How To Treat Diabetes Successfully

When diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, many people panic and are concerned that their life is over. In fact, if the disease is caught early, diabetes can be treated so successfully in many cases that the person is effectively living a normal life once again. When you ask your doctor about treatment options, you will likely hear that two modalities can definitely help: adding tree nuts to the diet and exercise.

Tree Nuts Can Help Diabetics

Tree nuts can help people with type 2 diabetes in numerous ways. Some directly help with glucose levels, while others help to modulate problems in the cardiovascular system that get worse with diabetes.

For example, walnuts contain vitamin E, melatonin, folate, and antioxidant polyphenols, as well as alpha-linolenic acid. Almonds, which are technically a fruit similar to plums, are nevertheless regarded by most people as tree nuts and they have significant benefits to memory. They also slow down the progression of certain symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

Managing Excess Fat

Excess fat, especially belly fat, promotes low grade continuing inflammation and oxidative stress, which have been implicated in a host of degenerative conditions including diabetes. Brazil nuts include multiple anti-inflammatory compounds such as magnesium, folate, selenium, phenolic compounds, and more. They also help to reduce cholesterol levels and improve lipid levels in the bloodstream, without contributing to weight gain.

Almonds, in particular, show promise for how to treat diabetes successfully. They help the body to stabilize glucose levels after meals and even contribute to the loss of dangerous body fat. They reduce the risk of T2-associated cardiovascular disease. By the same token, the polyphenols, fiber, monounsaturated fat, and magnesium present all facilitate glucose level stabilization.

Exercise Can Help

Research findings increasingly show that exercise is as fundamental to health as are eating, sleeping and breathing right. One neglects it at one’s own peril—the consequences simply take longer to show up. It hardly bears mentioning that exercise burns off calories and thereby helps to reduce belly fat, which is part of how to treat diabetes successfully. It also strengthens and enlarges muscles, which are major consumers in the body of glucose. A lean person with healthy muscles, which need not resemble a “gym body”, will burn off excess glucose much more efficiently than will an obese sedentary person with little musculature. Consequently, ingestion of food that stimulates a high post-prandial level of glucose will affect a fit person much less.

Photo: Julie Bodenmann, Nuts Essential to Health of Brain and Body, Psychology Today
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