Diabetes - How You Can Protect Yourself?

If you are concerned about diabetes and want to protect yourself from getting affected by the disease, there are several preventive steps you can take. These steps are simple and require some modifications in your daily life, activities, diet and overall lifestyle. Diabetes is a condition in which your blood-sugar level gets higher than normal and affects your health in several ways.

Here are some ways to protect yourself from diabetes:

1. You should know about the different causes of diabetes by speaking with health professionals, diabetes patients and by doing some online research.
2. You must put off the causes which you just cannot prevent and should abstain from aggravating them. These may include heredity and age-related causes. If diabetes runs in your family, there are high chances of you getting it as well. The chances are maximum when both your parents are diabetic.
3. Increasing age is another likely factor for developing diabetes. This is because the functioning of all your body system gets disrupted and slowed down because of age. Major cases of diabetes commonly occur after the age of 49.
4. Prevent the causes of diabetes which you can control. These include obesity, stress, high blood pressure and viral complications. Stress because of several factors such as physical injuries and emotional problems commonly cause diabetes in many people. Obesity and high blood pressure too are linked with the development of diabetes. Several viruses can settle in your system and lead to diabetes as well.
5. For preventing diabetes, you should conquer your obesity and attain a BMI or body mass index, which is within a normal range and is suitable for you. For men, the waist size should be maintained below 40 inches and in women, it should be under 38 inches.
6. Eating healthy food will help you stay away from diabetes. You should consume less sugar, fats and alcohol and consume milk, meat and other proteins in a moderate amount. You should consume whole foods, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, starchy foods and beans in large amounts. These items should highlight all your major meals.
7. Being physically active and exercising regularly is very important, if you want to stay healthy and prevent yourself from developing diabetes. You should climb stairs, walk, play and undertake activities which require you to move around.

To keep yourself safe from diabetes, you must take good care of yourself when you are ill in order to avoid several complications. Several viruses and autoimmune diseases lead to diabetes in which the immune system attacks the body. You should be careful of viral infections such as measles, influenza, rubella, mumps and many others. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult an endocrinologist.