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As devastating as the disease of Diabetes is; as fast as it is growing in the U.S. and the world; as many people as it kills every year directly or indirectly thru its’ complications; one thing stands out: IT IS ALMOST ENTIRELY PREVENTABLE And it is one of the few major diseases that can be prevented. Given the level of obesity in the U.S. someone needs to wake up.

Studies show that if you are pre diabetic or have Syndrome X and you take certain steps and maybe even some medication, the good news is that the more serious problems can all be prevented.

Even if diabetes runs in your family, diet and exercise can help you prevent the disease. And if you’ve already been diagnosed with diabetes, the same healthy lifestyle choices can help you prevent potentially serious complications.

 Eat healthy foods. Choose foods low in fat and calories. Focus on fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Strive for variety to help you achieve your goals without compromising taste or nutrition.

 Get more physical activity. Aim for 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day. Take a brisk daily walk. Ride your bike. Swim laps. If you can’t fit in a long workout, break it up into smaller sessions spread throughout the day.

 Lose excess pounds. If you’re overweight, losing even 10 pounds can reduce the risk of diabetes. To keep your weight in a healthy range, focus on permanent changes to your eating and exercise habits. Motivate yourself by remembering the benefits of losing weight, such as a healthier heart, more energy and improved self-esteem.

Sometimes medication is an option as well. Oral diabetes drugs such as metformin (Glucophage) may reduce the risk of Type 2 Diabetes - but healthy lifestyle choices remain essential.

Weight loss of up to 10 % of your current weight will have an impact on lowering your blood pressure and raising your HDL or good cholesterol. A diet low in refined carbs such as soda, high fructose corn syrup, sugar and white flour bread and pasta will help with weight loss and getting your triglycerides down. And of course exercise-even a 30 minute walk a day can do wonders.

So be good to yourself, your spouse and children; lose the weight, exercise, and change your diet. If you don’t the evil downward spiral of Type 2 Diabetes will ruin your life for sure and maybe kill you.

Jack Krohn has had Diabetes, Pre-diabetes and Syndrome X for nearly fifteen years. He speaks from the experiences he has had during that time. He is also a free lance writer-the #1 author of Home Security Articles in the country.

To get more valuable information on diabetes, home security, or self defense products click on the links below.

To determine the symptoms of diabetes in children, parents must check if the child has sugar in his or her urine and monitor if the child visits the restroom very frequently. Does the child drink plenty of water, start to lose weight, feel hungry or tired all the time and observe if there are signs of the child becoming irritable easily.

Diabetes, a rather problematic disease, needs to be treated as soon as possible. Therefore, you must be on guard and look out for any possible diabetes symptoms in your child. If your child happened to be drinking much more water than usual, do not put restrictions on him or her, unless you are positive it is not a symptom of the disease. Otherwise, the child may risk getting dehydration since one of the symptoms is frequent urination.

The other symptom associated with children with diabetes is lethargy.

A diabetic child will tend to get tired easily and often very early in play, and more often than not, this symptom is related to acute thirst and frequent urination.

In order not to over-react or read the child diabetes symptoms wrongly, running a blood test will be the best and safest solution.

Besides acute or frequent thirst, the other equally common child diabetes symptom is excessive hunger. This symptom is one which is difficult for mothers to accept as a warning sign in their children. But if children gets overly thirsty and hungry most of the time, it must not be taken lightly. You will also find that despite increased hunger, the child does not gain but lose weight instead.

All of the above diabetes symptoms in children have to be read accurately so that treatments will not delayed and since diabetes is a serious disease it must be arrested and treated the soonest possible.

