Kelly Makiha: How we can stop being a type 2 diabetes statistic

Opinion: Type 2 diabetes can happen to us but we can do something about it. Photo / Getty

OPINION:

Us adults are a funny bunch.

We think we are all-wise and knowing when really we can be as naughty as children when it comes to doing what we're told.

Tell a child to pick up their shoes and chances are they won't listen - until you tell them they won't get jelly for dessert if they ignore you.

Tell adults to eat properly and exercise or you'll get diabetes and chances are they'll still opt for the Maccas drive-through if they're running late and haven't prepared dinner.

Sometimes it's not until we are faced with serious illness or even death, that we sit up and think that perhaps these experts saying things we don't want to hear might have a point.

Locals are facing what is being described as a "tsunami" of diabetes cases, according to new data that highlights the state of the disease in the Lakes region.

The local health board estimates the number of people with type 2 diabetes in the area will double in two decades.

It comes after the release of a PwC report commissioned by Diabetes New Zealand, the University of Otago's Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research Centre and Healthier Lives National Science Challenge, which predicts New Zealand is in trouble when it comes to this horrible disease.

But the thing about type 2 diabetes is that it is possible to reverse your fate.

I've had a run-in with diabetes before when I was pregnant with my twins.

I developed gestational diabetes and was told if I didn't change my eating my babies were at serious risk. That's all it took. Boom, I was a health fanatic.

The minute someone else's life was in danger as a result of my actions was all it took for me to wake up and eat better.

I lost weight during pregnancy and felt a million bucks despite being full of arms and legs growing inside me.

I swore as soon as the babies were born, I'd continue the healthy lifestyle. But like the yoyo dieter, I've been all my life, when I was greeted with cakes and buns from well-meaning visitors coming to see us, in the gob they went.

I'm sure I'm not alone in not wanting to become one of the predicted type 2 diabetes statistics, so let's take this news as a wake-up call to us all.

It can happen to us but we can do something about it.