What happens when a poor or inaccurate body image badly impairs your ability to make the best decisions for your health? The obvious answer is the worldwide health challenge -- the obesity epidemic -- we face today.

Because proper weight management is one of the keys in treating diabetes, researchers polled some 2,500 diabetes patients to determine if they really understood what constitutes a healthy body weight. Unfortunately, the perceptions of patients, as evidenced by the numbers, were largely wrong.

• Among obese patients, 66 percent believed overweight or obese measurements were in the ideal range.
• Some 41 percent of patients in the overweight range selected a higher than optimal body weight.
• More than 60 percent of diabetes patients with healthy body mass indexes thought they were overweight.

Fact is, diabetes and obesity are very treatable conditions, but both will take much work on your end to control. Eating the right foods for your body's unique nutritional type and getting the right amount of exercise and sleep will certainly help you gain control over both.

Additionally, an inaccurate perception of your body image is a marker of the deeper emotional challenges that can also cripple your health. Fortunately, there are safe tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique you can learn to pierce those emotional barriers.

Diabetes Care, Vol. 29, No. 3, March 2006: 695-697

EurekAlert March 13, 2006

Yahoo News March 20, 2006