Five Natural Ways to Decrease Your Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes
- From: rpautrey2 <rpautrey2@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 06:06:26 -0700 (PDT)
NaturalNews.com
Originally published October 2 2008
Five Natural Ways to Decrease Your Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes
by Dr. Ben Kim
(NaturalNews) According to the World Book Encyclopedia, the average
adult human body contains approximately 96,500 kilometers (60,000
miles) of blood vessels. This means that if you were to attach all of
your blood vessels together end to end, they could wrap around the
Earth almost two and a half times.
Some of your blood vessels are about as thick as a magic marker, while
others are as thin as a strand of hair. All of your blood vessels are
essential to your health because they provide the transportation
network that allows your blood to carry nutrients and oxygen to each
of your cells. Your network of blood vessels also allows your blood to
remove waste products from all of your cells.
Diabetes mellitus type 2 (referred to as diabetes throughout the rest
of this article) has the potential to be a devastating disease because
it slowly clogs up your network of blood vessels, destroying the
transportation system that your blood relies entirely upon to nourish
and cleanse your cells. Imagine injecting sugar-rich honey or jam into
your blood vessels and you have a good idea of why a high blood sugar
level is dangerous to your health.
Left unchecked, diabetes can result in complete blockages to your
circulatory system, paving the way to every health challenge that we
know of, the most common ones being heart disease, neurological
disease, vision loss, and sexual dysfunction.
How You Can Develop Diabetes
Whenever you eat sugar or foods that break down into sugar, your blood
sugar level rises. Your body senses this rise and makes your pancreas
release a hormone called insulin into your blood. Insulin circulates
throughout your network of blood vessels along with sugar, and acts as
key, opening channels that line your cells, which allows sugar to exit
your bloodstream and enter your cells. The net effects of optimal
insulin release and function are:
1. Lowering of your blood sugar level.
2. Making sugar available for energy production or storage by your
cells.
You can develop diabetes if you regularly eat more sugar and refined
carbohydrates than your body can properly use. With repeated intake of
sugar and refined carbohydrates, your body is forced to produce and
release insulin so frequently that one or both of the following
conditions may arise:
1. Your pancreas may not be able to produce enough insulin to
effectively deal with your sugar and refined carbohydrate intake.
2. Your cells may become resistant to the effects of insulin.
One or both of these conditions will eventually lead to a high blood
sugar level which, over the long term, will dramatically increase your
risk of developing blockages in your network of blood vessels.
How to Reduce Your Risk of Developing Diabetes
What follows are the most important steps that you can begin taking
today to dramatically reduce your risk of developing diabetes.
1. Regularly engage in some form of exercise that builds and/or
maintains your muscle mass. Muscle tissue has significant capacity to
store excess blood sugar in the form of glycogen. Simply put, the more
muscle you have, the more capacity you have to "soak up" excess blood
sugar and maintain a healthy blood sugar level. This is one of the
biggest benefits to doing some resistance training on a regular basis.
2. Be active! The more you move your body throughout the day, the more
sugar your cells need to burn up to produce energy.
3. Reduce or eliminate your intake of the following most common, sugar-
rich foods in today's grocery stores:
* Pop (soda)
* Doughnuts
* Pastries
* Conventional store-bought cookies, cakes, and muffins
* Conventional chocolate/candy bars
* Many boxed breakfast cereals
4. Eat magnesium-rich foods on a regular basis. Studies conducted by
researchers from Harvard University and published in the January 2004
issue of the journal Diabetes Care indicate that consistent intake of
magnesium-rich foods can significantly lower your risk of developing
diabetes.
Healthy magnesium-rich foods include:
* Brown rice
* Raw almonds
* Spinach
* Swiss chard
* Lima beans
* Avocado
* Raw peanuts
* Raw hazelnuts
* Okra
* Black-eyed peas
5. Consider consuming prickly pear cactus, called nopal, in Mexico.
Nopal is a natural plant that is grown throughout Mexico and the
southwestern United States and has been shown through several studies
to be effective at promoting optimal blood sugar levels.
If you follow the measures described above, you can confidently expect
to reduce your risk of developing diabetes and improve your overall
health.
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About the author
Ben Kim is a chiropractor and acupuncturist who lives in Ontario,
Canada with his wife and two sons. He provides information on how to
experience your best health as you age at his website, http://drbenkim.com.
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