Those who have parents or other relatives with Diabetes are doomed to have the disease too right? According to a recent study done by a research team at the National Institute of Health led by Dr. Jared Reis, not necessarily so. The team looked at five lifestyle factors. Those were healthy diet, keeping an ideal body weight, being physically active, not smoking and minimizing alcohol use. The group started in the mid-1990’s and used a group of 200,000 older adults as their research group. They examined their lifestyle and these five factors. They examined whether or not the group developed diabetes over the next decade. Results were remarkable. When a healthy lifestyle was adopted lowering the diabetic risk, men had a 72% lower risk of developing diabetes. These were men who adopted all five of these lifestyle factors. This was even stronger in women who adopted all five lifestyle factors at 84% of those at lower risk.

The greatest effect of those lifestyle changes was for those who maintained an ideal body weight, but all the factors seemed to improve the risk of developing diabetes. Therefore, even those adults who are overweight or obese can benefit from a healthy diet, increasing activity, not smoking or using less alcohol.

Source: NIH News in Health, October 2011.
Author: Liz Smith, OSU Extension Educator.