These Days You Cannot Separate Diabetes and Obesity

November is Diabetes Awareness Month and though we constantly talk about obesity and diabetes, there seems to be a disconnect for many people.  If you are obese, you put yourself at risk for diabetes because you become insulin resistant, meaning that no matter how hard your pancreas tries to put out insulin, to bring down your blood sugar, it can't put out enough - because you become resistant to the effect of the insulin.  And you don't want to get diabetes if you can avoid it - because it is a disease that affects multiple health sectors including your pancreas, your heart, and your circulation.

Of even greater concern is the fact that at least one fourth of US adults have pre-diabetes meaning that they are starting to have persistant elevated levels of blood sugar because the whole glucose - insulin mechanism is beginning to break down.  What is shocking is that many of those people don't know they have it - they don't go to the doctor regularly, thye haven't had blood test done in awhile and they are ignoring their excess weight and especially their growing waistline.  That means they are missing a specific time in their "health script' when they could change some habits and direct the script to "avoiding diabetes" rather than a script entitled "embracing diabetes."

Denial to me is the ultimate evil - it means you refuse to face truth.  You don't even allow yourself the chance to make some powerful decisions because...you don't even want to know.  And the reality is that most of you make the mountain way bigger than necessary - you decide that you have to weigh 100 pounds less instead of saying - "If I can just lose 25 pounds I may be able to rescue myself from active diabetes."  That can mean walking 30 minutes most days a week, changing how many bread servings you have daily (not cutting them out entirely), choosing to go low fat or fat free when choosing dairy products, substituting fruits and vegetables for some of your snacking.  It means changing some habits.

Maybe if we had a crystal ball and you could see the actual struggle and health consequences of diabetes type 2, you would lose the denial and shift habits.  Alas, you only have me, an expert, telling you that the dire consequences are realistically inevitable if you don't shed some of that weight.  I hope you move from denial island to the reality zone and get started.