Counteract diabetes

How you can control diabetes naturally

Many people believe that there is nothing they can do about their type 2 diabetes.
However, it is known that a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise, a balanced diet and weight reduction can help to counteract diabetes.
In fact, these changes can even be more effective than medication (Mousavi et al., 2023).

In this blog post, we explain exactly what type 2 diabetes mellitus is and how it can be reversed.

If you are interested in the study results in more detail, you can read more about them here.

What exactly is diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body no longer processes sugar from food properly.
Sugar is absorbed into the blood via the small intestine wall during digestion.
Normally, the hormone insulin ensures that the sugar is transported from the blood into the cells, where it is used or stored as energy.
In type 2 diabetes, this system no longer works properly, causing blood sugar levels to rise.
Initially, the body produces more insulin, but at some point this is no longer sufficient and the blood sugar remains permanently elevated (ADA, 2014; Fonseca, 2009; Stumvoll et al., 2005).

Blood glucose can either be measured at home with a blood glucose meter or as a long-term blood glucose (HbA1c) at the family doctor’s office.
Type 2 diabetes is diagnosed when the long-term blood glucose level is ≥6.5% (HbA1c) (ADA PPC, 2022).

Is diabetes reversible?

Some risk factors for diabetes, such as age or genetic predisposition, cannot be changed.
However, others such as obesity, an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise and smoking can be influenced.
By improving these factors, up to 90% of type 2 diabetes can be prevented (Schellenberg et al., 2013; Zheng et al., 2018).

How can I positively influence my diabetes?

The aim of treating type 2 diabetes is to prevent complications and maintain quality of life (Davies et al., 2018).
A realistic target for long-term blood glucose levels (HbA1c) is below 7% for most adults (ADA, 2018b).
However, this target should always be adapted to the individual (ADA, 2018a).

Regular physical activity and healthy eating habits help to control blood sugar levels – this also reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease (Colberg et al., 2016; Davies et al., 2018).

The following tips can contribute to your healthy lifestyle and to lowering your blood sugar level:

Nutrition

Balanced eating habits help to reduce post-meal blood glucose response and insulin resistance in people with type 2 diabetes, and also support weight loss and cardiovascular risk factor control (Franz et al., 2015; Russell et al., 2016).

Various nutritional concepts have proven to be helpful for improving and stabilizing blood sugar, but it has not been conclusively clarified which nutritional concept is the most suitable.
It is therefore recommended to focus on the factors that all these nutritional concepts have in common:

Eat lots of vegetables, especially those that contain little starch such as cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers and broccoli.
Minimize added sugar in your food.
Sweet drinks and yogurts, for example, often contain added sugar.
Reduce refined grains in your diet.
This includes products made from white flour and cornflakes.
Avoid highly processed foods and eat more unprocessed foods.

Movement

Physical activity, i.e. exercise, has countless positive effects: blood sugar control is improved, cardiovascular risk factors are reduced and weight regulation is supported (Chudyk & Petrella, 2011; Lin et al., 2015).

Different types of exercise have different effects:

Aerobic exercise – including walking, running, cycling and swimming – improves insulin sensitivity, lowers long-term blood glucose, trigylcerides, blood pressure and insulin resistance (Bacchi et al., 2012; Heberle et al., 2021; Sampath Kumar et al., 2019).
However, as these effects do not last very long, daily moderate or high-intensity exercise is recommended (Hawley & Lessard, 2007).
Strength training increases muscle mass and strength and improves insulin sensitivity, glycemic control and blood glucose in people with type 2 diabetes (Bacchi et al., 2012; Gordon et al., 2009).
In general, 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week is recommended for adults.
Ideally, you should exercise daily and do strength training two to three times a week (Colberg et al., 2016).

Tip from Coach Céline

When we exercise, our body can absorb sugar from the blood into the cells without the help of insulin.
Exercise can therefore help insulin, which is no longer effective enough in diabetes, and lower blood sugar.
I recommend that you incorporate short daily exercise sessions into your daily routine to lower your blood sugar naturally.
How about a digestive walk after lunch?

Céline Lang

Personal Health Coach

Our recommendation

In summary, you can counteract diabetes if you pay attention to these three aspects:

Eat a balanced diet by eating lots of vegetables and unprocessed foods.
Exercise every day with at least moderate intensity – in other words, so that it is somewhat strenuous but you can still speak.
Train your strength two to three times a week.
You should plan at least one day’s rest between each strength training session.

Please discuss any lifestyle adjustments with a healthcare professional – this is particularly important if you are on insulin therapy or therapy with sulphonylureas.

A lifestyle intervention for type 2 diabetes mellitus consists of various aspects and must be individually tailored to your needs.
Therefore, let one of our trained personal health coaches accompany you and lower your blood sugar levels sustainably.

If you book your coaching program in August 2024, you will also benefit from two free InBody analyses worth a total of CHF 99.80, allowing you to check your progress even more closely.

