Even though you’re probably bombarded by messages from drug companies on every screen you own (televisions, smartphones, computers, etc.) promising better health and living through the magic of pharmaceutical chemistry, in truth a whole body, natural approach works best. And mainstream medical researchers are finally getting that after playing catch-up with alternative healers for years.
It turns out their own studies now demonstrate that a piecemeal approach to preventing blood sugar problems doesn’t compare to the type of total body, holistic therapy that alternative practitioners have been preaching for decades.
A study at St. Louis University shows that if you’re trying to effectively lower your risk for diabetes, you’d best combine diet with exercise. Dieting alone, or merely exercising without changing the foods you eat, may help, but when you add the two activities together, you get a synergistic benefit that you don’t get with either one individually.
As a matter of fact, the researchers discovered that if you are at risk for diabetes and you both exercise and eat less, you can double your improvement for insulin sensitivity and keep your blood sugar under better control.
The study also revealed that when you can lose 6 percent or more of your body weight with exercise and diet, your glucoregulation – how well your body keeps your blood sugar from spiking and falling dangerously – stabilizes significantly.
“On the surface it may seem obvious, and yet there are a lot of people who believe that if they maintain a healthy weight, it doesn’t matter what they eat,” says researcher Edward Weiss.” This study says you can be healthier if you exercise and eat the right amount of food. There is more to be gained by including both approaches in your life.”
My anti-diabetes prescription: Eat less. Move around more. Get enough sleep. And get plenty of magnesium. Dr. Michael Cutler suggests that you should take your magnesium supplement (for men: 330-350 mg/day; women: 225-265 mg/day) with 50 mg of vitamin B6 (pyridoxine). They work with each other and help each become more absorbable.
