nutrition and performance book

18. Diabetes
I thought I’d write a quick section on diabetes. Why? Well I find its quite often that I’ve been asked
about this topic and it amazes me that so few people know the reasons why it can occur. Especially
when so many people in the world suffer. Unfortunately, in most cases the suffering is self-inflicted.
It’s important to understand that diabetes is on the rise every year. This impacts the health care
services, financial implications and most importantly the lives of the ones suffering and the families
that surround them. It not uncommon to see amputee cases which are a by-product of the disease.
In 2014 there was an estimated 422 million cases of reported diabetes worldwide. In 2012 it caused
1.5 million deaths. There were 2.2 million deaths caused by higher than normal blood glucose levels
resulting in cardiovascular diseases. Out of these 3.7 million deaths 43 percent were occurred before
the age of 70. Scary right!?
The illness kills more and more each year.
So how did all this come about.
Well in my opinion it’s the probability that society has made a transition into an extensive era of
microwave meals, televisions, computers, junk food and trash diets. Kids become lazy. The internet
has people glued to their seats all day and all night. Advertisements and adverts which beg you to
believe that greasy food is what your body craves. Business giants tapping into our subconscious
day in and day out making us salivate at the prospect of refined sugars and the next TV series. When
the modern age took over things became massively dependant on technology. This seemed to take
away the natural desire to go play in the back garden or take a long walk with the family. Also, the
way humans are never really educated on these matters till it’s too late is a huge concern.
Over the last 100 years this transient has left the worlds western society’s completely sick and
financially battered.
However, it’s not all a total loss. Type two diabetes is reversible, and yes…. without medication.
Ill now explain a little about
Type 1 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes
How to cure type two diabetes
leptin
Type 1 diabetes
Type one diabetes is unfortunately an incurable and irreversible genetic defect. What’s happened is
the bodies immune system has attacked part of the pancreas. It sees the insulin producing cells as
foreign and goes on to destroy them. This is also called “autoimmune” disease. It leaves the
pancreas beta cells damaged and unresponsive.
So, when you eat carbohydrates your pancreas secretes insulin to help shuttle the digested
carbohydrates, now glucose, to the cells to be transported round the body as energy. However, due
to the damaged beta cells the pancreas can’t secrete enough insulin therefore leaving free roaming
glucose in the system.
How we manage this is to inject insulin as and when needed and prescribed by the right professional
to help shuttle this glucose to its required blood cells. Measuring your blood sugar levels each day
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