For Your Health: November is National Diabetes Month

From dailyrepublic.com

November is considered National Diabetes Awareness Month, with the global celebration of World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14 to raise awareness for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are currently 34.2 million Americans with diabetes. That’s just over 10% of the population of the U.S. More worrying, the CDC continues to estimate that 88 million American adults are considered pre-diabetic. With the growing numbers in recent decades, it makes diabetes one of the worst threats to American health.

There are two types of diabetes that are often talked about. Type 1 is rarer (making up roughly 5% of all diabetes cases), and has genetic factors. Type 2 makes up between 90 to 95% of cases and is strongly influenced by lifestyle and environmental factors for its development.

​Environmental and genetic factors may lead to the development of both type 1 and type 2, but many people are able to avoid the development of type 2 by making healthy lifestyle choices. Healthy lifestyle choices can also help control the disease after it develops. At this point, most of this information is pretty well known. Some lesser-known factors that a building body of evidence is coming to support with regard to diabetes are as follows:

• ​Lower levels of vitamin D may play a role in diabetes development. The primary source of vitamin D is from exposure to sunshine, but other sources such as fortified dairy products and oily fish are available.
​• Tobacco products, particularly smokable ones, have been linked to increased development of type 2 diabetes. Quitting smoking is a good way to aid in prevention.
• ​Eating a diet high in fibre has been linked to reducing the risk of diabetes. High-fibre diets are good for both weight management and positively affect gastrointestinal health. Fibre can help decrease the rate at which sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream, resulting in a more gradual rise in blood sugar levels.
​• Drinking tea or coffee, with limited additions of milk and sugar, can help reduce blood sugar if the option often picked is a sugar-sweetened beverage like soda. There are some studies that link an antioxidant, polyphenols, found in both tea and coffee that may act as a protective measure against the development of diabetes.

​The United States is the land of plenty, but too much of a good thing can be harmful. Diabetes is a great example of when too much of specific types of food can cause health problems. There are ways to try to prevent type 2 diabetes and control both through diet and exercise, but the first steps must be taken to start. Reducing or replacing lots of high-sugar foods with other alternatives is one of several ways.

As we enter the holiday season this month, it is a good time to think on how small changes can protect ourselves and the health of the nation.

Devin Oates is a master of public health student at Touro University, a partner of Solano Public Health.

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