If you have diabetes and peripheral neuropathy, it's critical that you carefully control your blood sugar levels. High blood sugar over time damages the blood vessels and nerves in your legs and feet. Fortunately, a good diet and regular, moderate intensity exercise can help improve your body's use of insulin, get your weight under control, and improve blood sugar.

Adopting healthy eating and exercise habits is "tremendously important" because it keeps blood glucose (blood sugar) levels under control, says Tom Elasy, MD, director of the Diabetes Clinic at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

"There is considerable scientific evidence that lifestyle changes can prevent the development and slow the progression of neuropathy," he says. "In addition, exercise like walking can relieve the pain, probably because it improves circulation."

To change your lifestyle:

What It Is

What is The Zone? Besides being the title of a mega-seller diet book, the Zone is a place where we find ourselves "feeling alert, refreshed, and full of energy," according to author Barry Sears, PhD. Sears, a former researcher in bio technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the book's co-author Bill Lawren maintain that life in the Zone is what wellness is all about.

Like other popular diet books, The Zone offers more than just weight-loss claims. By retooling your metabolism with a diet that is 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbohydrates, The Zone contends that you can expect to turn back encroaching heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Another much-touted advantage is better athletic performance. Sears doesn't come right out and claim he has found the cure for heart disease or diabetes, or how to win athletic competitions, but instead he provides glowing anecdotes from people who have taken The Zone to heart.

What It Is

What Color Is Your Diet? is a diet for health, especially cancer prevention. It's not specifically a weight-loss diet. But as it warns against sugars and fats, promotes exercise, and encourages sensible portions of healthy foods, a person following the diet would eventually lose excess weight.

What It Is

Since the early 1960s, Weight Watchers has been a kind of guru for people struggling with weight problems. The Weight Watchers program got its start when a few friends began meeting weekly to discuss how to best lose weight. That group of friends grew to millions of men and women around the world, who all follow the Weight Watchers mantra.

That mantra? Dieting is just one part of long-term weight management, Weight Watchers believes. A healthy body results from a healthy lifestyle -- which means mental, emotional, and physical health.