I cannot write enough about diabetes. Because of its prevalence, I feel compelled to visit and revisit the subject just to remind us that cure is not only within reach but also in our hands. Diabetes is a devastating disease that can lead from one disorder to another: Vascular disease and amputations, eye problems and blindness, kidney and liver dysfunctions, heart disease and strokes, slow-healing injuries and infections, nerve damage, pregnancy complications and birth defects, memory loss and dementia and disability and premature death.
We all know that genetic tendencies play an important role, but we also know that we can increase the tendency to flare up through unhealthy eating habits, sedentary and stress-driven lifestyles, and of course obesity (fat concentration around waist). I have yet to see a family in my community that is not stricken by diabetes. It is either a grandmother or an uncle. In some families, most family members are diabetic due to obesity and bad habits.
Obesity has risen to all-time high levels — 23 percent in men and 43 percent in women. What is so sad is to see children as young as six developing adult type-2 diabetes when this type was only seen in the middle-aged and seniors. Because this type of diabetes does not have very pronounced symptoms, it passes undetected for some time, all the while causing serious health damage. Let us understand what diabetes is and what causes it.
Diabetes results when the body becomes incapable of metabolizing sugar, leaving sugar levels abnormally high in the bloodstream. Unchecked, this culminates in very serious complications. The disease presents itself in the three following ways.
Diabetes type-2 is provoked by poor lifestyle habits and genetic predispositions. The devil behind the ubiquity of the disorder is modern diets of junk food, hours of television watching, deskbound jobs, and inactivity, leading to obesity that makes cells resist the sugar-metabolizing hormone, insulin.
Secreted by the pancreas, insulin breaks down sugar into glucose to generate energy for breathing, moving, building, and repairing, to name a few. When fat cells become so engorged their receptors deny access to insulin which leads to insulin resistance. With continuous release, insulin gets exhausted and sugar remains in the blood stream, resulting in diabetes type-2. Circulating insulin in the bloodstream wreaks havoc in the body. Though this type is called adult-onset diabetes, it has become a risk to young, obese, inactive children as well.
Diabetes develops gradually, years earlier with pre-diabetic conditions and then insulin resistance. During the pre-diabetic period, blood sugar levels are on the normal to high side, close to 120, provoking vascular disease. With unhealthy diets, weight gain, and insulin resistance, the body struggles with correcting blood sugar imbalances.
The good news is that the condition is reversible with healthy nutrition, exercise, weight loss, and stress reduction before developing into full-fledged diabetes. Unless healthy lifestyle changes are made, the body becomes unable to burn sugar, and diabetes type-2 surfaces with symptoms such as frequent urination, persistent thirst, profuse perspiration, and sapped energy. Even at the onset of the disease, serious measures and lifestyle modifications can help lower sugar levels and decrease dependence on insulin or medication.
Unlike diabetes type-2, type-1 afflicts children and leads to insulin dependence as the pancreas stops producing insulin. Due to genetic depositions, malfunction, or virus, pancreatic functions become impaired. With no insulin to metabolize glucose, sugar remains in the bloodstream, showing the above symptoms plus severe weight loss.
The third kind is gestational diabetes, which can occur during pregnancy. Gestating women secrete hormones that channel some of the ingested sugar to the fetus, but these can also intensify insulin resistance. In the case of obesity, a genetic disposition to diabetes, advanced age, or polycystic ovaries, some pregnant women develop the condition.
Due to the mother’s high levels of blood sugar, the unborn fetus can become overweight, raising the risk to both parties. Half the women with gestational diabetes eventually become diabetic, and large or tiny infants at birth may end up with the disease. However with early diagnosis and treatment, risks can be averted for both.
Recent researches indicate that gum disease can trigger diabetes and heart and cardiovascular diseases due to oral bacteria, which escape to the bloodstream, making the immune system release anti-infection proteins that cause insulin resistance and vascular disorders. To prevent such complications, make sure you apply meticulous oral hygiene to also avoid gum disease and tooth decay and loss. Certain infectious diseases and health imbalances can trigger diabetes, too. Next week, we will discuss natural approaches for the prevention of diabetic complications, how to overcome or manage the disorder and live a healthy normal life.
