Because there's so many people with diabetes or being diagnosed with it every day, I've been wanting to learn more about this disease. In addition, I have several family members who have diabetes, so genetics are definitely not on my side! The good news is that I don't have to sit and wait for diabetes to make its way into my life. There are plenty of things I can do to try to prevent it and many of these are also effective in reversing diabetes.
An important first step is to understand how it works. The basic thing that needs to be controlled is the level of sugar in the blood so here's how it goes:
1. The main source of energy for the body is glucose which is stored inside the cells mostly of the muscle and the liver.
2. Insulin is the key that opens the cells so glucose can go in. Insulin is produced by the pancreas.
3. If there's too much sugar trying to enter these cells, they become resistant to insulin and the sugar simply floats around in the blood stream.
4. The extra sugar starts accumulating in the cells and other tissues of the body. This causes a change in the proteins of the cells causing them to function improperly.
5. This malfunction causes chronic inflammation and the risk of stroke, heart disease, and cancer goes up!
6. Sugar in the bloodstream attaches to cholesterol cells and helps in the formation of plaque on the arteries causing atherosclerosis. This is the main cause for problems with the heart and vascular system.
So this is how it works and it is extremely important for us to avoid that extra sugar just floating around in our blood stream. Today, as you go about your day, think about this and what you think you can do to prevent the excess of blood sugar. We'll talk more about it in a later post but remember, knowledge is power!
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Source: Brass, L. (2014). What everyone needs to know about diabetes. Vibrant Life. p 9.
