Neighborhoods with easy access to healthy foods and safe places to exercise may help residents reduce their risk for type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests.

The study found that the risk of developing diabetes was 12 percent lower in neighborhoods with access to healthy foods. The researchers also found a 21 percent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes in areas with greater opportunities for physical activity.

When my friend’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, it had already progressed to stage 3. The year before, her husband had a died of liver cancer, and she later revealed to her family that her doctors had found a lump in her breast but since she was so overwhelmed with grief, she didn’t have time to deal with it.

Gestational diabetes may not receive as much attention as the type 1 and type 2 variants, but it can have equally serious consequences for both mother and child. Worse, its prevalence is growing in the United States.

Is Type 2 diabetes on the rise? By the year 2050, the American Diabetes Association predicts that one in three people in the United States will have been diagnosed with diabetes.

The U.S. Latino/Hispanic community is predisposed to type 2 diabetes and its relative health complications. However, new advances in health technology and research could improve diabetes management, and it could alter the course of the metabolic disorder.