Pre-emble:

You can prevent diabetes if you be proactive and do some simple measures in a wise manner. By making such effort, if not totally prevent the diabetes, you would at least delay this lifelong disease for some years and keep it at lower complication level. Diabetes has so many possible side effects and complications that even a few years of diabetes free life is worth the trouble that you may need to take because the disease is going to stay with you for the rest of your life. The complications are generally directly proportional to the level of blood sugar you maintain with or without medications.

From the review of a lot of medical literature and reading and listening to many experts it is also evident that some people can also control their diabetes and blood sugar levels by taking appropriate steps that they do not need to take any medication. I know this for sure, because I am one of them and I will explain it more in the last paragraph. You may then avoid having to take additional chemicals in the shape of anti-diabetic medications and additional unnecessary side effects from those medicines. It goes without saying that chemicals in all forms, including medications, are one of our large problems in the new life style that we have adopted in the past century or so.

What Efforts?

What do you need to do though? There are three simple steps you need to take.

1. Bring your weight to ideal. If overweight,  reduce it according to the actuary tables of the insurance companies, which are available everywhere. You may also get advice from your doctor or even from Google. If you are obese, reduce your weight as much as is necessary. Even if you are not obese reduction of your weight by only five to ten pounds will make you feel healthy and make difference in your blood sugar levels and lower the need of medication dose.

2. Watch what you eat. Keep yourselves away from carbohydrates as best as you can. Even if you target your carbohydrate consumption to zero, you will still be getting some from vegetables, fruits etc. But surely avoid all processed foods, fruit juices and cola drinks. They are all carbohydrates and some of them have added sugar in large quantities.

3. Avoid sedentary life. Exercise regularly if you are an office worker. A regular daily walk of thirty minutes a day will help. Add some resistance or muscle building exercises, which seem to make the muscle cells insulin sensitive. This will result in lowering of blood sugar levels by moving sugar from blood to muscles for energy usage. Lifting some weights or lifting yourselves on the tips of your toes are two simplest examples of the muscle building exercises.

4. Issue of genetic load: Some people are told that if they have genetic load from family history of diabetes, they are will contract diabetes. This is possible but not necessarily true. Type I and Type II, both do have such genetic load and possibility of having the disease. But even with genetic load, your proactive efforts will help you delay and / or prevent the diabetes for quite some time, hence protecting you from its complications.

Look at my own case:  I may site my own example that after taking anti-diabetic medication, Metformin 20000 mg and Actos 45 mg (which are their maximum allowed doses) for almost five years, I have been able to stop all medication and keep my blood sugars and HbA1c within acceptable limits by following these three simple steps. It took me about six months to reach my goal though, with strictly following the guide lines. I reduced my weight to my ideal one, stayed very honestly on exercise program and have been asking myself twice before I eat anything that should I, or should I not eat this? And the answers was no if it was processed cookie or bread or carbohydrates with added sugar. So, presently I am still a diabetic, but a diet controlled diabetic, not taking any medication. I think such results are distinctly possible for almost everyone if correct proactive efforts are undertaken.

With right steps you can revert the diabetes and stop taking all medications and still keep your blood sugars within normal limits and hence avoid complications from diabetes and of its medications.Good luck to you in your endeavors.

For further reading and understanding I would suggest you to read “Diabetes – Interview with Dr Gojka Roglic, WHO Specialist” at this link. According her also diabetes is not necessarily a curse on those who have family history of diabetes; she thinks yes, it has some bearing, but it is “something else” also.