You Can Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
From the Show: Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital - Its Your Health Radio
Summary:
Air Date: 12/10/21
Duration: 10 Minutes
Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital offers the "Prevent T2" lifestyle change program,, a national diabetes prevention program approved by the CDC.
Transcription:
Melanie: Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital offers the PreventT2 Lifestyle Change Program, a National Diabetes Prevention Program that's approved by the CDC. Welcome to It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. And today, I invite you to listen as we discuss diabetes and how to possibly prevent it.
Joining me is Kim Brown. She's a registered dietician nutritionist who's currently working at Henry Mayo Fitness and Health as a community educator. Kim, I'm so glad to have you join us again today. So tell us a little bit about diabetes. There's type 1 and type 2. We hear all these different terms. Can you tell us a little bit about the difference in those types of diabetes?
Kim Brown: Okay. So type 1 is an autoimmune disorder. You can be diagnosed with it at a very young age. And more and more people are being diagnosed with type 1. Consequently, all types of diabetes, the incidence is going up, but that's an autoimmune disorder. Type 2 is a little bit different. Also, gestational diabetes is related to type 2. Everyone who eventually gets type 2 at some point had pre-diabetes. And right now, about a third of our nation has pre-diabetes and about 90% of those people are unaware of it. So, we're just trying to bring awareness. So by the year 2050, it's anticipated that the percentage of people who are pre-diabetic will become diabetic.
Melanie: Wow. You know, there's some very fascinating statistics about diabetes. But you mentioned just now, Kim, pre-diabetes. Tell us a little bit about what would even send us to our doctor. If we're not somebody who maybe is getting their well checks every year, getting their blood work done or a glucose tolerance test, are there any symptoms that would signal pre-diabetes or a full-blown diabetes, something that would let people know, you know, it's time to go to the doctor? And if you've been told that you have pre-diabetes, is there any stopping the roll to full-on diabetes?
Kim Brown: A lot of people who are diagnosed with pre-diabetes, sometimes they're surprised, you know, because there really are no symptoms that lead up to it. You don't start really having some typical symptoms of type 2 until you're actually diagnosed with it and your blood sugar is running really high. Some people are expecting it because they have a family history of it. So some people are not that surprised that they have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes.
There are some things that you can do to prevent it. One of the first things that you can do is try to achieve a healthy body weight. And if you're not quite sure what that is, achieving a body mass index of 18.5 to 25, you can Google body mass index, and it's basically your height and your weight. And it is a chart that kind of shows you what a healthy body weight range is. If you're not in that range, if you're overweight, the studies show that losing about 5% to 7% of your current body weight, which for most people is like 5 to 10 pounds helps to reduce your risk.
Another thing that people can do is if you're not exercising now, you need to start moving your body. Every adult over 18 should be exercising at a moderate intensity for about 150 minutes per week, which is the equivalent of walking five days a week for 30 minutes. There's also really good studies showing that resistance training a couple of days a week helps improve the situation even more. So if you're not doing this now, start slow. If you are totally sedentary, you know, maybe jumping off the couch and, you know, doing 150 minutes a week is too much. Maybe just start off with three days a week and start walking 10, 15 minutes until you can work your way up to that.
And the third thing that is recommended to help reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes is eating a low fat diet. And the reason for this is, number one, fat has twice as many calories as the other two macronutrients, protein and carbohydrates. And the increase in calories translates to increased weight gain. And the other thing that helps with low fat eating is that when you eat more fat, this also contributes to the problem of insulin resistance. So exercise and low fat eating helps with insulin resistance, which I'm not sure if your listeners are aware of what insulin resistance is, but it's when your body might still be making enough insulin, but it's just not being able to be used efficiently by the body.
Melanie: Well, exercise does have an insulin-like effect, which is something that I learned in graduate school as an exercise physiologist. It was one of our more important things that we learned, because as you said and as you reiterated about the importance of exercise, it opens the door as it is. You know, lets that insulin in so that the working muscles can use it, right? I would like for you to tell us about the PreventT2 Lifestyle Change Program. Tell us what this is offered by Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital and how it really can help somebody who might be told they have pre-diabetes or diabetes to lose weight, become more physically active, reduce stress, something we all certainly need right now, Kim. So tell us about this program.
