What is Type 2 Diabetes? And What Can You Do About It?

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» What is Type 2 Diabetes? And What Can You Do About It?

By Carin Shuler PT, DPT, MS, CHC

Loss of legs due to amputations, loss of eyesight, loss of sexual function, heart attacks, nerve damage leading to non-stop pins and needles or total lack of sensation of the feet and hands, non-healing open wounds, kidney damage, loss of bladder control, strokes and even early death are just a few of the awful possible results of uncontrolled diabetes.

Have you or a loved one received a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes? Maybe you or your loved one has suffered for some time with it. Or perhaps you have experienced many difficult side effects from the prescribed medications you are taking to help control your disease.

Are you or your loved one at a loss, feeling frustrated and scared that despite taking your prescribed medications, your blood sugar remains sky high and you just can’t understand why or what you can do to help yourself?

Understanding what Type 2 Diabetes is, may help.

Learning how you can best help yourself to control it is key to living without the fear and frustration of this disease. Understanding this disease will help you to avoid such terrible complications. And it may even be possible to reverse its effects!

Type 2 Diabetes Explained

Type 2 (also referred to as Type II) Diabetes is the most common form of Diabetes in the United States today (1).

In California alone, 4 million people currently suffer from this devastating disease (2).

Type 2 Diabetes can occur at any age. Children can have it. However, it occurs most frequently in middle-aged and older people. As an example, Type 2 Diabetes affects 1 in 4 people over the age of 65. Approximately, 90-95 percent of Diabetes in adults is Type 2 (3). Many people may have it and not even know it yet. Others may have been told by their medical doctor that they have Prediabetes which can lead to Type 2 Diabetes.

Type 2 Diabetes comes about when the cells in your body are no longer using the hormone, insulin properly, or your body can no longer make it well. This leads to sugar in your blood (also called blood glucose) to increase to abnormally high levels. In medical jargon, this is called hyperglycemia. In fact, the insulin in your blood also increases to abnormal levels. This is called hyperinsulinemia.

Insulin is a hormone produced by your organ called the pancreas. Insulin normally will escort any sugar you eat that is in your blood to the cells that need it for fuel. Too much sugar and/or too much insulin in your blood is abnormal. Why though does this matter?

Type 2 Diabetes and Insulin

As stated above, insulin is a hormone that is made in your pancreas. The pancreas is an important organ in your body and it is a part of your Endocrine System. The Endocrine System is another system in our bodies like our Nervous System or our Digestive system. It is made up of glands and organs (like the pancreas) that make hormones.

Hormones, simply put, are your body's chemical messengers or couriers. The glands and
organs that make the hormones release them directly into the blood as you need them. Hormones can travel to cells and other organs anywhere in your body. As messengers orescorts, they carry information, instructions or deliver other necessary items (like glucose) from one type of cells to others.

In this way, the Endocrine System communicates with and influences almost every function of our bodies. Insulin is considered by many to be the Master Hormone in our bodies. Insulin’s important job all begins when we take a bite of food!

Insulin Delivers

You might know that the food we eat includes three basic nutrients, called macronutrients. These are carbohydrate, protein and fat. These three provide us with the energy or fuel that we need in the form of both nutrients and calories.

Let’s just think about carbohydrates for now. You might know of them by their nickname, “carbs”. Our body converts all carbohydrates to sugar (glucose). Our cells need the glucose for fuel and energy. Any extra is stored in our body fat. Our liver also can make glucose as needed. All glucose is delivered to our cells for fuel throughout our body by insulin.

If we eat or drink too many carbs (sugar) over time, we can overwhelm our body’s systems. Sugar levels become too high in our blood. Americans historically have become victims to the Standard American Diet (it’s SAD). This SAD diet includes too many processed or refined (unnatural) carbs. These include pasta, cookies, breads, buns, chips, crackers, sodas, cakes, pastries, donuts, rice and the like.

When this happens, insulin can no longer deliver all the high levels of sugar in our blood. Our pancreas tries to help by making even more and more insulin to handle the sugar overload. Over time, even this fails if we continue to eat all these unhealthy, processed carbs. The result is too much sugar AND too much insulin in the blood. Our body becomes overloaded with both. The damage to our body begins.

Type II Diabetes and Insulin Resistance

Insulin levels can be anywhere along a spectrum or range in your blood from low to high. Where you are on this spectrum or range has been shown to affect your overall health and lifespan. In general, the higher your insulin levels, the more at risk you are for Type 2 Diabetes as well as other diseases like some types of cancer. Below is a picture to show you this sliding scale, or spectrum.

