Reason, Risk, and Remedy
Reasons for Diabetes
Diabetes is a condition that impairs the body’s ability to process blood glucose, commonly known as blood sugar.
Lesser known fact: “When they check blood sugar in reality they check blood glucose, not blood sugar.”
Types of Diabetes
There are 3 Types of Diabetes:
Gestational diabetes
is high blood sugar (glucose) developed during pregnancy and usually disappears after giving birth.
It can happen at any stage during pregnancy but is more common in the second or third trimester.
It happens when your body cannot produce enough insulin – a hormone that helps control blood sugar levels – to meet your extra needs in pregnancy.
Gestational diabetes can be problematic for mothers and babies during pregnancy and after birth. But is possible to reduce the risks if the condition is detected early and managed well.
Type 2 diabetes
In Type 2 diabetes body’s ability to use insulin gets affected. While the body is still able to produce insulin, unlike in type I, the cells in the body do not respond to it as effectively as they earlier did. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, this is the most common type of diabetes, and it has strong links with obesity.
Type 1 diabetes (Juvenile Diabetes)
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. It happens when the immune system attacks and destroys beta cells in the pancreas, where insulin is made. Though It’s unclear what causes this attack, it is belied that the DNA code of casein (a protein present in milk) and the DNA code of Beta Cells in the pancreas are the same. To counter the excessive invasion of the casein brain produces antibodies that by mistake kill beta cells is one of the causes of autoimmune disease. Around 10 percent of people with diabetes fall in this type.
Symptoms of Diabetes
· Increase in urine output
· Excessive thirst
· Weight loss
· Hunger
· Fatigue
· Skin problems
· Slow-healing wounds
· Yeast infection
· Tingling or numbness in feet or toes
Glucose
Glucose is a simple sugar found in food. Glucose is an essential energy-providing nutrient for the proper functioning of the body cells.
Carbohydrates break down in the small intestine & the glucose in the digested food is then absorbed by the intestinal cells in the bloodstream and is carried by the blood to all cells where it gets utilized.
However, glucose cannot enter the cells alone and needs insulin to aid in its transport into cells. Without insulin, cells become starved of glucose energy despite the presence of abundant glucose in the bloodstream. Un-utilized glucose is wastefully excreted in the urine.
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone produced by specialized cells (beta cells) of the pancreas. In addition to helping glucose enter into cells, insulin also plays role in tightly regulating the level of glucose in the blood.
In patients with diabetes, the insulin is either absent, relatively insufficient for the body’s needs, or not used properly by the body. All of these factors cause elevated levels of blood glucose
(Hyperglycemia)
Diabetes Mellitus
Lets us try to understand how our body processes the food we eat to provide energy to our body cells, and also what happens when you have diabetes and this system doesn’t work properly.
When we eat food that contains carbohydrates which is a type of sugar, broken down in the stomach and digestive system. We require glucose from food because that’s what gives us energy.
Carbohydrate-containing foods are things like starchy foods, sugary foods, milk, and some dairy products and fruits.
This glucose then moves into the bloodstream and the body detects that the blood glucose level is rising.
In response to that the pancreas, which is a little gland that sits just underneath the stomach, starts to release a hormone called insulin, and its insulin helps our body to get the energy from the food we eat.
The bloodstream then takes the glucose and the insulin to every cell in our body that needs it.
It’s a bit like insulin is a key to unlocking the door to the cells, so the glucose can get in.
That way, the blood glucose levels start to drop, but the blood glucose level can be topped up at any point by the liver releasing extra glucose that it has stored.
The blood glucose rises again, and again, and the pancreas produces more insulin to move that glucose through the bloodstream to the muscle cells, open the doors and let the glucose in.
The body functions best with blood glucose at an optimum level.
Our body has been gifted with a great mechanism to balance glucose and insulin with the help of the liver and pancreas.
There is one more thing rarely talked about is IGF (insulin-like growth factor) which helps our body to grow but can cause cancer if it gets uncontrolled.
However, in some people, the system doesn’t work properly, and they develop diabetes.
There are two main types of diabetes – Type 1 and Type 2. In Type 1 diabetes the body isn’t making any insulin at all. This is because of an autoimmune response whereby the body has destroyed the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
In Type 2 diabetes the carbohydrate-containing food is turned into glucose as normal. That glucose then moves into the bloodstream. Normally the body would produce insulin to let that glucose into the cells but because in Type 1 diabetes there is no insulin being produced so the glucose can’t get into the body cells at all, so the level of glucose in the blood rises and rises.
The body tries to lower the level of glucose, through the kidneys. That’s why people who have undiagnosed Type 1 diabetes tend to go to the toilet a lot to pass urine.
As the kidneys filter the glucose out of the blood, they also take a lot of water with them so the person with diabetes will get very thirsty.
The urine contains a lot of glucose and that creates an environment where it’s quite easy for bacteria to thrive, so it’s also quite common to get thrush or genital itching.
