That mixed feeling of dread and hope when standing on the bathroom scales is a familiar companion, a silent negotiation with the digital readout, writes Bill McCarthy

We are in the festive season, where excess is king, before coming back down to earth with a grim tale of the tape, the story of the scales, and new year resolutions.

Since I last wrote, the journey away from a diabetic future and all the potential horrors that entail has continued.

In my first two articles for the Star, I neglected to chronicle the weight loss because I did not want the story to be about weight watching. However, after just over two years from starting on a 10-month Healthier You Diabetes Prevention Programme, sponsored by the NHS, and run by the group Living Well Taking Control, the weight loss has been pretty dramatic, as have the attendant health benefits.

The type 2 diabetes threat revealed in a blood test, has receded, though it is always in the back of my mind - a persistent whisper of the dangers, which include nerve damage, vision loss, heart disease, kidney failure, amputations or death.

Not to mention the other dangers of being overweight, such as high blood pressure with stroke risk, and certain cancers.

So what is diabetes? Type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented and is an autoimmune disease where the body makes little to no insulin, requiring lifelong insulin therapy, while type 2 diabetes involves insulin resistance or insufficient insulin production.

This is very often linked to lifestyle, very much like mine at the time and is managed with diet, exercise, medication and sometimes insulin. In some cases the disease can be reversed.

According to the........

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