Five drug-free ways to control type 2 diabetes:

When you're learning about something new, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of relevant information available. This informative article should help you focus on the central points. Those of you not familiar with the latest on diabetes type two now have at least a basic understanding. But there's more to come.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are approximately 25.8 million Americans with diabetes, 79 million pre-diabetics, and 7 million undiagnosed cases of diabetes. About 95 percent of adults in the U.S. with the disease have type 2 diabetes, also known as adult-onset diabetes, which can often be controlled or even eliminated through a combination of lifestyle and dietary changes. Here are Five drug-free ways to control type 2 diabetes:

Achieve and Maintain a Healthy BMI

Adults with a high body mass index, also known as BMI, are at heightened risk of developing advanced complications from type 2 diabetes. Problems stemming from being and overweight diabetic can include cardiac disease, kidney and liver failure, vision problems and nerve damage. Individuals whose BMI are in the range of “overweight” often see improvements in their blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure levels when they lose as little as ten percent of their body weight.

Exercise

Physical activity helps the body to both shed unwanted pounds and improve the efficiency of insulin production by the pancreas, which is essential for maintaining healthy glucose levels. Even moderate exercise like a brisk daily walk can have a big effect on diabetes, because activity forces the body's muscles to absorb glucose, leading to lowered blood sugar levels. Working out is also a great way to relieve stress and keep levels of the belly fat-inducing stress hormone cortisol in check while reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke, conditions related to diabetes.

Eat 5-6 Small Balanced Meals Throughout the Day

People with diabetes often have difficulty controlling their blood glucose levels, experiencing dramatic increases after eating a large meal then having their levels dip very low 2-4 hours later. These extreme fluctuations in blood sugar levels can be minimized by eating 5-6 small healthy meals throughout the day, which helps keep a steady amount of glucose in the bloodstream at all times.

Increase Your Dietary Fiber

Medical studies have shown that consuming a high-fiber diet can help diabetics control their blood sugars, as well as lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglyceride (fat in the bloodstream) levels. Fiber helps control appetite which may help some patients loose excess weight. The American Diabetes Association recommends adults eat at least 24 grams of fiber every day.

Know Your Blood Sugar Levels

Regular monitoring of blood glucose levels is a great way for people with diabetes to make sure their glucose levels aren't too high or low. Patients can check their levels at home using a small self-test machine known as a blood glucose meter which involves placing a tiny drop of blood on a test strip. Testing blood sugar helps patients understand the effect that exercise, food and medication has on their blood sugar levels, and using this information, diabetics can adjust their diet and activity levels to help achieve stable blood glucose levels.

There's a lot to understand about diabetes type two. We were able to provide you with some of the facts above, but there is still plenty more to write about in subsequent articles.

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Prevent Diabetes with Diet

Do you ever feel like you know just enough about Diabetes to be dangerous? Let's see if we can fill in some of the gaps with the latest info from Diabetes experts. See how much you can learn about Diabetes when you take a little time to read a well-researched article?  Don't miss out on the rest of this great information.

Diabetes is on the rise and with the state of the American diet, it is no wonder. When it comes to eating American's may be counting calories but they surely aren't reading the labels of the foods they eat, at least most Americans. The problem is that even those who care enough about their health to read the labels really don't know what they are looking for and while the amount of calories, fat, salt, and sugar are obvious factors to look they are obviously only a part of the entire picture.

Since diabetes is a condition that has to do with a problem regulating blood sugar in the body it is important to keep an eye on your sugar level, especially your fasting sugar level. And while many individuals know to watch their sugar and if there is a problem to keep it in check many individuals are still not aware that even if you don't eat much sugar you could be at risk.

Diabetes is essentially a problem with digestion of sugars and the body requires insulin in order to effectively process sugars. Sugars however are derivatives of carbohydrates and studies have shown that sugar has a lot less of an effect on diabetics then the consumption of starchy foods does. This is because foods such as breads, pastas, and even potatoes turn into sugar in your body and while they can be natural they still require insulin for digestion.

For a long time it was assumed that people who became diabetic did so because of a genetic link. While heredity does play a role in how a person's body processes and how much insulin it has this isn't the only mitigating factor. Many individuals, especially children are being diagnosed with Diabetes and have no genetic link what so ever. It is essential to realize that while genetics is a contributing factor diet is still of the utmost importance.

When you think about avoiding diabetes it is essential to be sure that you are not only reducing the amount of refined sugar that is in your diet but that you're also limiting the amount of carbohydrates that you are ingesting each and every day. Diet is ever so important in helping to avoid diabetes and if you are willing to put in the effort to keep your carb intake down than you can effectively reduce your risk of diabetes even if you do have a family history of this disease.

There's a lot to understand about Diabetes. We were able to provide you with some of the facts above, but there is still plenty more to write about in subsequent articles.

Read more »