(Note: The InBody analysis is carried out in Basel).

Sources:

American Diabetes Association (ADA).
(2014).
Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus.
Diabetes Care, 37(Supplement_1), S81-S90. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc14-S081

American Diabetes Association (ADA).
(2018a).
4th Lifestyle Management: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2018.
Diabetes Care, 41(Supplement_1), S38-S50. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc18-S004

American Diabetes Association (ADA).
(2018b).
6 Glycemic Targets: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2018.
Diabetes Care, 41(Supplement_1), S55-S64. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc18-S006

American Diabetes Association Professional Practice Committee (ADA PPC).
(2022).
2 Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2022. Diabetes Care, 45(Supplement_1), S17-S38. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc22-S006

Bacchi, E., Negri, C., Zanolin, M. E., Milanese, C., Faccioli, N., Trombetta, M., Zoppini, G., Cevese, A., Bonadonna, R. C., Schena, F., Bonora, E., Lanza, M., & Moghetti, P. (2012). Metabolic Effects of Aerobic Training and Resistance Training in Type 2 Diabetic Subjects.
Diabetes Care, 35(4), 676-682. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc11-1655

Chudyk, A., & Petrella, R. J. (2011). Effects of Exercise on Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Type 2 Diabetes.
Diabetes Care, 34(5), 1228-1237. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc10-1881

Colberg, S. R., Sigal, R. J., Yardley, J. E., Riddell, M. C., Dunstan, D. W., Dempsey, P. C., Horton, E. S., Castorino, K., & Tate, D. F. (2016).
Physical Activity/Exercise and Diabetes: A Position Statement of the American Diabetes Association.
Diabetes Care, 39(11), 2065-2079. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc16-1728

Davies, M. J., D’Alessio, D. A., Fradkin, J., Kernan, W. N., Mathieu, C., Mingrone, G., Rossing, P., Tsapas, A., Wexler, D. J., & Buse, J. B. (2018).
Management of Hyperglycemia in Type 2 Diabetes, 2018.
A Consensus Report by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD).
Diabetes Care, 41(12), 2669-2701. https://doi.org/10.2337/dci18-0033

Fonseca, V. A. (2009).
Defining and Characterizing the Progression of Type 2 Diabetes.
Diabetes Care, 32(suppl_2), S151-S156. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc09-S301

Franz, M. J., Boucher, J. L., Rutten-Ramos, S., & VanWormer, J. J. (2015).
Lifestyle weight-loss intervention outcomes in overweight and obese adults with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.
Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 115(9), 1447-1463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2015.02.031

Gordon, B. A., Benson, A. C., Bird, S. R., & Fraser, S. F. (2009). Resistance training improves metabolic health in type 2 diabetes: A systematic review.
Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 83(2), 157-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2008.11.024

Hawley, J. A., & Lessard, S. J. (2007).
Exercise training-induced improvements in insulin action: Exercise and insulin action. Acta Physiologica, 192(1), 127-135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-1716.2007.01783.x

Heberle, I., de Barcelos, G. T., Silveira, L. M. P., Costa, R. R., Gerage, A. M., & Delevatti, R. S. (2021). Effects of aerobic training with and without progression on blood pressure in patients with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review with meta-analyses and meta-regressions.
Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 171, 108581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2020.108581

Lin, X., Zhang, X., Guo, J., Roberts, C. K., McKenzie, S., Wu, W., Liu, S., & Song, Y. (2015). Effects of Exercise Training on Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
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Mousavi, S. S., Namayandeh, S. M., Fallahzadeh, H., Rahmanian, M., & Mollahosseini, M. (2023). Comparing the effectiveness of metformin with lifestyle modification for the primary prevention of type II diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
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Russell, W. R., Baka, A., Björck, I., Delzenne, N., Gao, D., Griffiths, H. R., Hadjilucas, E., Juvonen, K., Lahtinen, S., Lansink, M., Loon, L. V., Mykkänen, H., östman, E., Riccardi, G., Vinoy, S., & Weickert, M. O. (2016).
Impact of Diet Composition on Blood Glucose Regulation.
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Sampath Kumar, A., Maiya, A. G., Shastry, B. A., Vaishali, K., Ravishankar, N., Hazari, A., Gundmi, S., & Jadhav, R. (2019). Exercise and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
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Schellenberg, E. S., Dryden, D. M., Vandermeer, B., Ha, C., & Korownyk, C. (2013). Lifestyle Interventions for Patients With and at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
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Stumvoll, M., Goldstein, B. J., & van Haeften, T. W. (2005). Type 2 diabetes: Principles of pathogenesis and therapy. The Lancet, 365(9467), 1333-1346. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(05)61032-X

Zheng, Y., Ley, S. H., & Hu, F. B. (2018). Global aetiology and epidemiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus and its complications. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 14(2), 88-98. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2017.151