One of every three people in the U.S. have either pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.   This represents an estimated 105 million people in America.  What makes these numbers even more worrisome, is the fact that diabetes also contributes to many other health problems.  Can anything be done to stop this tsunami?

Researchers at the  Medical School of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), have found something which could aid in the prevention of pre-diabetes.  There  appears to be an association between the body’s muscle mass, and lower incidence of insulin resistance and pre-diabetes.

Insulin resistance is a condition, where the insulin produced by your body fails, to adequately regulate your blood sugar levels.  As your blood sugar rises, your pancreas works harder to produce more insulin.  Eventually, your liver, fat and muscles do not respond to insulin.

This leads to pre-diabetes, where the blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but fall short of the levels necessary for a diagnosis of diabetes.  What makes pre-diabetes so dangerous, is that usually there are no symptoms.  Unless you get blood work done by a doctor, you will fail to know you have it.  Some experts estimate there are at least 7 Million people in the U.S., who are undiagnosed.

The UCLA study found that with every 10% increase in a participant’s muscle mass, resulted in:

• 11% decrease in the incidence of insulin resistance; and
• 12% decrease in pre-diabetes.

The Study’s author, Dr. Preethi Srikanthan, stated:

“Our findings suggest that beyond focusing on losing weight to improve metabolic health, there may be a role for maintaining   fitness and building muscle mass.”

In other words, losing weight may help some people, but for others building muscle mass may be a better prevention factor.  Obviously, more study is needed on these findings.  However, it does give health professionals another tool in their arsenal for fighting diabetes.

You can see a great video featuring Dr. Srikanthan, at this link to ibtimes.com.

As a public health issue, diabetes is a major cause of:

• Blindness;
• Lower-limb amputations;
• Kidney failure;
• Stroke; and
• Heart disease.

It’s a disease connected with nothing but bad results, for everyone affected by it.  There’s a primer of pre-diabetes, courtesy of the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, you will find at the link here.

The Bottom Line:  Don’t take diabetes lightly, because of the dire consequences associated with having the disease.  Make sure to talk with your doctor and get blood work done.  Often, diabetes is a disease produced by lifestyle choices.  Apparently, from the numbers presented, an awful lot of Americans are making bad lifestyle decisions.

Are you going to join the ”Big D” club?

It’s your life, live well.