How to Prevent Diabetes

The number of people with diabetes is on the rise in the UK. It is alarming that in the last five years the number of people suffering from diabetes in Britain has risen by nearly 700,000!

We now estimate the number of diabetics in the UK to be around 3.7 million (Diabetes UK figure).

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a long term condition that causes a person’s blood sugar (glucose) level to become too high. The hormone insulin, produced by the pancreas, is responsible for controlling the amount of glucose in your blood.

Diabetes comes in two types, depending on how much insulin your pancreas produces:

• Type 1 – Pancreas doesn’t produce ANY insulin
• Type 2 – Pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin or the body’s cells don’t react to insulin

What are the Symptoms?

The symptoms of diabetes have been summarised below:

• Feeling very thirsty
• Passing more urine that usual – particularly at night
• Feeling very tired
• Weight loss and loss of muscle bulk
• Cuts or wounds taking longer to heal
• Itching around your penis or vagina, or repeatedly getting thrush
• Blurred vision

A full list of symptoms can be found here on the NHS website.

Be sure to make an appointment with Dyfi Valley Health if you think you have these symptoms! We can help!

How to Prevent Diabetes

It is obvious to say that prevention is better than the cure (or the ongoing treatment in the diabetes case). We have produced an easy to follow list of how to prevent diabetes.

1. Manage Your Weight – reducing body fat and cutting out sugar and refined carbs from your diet will significantly reduce your risk!
2. Drink Water – It sounds obvious doesn’t it! It will also minimise how much fizzy drinks you consume too.
3. Quit Smoking – if you’re a smoker, or exposed to high levels of second-hand smoke, you are more likely to develop serious health conditions…
4. Healthy Diet – It is simple and you have no doubt heard it a thousand times: cut down on sugar, eat more fibre, consume less carbs and eat fresh fruit and veg.
5. Exercise – If you get no, or very little, physical activity in a day then you need to start getting active.

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Talk to your GP or nurse practitioner at Dyfi Valley Health, who will be happy to give you more information on diabetes and how you can best prevent it. For more preventative measures see the following:

• Diabetes UK
• NHS Diabetes
• Health Line