha lipoic acid. I think it might respond to acids in general, but again lemon juice works for me.
Also, a handful of raw almonds most days will cure high cholesterol.
I believe these remedies work without any other dietary or exercise changes.
There is a lot of misinformation on this subject, even among doctors. I have been a participant in the Diabetes Prevention Program/Outcome Study for 18 years which involves testing and many hours of classes. I switched primary care doctors when I realized that my doctor was not taking my illness seriously. She actually told me to quit testing when I told her that the finger pricks hurt. (My DPPOS counselor had suggested that I ask her about getting a different monitor).
Both of my parents had type 2. I had gestational. For the preliminary study to enter the program, my fasting blood sugar was 104. The original study was to be 5 years in 25 testing centers around the country. It was stopped after 3 years because the the early results were conclusive. Losing just 7% of your weight and exercising 150 minutes per week can have a major effect in delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes. The DPP then moved into the second phase–DPPOS. Although my a1c has never gone above 6, according to DPPOS I converted from pre-diabetes to type2 about 8 years ago according to results of fasting glucose tolerance tests.
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned medications such as statins. Doctors including cardiologists are treating patients with diabetes much more aggressively with statins than previously.
^^ @DocT - I take a statin (along with the insulin and metformin). My endocrinologist prescribed it solely because of my diabetes – actually, my cholesterol numbers were always great, especially my HDL. Anyway, as you said, she’s very aggressive with all of her patients who have diabetes.
I know there are those who cannot tolerate the statin side-effects, but I’ve never had a problem.
I would encourage anyone reading this thread to consult a doctor (or two) about an appropriate treatment diabetic/pre-diabetic regimen for you personally. The course of treatment for one is not and cannot be the course of treatment for everyone.
Yes, but since this is the “pre-diabetes” thread, let’s not overlook the very real, medically and scientifically documented, importance of weight management, nutrition and exercise in the prevention or delay of the onset of type 2 diabetes and in the prevention or remediation of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance that often are a precursor to type 2 diabetes. While each individual’s case is different, why start out undermining yourself and increasing your risk by ignoring these things when the scientific and medical findings are so clear.
“Yes, but since this is the “pre-diabetes” thread”…true but the op said
" I’m shocked both DH and I were diagnosed in the last year or so. He’s a runner. I’m not Athletic but do exercise, not overweight and thought I was eating fairly healthy. I was wrong."
this was my point so many times i hear people with diabetes or heart issues…say but i work out, eat really “healthy” why did this happen to me?? (and a follow up sometimes my brother in law bob eats only fried foods never works out and he has perfect health…it is not fair!) genetics are not fair they are not chosen. in noway was a implying you should not follow the current guidelines and most definitely work with your primary care doctor for medication management if needed and monitoring…or endocrinologist (if you have a complicated case) to stay one step ahead of diabetes. eye exams, podiatrist if needed for foot care etc etc… i take all disease very seriously.
the point is… it is not simply do the right thing and you never have to worry or do all the “wrong” things and you will end up as a diabetic.
“^^ @DocT - I take a statin (along with the insulin and metformin). My endocrinologist prescribed it solely because of my diabetes – actually, my cholesterol numbers were always great, especially my HDL. Anyway, as you said, she’s very aggressive with all of her patients who have diabetes.”
I take a low dose of simvastatin - 5 mg every other day. Before I started using this, a number of years ago I had gone to a cardiologist because I thought I was having heart issues (turned out to be afib much later). He said that with my cholesterol levels, it was unheard of for somebody to have a heart attack. When I started the statin fairly recently and mentioned to my more recent cardiologist that my cholesterol was great - very low ldl and tryglycerides, his response was to compare it to a newborn baby.
