Avoiding diabetes medicine with diet and exercise is the primary goal of a physician treating patients suffering from type-2 diabetes and also gestational diabetes. The idea behind this form of treatment rests in the fact that the condition is considered reversible if a patient's nutritional intake can be modified to such an extent as to reduce spikes of glucose in the blood stream. While gestational diabetes is a temporary phenomenon that should be resolved at the end of the pregnancy when the hormonal changes associated with the unborn child are normalizing once more, it is possible that this condition may morph into type-2 diabetes.

By and large, type-2 diabetes is considered to be caused by obesity. This, of course, puts it into the realm of control the patient has over her or his own ailment and yet the numbers of those suffering from this ailment are steadily rising. Granted, losing weight and reducing the bodily bulk — especially the kind of excess fat that is carried around the midsection and upper part of the body — is not easy to do, but the goal of avoiding diabetes medication with diet and exercise is the driving factor that keeps physicians and patients plugging away.

This of course begs the question why the failure rate is so amazingly high in this regard. The answer may be easier to find than you have anticipated: the methods used by some physicians and many patients to affect the dietary changes is either antiquated or unsustainable. Thus, the intake of food is viewed as a strictly regimented activity that falls under a strict diet plan. Unfortunately, this approach has been shown to backfire since it is next to impossible to live life on a diet that fosters feelings of self denial, deprivation, and perhaps even a sense of anger at not being allowed to make the kinds of food choices that were considered tasty before the diagnosis.

To this end there is now a new school of dieticians that specialize in making the avoidance of diabetes medication with diet an exercise a behavior modification plan that is supposed to last a lifetime. It includes a wide variety of acceptable food options — rather than a long list of things to avoid — and it alternatives between the quick and easy meals as well as the more complicated and labor intensive meal options. This empowers the patients to still make choices — only better ones than before — and it will foster a feeling of positive change rather than negative drudgery.

Exercise follows hand in hand with this approach, especially since the emphasis of fruits and vegetables offers the body energy to burn while many of the more processed foods would actually cut off a lot of the energy that would normally be needed to even conInstance any exercise. It is vital for any exercise program to be started slowly, gradually and without undue haste to see improvements in both stamina and strength. The goal is to see healthy results, not an overnight weight loss and strength increase!