Pre-diabetes An alarm

When your blood sugar level is higher that it should be, but not yet in the diabetes range, you are termed a border line diabetic or pre-diabetic.

This means that insulin, the hormone that controls your blood sugar is not working well or that you are not producing enough insulin.

Pre-diabetes is a wakeup call to start taking care so as to avoid getting diabetes, and its other complications like heart disease or stroke.

Most people are not even aware that they are pre-diabetic until they get themselves checked. Some common symptoms are increased appetite, weight loss - despite eating more, increased thirst and urination, and weakness, tiredness or even blurry vision.

One may also develop dark patches at the elbow, knee, armpit or neck area and have skin infections and non-healing wounds.

What can you do? Read on to find out…

Diet
The cause of insulin resistance is fat inside the muscle cells and so the cure is to remove fat from the diet. This can be done by removing all animal products since they are full of fat. Plant foods on the other hand are rich in fibre, which is protective. Refined foods lack fibre and are risky too. A whole plant based diet is delicious and prevents diabetes and other diseases.

Family History
Our way of eating and living is hereditary more than diseases. And it gets worse with generations. You have the choice to escape the diseases of your parents and grandparents by eating healthily!

Hormones
Insulin is a hormone. Chemicals are hormone disruptors. Minimise the chemicals in your food by going organic. Minimise chemicals around you by choosing natural personal and home care products. Avoid hormonal treatments.

Medicines
Medicines too, are chemicals and certain medicines are known to cause diabetes – statins, some chemotherapy medications, some hormonal drugs like steroids. Real health is the best insurance against medicines.

Weight
Being overweight is a risk factor. Lose weight by finding ways to exercise that you enjoy coupled with a whole plant based diet.

Stress
Stress is a major cause of diabetes and prediabetes. Identify the cause of stress and then work on learning how to minimise it. Animal foods also increase stress levels because they are filled with adrenaline as, sadly, the animals in our food chain are always stressed.

High BP, high cholesterol, PCOD
These also increase the risk of diabetes. Fortunately, a whole plant based diet will also bring down blood pressure and cholesterol levels.