There are 3 basic MISUNDERSTANDINGS that a majority of diabetic patients have about their condition.
If they believe and live as if these misunderstandings are true, they will literally sabotage their potential for a healthy future. What are those 3 misunderstandings? I’ll tell you…
Diabetes Misunderstanding #1: Diabetes Always Get’s Worse
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Diabetes is Preventable and Controllable.” I would personally add to that reversible. I have seen it enough times to say with conviction that Type II diabetes is reversible. By taking a functional approach to diabetes that incorporates the proper lifestyle, diet, and advanced nutritional protocols, specific testing, not only does it not have to get worse, it can improve and completely reverse.
Diabetes Misunderstanding #2: Diabetes Is Genetic, You Just Have To Learn To Live With It
There is absolutely a genetic component to this disease. Certain people are more predisposed to diabetes than others. What you may have failed to understand is that if you properly control the components of the disease that are in your control, namely diet, lifestyle, and the advanced nutritional protocols available, then you can trump genetics. The part of this disease within your control is greater than the component not in your control.
Diabetes Misunderstanding #3: As Long As You Take Your Medication, Diabetes Is Not That Big Of A Deal
Not that big of a deal? Certainly you have read the side effects, both from the medications and the disease itself:
- Neuropathy
- Peripheral Vascular Disease
- Heart Attack and Stroke
- Eye Disease
- Weight Gain
- Fatigue
We live in the information age. We are drowning in information. You may come to believe the 3 common misunderstanding by reading various sources on the internet or speaking to a friend or family member.
Accepting them as fact only leads to disempowerment. If you feel that nothing can be done about this disease except take some pill, then you will steadily coast along the diabetes pathway. Eventually becoming dependent upon insulin, and day by day moving closer to the side-effects I listed above.
Is that the life you want? Is that what your future, your golden years should hold? I don’t think they should and I know you don’t think they should either.
Insulin Resistance and It’s Relationship to Diabetes
So, exactly what is this condition and how do you know if you have it?
Well, first off, let‘s just say that this condition is more common in this country than you might have guessed. In fact, it‘s estimated that 25-35% of the United States population has some degree of insulin resistance. Now that‘s a scary figure when you realize that a large percentage of these people eventually develop type-2 diabetes, now an epidemic. What follows is a layman‘s explanation of how this condition develops.
Glucose is a simple blood sugar that serves as your body‘s main energy source. Every time you eat, your body‘s digestive process converts some of your food into glucose. This additional glucose enters your bloodstream. The hormone, insulin, which is made in the pancreas, is then released to transport the extra blood glucose into your cells to be used for energy creation. Remember, lean cells create more energy than fat cells, by quite a margin.
The food-to-glucose conversion process, along with the delivery of glucose to cells by insulin, works extremely well as long as your blood glucose levels don‘t ―spike up‖ too often or too high. When you choose your foods carefully and consume a diet similar to that recommended in my nutrition program, your blood sugar levels jump very little and remain within a narrow range, balanced by the action of insulin. Under these conditions, the pancreas is able to secrete insulin in small spurts throughout the day. This allows the pancreas to operate within its ―biologically comfortable‖ support zone, not placing much stress on it.
Moreover, by keeping insulin levels low, cell receptors that respond to insulin are not over-stimulated. You can think of cell receptors as front-line ―molecular guards‖ that only accept visitors with the right credentials.
However, processed carbs—so prevalent in the American diet— require little time and have to be broken down into glucose and dumped into the bloodstream. Therefore, processed carbs place almost immediate demands on the pancreas to produce insulin in relatively large amounts. This happens because a healthy body inherently recognizes high levels of blood glucose to be dangerous and therefore does something about it, fast. So, bursts of insulin work to get blood glucose back to normal, safer levels.
When blood glucose levels spike often, two problems emerge. The first problem is that the pancreas has to pump out insulin beyond its biological comfort zone and with time can ―burn out from being overtaxed. This can lead to diminished insulin production and eventually type-1 (insulin dependent) diabetes.
The second problem is that cell receptors eventually become desensitized to frequent, elevated bursts of insulin and therefore less effective at allowing proper amounts of glucose into the protected cells. In other words, these ―molecular guards start turning away greater numbers of credentialed ―visitor and glucose can no longer be transported into the needy cells as easily. This condition is called insulin resistance. It can and does lead to type-2 diabetes, formerly called non- insulin-dependent or ―adult-onset diabetes.
