Ways to avoid or turn down type 2 diabetes....

Today's Post: Thursday, 3-8-2012

I’ve seen several different sources of information lately likely to be valuable for almost everyone. And I realized that they all would fit this topic.

1. One of the more interesting is a way to protect your health and take a very large bite out of high blood sugar readings.

Note that it works to do this whether you already know you are in trouble and measure your blood sugar or are on your way to type 2 diabetes but have not had it tested and are unaware you are in trouble.

People who sit for hours at work or watching TV with few breaks are at significant risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes and obesity and even some cancers.

So, for myself I not only get up 5 times a day to get a cup of tea and the many extra trips that causes to the bathroom each day every day during the week, I added something.

When I’m done with each of the 5 cups of tea I stand up from my desk and do about 45 seconds of exercise. Then I mark down that I did it in a super simple logbook I keep.

(I thought of doing that but found without the logbook step and the link to something I was already doing, it never actually happened. But since I added the logbook and the link to what I was already doing, I’ve done it every workday for the last two years now.)

So, what’s new?

People who don’t exercise as I do in addition may need to do this twice as many times a day and exercise more than 45 seconds.

BUT they haven’t tested to be sure of that! What I do may also work.

What they did test was if getting up every 20 minutes and walking at a moderate pace or a brisk one -- for two minutes a time would lower high blood sugar. That cut the boost from eating something that was a bit sugary or high glycemic by close to 30%.

That’s a very significant drop.

A measure of average blood sugar for the last 60 to 90 days is called an HBA1C test. If it’s 5.9 or higher you are in trouble. And, every tenth of a point you go above that is dangerous to your health. Some diagnose type 2 diabetes at 6.0 or above, some to most at 6.5 or above, and everyone at 6.9 or above. Above 7.0 is deadly dangerous no matter what you call it!

So suppose you are at 7.7 without doing this active sitting break several times a day, with it a 20% drop would put you at 6.2, a dramatically safer reading.

The next step we’ll list could easily drop you another 10 % or more. That would put you a relatively safe 5.6.

Whether you are cured of diabetes at that point or in forced remission is semantics.

You may need to do the two steps every day to avoid it regardless of what you call it.

2. The second step is to avoid ALL high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners.

(And, cutting back on real sugar and virtually eliminating eating foods made from refined grains would double that effect or more.)

Why cut out ALL high fructose corn syrup?

High fructose corn syrup tastes sweeter than sugar and costs less than real sugar. So for the soft drinks and packaged dessert industry high fructose corn syrup is a cheap way to make that food or drink more addicting than regular sugar & people tend to eat or drink more and buy more.

In addition, the sweeter taste may cause you to release more insulin which then causes low blood sugar a half hour later causing you to crave a sugar fix. The combination of that & eating or drinking more than you would had it been real sugar, will make your blood sugar average levels higher. Worse, it will possibly also cause your body to down regulate its response to insulin. Then your blood sugar will tend to stay even higher.

Then your overall intake will tend to get so high that even though high fructose corn syrup only has 5% more fructose than regular sugar, at that intake level that adds up to a lot of free fructose in your blood each week. That in turn helps cause type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

(Another serious health risk with high fructose corn syrup is that 30% of all of HFCS contains mercury due to how it's processed.)

Lastly, the foods and drinks high fructose corn syrup is in often are those that it would be wise to pass up almost every time. So making them taste extra good is harmful & high fructose corn syrup does that better than sugar. )

Bottom line if you avoid ANY high fructose corn syrup, your blood sugar will be lower.

Oddly, in addition to whatever health risks artificial sweeteners may have, despite having no calories they are sweeter than sugar too. And the addicting effect and the blood sugar roller coaster and sugar cravings and eating more sugary foods that you get from high fructose corn syrup show up with artificial sweeteners too!

(The makers claim no other health harm but many people seem to experience some that seems to come with artificial sweetener intake. I have no direct experience or know of massive tests results to quote proving this. But I’ve seen enough supporting analysis and reports of harm to make me quite adverse to ever ingesting any artificial sweeteners!)

Note that if you switch from regular to diet soft drinks you may lose weight at first, but studies show you will be as fat or even fatter a few months later! The extra hunger and craving for sweets the artificial sweeteners induce will fatten you eventually. Water and tea do work to replace diet and regular soft drinks for fat weight loss by the way.

Bottom line, if you also avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, your blood sugar will be lower and your fat weight will be less.

3. Chronic inflammation makes the damage from high blood sugar worse. And, I just found out it can help cause low thyroid in people who otherwise would have avoided it. That tends to make people have low energy and be fatter. Neither of those help you lower blood sugar!

Even better, the kind of eating right that avoids chronic inflammation contains no to very little sweets which also can help lower high blood sugar.

(See our post on avoiding chronic inflammation as the most effective way to lower or prevent joint pain we did on Tuesday, 3-6, this week for that info.)

4. Did you know that even two minutes once a day of really vigorous exercise lowers your HBA1C levels?

Recent research found that it does!

Did you know that doing strength training a few times a week and interval cardio a few times a week and/or 6 miles of walking or more each week tend to make your insulin effective even if it wasn’t before and lower your HBA1C because of it?

(Strength training AND interval cardio do more than the same time spent doing only one or the other research found.)

Did you know that such regular exercise slows aging and helps prevent the damage caused by high blood sugar?

It does that too.

So, if you:

Use a logbook to ensure you take active sitting breaks,

Avoid ALL soft drinks, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners,

Eat right to avoid high chronic inflammation,

& Do these kinds of exercise every week,

Then your blood sugar and its measure HBA1C will stay in the safe zone for most people.

Is that a diabetes cure or forced remission you must continue?

That is semantics. But it does work whatever you call it!