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Diabetes Question of the Month (For Spectrum Health Beat)

If you’re living with diabetes or have been recently diagnosed, you surely have questions and concerns about this chronic condition.

This is the next installment in a series of frequently asked questions about diabetes, with answers from a Spectrum Health team of doctors, nurses, health educators and dietitians.

Question:

With proper diet and exercise, is it possible to reverse Type 2 diabetes?

Answer:

No. But with lifestyle changes—losing weight and keeping it off, plus regular exercise—you may be able to control your Type 2 diabetes without having to use medications.

Even if you don’t need diabetes medications, though, your body still has the genetics for diabetes.

If you were to slip back from a healthier lifestyle, your diabetes would likely become active, and you would again need medications to control it.

Question:

Will my life necessarily be shorter because I have diabetes?

Answer:

No. The treatments available to you can completely control it.

But if you don’t control your diabetes, it will control you, and that means facing some challenging work each day. Each of these tasks is not difficult; what makes them challenging is that there are so many to be done.

Don’t go it alone.

Spectrum Health’s approach is to help people with diabetes take care of themselves. Community members with diabetes are at the center of our team of professionals, resources and interventions.

If you’re someone with diabetes, when you work with the Spectrum Health team that’s taking care of you, you can do almost anything.

Do you have a diabetes-related question you’d like to pose to our experts? If so, comment on this story with your question, and we’ll seek to get you answers. To see other Q&A posts, visit Health Beat’s diabetes headquarters.