Kim Brown: So Henry Mayo Fitness and Health and our community education department, we've been offering the National Diabetes Prevention Program for about four years now. We are about to start our eighth cohort. We have full recognitions for our program as a place of excellence that meets the CDC's criteria. It is a lifestyle change program. It is led by the Centers for Disease Control. We use their curriculum and it's all based on research. It is a proven program and it's shown to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes in high risk patients. The delay part is that we can't guarantee that if you take a one-year program and that you do everything that you're supposed to do, if you do everything perfect, it doesn't guarantee that you won't get diabetes. We can promise that we can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes by 58%. There is a genetic factor in this. And so we tell our participants, you know, there's some aspects of this that you just can't do anything about. So we focus on the things that we can control, like moving our bodies, like what we eat.
So we spend a year together, it is a one-year commitment. And so we have lots of time to work on new healthy habits where in may be in some other weight loss programs, you know, they might come to an end really quickly or you might lose a bunch of weight real quick, and then you're on your own and you don't know how to maintain it and the weight comes back on. We stay with you and we're with you during the hard times, the challenging times. And we help you work through it without, you know, reverting back to some of your unhealthy behavior.
So the structure is it's a one-year program. The first six months, we focus on losing that 5% to 7% of your current body weight and getting in that 150 minutes a week of exercise. Hopefully, you get to your goal within that first six months. And we focus on maintaining that second six months. If you don't get to your goal, that's okay. We keep working on it for the whole entire year.
Melanie: Wow. What an excellent program and so helpful. So tell us a little bit about some of the food issues that people -- you know, you're a dietician, you're a registered dietician nutritionist, and while diabetes has a link to what we eat, obviously people have a lot of confusion. They say, "Oh, I can't eat tomatoes or certain carbohydrates," but not all carbs are bad, right? I mean, we're not getting fat eating carrots and tomatoes. Tell us a little bit about good carbs, bad carbs, the food and why we even need to understand the food that we're eating.
Kim Brown: Well, one thing I teach my diabetes, self-management class is when people are diagnosed with type 2, like you said, there's a lot of misinformation out there. They hear that carbs are really bad. And so sometimes that's the first thing they cut out. They cut out all carbohydrates and they start focusing on protein and vegetables, which a lot of times, when you eat more protein, a lot of fat comes with that and there's nothing wrong with protein and vegetables. It's just with all the extra added fat, we talked a few minutes ago about how fat contributes to insulin resistance. And then some people just think, "Oh, I'm cutting back my calories, so I don't have to exercise either." So they've added the fat and they've reduced their exercise and voila! Yeah, they've cut out carbohydrate, but they still got an insulin resistance problem.
And so we talk about what healthy carbs are. We talk about the high fiber choices. We kind of expel some of the myths about some fruits, you know, being evil. I eat bananas, you know. You can have them, you just have to have the right portion. So we talk about cutting your bananas in half, and we talk about how some fruits have more sugar than others. We talk about selecting whole grain, you know, fibrous starches and grains versus the white, the processed. And so it becomes really clear what selections they should be making.
Melanie: Well, I'm so glad that you discussed that because it is a source of confusion for a lot of people. And another thing that we've been hearing that I'm hoping you can tell us a little bit about, and that you probably work people. You mentioned it a little bit before in the PreventT2 Lifestyle Change Program at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital is the link between stress and sleep and diabetes. I know that's a big topic, right? It's a big part of this all, but how do you work with patients so that they know what to expect when they get there, in stress reduction, maybe sleep management, quality of sleep, all of these things that contribute to diabetes or prediabetes?
Kim Brown: I'm glad you brought that up because that's actually in the curriculum. We have whole classes dedicated to just getting more sleep and reducing your stress. So the first thing I want to say is stress and lack of sleep raises blood sugar. So you can be doing all these wonderful things for yourself, like eating right and exercising. But if you're not sleeping and you're not doing anything to manage your stress and your blood sugar is up, you might start to think, "Well, maybe these dietary interventions and maybe my exercise isn't really helping me" and start to feel a little deflated. So yeah, we need to get enough sleep. For adults, it's at least seven hours and not too little sleep and not too much sleep, just right. Somewhere between seven and eight hours for adults. Managing your stress. And they go hand in hand too.
