Diet and Weight Loss Tips

Diabetes is the most common type of metabolic disorder. There are more than 20 million people, adults and children, living with diabetes in the US.

Thousands more will contract diabetes this year. Millions of people have diabetes and don’t even know it. The American Diabetes Association estimates that as many as 6 million people have diabetes and don’t even know it.

There are two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 diabetes is a condition that you’re born with and Type 2 diabetes is a condition that you develop over time.

Most of the time, people who contract Type 2 diabetes are adults. Type 2 diabetes is also called “adult onset diabetes” for that reason. Both types of diabetes stem from a lack of insulin.

Insulin is a hormone that helps the cells in your body process starches and sugar in your blood stream.

Those starches and sugars, which are commonly called glucose, is what feeds your cells. So if there is no insulin helping the cells break down the glucose in your blood your cells don’t get the nutrients they need to function properly.

In addition to the cells not getting what they need, a lack of insulin causes the sugar in your blood to build up, which can lead to other problems like heart disease, kidney damage, or blindness.

Have you ever heard someone say they are suffering from “low blood sugar” or “high blood sugar”?

Low blood sugar means they are not getting enough glucose and high blood sugar means they are getting too much. Both of those can be indicators of diabetes.

Type 1 Diabetes

If you’re born with Type 1 diabetes then your pancreas is not working properly. The pancreas is what produces the insulin that you need to break down glucose.

The symptoms of Type 1 diabetes are extreme weight loss, extreme thirst, and fatigue.

If left untreated, people who are suffering from Type 1 diabetes might develop heart disease, kidney damage, nerve or blood vessel disease, or blindness.

People who have Type 1 diabetes have to measure their blood sugar regularly to keep track of how high or low it is.

Then they need to manage their glucose levels by injecting themselves with insulin on a regular basis.

Many diabetics have a tough time, at first, adjusting their lives to accommodate frequently pricking their fingers to test their blood sugar and then injecting themselves with insulin but after awhile it becomes second nature.

Managing Type 1 diabetes through insulin shots is extremely effective.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes occurs when a person’s body either isn’t making enough insulin to support the breakdown of glucose in the blood or the cells are ignoring the insulin.

When the cells ignore the insulin that the body produces, that is called insulin resistance. People can suffer from insulin resistance without having diabetes but insulin resistance is often a pre-cursor to diabetes.

African-Americans, Latinos, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans are statistically more likely to be at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, but lifestyle also plays a role in who will end up developing Type 2 diabetes.

If your diet consists mostly of fast food, fried food, sugary sodas, starchy snacks and foods with lots of fat and carbs, your lifestyle may put you at risk.

When it comes to Type 2 diabetes, the treatment depends on how much insulin your body is producing.

If you are just not producing enough insulin then you may need to treat yourself with insulin injections the way that someone suffering from Type1 diabetes would have to do.

If your body makes plenty of insulin but your body ignores it then injecting more insulin is useless as a treatment. Then you need to use diet, exercise, and a great nutrition plan to treat your diabetes.

Untreated Type 2 diabetes can cause heart disease, kidney disease, obesity, blindness, and even death.

If you think that you might be at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes you can prevent diabetes with diet and exercise. So if you have risk factors for diabetes you should make some serious changes to your diet and exercise routine immediately so that you don’t end up with Type 2 diabetes.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 9:12 am and is filed under Weight Loss Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.