Diabetes is the most common and dangerous diagnosed disease in the world. It's a disease that many things can cause, but it's because we're not eating right and getting enough exercise a lot of the time. This post will give you some tips to help prevent diabetes.
Eat More Fruit And Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are an important part of any healthy diet. They offer vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and other nutrients that make them an essential part of a balanced lifestyle and healthy body. One way to eat more fruits and vegetables is to include lots of fresh produce in your everyday meals. Try adding fruit or vegetable sides to dinner instead of chips, pasta, or bread at restaurants. You can even add diced apples into salads if you don't like raw greens.
Drink Water Regularly
Water is vital to good health, but not everyone drinks enough. Water improves digestion and flushes toxins, making it very important to drink plenty throughout the day. Drinking water with meals aids digestion by helping move food along the digestive tract. However, avoid drinking water with high-calorie juices like orange juice because you're more likely to consume extra calories than needed. Instead, sip on plain H2O while sipping on a low-calorie beverage like green tea. Keep a clean diet without much-added sugar or salt, and your thirst should diminish. Of course, there are other ways to stay hydrated besides drinking water, including chewing gum and using a hydrating powder.
Stay Active
If you have a sedentary job, consider walking meetings or working from home whenever possible. Take those stairs over the elevator, park farther away from the store rather than driving, take short walks around the office when necessary, and do pushups or stretches in the bathroom during breaks. Getting moving can boost your mood and make you happier overall. Also, try doing yoga or strength training three times a week to improve your fitness level. Exercise will also encourage weight loss and reduce stress. If you aren't feeling motivated to get up and move around just yet, set a timer on your phone to go off each hour after sitting down. When you're standing up again, make sure to stand up straight as well as walk slowly. This will decrease pain and increase mobility. Walking slowly has been shown to lower stress hormones in the brain and release serotonin and endorphins, which causes relaxation. As with any activity, start out small at first and build up gradually.
Get Enough Sleep
Sleep plays a crucial role in keeping us healthy. Without proper sleep, our immune system weakens, our mental capacity diminishes, and energy levels drop. Even though sleep isn't always easy to come by, taking steps to ensure you get adequate rest will pay off in the long run. Avoid naps (they may actually cut your sleep time!) in favor of trying to fall asleep earlier. Turn off your mobile device before bedtime so you won't have temptation in the middle of the night! Finally, make sure to use a dark room to sleep in and stay cool throughout the warm summer months. Your body temperature rises naturally during the night, so if you turn on the heat or fan too quickly, you could wake yourself up.
Eat Well-Balanced Meals
It's easy to overeat sometimes, especially during busy periods. But if you want to stay healthy, sticking to a meal plan is key. Make sure you include healthy proteins such as salmon, beans, tofu, eggs, chicken, and lean meats, plus lots of leafy greens and whole grains. Limit refined carbs — things such as bagels, white flour products, French fries, and cookies — as they cause spikes in insulin. This results in higher blood sugar, causing fatigue and cravings later on. For snacks, try replacing processed foods with nuts, hummus, carrots, raisins, celery sticks, yogurt, cottage cheese, olives, almonds, oranges, and bananas. Don't overeat; it's better to maintain a steady weight through food than gain weight then lose it all when you stop eating.
Find A Healthy Routine And Stick With It
In order for any new habits to stick, you need to establish them in your daily routine. Start every morning with exercise. It could be a brisk 30-minute walk, an intense workout session, some stretching, or even going for a swim. Do this five days per week, and within one month, these simple exercises will help you manage your diabetes and keep your weight in check. Try to eat breakfast regularly, preferably within two hours before work. Having something to look forward to helps curb hunger pangs throughout the day.
Use Lifestyle Modifications
If lifestyle changes aren't feasible due to a chronic condition, medications can help. Several medications control both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. These include insulins, metformin, pioglitazone, rosiglitazone, sitagliptin, dapagliflozin, exenatide, liraglutide, lixisenatide, glucagon-like peptide-1 analogues, and thiazolidinediones. The most common side effects of medications for diabetes are stomach ache, headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, mouth ulcers, constipation, dry mouth, blurred vision, increased urination, and genital itching. If you're taking multiple medications, talk to your doctor about possible drug interactions. While medication can improve quality of life, it may also create other issues: Medications have potentially serious side effects. Tell your doctor right away if you notice signs or symptoms that don't go away after starting treatment. You may require close monitoring if you take certain drugs or hormones. Some meds may interact with your cancer treatments.
Conclusion
These are just a few tips for anyone looking to prevent diabetes from developing. They are certainly not the only methods, nor would you assume that they were the best ones. However, they are simply what works for most people. Each person has their own personal preferences on how these steps should be done. Stay active, eat well, sleep well, get regular checkups, and do all of these in moderation.