They say misconceptions can kill. Well, Diabetes misconceptions have killed and will continue to kill many for years to come. We know so much about diabetes. We get information from many sources. From TV, from magazines, from the internet, from a neighbor, from the barber and from many other reliable and not-so-reliable sources.

This is precisely the reason why despite the fact that we know so much, still many more keep dying from this disorder. Because we fail to filter the chaff from the grain. And if we want to avoid Diabetes complications, we have to correct our deep-seated misconceptions.

1.”I’m not fond of sweets.”

Although a penchant for sweets will hasten your membership to the Honey Club, an aversion to it does not guarantee immunity from the disorder. First of all, sugar can be found NOT ONLY in sweets. ALMOST ALL the carbohydrates we take will be converted into sucrose (table sugar) by our intestinal enzymes and ultimately into glucose (blood sugar) before being absorbed into the blood. This would include bread, rice, root crops, and even unripe fruits. So, if your attention is focused only on sweets, you’ll have been shot from behind and you’ll never know what hit you.

2. “We don’t have a history of Diabetes!”

It would be difficult to trace all our relatives up to the 4th degree. And although advances in travel have made migration easier, it has also made recognition of distant relatives more difficult, and increasingly irrelevant. Until we find the need to trace our lineage.

3. “My blood sugar was normal last year.”

With the average western diet these days, yearly blood sugar monitoring is probably inadequate to guard against the onslaught of Diabetes in any individual. And besides, by the time your blood sugar goes up, Diabetes has been doing damage to your tissues for the past 10 yrs. An increase in blood cholesterol leading to hardening and narrowing of the arteries begins years before the blood sugar even starts to go up. It’s a Trojan Horse that does the damage while you snugly sleep, oblivious to the web of complications that this illness cunningly weaves.

4. “My cuts easily heal.”

Just like in No. 3, delayed healing of wounds is a late complication of Diabetes. So why wait to be a candidate for amputation? Landmines have done enough damage to innocent lives.

5. “My urine sugar is normal.”

Sugar in the urine is an effect of “filtration overflow”. When the sugar in the blood exceeds the kidney’s capacity to filter it, the sugar overflows into the urine. So in kidneys with high filtering capacity, the urine sugar may be negative in spite of a very high blood sugar. Are you going to wait for the bucket to spill before turning off the tap?

There are many other misconceptions regarding this terrible disease. Too many, in fact to occupy too many Ezine articles. But I suppose I have made my point. And if we are able to change our notion of this terrible disease, we might be able to transform our reaction to it from that of “What’s in it for me?” to “What can we do?”.

So if we think that we are exempted from this dreaded disease, that would be another misconception. Why don’t we take more time to learn more about it? And with the right information, we might be lucky enough to indeed get exempted.

One of the main contributors to the increase of type 2 diabetes is lack of exercise. Over the past years, people have gotten lazier with all the new technology advances, that there are millions of people that don’t ever exercise or get any physical activity in their life. This has caused the rates of people being diagnosed with the disease to increase dramatically.

Type 2 diabetes is when the body does not produce enough insulin for the body to function properly or the insulin that is produced is ignored by the body instead of being used. When the body does not have enough insulin, it is not able to produce energy, which is needed to keep the body working properly. Insulin is what lowers the blood sugar levels since it transforms the glucose into energy, but when a person has diabetes the blood sugar levels rise since no insulin is being used. People with type 2 diabetes can suffer from serious medical complications such as heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, and amputations of the limbs.

Although there may be some other factors in getting type 2 diabetes, such as genetics, the number one reason for a person being diagnosed with the disease is that they are obese or overweight. This is one of the reasons why exercise is so important when it comes to managing the disease. Just losing a small amount of weight through a healthy diet and regular physical activity can have a dramatic effect on your body. It can lower your blood sugar levels and help you to keep your diabetes under control.

Exercise also have some other great benefits to it for people who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or that are pre-diabetic. Regular, moderate, exercise can lower blood sugar levels. Since the body needs glucose (energy) to be able to workout, when you exercise you take can lower your sugar levels since you are burning them off with the work. The American Diabetes Association has recently approved a workout and lifestyle program called Kathy Smith’s Project:YOU! Type 2 which includes approved workouts for people with diabetes. These workouts are specifically geared towards people with type 2 diabetes so that they can lower their blood sugar levels while getting fit and losing weight. Project:YOU! Type 2 also comes with a nutritional guide with recipes to help with the diet aspect as well.

Some of the other benefits of regular physical activity for people with this disease are:

* Improves circulation and lessens the chance for heart disease or a heart attack. * Increases your energy level * Lowers your blood pressure * Improves your muscle strength * Reduces stress and anxiety

The best way to manage type 2 diabetes is to get on a regular exercise plan like Project:YOU! Type 2 and maintain a healthy and balanced diet. Then you can live a long and happy life and be in control of your body.