The Diabetes Epidemic

Here in the US, we really are in the middle of a type 2 diabetes epidemic. According to statistics published by the National Institute of Health in 2007, 23.1% of people aged 60 or over have either type 2 diabetes or pre – type 2 diabetes – that’s almost one in every four people! By some estimates, type 2 diabetes has increased over 700% in the last 50 years and is now officially responsible for 1 in 7 deaths, but even the NIH acknowledge  that this figure is likely to be on the low side. It’s not only in the US that people are being diagnosed in ever record numbers; the situation is similarly bleak in Europe, England, Australia and New Zealand.

Any way that you look at it, diabetes is a serious threat to your health and to your life, leading to obesity, renal failure, amputations, heart problems, strokes and a host of other health problems, all of which contribute to unnecessary suffering and early death.

Diabetes 101

So what is diabetes, what causes diabetes, and how can you avoid getting it in the first place? If you have been diagnosed with diabetes how can you regain your health without resorting to drugs that just treat the symptoms and don’t address the root cause?

Without getting too technical, there are two main types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2 but it is primarily the type 2 version which is associated with diet and lifestyle.

Type 1 diabetes, or juvenile-onset diabetes, develops when the body's immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make insulin, a hormone that controls the amount of fat that the body stores by regulating blood sugar levels. To survive, people with type 1 diabetes must have insulin delivered by injection or a pump. This form of diabetes usually strikes children and young adults, although disease onset can occur at any age. In adults, type 1 diabetes accounts for only 5 to 10 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. Risk factors for type 1 diabetes may be autoimmune, genetic, or environmental.

Type 2 diabetes, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) accounts for the remaining 90 to 95 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes in adults, and it is this type which is almost entirely preventable with a healthy diet and an active lifestyle. I have heard type 2 diabetes described as a ‘disease of choice’ because it almost always begins with someone choosing to eat a diet high in sugars, processed ‘empty’ foods and starchy carbohydrates, usually coupled with a sedentary lifestyle instead of a healthier diet and adequate exercise. New research is also demonstrating that exposure to lead, mercury, arsenic, aluminum and many of the chemicals found in food processing, such as alloxan, the chemical used in white flour processing also increases the risk of diabetes, as these toxins destroy beta cells, the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. 

The hormone dance

Every time you eat processed, refined sugary or starchy foods your body very quickly breaks these foods down into glucose and your blood sugar rises. As your blood sugar rises your fat produces a hormone called leptin, which tells your body that you have enough glucose in your blood and signals your pancreas to start producing insulin so that your cells can absorb the glucose and any not needed for energy can be stored as fat.  People whose pancreatic beta cells have been damaged by ingested food toxins will not be able to effectively absorb blood glucose and will store much more glucose as fat. When your blood sugar begins to fall, leptin is again produced by your fat – this time sending signals to your liver to start producing a hormone called   glucagon, which allows some of your stored glucose to be burned as fuel until you eat again.  

What foods increase the risk of developing diabetes?

A diet which is overly reliant on foods which quickly break down to glucose causes erratic spikes in the production of both leptin and insulin and if this situation is allowed to continue for too long, cells become less able to respond effectively and start to become resistant to their messages. Your body then begins to produce more and more leptin and insulin in an effort to make the cells respond, and the end result is a major miscommunication that tells your body to eat more and store more fat, instead of what it actually needs: to eat less and burn more fat. At this point it will become increasingly difficult for you to lose all of the weight you have gained.  Chronically high blood sugar levels will contribute to chronic systemic inflammation and you will start to notice other health problems which will almost certainly shorten your life if left untreated.

What to do?

Even if you have already been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes there are steps that you can take to regain your health without having to resort to prescription drugs. For more information on how you can use diet and lifestyle changes to overcome and prevent diabetes, please contact Flourish.