The field of epigenetics is growing at a fast pace and with it the understanding that both a person’s lifestyle and the environment around them can directly affect their genes.
This can help to give us the answer to the question of, why is type 2 diabetes a lifestyle disease.
Quite a few of our physical characteristics have been inherited.
If you are really taller or shorter than average, chances are that this was dictated by your genes.
People up the ladder in your family tree were also taller or shorter than most, so this would have had a bearing on your height.
This can also apply to your eye colour, and unfortunately some unwelcome physical or mental conditions.
So it stands to reason, that if both of your parents were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, then the risk of you developing it rises to above average.
But, even after type 2 diabetes has been diagnosed, it can still be reversed.
This also applies to prediabetes, which is kind of an early warning signal that you could possibly develop diabetes if you don't start to make some changes to your lifestyle.
Which is why, type 2 diabetes is often referred to as a lifestyle disease.
The decisions you make to change the way you treat your body can significantly contribute to the outcome of your diabetes diagnosis.
You could also refer to type 2 diabetes as a life partner disease, because if you are told you have got it and don’t do anything about it, it can stay with you until the day you die.
In most cases, a doctor will diagnose prediabetes before type 2 diabetes occurs.
This is mainly because your blood sugar levels don't normally go up dramatically to the point that you go from just healthy levels to a diabetic level.
Testing at various intervals would show a slow and gradual increase in your blood sugar, and this can allow you act swiftly to keep prediabetes and diabetes from controlling your life.
This is done by using methods to return your blood sugar levels to a healthy range.
Make Better Lifestyle Choices
Diabetes is a chronic disease which can result in nerve damage, kidney failure and vision problems that can include blindness.
I’m guessing these are not things that you want to look forward to in the future.
As most health experts agree that this is a lifestyle disease, the simple solution is to choose a different lifestyle.
How do I Stay Non Diabetic?
You can start by doing regular physical activity to naturally expend your energy.
This doesn’t mean having to run the London Marathon, compete in a triathlon, or stuff like that.
All it takes is to get up and start moving more, instead of just sitting and being inactive.
That's really it as far as basic physical activity is concerned. Just add a minimum of an extra 2 ½ hours of physical activity into your week.
Some research has shown that doing 15 separate 10 minute sessions of moderate to intense aerobic activity provides the same rewards as 5 physically active sessions of half an hour each.
So try to find a way to raise your heart rate through some sort of aerobic activity 2.5 hours each week.
Nutrition Has a Lot to do with it
Were you aware that around 60% to 70% of your level of health and wellbeing is in direct relation to the foods and liquids you put into your body?
Up to as recently as the 1990s it was generally thought that we inherited the biggest part of our physical fitness through our genes.
But it is now known and accepted that nutrition has a far greater influence on our overall physical and mental wellness than our genetics.
So in a nutshell, you can decide how well you want to be.
Specialists in the diabetic field will tell you that regular physical activity and smart nutrition is an almost unbeatable combination for not just preventing type 2 diabetes, but for reversing it as well.
The Decision is Yours
You can decide on a diabetic lifestyle where you sit or lay around quite a bit, don't do a lot of physical activity, indulge yourself in a lot of processed foods and end up developing chronic health problems.
Or, you can take the healthy course and choose to keep prediabetes and diabetes out of your life, or even reverse those conditions if they have already been diagnosed.
You can read more here if you want to know how to reverse type 2 diabetes.
This lifestyle choice is yours to make, and the benefits are well documented.
“Your future can be brighter, because it means you have control over your health and wellbeing. And just making simple changes to your lifestyle, can lead you to becoming the healthiest, happiest you.”
