Battling Diabetes

Walk to Fight Diabetes!! The American Diabetes Society’s Step Out!

Check out the video here.

Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes, formerly America’s Walk for Diabetes, is about changing the face of diabetes in our country—by raising funds to help find a cure and by walking a few miles to bring a greater awareness to this devastating disease.

Step Out is a whirlwind day packed with energy, fun, support for others and a perfect amount of selfless dedication. Anyone can take part in Step Out—your participation isn’t measured by your dexterity or the speed you walk, but by the level of your enthusiasm and your commitment to ending diabetes.

Gather your friends and family to walk and raise funds for Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes in your city. Together, we can crush this epidemic.

Step Out. Start or Join A Team. Sponsor a Walker. Be a Volunteer.

By taking part in this event, you’ll be stepping out onto the streets to help change this growing epidemic. Here are a few more reasons you should take pride in participating in Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes:

• About one in 10 American adults now has diabetes.
• Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death by disease in the U.S.
• One out of every three Americans born today will develop diabetes in their lifetime if present trends continue.
• Nearly 5.7 million people (nearly one-quarter) of the 23.6 million children and adults in the U.S. living with diabetes are unaware that they have the disease.

Go to the site and find a walk near you.

Here’s the walks coming to my area:

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June 12, 2008, Reuters Health: Diabetic Weight Loss Plan Yields Long Term Success. One year later. The findings of the follow up of the Joslin Diabetes Center, Why Wait? program show that the participants of the 12-week program for Type 2 diabetics resulted in an average weight loss of 24.6 pounds and good control of blood glucose levels and blood pressure.

What is Why Wait?

The 12-week program involves exercise, dietary changes, education, counseling and adjustment of diabetes medications. Participants meet weekly and the program is insurance reimbursable. There is a monthly support session fee of $25 out of pocket.

Program components per the Joslin Why Wait? site:

• Intensive and interactive medication adjustments
• Structured modified dietary intervention
• Graded, balanced and individualized exercise intervention
• Cognitive behavioral intervention
• Group education

The dietary component portion of the Joslin Why Wait? program includes meal replacement shakes for breakfast and lunch. Snacks between meals. Dinners are from 14 menu selections from the Joslin Nutrition Guidelines. Nutritional breakdown of the meals are about 40% carbohydrate, 30% fat and 30% protein.

Additional Joslin weight notes per Why Wait? site:

• A modest weight loss of one pound every one to two weeks is advised.
• Reducing daily calories should be by 250 to 500 calories; total daily calories should not be less than 1,000 to 1,200 for women and 1,200 to 1,600 for men.
• Weight loss is different for each person and should be continued until a person reaches a target body mass index, or BMI.

Calculating target body mass index or BMI:

• Fit Watch
• Target Health
  

The exercise component portion of the Joslin Why Wait? program recommends ” A minimum of 150 to 175 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity is recommended. A target of 60 to 90 minutes most days of the week is encouraged.”

The medication component portion includes working with a diabetologist to reduce or eliminate medications that interfere with weight loss. It is includes more frequent glucose monitoring. Medications are adjusted weekly based on your personal results.

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Having diabetes is never a picnic. But fortunately, for a very large percentage of those who suffer from the disease, exercise can play a large role in the management of the condition. Not only does it improve overall health, helping to stave off future complications and deal with dips in well-being, it directly improves the diabetic condition. But, it needs to be done properly.

Before embarking on any exercise regimen, a diabetic should consult his or her physician and insist on clear answers and feasible suggestions. The diabetic will need to find out which exercises are safe and under what conditions. That will vary from person to person, and often day to day.

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Many factors contribute to the onset of diabetes, including genetic predisposition and diet. But exercise can help reduce the odds of getting and the severity of this disease.

Diabetes comes in two types, Type I and Type II. In either case, the body has difficulty regulating the level of blood glucose. Glucose is the primary source of energy for the body’s activities.

One basic reason is the inability to produce the proper amount of insulin, a hormone that helps transport glucose to the cells. In Type I diabetes the body can’t produce adequate insulin, so the loss has to be made up from the outside, usually via injection. This is the more serious type and control of the condition requires obtaining medical advice.

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