Weight loss!.. Not Fast, but being Slow and Steady wins the race :)

Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.

The slower (rationally slow) the process, the greater the results are sustained!

What is that one step you are getting started with?.. Share it with me, would like to hear from you and motivate you towards your health goal :)

Check your Blood Sugars!.. Diabetes Awareness!

You might not experience the symptoms, but might still have Diabetes, which may go unnoticed for a long time. And one day, when you go for a health check up or simply feel that a wound is not healing, your physician might advise you to check your blood sugars to find out if the blood sugars are high!

A worried client who was overweight asked me "Do I have a risk of developing Diabetes in the future? Should I get my blood tested for Diabetes?"

On this occasion of World Diabetes Day, I would like to share the answers to the above questions.

TESTING FOR DIABETES IN INDIVIDUALS WITH NO SYMPTOMS :-

1. Testing should be considered in all individuals who are overweight (for Asians, BMI > 23.0 kg/m2) and have additional risk factors:

• physical inactivity
• first-degree relative with diabetes
• high-risk race/ethnicity (Asians are at high risk)
• women who delivered a baby weighing >9 lb (4 kg) or were diagnosed with GDM
• hypertension (BP ≥140/90 mmHg or on therapy for hypertension)
• HDL cholesterol level <35 mg/dL (0.90 mmol/L) and/or a triglyceride level >250 mg/dL (2.82 mmol/L)
• women with polycystic ovary syndrome
• HbA1C ≥5.7%, IGT, or IFG on previous testing
• other clinical conditions associated with insulin resistance (e.g., severe obesity, acanthosis nigricans)
• history of Cardiovascular Disease

2. In the absence of the above criteria, testing for diabetes should begin at age 45 years.

3. If results are normal, testing should be repeated at least at 3-year intervals, with consideration of more frequent testing depending on initial results (e.g., those with prediabetes should be tested yearly) and risk status.

Diabetes is a condition which may not cause any symptom or discomfort for a very long duration, inspite of being present in an individual. It slowly but surely affects the heart, kidneys, eyes and the nerves and aptly has been known as the " Silent Killer". 

If you have any queries regarding Diabetes, please feel free to ask.