Diabetes becomes more prevalent with age. About half of all the cases are diagnosed over age 60. Nearly 6.3 million seniors - one in every five people over age 60 - may have diabetes. And another 6 million seniors who have impaired glucose tolerance are at high risk of developing the disease. There are two types of diabetes that can affect seniors. Type I diabetes occurs when the body’s immune system, for some yet undiscovered reason, mistakenly attacks and destroys the cells in the pancreas that are responsible for making insulin. However, 90 percent of the time when an older person gets the disease, it is diabetes II. If you have Type II, your pancreas is still doing its job. The catch is that it either isn’t producing enough insulin or it is making plenty of insulin but your body has developed what is known as insulin resistance. Although diabetes is a chronic disease that has no cure, here are a few suggestions that can help you.

1. Pay Attention To Your Feet

Inspect your feet and between your toes every day. Diabetes can damage nerve endings in your feet and toes, making it difficult for you to feel sores, blisters, and other injuries. Look for cuts, breaks in the skin, or swollen, red areas. Keep your feet clean and dry. Bathe your feet with warm water and mild soap every day. Dry them carefully, especially between the toes. Apply a thin coat of moisturizing lotion if the skin on your feet feels unusually dry. Wear clean socks and comfortable, well-fitting shoes. Never go barefoot. You are more likely to get injured if you do.

2. Avoid Large Meals

Spread your calories, especially those that come from carbohydrates, throughout the day in order to keep your blood sugar levels at optimal levels. So instead of two large meals, you may want to eat five or six smaller meals like half a sandwich and an orange.

3. Step Lively

Regular exercise is a vital part of any diabetes management plan. Just taking a 15-minute walk every day can help lower blood sugar and can help your body use insulin more efficiently. Some activities such as weight-lifting may not be safe for you, particularly if you have high blood pressure or diabetic eye disease.

4. Consume Fiber

Food high in water-soluble fiber like beans, oat bran, fruits, and nuts can help people with diabetes control their blood sugar. Soluble fiber slows the absorption of carbohydrates, so your blood sugar level may not rise as quickly. Try eating at least 20 grams of fiber a day. You will be well on your way to reaching your goal.

5. Follow The Pyramid

Even if you have a dietary plan specifically designed to control your diabetes, certain basics apply to everyone. It is recommended to take reference to the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Food Guide Pyramid for people who are 50-plus as an excellent starting point for any senior who has diabetes. These guidelines give you a general eating program that balances your consumption of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in a way that should provide good nutrition.

6. Treat Yourself

In the past, people with diabetes were told that they could not eat certain foods, namely refined carbohydrates like sugar, cookies, or sweets. However, all carbohydrates have similar effects on blood sugar. That means a cookie elevates blood sugar about as much as a slice of bread or piece of fruit. Moderation is the key. Try to keep your simple-sugar intake down to 10 percent of your total calories each day.

7. Know Your Enemy

Learn as much as you can about diabetes. The better you understand the disease, the more likely you are to be able to control it. Ninety-nine percent of the care and management of diabetes is in the patient’s hands. You have to prepare your meals, and monitor your blood sugars. You have to know what to do and when to do it. And you can do it if you don’t have the knowledge and skills.

Pre-diabetes, also known as “impaired glucose tolerance,” is a health condition with no symptoms. It is almost always present before a person develops the more serious type 2 diabetes. It is an alarming sign for upcoming diabetes or a chance to change your future. Universally numerous terms were given like, Borderline Diabetes, Chemical Diabetes, Touch of Diabetes etc. More and more, doctors are recognizing the importance of diagnosing pre-diabetes as treatment of the condition may prevent more serious health problems. For example, early diagnosis and treatment of pre-diabetes may prevent type 2 diabetes as well as associated complications such as heart and blood vessel disease and eye and kidney disease. Doctors now know that the health complications associated with type 2 diabetes often occur before the medical diagnosis of diabetes is made.

When there are indications that a person may be subject to developing diabetes, it may be prudent to be tested periodically to determine if the ailment is imminent. Many times a patient takes a diabetes test and is determined have pre diabetes, a level of sugar in their blood that may indicate it is likely they will develop diabetes. There are a couple of tests the doctor can perform to determine if a person has pre diabetes or full blown diabetes. Glucose that is not appropriately processed by the body will adhere to blood cells instead of being transferred into the body’s cells. The fasting plasma glucose test can determine how much sugar is in the blood for the past 30 to 60 days. A level of 100 or less is accepted as normal and a reading of between 100 and 125 is considered pre diabetes. When readings are over 126 they are consider to have diabetes.