But glucose rejected by resistant cells doesn‘t just disappear. It either remains in the bloodstream, with time creating major problems in and of itself, or insulin carries it to fat cells where it is converted to fatty acids and stored for later use (and for all the world to see).
But why will fat cells accept glucose when lean, energy-burning cells won‘t? Because fat cells develop insulin resistance later than lean cells. This delay provides the body with a safety ―cushion because excess blood glucose can be swept away to fat stores. So, even people with mild insulin resistance will be able to store fat easily—for a limited time, anyway—to protect against high levels of blood glucose.
With type-1 diabetes, the pancreas can no longer make sufficient amounts of insulin to do its job. If untreated, it may lead to neuropathies (nerve destruction), vascular deterioration (requiring amputations), blindness, coma, and even death. Do I need to say more about these ―conveyor-belt-to-living-hell‖ conditions? Type-1 diabetics must take insulin and should not play Russian roulette with poor diets loaded with processed carbohydrates.
On the other hand, type-2 diabetes CAN most often be AVOIDED and even REVERSED. This is a milder form of diabetes that does not require exogenous insulin. Yet, it can lead to serious health consequences and even type-1 diabetes if not corrected. By the way, sufficient exercise is one of the best ways to reduce insulin resistance for life.
When insulin resistance prevents sufficient glucose from getting into the cells to produce energy, the common signs and symptoms include fatigue, mental fogginess, depression, and the inability to lose weight. Insulin-resistant people also complain of irritability when they miss meals. They crave sweets and caffeine.
If you‘re suffering from insulin resistance, you may have tried exercise and diet in the past but eventually became discouraged and quit because you couldn‘t lose weight. A typical sign of insulin resistance that correlates to high cardiovascular risk—especially in females—is a waist girth larger than hip girth.
Now, going back to cortisol, the hormone that responds to stress. It does this by inducing your cells to release fuel into your bloodstream where it can be used by other cells, especially muscle cells, that need it to handle physically stressful moments—like having to jump out of the way of a car bearing down on you. But if stress causes the release of fuel into the bloodstream and the fuel doesn‘t have anywhere to go, and then guess what? Insulin production spikes to escort the unneeded fuel out of the bloodstream and into fat storage, just as it does when we eat a meal high in processed carbs. Thus, the overabundance of cortisol leads to both insulin resistance and fat storage.
Prolonged, elevated cortisol levels not only induce insulin resistance but also leptin resistance. Leptin is a hormone produced by white fat cells. One of its functions is to tell the brain to decrease food intake. The more fat cells that are present, especially in certain parts of the body, the more leptin is produced to notify the brain that starvation isn‘t an issue with this particular body. This is how leptin helps to regulate fat storage. It carries the satiation message.
However, brain-cell receptors can become insensitive to leptin, just as body cells become insensitive to insulin. If this happens, the potential for obesity rises dramatically because leptin‘s satiation messages aren‘t reaching home.
Hunger pangs continue even when additional calories aren‘t needed; extra sugar enters the bloodstream but can‘t be used by the cells; insulin stores the excess sugar as fat; leptin signals continue to spike to tell the brain to decrease food intake; the leptin spikes make brain-cell receptors for leptin even more insensitive; and the vicious cycle continues with hunger still present.
To make matters worse, if too much stress exhausts the adrenals and cortisol levels plummet, then hypoglycemia arises, inducing even more cravings. What a mess!
So, these vicious cycles are kicked off by stress, the over- consumption of processed carbohydrates, and the lack of enough exercise to lower insulin resistance. When these factors are brought into balance so that cortisol, insulin, and leptin can function as intended, the result is a leaner, more energetic body.
The overall impact of prolonged stress on human physiology and metabolism is beyond the scope of this report. I‘ve only touched on those factors related to body composition and weight management. Other detrimental factors include thyroid disorders, liver detoxification dysfunction, digestive disorders, suppressed immune function, decreased bone density, depression, insomnia, neurodegenerative disease, and cardiovascular disease. Bottom line: prolonged stress is perilous. We need to learn how to reduce it or handle it better. That‘s what a wellness lifestyle is all about.
We have found through clinical experience and research that there are 5 Keys To Defeating This Disease. If all 5 of these keys are in place, you can kiss diabetes goodbye.
Thyroid and Toxicity| Your Livers Role in Detoxification and Health
