Diabetes up 90%; can be stopped by moderate daily exercise

According to WebMD:
Scary Halloween news from the CDC: Type 2 diabetes is up 90% since 1997.

And that may be an underestimate because the numbers come from self-reported surveys conducted by the CDC in 1995-1997 and in 2005-2007. About a third of people with diabetes don't yet know they have the dangerous disease. . . .

What's going on?

"The growth in diabetes prevalence has been concomitant with growth in obesity prevalence," Kirtland and colleagues report in the Oct. 31 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

In the South, 27.3% of people are obese. But Americans aren't exactly lean in other regions. The obesity rate is 26.5% in the Midwest, 24.4% in the Northeast, and 23.1% in the West.

Obesity, the CDC says, is the major risk factor for diabetes. Yet it's not necessary to become thin to avoid this debilitating disease.

A study of people at high risk for diabetes shows you can cut your risk of diabetes by 58% in a three-year period by doing just two things:

* Lose 5% to 10% of your body weight.
* Five days a week, get 30 minutes of moderate physical activity.

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