Despite what you’ve heard, type-2 diabetes doesn’t have to be a lifelong sentence.

You don’t have to live with the disease or even “manage” it. It can be cured — and I mean really, truly cured: No more drugs, and no more insulin.

But there’s one supposed cure that I definitely don’t recommend, and that’s the dangerous stomach-shrinking surgeries making headlines lately.

Sure, those procedures can take the weight off fast. And in two new studies, the results were so good that surgery is now being touted as a cure for the disease.

In one, gastric bypass surgery brought blood-sugar levels down to normal in nearly half the diabetics who had it. In the other, 95 percent of diabetics who had biliopancreatic diversion surgery were in remission within a year, along with 75 percent of those who got the Roux-en-Y procedure.

Some patients in both studies were able to stop meds before they even left the hospital — and when you consider that diabetes drugs include some of the worst of the worst (Avandia, anyone?), I’m all for that.

But a dangerous surgery isn’t what I’d call the best alternative to drugs. Sure, it might lead to quick results — but this is one case where you don’t want to take any short cuts.

That’s because bariatric procedures don’t cure the biggest diabetes risk factor of all, and that’s the poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyle that caused the disease in the first place.

Just look at singer Carnie Wilson. She’s not a diabetic — not as far as I know, anyway — but she recently made headlines for having a second Lap-Band surgery after the weight she lost from her first one came back.

“I reverted back to old habits (like) mindless eating,” she recently confessed in an interview. As a result, she went from 150 pounds after her last surgery… to 236 pounds before her second procedure.

Her story isn’t as unusual as it might sound. In fact, it’s all too common — and that’s why surgery is a lousy choice, since studies show a significant number of people who get these surgeries relapse.

Besides, you’ve got other options here.

I know you do, because I’ve helped cure diabetic patients myself. I say “helped” because this is one case where a doctor can only do so much. The rest is up to you, and I won’t lie: It takes hard work, dedication and discipline.

But once you’ve done it, there’s simply no going back to “mindless eating” or any of your other old bad habits — and certainly no going back to a life of diabetes.

Gentlemen, there’s one more reason for you to lose weight whether you have diabetes or not. Keep reading for more.

The U.S. government’s dietary guidelines released last year allow people to get as much as 25 percent of their calories from added sugars. If it’s not immediately obvious why that’s a bad idea, a new study spells it out.

All that sugar is the fastest way to put yourself at risk for heart disease — and you can see the damage in just two weeks.

Forty-eight volunteers between the ages of 18 and 40 were asked to spend five weeks limiting added sugars to a single eight-ounce cup of fruit juice a day, bringing them all down to an equal level, sugar-wise.

Then, they were divided into three groups and given 25 percent of their daily calories from one of three types of sugar: glucose, fructose, or high-fructose corn syrup.

For the HFCS group, that’s the equivalent of 3.7 cans of soda a day for women and 4.4 cans for men — a lot of soda (and a lot of sugar), but still less than what you’ll find in a “Double Gulp” at your local 7-11.

After two weeks on this government-approved sugar high, the volunteers who had been getting their calories from fructose and high-fructose corn syrup had significant bumps in their levels of deadly triglycerides as well as a rise in LDL cholesterol.

They even had more apolipoprotein-B, a protein linked to plaque in the arteries, according to the study that will appear this fall in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

If that’s what two weeks of all that sugar will do to you, imagine what’ll happen to your body in two months, two years or two decades — if you even make it that far.

The study also offers more proof that you don’t have to eat fat to send your cholesterol levels through the roof. Sugar will do that for you all by itself. Natural fats, on the other hand, can actually help keep cholesterol levels under control as well as lower your blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Yet the same government that wants you to eat more sugar is constantly urging you to avoid fat — putting you on a collision course with diabetes, heart disease, and a premature demise.

The lesson here: No matter what Uncle Sam says, no amount of added sugars are an acceptable part of the diet.

I know, you can’t always avoid them… and everyone is going to indulge here and there.

But as a daily ration? Forget it.

It’s so easy it seems unreal: A key weapon in the fight against diabetes might be hovering right outside your window, right now.

It’s the sun — the primary source of vitamin D, and a new study shows how this pancreas-boosting super nutrient can
help stop the disease before it starts.

Researchers gave 92 pre-diabetics either vitamin D3 supplements, calcium supplements, both, or a placebo for four months — then ran some blood tests and found that patients who took the D3 had slightly better blood sugar levels.

Not that big of a deal.

But this is a big deal: The patients who took D3 had dramatically better pancreas function — with the organ’s beta cells showing improvements of up to 30 percent.

Those beta cells are needed to make insulin — and when they stop doing their job, you get diabetes.

The researchers wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that calcium didn’t make a difference when it came to giving those cells a lift — just the D3.

It’s not the first study to make the link: Research has found time and again that vitamin D can help control blood sugar levels (even more so than in this study) and lower the overall risk of diabetes.

One study last year found that people middle aged and older with the highest D levels had a 55 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes and 51 percent lower risk of metabolic syndrome than those with the least.

That should be enough to entice any pre-diabetic into spending more quality time under the sun, or at least investing in a quality D3 supplement — but while the sunshine vitamin is a great place to start, you’ll need a few more weapons if you hope to win the war against this disease.

Cinnamon — as in the spice, but you’ll want the extract — has shown an amazing ability to slash blood sugar levels and reduce your blood pressure, while the mineral chromium can reduce both fasting insulin and fasting glucose levels.

And if you want to put some punch into your plan, try Popeye’s favorite source of power: spinach. This leafy green is packed with magnesium, which studies have shown can lower your levels of insulin resistance and slash your risk of diabetes. (Read more here.)

Your body also needs magnesium to put its vitamin D to work — so if you’re going to get one, be sure to get the other.

Up next: More on vitamin D.

Cinnamon isn’t just a tasty spice… it could also help you beat diabetes.

A strong new study finds that a cinnamon extract can decrease blood sugar levels in people at risk for the condition.

And that’s some pretty sweet news no matter how you look at it.

Researchers randomly assigned 137 hyperglycemic patients with an average age of 61 to take either 500 milligrams of the cinnamon extract each day, or a placebo, for two months.

At the end of that period, the cinnamon group lowered their fasting blood glucose levels by an average of 7.5 percent, versus just 1.6 percent in the placebo group, according to the study presented at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s annual meeting.

The double-blind study also found that the cinnamon extract lowered blood sugar levels by 12 percent two hours after a carb-loaded meal. Those who took the placebo saw a drop of only 3.1 percent.

That’s all good… but of course, if you’re facing diabetes, you need a lot more than cinnamon – you need a healthy lifestyle. But adding cinnamon to your healthy diet just might help you make a quicker getaway from the scene of the disease.

And that’s not the only reason to add some of this sweet spice to your life.

Cinnamon is a powerful antioxidant that can help boost the immune system. It also has antibacterial and antifungal properties, and may help fight off yeast infections. Some people have had success using cinnamon to ease stomach problems, including gas and constipation.

And cinnamon tastes pretty good in food and drinks, too.

Just remember, these are the health benefits of cinnamon, not sticky buns. In other words, don’t use this to justify a trip to Cinnabon.

If you’re interested in unlocking the natural powers of cinnamon, skip the junk and buy the real thing – either completely natural cinnamon sticks or high-quality 100 percent ground cinnamon. One good way to enjoy it, of course, is blended into your coffee.

You can also get cinnamon from a supplement, either on its own or as part of an antioxidant blend.

But whatever you do, don’t get it from the food court at your local mall.