★ It’s All Preventable. This Can Be Avoided.

1 in 10 Americans has some form of Diabetes. The number will increase to 1 in 3 by 2050.

This article hit me in the face today. It’s not surprising but it still hit me and it hit hard. I have a story to tell you. In January, I started out over San Francisco from an 11th floor doctor’s office. I arrived at this office after an odd rash began on the top of my feet and started growing. It now covered 50% of both of my feet with traces on my ankle. It was below the skin so I couldn’t just treat it with a cream. It was like my foot was dying. I was afraid.

After the blood work came back, my doctor told me that I was healthy as a horse. I had low cholesterol, normal heart rate and my blood flow looked great! My body fat index was high but I could have told him that. He read my blood sugar levels. They were high. They weren’t too high but they were only 10% under where someone who has Type II Diabetes should be at. Basically, I was one year away from being diabetic and I was only 23.

We began to talk about my lifestyle.

• I go to every tech party & event
• I travel to conferences
• I work from 8AM to midnight most every night of the week that I don’t have an event
• I don’t take vacations
• I haven’t stepped foot in a gym since moving to San Francisco
• My diet was take-out and catered meals served at events or dinner with business partners
• The most exercise I got was walking / biking to work (no more than 15 minutes a day)

He noticed that my health was pretty abnormal. When I explained to him that I did martial arts and worked out every day for my entire life (age 5 to 21) he acknowledged that this all makes sense. It turns out that my background with the food my parents made me and the exercise they made me do contributed to very good building blocks for everything else.

Basically, tuna & ramen, fruits, vegetables and vitamins with tons of physical activity taught my body the right habits but for 2 years, I was destroying my body and my body was responding appropriately by storying sugar as fat and my pancreas was doing all it could to combat the large amount of sugars that I was ingesting through Lattes, soda and large sub sandwiches and those monstrous San Francisco burritos. My body was losing the battle because my blood sugar was high.

The rash on my feet was common among people with diabetes but it was also the blood in my feet becoming clotted from sedentary day to day lack of activity.

I made some changes. I’m not out of the scary zone yet but I’m better. I lost quite a bit of weight and I lead a healthier lifestyle. Oddly enough, I didn’t cut out all drinking or red meat. I just started preparing everything at home to my specifications. I cut out breads and salts. I increased exercise. I became healthier. You have to remember that if it took you two years to gain 40 pounds, it’ll take another 2 years to lose it. This is not an easy process.

“In general, women with lower exercise/sport activity levels(s) and higher Body Mass Index (BMI)…were at an increased risk (of breast cancer) compared with women who reported more exercise/sport… and had lower BMIs,” (link)

Cancer can be prevented as well as diabetes.

“American government researchers said that obesityis quickly overtaking smoking as the country’s number one killer. In fact, obesity is becoming such a problem that many experts now say it is compromising all the benefits of recent improvements in health care and medical breakthroughs.” (link)

Heart disease and stroke…

Most people were not aware that heart disease was, and continues to be, the number-one killer of Americans (link)

Prevention…

Prevention is key, the experts agree, and Americans know what to do: Eat a healthy diet, keep their weight in check, exercise and don’t smoke. But instead, obesity and diabetes rates continue to rise. Roughly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. And the epidemic is spreading to teenagers and children. (link)

It’s sad to hear this. We’re building safer cars, we sit at desks surrounded by walls safe from earthquakes and hurricanes. We produce vaccines for diseases and have an abundance of food and there’s insurance for life, medical, car, home, rental and enough to go around so we can never have to worry about anything.

..but we’re killing ourselves.

Diet & Exercise. That’s all you have to do. If you have time to sit in a waiting room for 4 hours a week getting blood work and tests done and wait in line at the pharmacy for your prescription medicine and if you’re not okay with not being around for your kids or even your spouse then you can find time to exercise and cook meals at home.

If you can’t take the time to hop on a bicycle for 30 minutes a day and ride or walk to work instead of drive or turn into the gym on the way home, you’re killing yourself. We’re smarter than ever but we’re killing ourselves.

I’m not going to tell anyone reading this what to do. I’m only going to say that this can all be prevented and avoided. Everyone knows someone who has or has had cancer. Everyone reading this knows someone with diabetes. Please. For yourself and for your family just get outside and walk around. For your future, cut out bad foods and start buying quality fuel for your body. You’re worth it!

You deserve to live long and be happy. You deserve to be healthy and happy. Please just take a moment to commit to a healthy diet and moderate exercise 3 times a week. That’s it. Do it for yourself. do it for the world.