Could You Be Pre-Diabetic?

Did you know there are approximately 415 million people in the world with diabetes? Most of them have type 2 diabetes. There are also more than 54 million Americans with pre-diabetes. A significant percentage of diabetics do not yet realize they have the disease.

The majority of pre-diabetics will progress to full blown type 2 diabetes within 10 years.

The good news is you don’t have to be one of them! You can avoid becoming a type 2 diabetic.

The bad news is that pre-diabetes isn’t really pre anything! If you are pre-diabetic your health is already suffering. You are at greatly increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, nerve damage, kidney damage and blindness. You are also more likely to develop a fatty liver, and experience great difficulty losing weight.

Pre-diabetes is also known as insulin resistance, syndrome X and metabolic syndrome. Luckily these conditions are reversible.

How is pre-diabetes diagnosed?

If you have 3 or more of the following conditions, you may be pre-diabetic:

• Abdominal obesity. This means a waist circumference greater than 40 inches in men and 35 inches in women
• Elevated blood triglycerides, greater than 150 mg/dL
• Low HDL “good” cholesterol. Less than 50 mg/dL in women and less than 40 mg/dL in men
• Fasting blood sugar greater than 99 mg/dL
• High blood pressure, greater than 130/85 mmHg

How to reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes

• Cut down on the amount of carbohydrate you eat. Sugar, grains, cereals and starches are all forms of carbohydrate. Eating too much carbohydrate can promote elevated blood sugar, elevated insulin and increased body fat deposition. Excess carbohydrate ingestion is also the biggest risk factor in promoting fatty liver disease.  Therefore, it is best to base your diet on vegetables, protein and healthy fats. There is an easy to follow eating plan in my book Diabetes Type 2: You Can Reverse It Naturally, and “I Can’t Lose Weight!…And I Don’t Know Why”.

• Help insulin to work better. There are certain herbs and nutrients that help to make insulin more effective in your body. This is a good thing because if it’s more effective, you won’t need to secrete as much of it into your bloodstream. Too much insulin in your bloodstream can be harmful because it encourages fat creation and increases hunger and cravings. The most important nutrients for insulin action are chromium and magnesium. You have probably heard that chromium helps to reduce sugar cravings and it’s true. It does this by helping to keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day. Chromium deficiency is incredibly common because not many foods are a good source of this mineral. Also when you eat sugar or high carb foods, it flushes chromium out of your body through your urine. Magnesium is also necessary for healthy insulin action. People who take blood pressure medication or diuretics (fluid tablets) are typically low in magnesium. Magnesium helps to relax your nervous system and makes you feel less stressed. Thus it is fantastic for people who eat when they feel stressed. Gymnema sylvestre is an herb that helps to keep your blood sugar stable and it helps to reduce sugar cravings. It is also very good for diabetics. Bitter melon is a vegetable that is commonly used in Asian cuisine. True to its name, it is an extremely bitter vegetable and many people are not able to handle the intense flavour at all. You can find all of these nutrients and herbs combined together in Glicemic Balance capsules. When taken with meals they help to reduce hunger and cravings and help to lower your blood insulin level.

• Take good care of your liver. A healthy liver is very important for blood sugar control. This is because the liver can store glucose and fat, and also produce glucose and fat. You want your liver to be good at fat burning. People with a healthy liver have a fast metabolism and don’t gain weight as easily. Unfortunately a lot of people have a fatty liver and their liver is doing the opposite of what it should be doing – it is very busy making fat. A healthy liver also helps to control your blood sugar level. If you have not eaten for several hours, your liver is supposed to release some stored glucose into your bloodstream to give you energy and keep hunger at bay. People with a sluggish liver struggle with this and they often feel excessively hungry, weak or irritable if they have gone several hours without food. It makes sticking to a diet extremely difficult! People with pre-diabetes typically have strong sugar cravings because they have a fatty liver and thus have poor blood sugar control and tendency to suffer with hypoglycaemia. To help improve your liver health I recommend you take a good quality liver tonic like Livatone Plus, to provide the nutrients your liver requires in order to burn fat and detoxify your bloodstream more effectively.

• Make sure you eat adequate protein in order to feel full and satisfied. Anyone can lose weight by drastically cutting down on their food intake, but no one can maintain a diet that leaves them feeling hungry all day. Protein and good fats help to keep you feeling full and satisfied, making a healthy eating plan far easier to stick to. Good source of protein include eggs, seafood, poultry, whey protein powder, grass fed meat, nuts and seeds. Healthy sources of fat include olive oil, avocados, grass fed butter, coconut oil, ghee, macadamia nut oil and olive oil. Try to have some protein and healthy fat at each meal, particularly breakfast. This should leave you feeling full and satisfied and less prone to snacking on sugary treats. Good breakfast options are a whey protein powder smoothie or eggs with vegetables.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.