If you read my previous post on the top three ways to prevent diabetes then you know eating healthy, exercising more, and losing weight (especially belly fat) are keys to preventing diabetes. But there are actually lesser-known actions that can help you slash your diabetes risk because they help you stick to the “top three” more effectively. In this post, I’ll describe how sleep and stress management can help prevent and control diabetes.

Manage Stress

Is it me or are most people pre-wired for high anxiety and the go-go-go mentality? Work pressures. The economy. Life drama. No matter what day it is, you can bet there’s something going on that is making your blood boil. You don’t see it, but it’s killing you.

Chronic stress is linked to six of the leading causes of death. The link between stress and diabetes is hormonal. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a stress hormone that increases with severe or prolonged stress. The main effect of the hormone is increased food intake, increased proportion of energy stored as fat, and decreased physical activity. Uh oh. If you read the post on preventing diabetes, you know that excess fat, especially in the belly area, significantly increases your diabetes risk.

It has long been thought that it’s not just what you eat but when you eat that has an effect on gaining weight. A new study reaffirms this.

Researchers fed mice a high-fat diet during the normal time they ate. Those mice gained about 20 percent of their weight over a six-week period. But, when the researchers fed other mice the same diet, but during the time that they would normally be sleeping, those mice put on 48 percent of their weight.

While these results need to be duplicated in a human study, the researchers believe that the results will be the same.

First it was his ex-wife, Britney Spears is forever being pounded and hounded by the media; now Kevin Federline has the spotlight shining on him for his ever-expanding size.

Once a back-up dancer for Micheal Jackson, Justin Timberlake and Gwen Stefani, K-Fed used to sport a well-toned and fit physique. But perhaps it is the constant pressure of being mobbed by paparazzi, the agonizing battle over the custody of his two sons or his role as a full-time parent, Kevin has gained considerable weight in the past few months.

A study conducted in several hospitals examined whether obese women need additional weight gain during pregnancy.  It’s been recommended for years by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that pregnant women of normal weight gain 25-35 pounds, underweight women gain 28-40 pounds, overweight women gain 15-25 pounds, and obese women gain at least 15 pounds. These numbers are based on an individual basis, but those are the basic pregnancy weight gain guidelines to protect and ensure proper fetal development, nutrition, and increase chances of having a healthy pregnancy and delivery.  However, this new study sheds an interesting light on this.

The researchers followed 232 obese pregnant women, in which they were placed into one of two groups.  The control group received conventional prenatal nutritional guidelines to “eat to appetite” while the other half in the second group received a well-balanced, nutritionally monitored program including keeping a daily food diary. 

A new report was published today by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) regarding weight gain of pregnant women. Not since 1990 have the guidelines regarding weight gain during pregnancy been reviewed. In the past 20 years, the demographics of pregnancy have evolved and as such, it is clearly time to rethink the information being provided to pregnant women and their caregivers.

There is now more diversity amongst pregnant women than there was in 1990, as well as more multiple births and pregnant women tend to be older than they used to be. The most daunting statistic is that more women today become pregnant while overweight or obese, and continue to gain weight, putting themselves at risk for chronic disease and increasing health risks for the baby.