Another test for diabetes can be done with the invasiveness of drawing blood, to determine how well the body reacts to sugar intake. A blood glucose test is performed with the results noted. The patient then drinks a 12 ounce soda with a high sugar content and the pre diabetes test is repeated. If the amount of sugar in the blood increases dramatically, it can be a sign the body is not producing enough insulin or that the insulin produced is not able to do its job. Most doctors rely on the fasting plasma glucose test for accuracy.

While genetic predisposition is one of the most commonly considered indicators a person may contract diabetes there are others to consider. Type 2 diabetes, or adult onset diabetes is more common if folks over the age of 45. Being overweight with a body mass index greater than 25 and during a glucose tolerance test, indications noted the patient is susceptible to developing diabetes. In some cases when pre diabetes has been detected a change in lifestyle and eating habits can help the body better process the sugar in the bloodstream, reducing the need for drug intervention later in life. Reducing the mount of refined sugar in the diet and working to reduce cholesterol levels have been successful in reducing the onset of diabetes. Exercise can also improve good cholesterol levels while helping to reduce bad cholesterol and is a benefit for those overweight in attempt to drop the extra pounds.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body is unable to produce enough insulin to break down glucose in the blood. That is why people with type 2 diabetes take insulin shots, to help raise their insulin level and break down the glucose. But there are ways to structure your type 2 diabetes diet that can help you manage your diabetes better and even potentially reduce the effects of the diabetes. The first way you can help yourself is to simply lose weight and get more exercise. Type 2 diabetes thrives in larger inactive people. So reducing your mass and increasing your blood flow and help reduce the effects of the type 2 diabetes. But here are some things you can do in a type 2 diabetes diet that can also help reduce the effects of your diabetes.

Simple carbohydrates are really bad to have in a type 2 diabetes diet. Refined sugars and sweets are dangerous and can cause a dangerous rise in the glucose level in your blood. What you want to do is increase your intake of complex carbohydrates and fibers to help reduce the need for your system to produce insulin as quick as it would need to with simple carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables are ideal for a type 2 diabetes diet because they are broken down slowly by your system and even a person with diabetes will have an easier time digesting complex carbohydrates because the insulin demand on the system is lower. So eat your fruits and vegetables and make sure you also get fiber into your type 2 diabetes diet.

In a type 2 diabetes diet you want anywhere from 10% to 20% of your daily intake of calories to have protein in it. Protein is an essential part of any diet but people on a type 2 diabetes diet especially want to make sure that they are getting their share of protein. Avoid doing much more that 20% as that can potentially lead to problems. Obesity is common in patients with type 2 diabetes and this condition appears to be related to insulin resistance. The primary dietary goal for overweight type 2 patients is weight loss and maintenance. Studies indicate that when people with type 2 diabetes maintain intensive exercise and diet modification programs, many can minimize or even avoid medications. Weight loss medications or bariatric surgery may be appropriate for some patients.

Try and keep your fat intake to less than 30% of your daily calorie count and try to eat as little saturated fats as possible. It is ideal to try and keep your saturated fat intake each day to a level below 10% of your calorie intake.

Various studies have found that women who had regularly consumed the greatest amounts of saturated fats had the least amount of additional atherosclerotic plaque buildup in their arteries. Also, women who ate more saturated fat had a healthier balance of HDL and LDL cholesterol, and more desirable blood serum concentrations of triglycerides and free fatty acids.

You want to try and make your diet as lean as possible and avoid adding any more fats or carbohydrates to your diet. It is advisable that you consume at least 20 grams of fiber every day which will be beneficial to patients suffer from diabetes.