November is a dueling awareness month: Diabetes and Heart Disease. Well, maybe not so much dueling as jockeying for attention in competition with each other and the holiday looming up at the end of the month. Actually, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and Heart Disease (CAD) go hand-in-hand; so much so that once you are diagnosed with T2DM, it is automatically assumed that you also have CAD.

We still do not have a cure for T2DM, but there are a number of medications that when taken in combination with a healthy diet and other lifestyle changes can certainly delay the onset or even prevent the complications associated with this chronic disease.

To me, the most significant thing to have happened in T2DM management in the past 5-8 years, is the trend of identifying individuals who have pre-DM. Now, here is a group of people with the potential to stop the progression of T2DM right in its tracks!

Risk factors for pre-DM include:

• obesity
• sedentary lifestyle
• hypertension
• elevated triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol
• family history of T2DM

Research conducted by the CDC demonstrates that with modest lifestyle changes pre-DM can be reversed. YMCA–USA has partnered with United Health Care and Medicare to offer the Diabetes Prevention Program in your community. Why manage T2DM when you can prevent it in the first place?

By Nadine