So we talk about pre-bedtime rituals, start winding it down a little bit before you go to sleep, reducing your caffeine usage in the afternoon. Listening to calm music or putting on something on TV that doesn't raise your stress levels. Taking a warm bath, purposely warming the body up a little bit before bed. And what happens after that is you cool down. As you're cooling down, that actually promotes you to fall asleep.
So we talk about all these kinds of techniques. We talk about different free offerings here, community education with stress management. We have a class practicing mindfulness. We were partnering with Remo Drums. We were doing a drum circle. And then we talk about some of the free apps on phones, like Calm and Headspace, which you can turn on Netflix at your house on your big TV and Headspace is on your television. So there's so many free resoruces.
Melanie: I didn't know that.
Kim Brown: Yeah.
Melanie: That's awesome.
Kim Brown: You can get Headspace on Netflix. There's so many free resources. And of course, YouTube, you know, all you got to do is type in your keywords for what you're looking for and, voila! You know, a 10-minute video pops up and you didn't have to pay for it.
Melanie: Wow. You've given us so much to think about today and learning new things all the time, Kim. So as we wrap up, give us your best advice for lifestyle and management prevention. What would you like people to know about diabetes controlling their blood sugar and the PreventT2 Lifestyle Change Program offered by Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, which is approved by the CDC, which I think is just so cool.
Kim Brown: The most important thing I can say is just start moving your body. If you're sitting on the couch, get up, start moving around. Go for a walk, start counting your steps. And reach out to us. You can go to henrymayo.com/communities/diabetespreventionprogram. You can take one of our diabetes prevention program information sessions. It's a 30-minute session that gives you all the information that you'll need. If you're thinking about joining a program, our next class is December 1st at 5:30. We're here for you to answer all of your questions and we look so forward to helping you reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes.
Melanie: What a great episode this was and so much information packed into one little podcast. Kim, thank you so much for joining us again. Great guest as always. To learn more about Henry Mayo's Diabetes Prevention Program, you can call (661) 200-2300 or you can visit our website at henrymayo.com for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. That concludes this episode of It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
Melanie: Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital offers the PreventT2 Lifestyle Change Program, a National Diabetes Prevention Program that's approved by the CDC. Welcome to It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. And today, I invite you to listen as we discuss diabetes and how to possibly prevent it.
Joining me is Kim Brown. She's a registered dietician nutritionist who's currently working at Henry Mayo Fitness and Health as a community educator. Kim, I'm so glad to have you join us again today. So tell us a little bit about diabetes. There's type 1 and type 2. We hear all these different terms. Can you tell us a little bit about the difference in those types of diabetes?
Kim Brown: Okay. So type 1 is an autoimmune disorder. You can be diagnosed with it at a very young age. And more and more people are being diagnosed with type 1. Consequently, all types of diabetes, the incidence is going up, but that's an autoimmune disorder. Type 2 is a little bit different. Also, gestational diabetes is related to type 2. Everyone who eventually gets type 2 at some point had pre-diabetes. And right now, about a third of our nation has pre-diabetes and about 90% of those people are unaware of it. So, we're just trying to bring awareness. So by the year 2050, it's anticipated that the percentage of people who are pre-diabetic will become diabetic.
Melanie: Wow. You know, there's some very fascinating statistics about diabetes. But you mentioned just now, Kim, pre-diabetes. Tell us a little bit about what would even send us to our doctor. If we're not somebody who maybe is getting their well checks every year, getting their blood work done or a glucose tolerance test, are there any symptoms that would signal pre-diabetes or a full-blown diabetes, something that would let people know, you know, it's time to go to the doctor? And if you've been told that you have pre-diabetes, is there any stopping the roll to full-on diabetes?
Kim Brown: A lot of people who are diagnosed with pre-diabetes, sometimes they're surprised, you know, because there really are no symptoms that lead up to it. You don't start really having some typical symptoms of type 2 until you're actually diagnosed with it and your blood sugar is running really high. Some people are expecting it because they have a family history of it. So some people are not that surprised that they have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes.
