What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a chronic (long-lasting) health condition that disrupts the body’s ability to turn food into energy, leading to elevated blood sugar levels.
After eating, your body turns most of the food into sugar (also known as glucose), which goes into your blood. Then, a hormone called insulin helps get the sugar into your cells to use for energy. But with diabetes, either your body doesn’t make enough insulin or it doesn’t work like it should. So, the sugar stays in your blood. Over time, this can cause health problems like heart disease and kidney problems.
Understanding the risk factors for type 2 diabetes is important for prevention. These factors can be categorized into non-modifiable and modifiable:
Non-Modifiable Risk Factors:
These are things you cannot change, but are important for you to be aware of, so you and your doctor can be proactive in managing your health and reducing other risk factors.
- Family History: Having a blood relative with diabetes significantly increases your risk.
- Race or Ethnic Background: People of African-American, Latino/Hispanic-American, Native American, or Pacific-Islander descent are at higher risk.
- Age: Risk increases with age, especially for adults over 40.
- Gestational Diabetes: Women who had gestational diabetes during pregnancy have a higher risk of developing diabetes later in life.
Modifiable Risk Factors:
These are the things you can change and are especially important if you have any of the non-modifiable risk factors.
- Weight: Being overweight increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. Losing just 5-10% of your body weight can reduce your risk greatly.
- Physical Activity: Adding just 30 minutes of walking a few days a week can be beneficial. Aim for 150 minutes per week.
- Blood Pressure: Managing blood pressure levels is essential for reducing diabetes risk. Normal blood pressure is below 120/80.
- Smoking: Quitting smoking can significantly lower the risk of diabetes.
- Diet: Nutrition plays a very big role in diabetes prevention. DayTwo’s app is designed to help you choose foods that keep your blood sugar steady.
- Alcohol Consumption: Limiting alcohol intake to one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men is recommended.
- Stress Management: Effectively managing stress is essential for overall health, including diabetes prevention.
- Sleep: Adequate sleep of seven to nine hours per night is vital for maintaining health and reducing diabetes risk.
By addressing modifiable risk factors and understanding non-modifiable ones, individuals can take proactive steps to prevent type 2 diabetes and promote overall well-being.
Take the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) test to see your risk score – Could you have Prediabetes?