In the same way, the blood contains a high level of glucose, more bacteria than usual will tend to breed in flesh wounds and they might be slow to heal.
Risk of Diabetes
Hypoglycemia means abnormally low blood sugar – caused by excessive use of insulin or other glucose-lowering medications.
Blood glucose is essential for the proper functioning of brain cells. Therefore, patients with low blood sugar can lead to central nervous symptoms such as:
· Dizziness
· Confusion
· Weakness
· Tremors
This occurs when glucose is less than 50 mg/dl. If untreated can lead to coma, seizures, and in the worst-case scenario irreversible brain death.
Obesity or being overweight. Increase excessive weight or obesity is found to be one of the major reasons for diabetes. Today’s fast-food lifestyle greatly increases diabetes patients.
Sedentary lifestyle. Working but not workout, enjoying games on TV or mobile but not playing it physically. Unable to utilize complete energy consumed through food tend to store it in the body, which causes gained weight and subsequently diabetes.
Family history. It is a largely accepted phenomenon in the name of “genetic”, that if you have a parent or sibling who has diabetes then you will have it too. It’s true to some extent as habits such as food and living are the same in most cases. But few know or talk about “epigenetics” that is you can change your body at your will.
Belief. It is the most dangerous of all factors. People have become more accepting of the thought that sooner or later they will get diabetes.
Patients who are diabetic further lead to
25% of Kidney failure
15% Blind
40% of Heart disease
20% Amputation
Remedy of Diabetes
Before heading to the remedy part let’s briefly understand how diabetes occurs in our body and the traditional diabetes treatment.
Journey of diabetes
Food —– Intestine —– Lever —– Bloodstream —– Cells —– Insulin is a key to open the doors of cells —– which are produced in a factory called pancreas —– lack of insulin called diabetes.
Doctors give medicine from the class of Metformin (Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea are some of the most common side effects people have when they first start taking metformin)—– Metformin forces lever to regularise blood glucose —– this won’t last long —– doctors add a class of medicine called Sulfonylureas (The most common side effect of Sulfonylureas is low blood sugar. This can make you feel shaky, sweaty, dizzy, and confused. Severe low blood sugar can be life-threatening.)—– this drug work on pancreas n forces to produce more insulin —– due to excessive workload, after some time pancreas stop working and patient has to inject insulin with every meal—–It won’t stop here —– due to pancreas don’t work it will get Pancreatic Cancer —– Alfa glucoside inhibitor—– forces intestine to slowly release carbohydrates —– side effects —–Colon Cancer—– Another drug called Glitazones—– works on entire body cells to increase sensitivity towards insulin —— patients taking this get Bladder Cancer—– European countries have banned Glitazones—– in India approx. 30 lac people taking Glitazones.
General Advice
“Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Cut down on sweets and processed foods. Increase the consumption of fish, nuts, and legumes.”
This basic advice has been given to the public for decades, yet rising rates of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and other chronic illnesses are linked to poor diet.
Common people never realize the fact that doctors don’t know how to provide information on nutrition beyond the basics.
Maybe that is the reason why they ask patients not to put sugar (1 tsp. = appx 5 gm) in tea which has 5 gms carbohydrates but allow bread slice ( 2 slices) in snack which has appx. 25gm carbohydrates, which is 5 times more sugar.
Similarly, when it comes to fruits they outrightly ask to forbid fruits like Mango, Banana, Chiku, Grapes, etc. or having Sugarcane or its juice as it elevates sugar levels in the blood. but they are unable to tell, what kind of sugar they possess i.e. Glucose, Lactose, Sucrose, or Fructose?
When it comes to diabetes remedies, resolving 2 questions is very important
- What is the definition of a diabetic patient?
- How does one become a diabetes patient?
The remedy for diabetes is hidden in answering the above questions.
Let us try to keep it as simple as possible.
A diabetes patient is on medication for diabetes.
It is said that once a patient of diabetes, a lifetime a patient of diabetes. As we have seen above how the journey of diabetes travels! Once a person starts with a single pill as medicine for diabetes over some time, they will end up taking more medicines for various diseases such as Heart disease, Blood pressure, Kidney failure, Amputation, Blindness, Cancer, etc.
In other words, the only way to cure diabetes is not to have one.Diabetes is said to be a lifestyle disease, that happens when a person chooses the wrong lifestyle habits. It can be food habits, sleeping habits, a Sedentary lifestyle, mental stress, etc. it will not be fair to apply the same measures to everybody.
Here are some things one can follow:
- Exercise Regularly
- Lose Some Weight
- Avoid overeating
- Avoid meat
- Avoid milk and milk products
- Eat fruits in plenty (Seasonal and Regional)
- Control Your Carb Intake
- Increase Your Fiber Intake
- Drink adequate water and Stay Hydrated
- Use Rock sugar instead of refined one
- Use unrefined oil for preparing food
- Control Stress Levels
- Get Enough Quality Sleep
- Practice Yoga and meditation
- Keep a positive mental attitude
