A healthy diet and regular exercise program not only will ... ... but it also can improve your health ... your risk of ... certain ... ... by Harvard res A healthy diet and regular exercise program not only will improveyour appearance, but it also can improve your health anddecrease your risk of developing certain diseases. Recentstudies by Harvard researchers have concluded that moderateexercise and a healthy diet can prevent most cases of type 2diabetes - the most common form of diabetes. The studyoverwhelmingly indicated that by making the appropriatelifestyle changes, diabetes can be prevented over 90% of thetime. The study also concluded that lifestyle changessignificantly reduced the risk of getting the disease by 58%among people who already showed signs of developing diabetes.Type 2 diabetes accounts for over 90% of all diabetes cases. Itoccurs when your body can not properly utilize insulin ingetting nutrients to your cells. This results in high levels ofsugar in your blood. The number of cases of diabetes has beengrowing rapidly. Studies indicate that over 16 millionAmericans have some form of diabetes! Type 2 diabetes used to beconsidered a disease of the old, but not anymore. It is becomingmuch more prevalent in younger people and has recently beenshowing an alarming increase among young people.Diabetes is a disease where your underlying genetic background iscritical. If you have these genes and are at risk of developingdiabetes, your lifestyle decisions very well may determinewhether these genes become active or remain dormant.What is most interesting is that Harvard researchers determinedthat 91% of cases among the people they studied could have beenprevented by watching their weight, eating a healthy diet,moderate exercise, and not drinking and smoking. Beingoverweight is the number one reason people contract diabetes -61%of all cases are attributed to obesity and weight problems.Some other interesting facts: Overweight women cut their risk by24% simply by walking regularly. There is a direct correlationbetween the amount of exercise and instances of diabetes. Themore exercise, the less instances. Those who did 7 or morehours a week of exercise had a 29% lower risk than those who didnot exercise or exercised less than 30 minutes per week. Eatinga diet that is high in fiber, low in fat and low in partiallyhydrogenated oils (french fries, commercial baked goods) alsosignificantly decreases your risk. If you already do not do so,become a label reader!Pepper may not just be for seasoning. Capsaicin is a proteincompound found in pepper and peppers significantly lowers bloodsugar levels and increases insulin levels. Researchers have notconcluded if the pepper compound acts by increasing the releaseof insulin, or by slowing it's breakdown. Large doses of aspirinalso lower your blood sugar and is an effective treatment ofdiabetes, but researchers warn that that the large doses requiredhave detrimental side effects (intestinal bleeding, dizziness,nausea) that outweigh the benefits.There are many diseases and illnesses you have no control over,but type 2 diabetes is highly preventable by watching yourweight, exercising, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking ordrinking. Article Tags: Healthy Diet Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com