Did you know more than 24 million Americans have diabetes, roughly 6 million more don’t know they have it, and a staggering 57 million have “pre-diabetes?” Unfortunately, these shockingly high numbers are steadily increasing with each passing year. To prevent developing this disease yourself, follow a few simple steps to lower your risk.

Exercise Regularly
One of the worst things for your health is to live a sedentary lifestyle. Instead of watching television after you sit all day at work, go for a jog or head to the gym. Making your muscles work will improve their ability to use insulin and absorb glucose. A simple half hour of exercise per day can decrease your chances of developing diabetes by almost 30 percent.

Adjust Your Diet
Exercise and diet go hand in hand to help improve your health and prevent diseases such as diabetes. The biggest way to improve your diet is to eat more whole grains and cut out highly processed foods and carbohydrates. Are you a fan of soda? That’s unfortunate because drinking one or more beverages with a high sugar content can result in an 83 percent increase in risk of developing diabetes. You should also limit your consumption of red meat in favor of a more healthy protein source, such as chicken or fish.

Have a Drink Here and There
Abusing alcohol can severely hurt your body and actually increase your risk for developing diabetes. However, moderately drinking alcohol has been shown to increase the efficiency of insulin getting inside of glucose cells. Therefore, women who drink up to one drink per day and men who drink up to two drinks per day, have shown a decrease in risk of developing diabetes. Cheers!

Since diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases in the United States, everyone needs to practice these prevention methods to decrease their risk. For other useful tips and information, visit our blog! If you’re interested in learning more, or visiting The Arbors Assisted Living community, schedule a tour by contacting one of our five convenient locations:

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