What Is Diabetes?

There are many types of diabetes, including gestational diabetes, Type 1 diabetes, which may be caused by a virus, genetics, or other stimuli, as well as Type 2 diabetes, which is the focus of the information on this website. Type 2 diabetes is the most common and fastest-spreading type of diabetes, has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and is most frequently caused by poor diet and lifestyle problems. With proper nutrition, is it also the most treatable and preventable.

While for many individuals with either type of diabetes, insulin injections and/or other medications are life saving and necessary throughout life, dependence upon insulin and other medications may be significantly reduced, or even eliminated, by implementation of diet modifications, nutritional supplementation, and lifestyle changes.

Diabetes is highly individual and, once diagnosed, treatment will require the continuing involvement and guidance of a competent medical practitioner. The information provided on this website is intended to supplement, not replace, your personal responsibility to take charge of your own health with appropriate advice from a licensed health care professional. If you are a diabetic, we encourage you to seek the advise and participation of your physician before beginning any new regimen, including natural or herbal therapy.

Why are we hearing more and more about Type 2 diabetes?

• Because it's happening more than ever. More than 800,000 (yes, that number is eight hundred thousand!) new cases are diagnosed each year.

• It's costly. More than $132 billion (with a "B") was spent in 2003 to treat Type 2 Diabetes.

• Victims are younger. Cases in people under 39 years old have jumped over 70% since 1990.

• An estimated 33% of today's children will become diabetic.

• Cases are more serious. It's the seventh-leading killer in the United States.

• The Centers for Disease Control assert that today's generation will be the first to live shorter lives than their parents, due in large part to the incredible rise in diabetes.

What is Type 2 Diabetes?

Type 1 (previously called "juvenile onset") diabetes currently affects approximately one million people in the United States. It is a chronic condition caused by the inability of the pancreas to produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is an essential hormone that helps convert sugar, starches, and other food into energy — the fuel of life. Without insulin, sugar stays in the blood and cannot move into the cells, causing blood glucose levels to soar. This condition requires insulin injections, typically throughout life, to stabilize blood sugar levels.

Type 2 (previously "adult onset") diabetes differs in one way. Type 2 sufferers also have a struggle with insulin — the pancreas may not produce enough, or the cells may have become "insulin resistant," turning away blood sugar instead of accepting it and using it. But the key difference between the two types is that Type 2 isn't strongly linked to genetics. Only 3% of victims show a genetic predisposition to insulin problems. Rather, Type 2 diabetes is linked to diet and lifestyle — obesity, inactivity, and of course, a deadly fascination with junk food, including sugary snacks, deep-fried meals, and processed fruits and vegetables which are almost completely robbed of nutritional value.

As a warning, please carefully consider a third type of diabetes: pre-diabetes. This type is like standing on the edge of a cliff and leaning dangerously into the void. Millions of people are slipping on the gravel over that cliff to diabetes and do not even know it. In fact, you may be on the edge right now and not know it.

Fast Facts on Type 2 Diabetes

Signs You May Have Diabetes

• The pancreas may produce insulin, but it is insufficient, or the body no longer knows how to use it ("insulin resistance").

• Approximately 95% of Americans diagnosed with diabetes have Type 2.

• Type 2 can be as life threatening as Type 1, leading to blindness, amputation, organ failure, and early death.

• Nearly six million people with full-blown Type 2 diabetes don't even know they have it yet, and may be permanently damaging their health. Up to 20 million people likely have "pre-diabetes," which will explode into a Type 2 condition if they don't get treatment.

• For every two pounds of weight increase in the U.S., diabetes prevalence went up 9%.

• Type 2 diabetes is 90% preventable with diet, exercise, and a healthy lifestyle. Herbal supplementation is key to this prevention.

• Increased/frequent urination

• Dehydration

• Excessive intake of water and/or food

• Weight loss despite increased appetite

• Nausea and/or vomiting

• Abdominal pain or discomfort, particularly after eating

• Weakness or excessive fatigue

• Absence of menstruation in women

• Blurred or poor vision

• Increased susceptibility to infection and/or poor wound healing

• Impotence (erectile dysfunction) in men [have you noticed how many adds there are on TV lately for products to treat E.D.?]

• Other subtle and easy-to-miss signs: occasional numbness in the feet, itching over the entire body, or frequent yeast infections.

How Bad Is It?

Our Deadly Fascination With Junk Food

What the Average American Eats (per year)

Cookies and Cake

Ice Cream

Potato Chips

French Fries

Soda Pop

60 Pounds

23 Gallons

7 Pounds

51 Pounds

57 Gallons

Type 2 diabetes is the fastest-growing disease in America today. It's increasing prevalence among young people has made the title "adult onset" obsolete. Our deadly fascination with junk food is largely to blame — which means if we had the right information about nutrition, many diabetes cases could be eliminated.

The average American today eats 530 calories than he did in 1970; and not only are we eating too much, we are eating the wrong foods. If you have two or more of the above symptoms, you may be diabetic or pre-diabetic.

To help mitigate the damage untreated diabetes can do, you need to focus on prevention, rather than treatment after symptoms occur. Prevention begins with identifying and watching for risk factors.

Are You at Risk?

If you already know your body struggles with sugar, this is a strong warning that you are at risk for diabetes. Shakiness, lethargy, cravings, and thirst can all indicate either hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Some experts have suggested that as many as 90% or more people who become Type 2 diabetics start with hypoglycemia, so if you are hypoglycemic your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes is increased astronomically.

If you react to sugar abnormally, don't ignore it — your body is trying to tell you something. That craving or unquenchable thirst or lethargy is not normal. Consider, too, the prominent risk factors for diabetes, many of which are genetic. Although DNA may not determine your fate, possessing these markers can make you more susceptible to diabetes, so you need to recognize them.

If even one or two of these risk factors describe you, don't be frightened. Although you may be at risk for Type 2 diabetes, now is the time to become educated — to understand your options and to empower yourself with necessary change.

And that starts with learning the Untold Truth about Diabetes.

Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes

[_] 1. Do you have a family history of diabetes?

[_] 2. Are you more than 40 years old?

[_] 3. Is your body "apple" shaped rather than "pear" shaped?

[_] 4. Is your waist size larger than 35" (women) of 40" (men)?

[_] 5. Do you live a sedentary lifestyle and eat a high-fat, high-calorie diet?

[_] 6. Do you have high blood pressure?

[_] 7. For women, do you have a history of gestational diabetes or polycystic ovary syndrome (a hormonal disorder causing women to have irregular or absent menstruation)?

[_] 8. Are you of African American, Hispanic American, or Native American (particularly of the Pima tribe of Arizona) descent?

[_] 9. Do you have a history of kidney or gallbladder stones?

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Excerpted and adapted from
The Diabetes Epidemic:
Our Deadly Fascination
with Junk Food!
by Hugo Rodier, MD,
a recognized authority in
nutritional and integrative
medicine and psycho-neural
immunology.

Part of
The “Untold Truth” Series.
Copyright ©2004
Wasatch Research Institute.


Get the "Untold Truth"

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