The easiest way to escape heart disease and early death

I test every single person that walks into my practice for blood sugar and metabolic disorders. This tells me whether my patients are prediabetic or not. And while it may seem like I’m jumping the gun, this knowledge can save your life.

Assuming you’re committed to a little positive change, that is.

Remember how I told you last week that as much as a third of the population has diabetes or prediabetes now? Well another recent study showed that the right diet and regular exercise (and especially both together) can delay the progression from prediabetes to diabetes.

Now, I know this doesn’t surprise you–because it’s the same thing I’ve been saying for years. But mainstream medicine obviously needs this message beaten a little harder into its metaphorical head.

It’s funny how so many conventional doctors think it’s okay to just wait for something to happen. They’ll just bide their time until you wind up with full-blown diabetes… and then they’ll treat you.

But that’s not how things work around here. I like to encourage you to be proactive with your health. (And I’m guessing you are–or you wouldn’t be reading this.)

And at the end of the day, type 2 diabetes is completely preventable. In fact, according to this new study, so is heart disease and early death from any cause.

This study showed a 17 percent reduction in heart disease death. And significantly lower rates of severe diabetic retinopathy–a leading cause of blindness–to boot.

And the only treatment required for these life-changing results was plain old diet and exercise.

The message here is clear. Lifestyle changes are the only prescription you need to keep diabetes and heart disease from sending you to an early grave.

And I’d say it’s a far more efficient way of dealing with a problem than taking statin drugs or other potentially deadly medications, wouldn’t you? Yet for some reason, doctors in this country would rather push Lipitor and a lifetime of pharmaceutical dependency than talk to their patients about the single easiest way to avoid certain death.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I actually have a degree in public health. So maybe that’s why studies like these incite a particular brand of rage in me.

Like I said before, this type of information needs to be drilled into people’s heads hard. We are in the midst of a major diabesity epidemic. And it is going to get far worse if the general public doesn’t understand the dire ramifications of not changing their sugar-addicted, couch potato ways. Every doctor needs to be emphasizing this simple-but-vital information. And the media needs to start throwing its influence around as well.

But you don’t have to wait for everyone else to catch up before you start your own health revolution. And the first step, as I’ve said a million times before, is knowing exactly what you’re up against.

If you haven’t yet, make sure you get your HbA1c checked. Push for this life-saving test, even if your doctor doesn’t think it’s necessary. (Believe me… it is.)

If your results are even slightly above normal–which, by my standards, is 5.3 or higher-then it’s time to do something about it now.

Source:

“Cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality, and diabetes incidence after lifestyle intervention for people with impaired glucose tolerance in the Da Qing Diabetes Prevention Study: a 23-year follow-up study.” Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2014 Apr 3.