If your medical doctor has told you that you are Prediabetic, you have a good chance to reverse the problem before becoming fully a Type 2 Diabetic. If you are high on the insulin scale and are already a Type 2 diabetic, you too can help yourself to reverse this on the spectrum. When your blood insulin is high, your cells have begun to ignore insulin’s deliveries. The cells are already overloaded with the increased sugar and can’t take anymore. This then is th

e insulin resistance that is on the unhealthy end of this scale (4)

The Insulin Resistance Spectrum

Wait a minute here! Isn’t it blood sugar diabetics have to worry about, you might ask? You are correct! Diabetics must measure their blood sugar (blood glucose) at least daily. There are specific reasons for this. Sugar can damage many parts in your body when not used by your cells for fuel. Nerves, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and many other body tissues can be damaged.

Testing blood sugar at least daily is a simple means of checking to see if your treatment and lifestyle changes are controlling your blood sugar levels. However, recent studies are demonstrating the importance of knowing your blood insulin levels too whether you are diabetic or not (4).

Insulin Spectrum is a Range Along the Health Span

Research has shown that high insulin levels are a root cause of obesity, illness, chronic health issues and other acquired illnesses…not just diabetes! We are not just “low or high”, “healthy or unhealthy”, “not at risk or high risk” when we consider insulin. It is a health spectrum or range and this spectrum is regardless of obesity (4).

Insulin is really the driver or as some say, the master hormone that drives our health state along this spectrum. Obesity in and of itself is not the root cause of the Type 2 Diabetes. Nor is it blood sugar. Insulin is! (4). Let’s consider how we get to have high insulin and the cascade of unhealthy events that it causes that may lead us to have a greater risk for Type 2 Diabetes, among other diseases.

Insulin Resistance and Type 2

Diabetes RiskIt all begins at the level of the individual cell in our bodies. Every cell in our body can be sensitive to (welcoming) insulin or resistant to it (not welcoming to it). Insulin carries glucose (our blood sugars) to each cell that needs the glucose to produce energy. It is our bodies’ fuel. What goes wrong when we are insulin resistant and high on this spectrum though?Unhealthy Cascade of Events with High Insulin Levels

As mentioned earlier, our body converts all carbohydrates to sugar (glucose). Our cells require the glucose for fuel and any extra is delivered by insulin to be stored in our body fat. However, even our individual fat cells can become insulin resistant though if there is too much glucose and too much insulin in our blood. We are overloaded with both!

Our SAD diet includes not only the highly processed carbs (like cookies, breads, chips, donuts), but also unhealthy fats (like foods fried in Crisco Oil or industrial seed oils or vegetable oils) and high sugar (like jellies, candy, cakes, ice cream, sodas, alcohol and table sugar).

Insulin keeps knocking on all the cells’ doors (receptor sites) in a desperate attempt to continue its job to deliver the sugar from all the high carbs and sugar eaten on the SAD diet. With time, the cells become no longer interested or welcoming to (or in medical jargon, insulin sensitive to) the repetitive knocking. They have an abundance of sugar and no longer answer the door for insulin! They become then, “insulin resistant”. As a result, we also now have too much sugar and too much insulin floating around in our blood.

It becomes a vicious cycle as the more insulin resistant we become, the more tired and hungry we become too! We then eat more…SUGAR! We seek out that ‘sugar high” which is the exact opposite of what we need! And out sleep quality gets worse and worse as we then tend to nap when we get overwhelmed with fatigue!

A1C

Some of the sugar attaches itself to our red blood cells, called hemoglobin. This is why physicians will test a person’s A1C that you may have heard about on diabetic medicine commercials. This test shows the average amount of the attached sugar to red blood cells over about a three month period of time.

When a person tests their blood sugar with a finger prick test, it is reading the blood sugar at that exact point of time. A1C is a more accurate picture since it looks at the blood sugar over time. When the A1C is high, there is too much blood sugar in your body that is not being put to use and can indeed lead to diabetes or even other diseases.

Also, we know that if the A1C is high then more and more of the blood sugar is also delivered instead to be stored in our fat cells. More and more fat expands our body, often stored in and around our organs and stomach, called visceral fat. This then leads to obesity, high blood sugar and high blood insulin levels. Increased visceral fat is a threat to our health and to our healthy life span!

YOU or your loved one can start on a path to wellness now. Call 951-344-3257 or CLICK HERE for a free phone consultation with one of our Certified Health Coaches or Doctors of Physical Therapy.

