Basic Pursuits

The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse lists the following as common risk factors for type 2 diabetes:

• Being overweight.
• Being over age 45.
• Having a family history of type 2 diabetes.
• Giving birth to a large baby (more than 9 pounds).
• Having high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
• Having a history of heart disease.
• Maintaining a sedentary lifestyle and getting little or no
  exercise.

Type 2 diabetes is an acquired (not a genetic) condition in which the body does not properly process insulin. Most experts agree that it's brought on mostly by overeating.

So. Let's examine the risk factors. You can discard four of the seven because there's nothing you can do about:

• Being over age 45.
• Having a family history of type 2 diabetes.
• Giving birth to a large baby (more than 9 pounds).
• Having a history of heart disease.

Your doctor may be able to help with cholesterol and high blood pressure with medication.

But you can do something about being overweight and maintaining a sedentary lifestyle. The good news is that doing what you can do is probably more effective than anything a doctor can do for you and, successfully done, can modify the factors that you can't do anything about.

So do what you can do.

Powered by ScribeFire.