In America, odds are you’re at risk of diabetes. That’s a fact. And what if your job was putting you at even higher risk for the disease?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 29.1 million Americans have diabetes. Of those, 8.1 million of them are undiagnosed, just carrying on with unhealthy habits that are bound to make things worse. Diabetes tends to be higher among seniors and most prevalent in American Indians and Alaskan Natives.
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Diabetes comes in two forms: Type 1 and type 2. Type 2 is the most common form we hear about because numbers are rising, even though it’s the type which is most preventable. Type 2 diabetes results from factors like diet, weight and activity level – all aspects we can control.
The problem is, too, if left untreated, diabetes can lead to vision loss, heart disease, stroke and even kidney failure. Diabetes prevention and management is necessary for the sake of America’s health.
New risk of diabetes
There are many ways you can prevent type 2 diabetes. Eating a balanced diet with fruits, vegetables and protein is a good start. Avoiding high-sugar, processed and fried foods is highly recommended as they can lead to obesity which is another risk factor.
Physical activity is also important as it can aid in maintaining a healthy weight. But there is one factor in diabetes prevention you probably haven’t heard of or even considered. It’s the time of the day when you work. If you’re on the night shift, your risk of developing type 2 diabetes jumps significantly.
New research: Working night shifts can raise risk of type 2 diabetes
In this day and age, many occupations have night shifts either because the work can only be done at night or the business runs 24 hours and requires round the clock workers.
Shift work or night shift isn’t just exhausting for many of us. There is pressing evidence to show the correlation between shift work and type 2 diabetes.
A compilation of 12 studies involving over 225,000 people revealed that those involved in shift work had a 9 percent increases risk of developing diabetes. The link was stronger among men and those on rotating shift work – think of a firefighter, some days and some nights.
Although the studies were conducted in Japan, where working environments can differ from those in North America, consider this a warning about our night-time jobs. There are many factors leading to a diagnosis of diabetes, but a major linked to night work is sleep disturbance. This relationship was also shown in the studies as a factor leading to type 2 diabetes.
Lack of sleep and diabetes risk
Lack of sleep on its own is a major risk factor for developing diabetes. Add to that the stress and upheaval in sleeping routines of shift work.
Another study published in Diabetologia looked at a group of 19 men with two different sleep scenarios. In the first sleep scenario, the men sleep for eight hours for four nights. The other scenario gave the men a bit longer sleep time, once again for four nights.
The nights where the men got only eight hours resulted in higher levels of fatty acids in their blood which lasted up to five hours in the morning as well. The longer the fatty acids remained in the blood, the harder it was for blood sugar to become regulated. The researchers noted this type of action to be similar in what occurs in pre-diabetes.
Hence the conclusion that a lack of sleep can lead to the onset of diabetes as blood sugar is not properly regulated.
Who is at risk of type 2 diabetes?
So what occupations are at highest risk ten of developing type 2 diabetes due to shift work? Well blue-collar workers and black women are actually found to be at the highest risk.
One study, published in Diabetologia, followed 28,041 black women workers for eight years. When the study began none of the participants had diabetes. By the end of the eight years, 1,800 had been diagnosed.
Generally in the United States, African Americans have a prevalence of diabetes of 13.2 percent – coming in second highest after native populations.
Type 2 diabetes prevention and management techniques
Really, there’s no secret to preventing and managing diabetes. It begins with lifestyle changes: Proper eating, regular physical activity and not smoking or over-consuming alcohols are the fundamentals of good health. When these factors are not followed, they become diabetes causes. These fundamental strategies are your type 2 diabetes natural remedies.
If you are overweight, losing a few pounds is essential to preventing diabetes. Diabetes management, then, is as simple as making healthy choices which will not only prevent and manage diabetes but will prolong your life overall.
Knowing your risk factors also is equally important in preventing diabetes. If you have a family history of diabetes that in itself can be a red flag that you will need to take necessary steps of prevention. Your ethnicity can put you at greater risk, as we’ve mentioned, and should initiate a more proactive approach to diabetes prevention.
Reducing stress can also be an important lifestyle change for coping with diabetes as well. Stress has been known to aggravate and worsen many illnesses and diabetes is not immune to the effects of stress. We know that shift work can be highly stressful! Meditation, exercise and the right foods are all means to reducing stress, among other strategies.
Even if you can’t escape your night-time job or shift work, make sure you are always getting enough quality sleep as that, too, can raise your risk. We all have to work, this much is true, but we don’t have to let our jobs make us sick.
It’s easy working nights to forget our healthy habits. Pack your meals and snacks to make sure you’re not opting for takeout or the vending machine, and never skip a meal. Meal-skipping is hard on blood sugar regulation and has been linked with an increase in diabetes risk.
But you can beat the odds! By following these simple diabetes type 2 lifestyle changes, you can prevent the onset of the disease.
Related Reading:
Turning 50? You could be at risk for diabetes
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Getting older has its pluses – life experience, wisdom, longstanding relationships. Our senior years can be fulfilling ones. But the other side of that coin is we’re more prone to chronic disease because of our aging bodies. There’s the wear and tear of time, and the cumulative result of not-so-healthy habits we may have followed over many, many years.
You’re at risk of diabetes if you’re not getting enough of this
It seems like there’s not enough time in a day to get everything we need to do, done. So instead of putting tasks off until tomorrow, we stay up later impeding on our sleep time. It may not seem like a big deal now to skimp out on some shut-eye, but over time, you’re actually impacting not only your weight, but your metabolism as well.
