
The lifestyle changes that can cut type 2 diabetes risk
The lifestyle changes that can cut type 2 diabetes risk
By Dr Rangan Chatterjee Doctor in the House
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Type 2 diabetes affects approximately 3.5 million people in this country and is thought to cost the UK around 20bn per year in both direct and indirect costs.
This is a staggering amount of money spent on a condition largely caused by our lifestyle choices and environment.
On Doctor in the House, I try to help 39-year-old La-Vern. Her mother, Doreen, already has type 2 diabetes and is worried that La-Vern is going down the same route.
La-Vern is a busy, single mother who does two jobs and, as a result, is exhausted and stressed.
She has not yet crossed our diagnostic threshold where we would say she has type 2 diabetes, but her blood sugar and fasting insulin levels are not "normal" either. Her results suggested that she was on the road towards type 2 diabetes.
This is an ideal opportunity to practise true preventive medicine. Type 2 diabetes is a late event. By the time you get a diagnosis, things will have been going wrong in your body for many years.
La-Vern's symptoms of fatigue have already affected her quality of life. However, her lifestyle is not only causing her to feel unwell, but is driving her towards a type 2 diabetes diagnosis further down the line.
This is one of the big problems in medicine today - things are often said to be black or white, normal or abnormal - but what about optimal?
I am an advocate for trying to recognise problems before they happen. Why should we wait for people to get a
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