There are some things that you can do to prevent it. One of the first things that you can do is try to achieve a healthy body weight. And if you're not quite sure what that is, achieving a body mass index of 18.5 to 25, you can Google body mass index, and it's basically your height and your weight. And it is a chart that kind of shows you what a healthy body weight range is. If you're not in that range, if you're overweight, the studies show that losing about 5% to 7% of your current body weight, which for most people is like 5 to 10 pounds helps to reduce your risk.
Another thing that people can do is if you're not exercising now, you need to start moving your body. Every adult over 18 should be exercising at a moderate intensity for about 150 minutes per week, which is the equivalent of walking five days a week for 30 minutes. There's also really good studies showing that resistance training a couple of days a week helps improve the situation even more. So if you're not doing this now, start slow. If you are totally sedentary, you know, maybe jumping off the couch and, you know, doing 150 minutes a week is too much. Maybe just start off with three days a week and start walking 10, 15 minutes until you can work your way up to that.
And the third thing that is recommended to help reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes is eating a low fat diet. And the reason for this is, number one, fat has twice as many calories as the other two macronutrients, protein and carbohydrates. And the increase in calories translates to increased weight gain. And the other thing that helps with low fat eating is that when you eat more fat, this also contributes to the problem of insulin resistance. So exercise and low fat eating helps with insulin resistance, which I'm not sure if your listeners are aware of what insulin resistance is, but it's when your body might still be making enough insulin, but it's just not being able to be used efficiently by the body.
Melanie: Well, exercise does have an insulin-like effect, which is something that I learned in graduate school as an exercise physiologist. It was one of our more important things that we learned, because as you said and as you reiterated about the importance of exercise, it opens the door as it is. You know, lets that insulin in so that the working muscles can use it, right? I would like for you to tell us about the PreventT2 Lifestyle Change Program. Tell us what this is offered by Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital and how it really can help somebody who might be told they have pre-diabetes or diabetes to lose weight, become more physically active, reduce stress, something we all certainly need right now, Kim. So tell us about this program.
Kim Brown: So Henry Mayo Fitness and Health and our community education department, we've been offering the National Diabetes Prevention Program for about four years now. We are about to start our eighth cohort. We have full recognitions for our program as a place of excellence that meets the CDC's criteria. It is a lifestyle change program. It is led by the Centers for Disease Control. We use their curriculum and it's all based on research. It is a proven program and it's shown to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes in high risk patients. The delay part is that we can't guarantee that if you take a one-year program and that you do everything that you're supposed to do, if you do everything perfect, it doesn't guarantee that you won't get diabetes. We can promise that we can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes by 58%. There is a genetic factor in this. And so we tell our participants, you know, there's some aspects of this that you just can't do anything about. So we focus on the things that we can control, like moving our bodies, like what we eat.
So we spend a year together, it is a one-year commitment. And so we have lots of time to work on new healthy habits where in may be in some other weight loss programs, you know, they might come to an end really quickly or you might lose a bunch of weight real quick, and then you're on your own and you don't know how to maintain it and the weight comes back on. We stay with you and we're with you during the hard times, the challenging times. And we help you work through it without, you know, reverting back to some of your unhealthy behavior.
So the structure is it's a one-year program. The first six months, we focus on losing that 5% to 7% of your current body weight and getting in that 150 minutes a week of exercise. Hopefully, you get to your goal within that first six months. And we focus on maintaining that second six months. If you don't get to your goal, that's okay. We keep working on it for the whole entire year.
Melanie: Wow. What an excellent program and so helpful. So tell us a little bit about some of the food issues that people -- you know, you're a dietician, you're a registered dietician nutritionist, and while diabetes has a link to what we eat, obviously people have a lot of confusion. They say, "Oh, I can't eat tomatoes or certain carbohydrates," but not all carbs are bad, right? I mean, we're not getting fat eating carrots and tomatoes. Tell us a little bit about good carbs, bad carbs, the food and why we even need to understand the food that we're eating.
