HOW TO BEAT DIABETES

Scientific breakthroughs are now helping to PREVENT the disease, and even put it into remission

- Sydney Loney

IN 2005, SUJAY NAZARETH, a 25-year-old IT technician in Delta, B.C., suddenly felt thirsty all the time. He began losing weight without trying, and he was tired no matter how much sleep he got. Nazareth described his issues to his doctor, who ordered a blood test. The test revealed he had type 2 diabetes. But it wasn't a diagnosis he wanted to deal with, so he didn't.

"I felt a lot of fear and confusion, so for the first nine years, I just hid from it," he says. "I took my medication and tried to give up sugary things, like pop, but I wasn't as careful as I should have been." Nazareth also avoided doing the bloodwork his doctor routinely asked for because he was pretty sure the results wouldn't be good. It wasn't until his daughter was born in 2016 that he decided it was finally time to tackle his disease. "I realized that I wanted to be around for her," he says. "It just struck me, like okay, I need to smarten up now and start taking care of myself." He only wishes he'd started sooner.

A type 2 diabetes diagnosis means your body isn't producing enough insulin (the hormone that controls the amount of sugar in your blood) or isn't able to use the insulin that it produces. Too much sugar in your bloodstream puts your organs, nerves, and blood vessels at risk and, left untreated, can lead to everything from heart and kidney disease to blindness and nerve damage that can result in limb amputation. Diabetes can reduce your lifespan by anywhere from five to 15 years.

Rates of the disease are rising in Canada-11.7 million of us currently have diabetes or prediabetes, largely because we're living longer and are increasingly more sedentary. "The primary cause of type 2 diabetes is the natural aging process," says Dr. Tom Elliott, medical director at BCDiabetes in Vancouver. "As you get older, your hair goes grey, your skin wrinkles, and your cells don't reproduce as quickly, including the beta cells that make your insulin."