Diabetes Kills

 

This isn’t the first time I have written about adult onset diabetes, but either people don’t fully appreciate the risk they are placing themselves in, or are choosing to ignore it. Lets look at the stats:

 

  • Diabetes kills more people annually than breast cancer and AIDS combined

 

  • Over 135 amputations every week in the UK are due to diabetes

 

  • Diabetes costs the NHS £1.5 million every hour

 

So, okay, how do you know if you are at risk?

 

First, try these on for size. You are at risk

 

  • If you are a man with a waist size of 102cm (40 inches) or more
  • If you are a woman with a waist size of 88cm (34.5 inches) or more

 

To greatly reduce the risk of adult onset diabetes, your waist should be

 

  • Below 94cm (37 inches) if you are a man
  • Below 80cm (31.5 inches) if you are a woman

 

So what exactly is adult onset diabetes (Type 2 diabetes) and what has it got to do with the size of your stomach?

 

Type 2 diabetes is when your body does not use insulin properly, more commonly known as insulin resistance. At first, your pancreas (the organ in your body that secretes insulin) produces extra insulin to make up for the increased resistance to absorption. But over time it isn’t able to keep up and can’t make enough insulin to keep your blood glucose at normal levels.

 

Being overweight stresses the insides of the individual cells. When these cells have more nutrients than they can process they send out an alarm signal telling the cell to dampen down its insulin receptors on the cell surface. That means that even though your pancreas is still producing insulin, your cells have become insulin resistant, leading to persistently high concentrations of sugar glucose in the blood and the onset of diabetes.

 

Now, stop reading and give yourself a very quick check:

 

Take a tape measure. According to the Clinical Handbook of Weight Management, you should measure between the top of your hip bone and your lowest rib. For most people this is just above your belly button.

 

Act. And act now.

 

The solution is simple, get your waist diameter below the risk level with a carefully managed nutrition and exercise plan. You can’t hide from adult onset diabetes, but you can definitely do something to prevent it.

 

Here to help:

 

If you have any questions regarding adult onset diabetes, or need help in reducing the risk of diabetes for yourself or someone you know, please don’t hesitate to contact me at Jason.crow@www.betterbodyblackheath.co.uk

 

 

Kind regards, Jason

 

Managing Director, Better Body Group