Diabetes and Inflammation

Our immune system tries to fight back from this unhealthy state and responds with a high degree of inflammation throughout our body. Short term inflammation is OK. However, a chronic (long-term) inflammatory state or hyper-inflammatory state is unhealthy. This leads to a failing immune system. It cannot maintain its fighting power over a long time. Our body’s defenses break down.

This leads to overall poorer health and eventually to disease states such as possibly different types of cancer, Type II Diabetes, early-onset of heart disease or even Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s is often now called Diabetes Type 3! Both high blood sugar and chronic inflammation breaks down our nerve cells and our blood vessels throughout our body. Our brain can be especially affected by this. But this double whammy can also lead to the loss of eyesight and the loss of limbs that often must be amputated.

Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes

What then puts you at risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes?

There are a variety of risk factors such as your genes and lifestyle. Most studies on the influence of your genes show only a modest effect that explains less than 10% of Type 2 Diabetes that is inherited (6). According to the National Institute of Health (5) and the American Diabetes Association (8), risk factors include:

Being overweight or obese due in part to a high carb diet or the Standard American Diet
Your fat distribution (visceral fat)
Age 45 or older
Having a family history of diabetes
If you have a diagnosis of Prediabetes
If you are African American, Alaska Native, American Indian, Asian American, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander
If you have high blood pressure
If you have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
If you drink alcohol greater than one drink per day for women and two per day for men (considered moderate levels)
If you smoke tobacco products (the more you smoke per day, the greater the risk)
If you have a low level of HDL (“good”) cholesterol, or a high level of triglycerides
If you have a history of gestational diabetes or gave birth to a baby weighing 9 pounds or more
If you are physically active less than 3 times per week
If you have a history of heart disease or stroke
If you have depression
If you have polycystic ovary syndrome which is also called PCOS
If you have acanthosis nigricans which is dark, thick, and velvety skin around your neck or armpits

Since you can’t change risk factors like your genes, your family history, your age, or your ethnicity, what else can you change to decrease your chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes or even reversing it?

You certainly can change lifestyle risk factors! These might include what you are eating, how you are physically active, if you are smoking, how much alcohol you drink and your weight management. These lifestyle risk factors can affect your chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes. They can also help you to reverse it if you are diagnosed! That is great news!

CLICK HERE NOW if you need help in changing your lifestyle to a Diabetes healthy one! Or if you are in a hurry and ready to get going CALL 951-344-6141!

Healthy Food Choices to Keep Low on the Insulin Spectrum

When considering your nutrition, the answer is relatively simple though according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and their Nutrition Consensus there is no one diabetes diet (8). Call 951-344-6141 or click here now for a free Nutritional Consultation with one of our Certified Health Coaches

Just say NO to highly processed carbs; especially junk carbs! And, eat REAL food! Yes, it is easier to say than to put into practice! You might begin by eliminating any one processed, highly refined carbs in your diet. Maybe you’ll start by eliminating sodas or white breads.

For Type II Diabetes, another option might be by replacing the high carbs with healthy fats and other natural fruits and vegetables low in carb (sugar) content. Healthy fats are foods like avocados, wild caught fish such as salmon and sardines, healthy natural oils like olive oil and coconut oil and walnuts as examples. Fruits and vegetables low in sugar (called low glycemic index or low glycemic load) include cherries, strawberries, kiwi, peaches, grapefruit and onions, lettuce, cabbage, green peas as examples. This low carb, high healthy protein and natural, healthy fats is often referred to as a “keto diet” today. Think about selecting and eating the rainbow of colors of fresh, real, natural foods! Stay away from boxed or prepared foods as these tend to be more refined and processed and have more added sugars.

Lifestyle Management

Physical activity can help with depression, controlling your carb carvings, reducing your triglycerides and reducing your smoking and drinking and so much more.

If you smoke, please ask about the support you need to quit from your medical doctor.

If you drink more than one drink per day for women and two per day for men (considered moderate levels), reduce your consumption and/or get the help you need now if you are an alcoholic. Many programs exist to help. You might consider starting with Alcoholics Anonymous or ask your medical doctor for guidance as well.

Type 2 Diabetes can be controlled and can be reversed! Don’t wait until you suffer the more devastating effects of this disease! You CAN take control of your health!

Rehab House Call is here to help you with all of your lifestyle management challenges, including physical activitiy and nutrition! Call 951-344-6141or CLICK HERE for a free consultation with one of our Certified Health Coaches or Doctors of Physical Therapy!