Diabetes is a significant risk factor for heart disease in women. When a woman develops diabetes, she loses her protective advantage as a woman and greatly increases her risk of having a heart attack. In the last 30 years, the death rate from heart attack has decreased 25% for all women except diabetic women, in which the death rate due to heart attack has increased by 25%. One in 9 women has diabetes, and of those, one-third of women do not know it. Untreated diabetes causes

• Heart attacks and strokes
• Poor circulation in the legs resulting in gangrene and amputations
• Blindness
• Nerve damage in the skin
• Nerve damage to the organs
• Depression
• Kidney failure 
• Recurrent vaginal yeast infections
• Complications in pregnancy
  • more birth defects
  • more C-sections
  • toxemia of pregnancy
  • overweight babies at risk for diabetes

Ninety percent of diabetes in this country is Type 2 diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas is unable to produce insulin. Type 1 usually develops in childhood. Type 2 diabetes is caused by obesity and occurs mostly in adults as they gain weight each year. As American children become more obese, they too are developing type 2 diabetes in greater numbers.

In contrast to type 1 diabetes, in which there is not enough insulin to bring glucose down, type 2 diabetics have very high levels of insulin. This is called pre-diabetes. Years before developing type 2 diabetes, obesity forces the pancreas to secrete large amounts of insulin. The more obese you are, the more insulin you produce, which lowers sugars to normal levels.  Since more women are obese than men, more women have very high insulin levels. A vicious cycle develops: high levels of insulin cause weight gain, especially in the middle, and weight gain forces the pancreas to produce more insulin, which in turn, causes more weight gain. Insulin in high amounts over many years is poisonous to the pancreas, and after years of obesity and very high insulin levels, the pancreas fails to produce any insulin at all. Without insulin, glucose starts to rise and type 2 diabetes develops.

In a recent article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers examined thousands of women who developed diabetes and uncovered some interesting findings. Not only were these women less active and more overweight than women who didn’t have diabetes, but they also had differences in diet.

Foods associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes included sodas sweetened with sugar (but not artificial sweeteners) and processed meat. Also bad: trans-fatty acids used to preserve foods such as crackers, cookies, French fries and microwave popcorn. Refined grains, which are so common in our diets, are grains like wheat and rice which have had the nutritious bran (outside layer containing fiber) and the germ (inside layer containing all the vitamins and minerals) stripped off, leaving just (non-nutritional) starch, which are simple sugars.

Food associated with a protective effect against diabetes included wine, coffee, cruciferous vegetables, yellow and green, leafy vegetables, tomatoes, beans and nuts which contain magnesium.

Diabetes shortens the life span and leads to a poor quality of life. Since diabetes is related to obesity, losing weight can prevent diabetes in the very early stages, of pre-diabetes. The changes you can make to prevent diabetes are the same things needed to prevent hypertension and abnormal cholesterol:

• Lose weight
• Exercise regularly
• Eat well: more fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, and no refined grains or desserts

If you already have diabetes, the things you need to do to live longer and live well include:

• Take your medications regularly
• Keep your sugars as close to normal as you possibly can
• Check your sugar at your doctor’s office every three months
• Take an aspirin a day
• Get yearly eye exams