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16 Jun

Townsville Bowen Therapy – Diabetes Type 2, what can you do?

Even if you have a genetic or medical predisposition for Type 2 Diabetes, that doesn’t mean you should sit around doing nothing about it. Inactivity, diet, soft drinks and alcohol are all ways to fast track the onset of this disease, and managing these risk factors could do you a whole lot more good than waiting for a diagnosis. Nor should you wave a dismissive hand and say, “this won’t happen to me.”

Type 2 Diabetes doesn’t take any prisoners – if you don’t take care of your body you are inviting disaster of one sort or another. Losing a leg when you’re sixty because you wanted to swallow down gallons of sugar filled soft drink when you were thirty? That’s avoidable. Going blind at fifty-five because you didn’t exercise in your forties? That’s avoidable. Losing the ability to speak or walk from a stroke when you’re fifty because you ate fast food every day in you’re twenties? Yep, avoidable.

The fact is, whatever you’re doing today will reflect on your health in the future. If you’re a young whipper snapper still in those breathless twenties, don’t fall into the trap ‘the future’ is something way off in the distance…and if you’re a tired forty year old finally dealing with the fact you won’t be in the Australian cricket team doesn’t mean it’s too late to start exercising.

Ways to avoid Type 2 Diabetes involve simple common sense methods. Don’t put on excessive weight. Exercise regularly and eat healthy – that means avoiding super sugary, fatty or starchy foods. Consume soft drinks and fruit juices in moderation – a can of cola can have eleven teaspoons of sugar in it, and if you wouldn’t sit down to five oranges in a meal, why drink those five oranges in a glass? Alcohol has more calories than sugar – so rethink drinking that beer or wine after work every day. Less is more – snacking between meals means you end up eating five or six breakfasts, lunches or dinners a day when in your mind you’ve only eaten three. The saturated fats and trans fatty acids found in most fast foods are bad news, choose polyunsaturated or mono-unsaturated fats from nuts, olives and avocados.

Will getting healthy guarantee a Type 2 Diabetes free future? No, but it certainly decreases your risk. Being overweight is the same as driving your car without wearing a seatbelt – it might take years, but sooner or later something will happen to make you regret the choices you’ve made in the past.