January 19, 2011 - In this decade alone, a staggering increase in diabetics in America has been recorded. This disease is silently eating away people’s health without them really knowing it. But diabetes is mostly preventable, treatable, and even reversible. The key is a lifestyle change. If you do a people search today, you’ll be surprised that there is an estimated 80 million Americans that have diabetes or on borderline limit to developing the disease. This has prompted the US government to spend $174 billion each year to treat the disease.
There are actually two types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2 diabetes. When you have Type 1 diabetes this means that your body is unable to produce enough insulin. This is usually genetically related as the pancreas is unable to work properly. There’s nothing you can do to stop a Type 1 diabetes from happening, but a lot can be done to treat it.
Type 2 diabetes is basically acquired because of lifestyle issues. When there is too much fat in the body, the insulin is not able to work properly, causing the sugar to float around the body. Most of the population is affected by Type 2 diabetes as an average person east 15 pounds of sugar every year. With that number, it’s just too much for the body to adapt quickly and keep up with the fat.
Sugar is addicting. When you get a taste of a food that has a bit of sugar, your brain is stimulated to get more. It’s like drug, it turns you on. And the problem is sugar is found in almost all kinds of food even in our salad dressing.
The common misconception though is that diabetes is simply a sugar problem. Records search on people shows that most think that sugar is the start and end of diabetes. The body does need sugar. In a healthy body though, the pancreas functions effectively in releasing insulin that channels sugar from the bloodstream to the tissues.
But if there is too much sugar in the body, it can be a serious health problem. The sugar is simply stored in the belly and as our belly gets large, the fat poisons the insulin which in turn prevents sugar from getting out of the bloodstream. This then results in several health issues as heart problem.
Diabetes is a lifelong problem, so why wait until you have it before changing your lifestyle. It’s best to do something now before it’s too late.
