mjhallberg@gloriadeistpaul.org 651-699-1378 ext 3031

SMALL LIFESTYLE CHANGES CAN PREVENT OR DELAY THE ONSET OF TYPE 2 DIABETES

If it's hard to imagine how small differences in lifestyle can make a big difference in your health, consider this story of identical twins Tim and Paul Daly. They shared almost everything in childhood, including the same eating habits, the same love of basketball and the same genes — some of which predispose them to diabetes.

Back in 1996, Paul was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. He was shocked. And this is a wake-up call — if you're the identical twin.

Since the disease runs in families, it seemed almost a certainty that Tim would develop it, too. "Because we know that Type 2 is genetic disease, and since he has an identical twin, he has a risk that's about 95 percent," says diabetes expert Dr. David Nathan of Massachusetts General Hospital.

But 14 years later, Tim still does not have diabetes. And he doesn't take any medicine to keep his blood sugar down. Instead, he has been able to make small changes to his eating habits and exercise to keep diabetes at bay.

He isn't alone — a large national study conducted at 27 sites around the country, including Massachusetts General Hospital, found that small lifestyle changes are far more successful at warding off diabetes than a drug.

Overweight and At Risk

Tim and Paul had both gained weight in middle age but Paul had gained at least 20 pounds more. Tim stayed more active while Paul was sedentary. At the time of Paul’s diagnosis, neither brother realized how closely Type 2 diabetes tracks with obesity. Still, they both set out to drop some weight.

A Lifestyle Change, Not A Diet

Paul was not excited about not being able to eat the foods he loves, pizza and beer and chips. But to his surprise, the changes he needed to make were not as drastic as he feared.

Two-And-A-Half Hours Of Exercise A Week

During Tim's first appointment back in 1996, a blood sugar test showed he was pre-diabetic — meaning his blood glucose levels were higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. At that appointment, he was given two specific goals: "He needed to lose 14 pounds [7 percent of his body weight], and he needed to reach a target of exercising for 150 minutes per week," explains Linda Delahanty, a registered dietitian at Massachusetts General Hospital.

His standing appointment with Tuesday-night basketball accounted for the first 60 minutes of exercise. But he needed to step it up. So he added some brisk walks and jogging a couple of miles a few times per week. He also made a change during his weekly golf game. He began walking the course instead of riding in a cart. Tim says learning to build more exercise into his week was not as challenging as learning to eat small portions all the time. But he learned to make that a habit, too.

Over time, all of these small changes led to something more significant than just getting down to his goal weight.

Reversing Pre-Diabetes

"Losing that 14 pounds actually caused his blood sugar to revert to the normal range from the pre-diabetes," Delahanty says. People think they need to lose 50 pounds or 100 pounds, Delahanty says, but in this case, just 14 pounds made the difference. "Small steps can result in really large benefits," Nathan says. "Just doing a little more will help enormously to prevent this disease”

Nathan says the Daly twins are not an anomaly. Eating better and exercising is incredibly effective in helping to manage Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes.

Though Paul Daly is living with the disease, he has been able to make progress by stepping up his daily walks. His battle is tougher than his brother's, so he has vowed to try harder. And there is now strong evidence that exercise — even in the absence of weight loss — can help improve blood sugars.

"We have 1.6 million new cases of diabetes per year," he says, and it's possible to prevent the onset of hundreds of thousands of these cases.

Maintaining the weight loss and exercise can successfully prevent the onset of the disease for more than a decade. He says an epidemic could begin to be reversed if lots and lots of people made these small lifestyle changes — and sustained them over time.

SUMMER CLASS OFFERINGS TO HELP INCREASE YOUR WEEKLY EXERCISE:

Gloria Dei Walking Club: Meets Mondays at 8:00 AM between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Carpool to the river, walk at your own pace for 45 minutes and meet for coffee and conversation following the walk. Meets in the church parking lot. Come when you can!

Growing Stronger: A weight training class with exercises designed to increase strength, improve muscle tone, promote bone growth, increased flexibility and balance. Meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 AM. Begins June 14th.

Yoga Devotion: A Christian Yoga class. Meets Tuesdays at 6:30 PM. Summer Session begins June 7 through August 16th.

Sign up on Parish Nurse bulletin board, or call or email me.

NEW! Chair Yoga Devotion: If there is interest, this class will be offered during daytime hours for those with limited mobility and may be hesitant to drive at night. This class will improve flexibility, movement, balance and ease in people with the challenges of arthritis, MS, Fibromialgia and simply aging. Email or call me if you are interested or have questions.

Did you know?

Store To Door, a non-profit organization, shops for and delivers groceries and prescriptions every two weeks to aging and homebound seniors in the metropolitan seven-county area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It is the only non-profit in Minnesota to focus exclusively on grocery delivery. They provide the service to more than 1,300 people from all income levels who want to remain independent despite their age, health, mobility or disability.