Penza therapist named five steps that delay diabetes for decades

In Russia, more than 5 million diabetics, and about the same number do not know about the diagnosis. Between health and diabetes of the second type lies a gray zone of prediabetes: sugar is already above normal, but it has not reached critical levels.

The chief therapist of the Penza region Elena Matveeva during the week of diabetes explained how to return sugar to normal. Prediabetes is called quiet: for years it does not declare itself, but already beats the vessels and heart. The good news is that, unlike diabetes, it is reversible. This is the last fork where you can turn, and changing your lifestyle reduces your risk of becoming sick by 58 percent.

Donate blood for glucose on an empty stomach is worth it if there is at least one factor: age after 45, waist more than 80 cm in women and 94 cm in men, diabetes in relatives, sedentary work, gestational diabetes in the past, polycystic ovaries or alarming cholesterol.

If the diagnosis is already there, panic early. Five steps will help to do without medication.

Rethink the plate: half non-starchy vegetables, a quarter protein, a quarter complex carbohydrates. A rigid diet is not necessary, it is important to remove glucose jumps. Avoid sodas, juices, ketchups, sweet yogurts and white bread, and look for maltose, dextrose, molasses and syrup on labels.

Find 150 minutes a week to move: muscle is the main glucose user, and activity reduces insulin resistance.

Lose 5 percent of your weight. Even such a reduction reduces the risk of diabetes by 58 percent, because visceral fat interferes with insulin work.

Normalize sleep and stress. Lack of sleep and tension raise cortisol, and it releases excess glucose into the blood. Walking and breathing practices are a physiological necessity.

Check the vessels: with prediabetes, atherosclerosis has already been started. Take a lipidogram, monitor the pressure below 130/80 and have an ECG.

The doctor sums up: prediabetes is not a disease, but a signal that the chosen pace of life is not suitable. Five steps today are decades of healthy living tomorrow.