My doc prescribed Statins almost a decade ago when they first came out. I had always had low good cholesterol and higher than desired triglycerides although “normal” total cholesterol and OK ratios. He was “big” on statins and what they “could do” even in my case with zero family history. But it did raise my glucose slightly from the low 80s into the low 90s and two years ago glucose started rising again just over 100 and my A1C had moved from 5.0 to 5.5. I cut back on the statins to 10 mg. per day from 20 mg per day and my glucose has lowered back to just over 100. Now I have zero history of heart disease in my family going back as far as I can tell but almost everyone develops diabetes between late 50s and 70 despite being normal weight and active and everyone lives into their 90s (with the diabetes) so while I will be considered a pre-diabetic because of family history and rising glucose (despite normal weight, good exercise in excess of 150 minutes per week) I will always work far harder to keep my glucose lower and take the slightly lower good cholesterol and slightly higher triglycerides and see how long I can go before I need to add metformin.
I sometimes wonder if the rise in diabetes independent of the obesity issue is related to the statins, the inhibitors and all the “new” classes of drugs that people take for other issues messing up our body responses while fixing the thing that we took the drug for.
However, if you do not exercise, get obese, and eat lots of sugar, you are more likely to get type 2 diabetes, or have a more severe case of it, than if you do exercise, stay lean, and avoid sugar consumption.
Yes, some people, due to genetic factors, will get type 2 diabetes despite exercising, staying lean, and avoiding sugar consumption, but they would have worse cases (worse blood sugar control, more drugs prescribed, worse follow-on health problems, etc.) if they did not exercise, got obese, and ate lots of sugar.
Exactly. Statins do nothing for diabetes. They help prevent heart disease, which is often exacerbated by diabetes.
Not to oversimplify, but excess glucose in the blood is like jagged edge cells slowly irritating and damaging blood vessels. The tiny blood vessels in the kidneys, eyes, and heart are particularly vulnerable to damage. Statins are often prescribed to reduce or prevent plaque from narrowing those blood vessels.
Yes everybody knows that. The purpose of controlling diabetes is to prevent the health problems that occur. Heart disease is the number 1 problem that diabetics should be concerned with. 68% of people over the age of 65 die from heart disease that is why doctors prescribe statins for people with diabetes.
This disease is so demoralizing. I’ve been a type 2 diabetic for about a decade now, and have had varying levels of success and failure in controlling it. I was not able to take Metformin initially because of major GI side effects (severe cramping and diarrhea–sorry if that’s TMI), but the Glipizide my Dr. prescribed in its stead stopped working, and the Januvia that I had been taking was no longer adequate to the task. My PCP finally referred me to an Endocrinologist, and we decided to try Metformin again in the form of a drug called Janumet (a combination of Januvia and Metformin). In addition, he prescribed Insulin in the form of one of the flex pen delivery systems to lower my fasting glucose readings. At first, the GI side effects were exactly as I’d experienced before, but I was determined to gut it out, and see if they might lessen over time. It was tough going for a while, but thank goodness they did indeed lessen. Now, I rather have the opposite problem, which diabetic gastroparesis isn’t helping.
Diabetes runs on both sides my of family. Both my parents have it, though their numbers have never been as bad as mine. I’m now watching my diet more than ever (fearful of virtually everything I eat), but exercise is yet to return to the picture due to fatigue so extreme, I feel like I’m slogging through my days, and the desire to even leave the house is usually way more than I can muster. My BS readings are much better now, but I still feel generally unwell. I don’t know if the fatigue is more due to the return of an old foe (depression), or if it’s something else. In any case, I’ve been spending way too much time in doctor’s offices of late, and just wish it would all go away.
I’m sorry to hear that you are having so many problems. Diabetes is a difficult disease to handle. I have a strong genetic component to the disease. My mother started off like me but ended up on insulin because over time, the oral medications didn’t work which is typical. Both my grandparents on my father’s side also ended up with the disease.
Although I have good A1c results which has allowed me to signicantly reduce my meds, I still have some glucose control issues. I test 3 times a day. Before supper, my glucose was 158 which was unusually high for me. I ate a typical supper and did some strength training about an hour later for 30 minutes. When I checked my glucose at this point, it was 54. This is one reason, my endocrinologist wants me completely off the meds.