Kim Brown: Well, one thing I teach my diabetes, self-management class is when people are diagnosed with type 2, like you said, there's a lot of misinformation out there. They hear that carbs are really bad. And so sometimes that's the first thing they cut out. They cut out all carbohydrates and they start focusing on protein and vegetables, which a lot of times, when you eat more protein, a lot of fat comes with that and there's nothing wrong with protein and vegetables. It's just with all the extra added fat, we talked a few minutes ago about how fat contributes to insulin resistance. And then some people just think, "Oh, I'm cutting back my calories, so I don't have to exercise either." So they've added the fat and they've reduced their exercise and voila! Yeah, they've cut out carbohydrate, but they still got an insulin resistance problem.
And so we talk about what healthy carbs are. We talk about the high fiber choices. We kind of expel some of the myths about some fruits, you know, being evil. I eat bananas, you know. You can have them, you just have to have the right portion. So we talk about cutting your bananas in half, and we talk about how some fruits have more sugar than others. We talk about selecting whole grain, you know, fibrous starches and grains versus the white, the processed. And so it becomes really clear what selections they should be making.
Melanie: Well, I'm so glad that you discussed that because it is a source of confusion for a lot of people. And another thing that we've been hearing that I'm hoping you can tell us a little bit about, and that you probably work people. You mentioned it a little bit before in the PreventT2 Lifestyle Change Program at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital is the link between stress and sleep and diabetes. I know that's a big topic, right? It's a big part of this all, but how do you work with patients so that they know what to expect when they get there, in stress reduction, maybe sleep management, quality of sleep, all of these things that contribute to diabetes or prediabetes?
Kim Brown: I'm glad you brought that up because that's actually in the curriculum. We have whole classes dedicated to just getting more sleep and reducing your stress. So the first thing I want to say is stress and lack of sleep raises blood sugar. So you can be doing all these wonderful things for yourself, like eating right and exercising. But if you're not sleeping and you're not doing anything to manage your stress and your blood sugar is up, you might start to think, "Well, maybe these dietary interventions and maybe my exercise isn't really helping me" and start to feel a little deflated. So yeah, we need to get enough sleep. For adults, it's at least seven hours and not too little sleep and not too much sleep, just right. Somewhere between seven and eight hours for adults. Managing your stress. And they go hand in hand too.
So we talk about pre-bedtime rituals, start winding it down a little bit before you go to sleep, reducing your caffeine usage in the afternoon. Listening to calm music or putting on something on TV that doesn't raise your stress levels. Taking a warm bath, purposely warming the body up a little bit before bed. And what happens after that is you cool down. As you're cooling down, that actually promotes you to fall asleep.
So we talk about all these kinds of techniques. We talk about different free offerings here, community education with stress management. We have a class practicing mindfulness. We were partnering with Remo Drums. We were doing a drum circle. And then we talk about some of the free apps on phones, like Calm and Headspace, which you can turn on Netflix at your house on your big TV and Headspace is on your television. So there's so many free resoruces.
Melanie: I didn't know that.
Kim Brown: Yeah.
Melanie: That's awesome.
Kim Brown: You can get Headspace on Netflix. There's so many free resources. And of course, YouTube, you know, all you got to do is type in your keywords for what you're looking for and, voila! You know, a 10-minute video pops up and you didn't have to pay for it.
Melanie: Wow. You've given us so much to think about today and learning new things all the time, Kim. So as we wrap up, give us your best advice for lifestyle and management prevention. What would you like people to know about diabetes controlling their blood sugar and the PreventT2 Lifestyle Change Program offered by Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, which is approved by the CDC, which I think is just so cool.
Kim Brown: The most important thing I can say is just start moving your body. If you're sitting on the couch, get up, start moving around. Go for a walk, start counting your steps. And reach out to us. You can go to henrymayo.com/communities/diabetespreventionprogram. You can take one of our diabetes prevention program information sessions. It's a 30-minute session that gives you all the information that you'll need. If you're thinking about joining a program, our next class is December 1st at 5:30. We're here for you to answer all of your questions and we look so forward to helping you reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes.
Melanie: What a great episode this was and so much information packed into one little podcast. Kim, thank you so much for joining us again. Great guest as always. To learn more about Henry Mayo's Diabetes Prevention Program, you can call (661) 200-2300 or you can visit our website at henrymayo.com for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. That concludes this episode of It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
