American Diabetes Association asked me to write this book in 2005 and to update this edition in 2011. The American Diabetes Association has many fine books, but they wanted me to write a book that focuses on the basic stuff—what you really need to know if you’ve recently been diagnosed with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. Many people I’ve worked with through the years have told me, “My life is too busy as it is. Just tell me what I need to do to take care of my diabetes.” Well, here it is.
If you’ve recently been diagnosed with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, you may be scared. Or you may have had diabetes for a while but haven’t taken care of it. Too much glucose in the blood for a long time can cause diabetes problems. If you’ve been told you have a diabetes problem, you may be scared, too. This book will be helpful whether you’ve been recently diagnosed or have had diabetes for a while. You may know about the problems that diabetes has caused your family or friends. But you may not have heard the good news about having prediabetes or type 2 diabetes today:
• You can have a healthy, active, and long life with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes.
• You can learn to cope with the ups and downs of living with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes.
• You can take care of yourself by using a meal plan, being active most days of the week, and taking diabetes medicines, if needed.
• If you have prediabetes, you can delay or prevent getting type 2 diabetes.
• You can delay or prevent long-term problems by caring for your diabetes each day.
When it comes to your diabetes care, the experts agree that you’re in charge. Sure, you go to the doctor or see a nurse educator every few months. But you choose what and how much to eat. You decide whether you’ll take your diabetes medicine, check your blood glucose, and be active.
You’re in charge, but you’re not alone. Lean on your diabetes team for care and support. Who is on your diabetes team? It might be your spouse, your partner, your kids, your parents, your friends, or other members of your family. It might be a neighbor you’ve known for years. It might be people from your church or synagogue or from where you work. Your diabetes health care team can include your doctor, diabetes educator, dietitian, eye doctor, foot doctor, and mental health counselor.
Many of the people on your team may also have diabetes. Today many people in the United States and around the world have diabetes. Almost 26 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes. Seventy-nine million more have prediabetes.
There’s never a vacation from having diabetes or caring for your diabetes. But as millions of people know, you can live a healthy and happy life with it.
Turn to the table of contents to start learning how. From the list of chapters, you can choose where to start. You may want to zoom to Chapter 7 to learn more about checking blood glucose. Or you may want to start with Chapter 3 and go on to 4, 5, and 6. They deal with food and diabetes. Or you may just want to start at the beginning and read through the book. It’s your choice!
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What Is Prediabetes?
Prediabetes is a condition that comes before type 2 diabetes. It means that blood glucose (GLOO-kos) levels are higher than normal but aren’t high enough to be called diabetes. As we become older, or less active, or gain weight, we are more at risk for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. People can have prediabetes and not know it.
If you have prediabetes, it means:
• you might get type 2 diabetes sometime soon or further down the road.
• you are more likely to get heart disease or have a stroke.
The good news is that you can take steps to delay or prevent type 2 diabetes with:
• weight loss
• regular physical activity, such as walking almost every day
A study called the Diabetes Prevention Program showed that these steps helped most people delay or prevent type 2 diabetes. Losing weight and being active worked well for people of all ages.
Weight loss can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes. Reaching a healthy weight can help you a lot. If you’re overweight, any weight loss, even 10 or 15 pounds, will lower your chances of getting type 2 diabetes.
Losing extra weight helped people in the Diabetes Prevention Program delay or prevent type 2 diabetes. People in the study lost an average of 15 pounds in the first year of the study. How did they do it? They ate fewer calories and less fat. And they exercised most days of the week. In fact, many walked about 150 minutes a week.
Being active almost every day is another one of the best ways to delay or prevent type 2 diabetes. You can lower your chances of getting type 2 diabetes by adding physical activity to your daily routine. Even if you have heart disease or other problems, you can still be more active. Work with your health care team to find out which physical activities are safe for you.
As we all know, losing weight and getting active can be hard. And sticking with it can be even harder. The American Diabetes Association suggests an ongoing support group and counseling to help. Diabetes medicines may be added if you’re at high risk for getting type 2.
It helps to keep track of the progress you’re making with eating and walking. Write down everything you eat and drink for a week. Writing things down makes you more aware of what you’re eating and helps with weight loss. You can keep track of your walking by wearing a pedometer on your belt. A pedometer is a small device that tells you how many steps you’ve taken. Or you can keep track of your walking or other activity by writing it down for a week. At the end of the week, total up the minutes you’ve been active to see how you’re doing.
If you have prediabetes, you may suspect that someone you love has prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. At their next doctor visit, ask them to get their blood glucose checked if they are:
• 45 or older
• Under 45, but overweight and have one or more of these risk factors:
♦ They have a close family member, like a parent, brother, or sister, with diabetes.
♦ They are:
◊ African American
◊ Native American
◊ Asian American
◊ Pacific Islander
◊ Hispanic American (Latino)
♦ They’ve had a baby weighing more than nine pounds or they’ve had gestational (jess-TAY-shuhn-uhl) diabetes. Gestational diabetes is diabetes first found during pregnancy that is not type 1 or type 2.
♦ They have high blood pressure (over 140/90) or are taking a blood pressure medication.
♦ They have low HDL cholesterol, the good cholesterol (35 or lower).
♦ They have high triglycerides (250 or higher).
