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There’s several things to find out about your health history in terms of Type 2 Diabetes.
The first is—is there a history of Type 2 Diabetes in the family?
Is there anyone in the family who has Type 2 Diabetes now?
Are there people in the family who have been told they’re at high-risk for developing
Diabetes or that they need to lose weight or be more active in order to prevent Diabetes?
People from certain racial and ethnic populations including African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos,
American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders, also have
a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
And then the other question is to find out if your mother had Gestational Diabetes during
her pregnancy.
If the answer to any of those questions is yes, talk to your doctor about getting tested
for Pre-Diabetes and Diabetes.
We know from the Diabetes Prevention Program and other studies that in fact there are things
that people can do who are at high-risk to prevent or delay the onset of Type 2 Diabetes.
For example, they can lose a modest amount of weight, become moderately physically active.
For example, walk 30 minutes five days a week, and make healthier food choices. And those
things can go a long way to lowering their risk, and therefore delay or prevent Type
2 Diabetes.
It sounds easy to say lose a modest amount of weight, become moderately physically active,
make healthier food choices, but we all know that it’s not that easy.
Making changes in lifestyle is one of the hardest things that people do. One of the
strategies that we know that works and helps is to involve the whole family in preventing
Diabetes.
So think about how as a family you can be more active, make healthier food choices and
support each other in those efforts to live a healthy and long life.
I think the first thing to realize is that change doesn’t happen with one giant sweep
of willpower.
So one of the strategies that we know that is effective is to take a big change and break
it down into steps.
So make it as simple as in order to be more active, in order to begin to lose weight,
what is one thing I can do this week that will help me to make a step towards that goal?
So for example, if you want to be more active maybe you need to start simply by looking
at your schedule and finding a good time to exercise.
Maybe you need to start with just a walk around the block. Maybe you need to look at do I
have the right shoes and the right time and the right equipment that I need?
So break it down into doable steps; figure out what the barriers might be and strategies
to overcome those barriers.
Two of the resources that we have available here are--first of all--the Small Steps--Big
Rewards because we know that by making a series of small steps you do in fact reap big rewards
in the prevention effort.
And second, Your Game Plan, which really helps you to think through step-by-step, what do
I want to do and how can I get it done?
Both of those tools are designed to help you think about what do I want to accomplish and
how can I break it down into steps that I can then achieve and then take another step
and then another step, and continue on the road to preventing Diabetes.
For additional information visit the National Diabetes Education Program at Your Diabetes
Info.org.