What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a characterized by "high blood sugar
levels" in the body, which is often referred to as hyperglycemia,
as opposed to hypoglycemia which is consistently "low
blood sugar levels". There are two types of diabetes:
diabetes
insipidus and
diabetes
mellitus.
Diabetes insipidus is a rare disorder caused by a
deficiency of the pituitary hormone, which is usually the result of damage.
Diabetes
mellitus results from the production of insufficient amounts
of insulin by the pancreas. Without
insulin the body cannot utilize glucose, thus creating a high level of
glucose
in the blood, and a low level of glucose absorption by the tissues.
Diabetes mellitus is generally divided into two categories: Type I,
called insulin-dependent or juvenile diabetes, and Type II in which the
onset
of the diabetes occurs during adult-hood.
1
This article will concentrate on Type II diabetes,
often referred to the maturity-onset diabetes.
It is caused by either inadequate pancreas function or the inability of
the body to use insulin efficiently.
Sometimes, a shortage of insulin-receptor cells (sites throughout the
body where the interaction of glucose and insulin occurs) allows the insulin to
be present in the bloodstream without working properly, which is also called
"insulin resistance". This results in
high blood sugar levels which places a great strain on other organs in the
body.
1
It may evolve from a gradual slowing of insulin
production with the pancreas and other disorders of the endocrine system which
may cause hormonal imbalances that disturb glucose regulation.
Symptoms of Type I diabetes are excessive thirst and
urination, fatigue, altered vision, fainting, irritability, and slow healing of
cuts and bruises. The same symptoms may
signal Type II diabetes, or no symptoms may appear at all. Type II is characterized by blurred vision,
itching, unusual thirst, drowsiness, fatigue, skin infections, slow healing,
and tingling or numbness in the feet.
Onset of the symptoms is usually later in life.
2
Diet often controls Type II diabetes and insulin is
not usually required. Studies indicate
that it is due to impaired glucose tolerance that may lead to full-blown
diabetes.
1
Other signs of diabetes include lingering flu-like
symptoms, loss of hair on the legs, increased facial hair, small yellow bumps
anywhere on the body (known as xanthomas-cholesterol,
which are raised, waxy-appearing skin lesions), and inflammation of the penile
skin.
1
If the Type II diabetic exercises greater care in food
choices and carefully reads food labels, he will be able to control the problem
and avoid drugs or insulin.
2 Diabetes and hypoglycemia are basically related to insulin problems, and they both respond to the same
kind of dietary guidelines.4
Diabetic Symptoms are Your Body's Attempt to Heal Itself
What happens if you dam a stream and create a
pond? Some days you've got larvae and
algae (fungi) growing. If the stream is
moving, you are fine.
You need a
constant stream of mucus to get rid of and prevent an infection. In almost all cases if you treat a symptom
you are going to make the disease worse because the symptom is there as your
body's attempt to heal itself.
9
Now, the medical profession is continuously
segregating more and more symptoms into diseases, they call the symptoms
diseases. So they treat what they think
is the disease which is just a symptom.
8
The problem is that medicine really isn't a science, it is a business.
9
What is the Purpose of Insulin?
If you ask your doctor, they will say that
it is to lower blood sugar, but that is a trivial side effect.
Insulin's evolutionary purpose, among others
known right now, is to "store excess nutrients".
When your body notices that the sugar is elevated, it
is a sign that you've got more than you need right now, so it is accumulating
in your blood. So insulin will be
released to take that sugar and store it.
How does it store it?
How Insulin Stores Nutrients
Insulin stores nutrients in the form of glycogen, which is the principal
carbohydrate storage material in animals, which occurs mainly in the liver, in
muscles, and in fungi and yeasts.
But you have very little in your body at any one
time. All the glycogen stored in your liver
and muscles, etc. wouldn't last you a day if you were active. Once you fill up your glycogen stores, the
excess sugars and carbohydrates are stored as a particular kind of
triglyceride, or fatty acid, which consists of palmitic
acid and saturated fat.
So the idea by the medical profession of going on a high
complex carb, low saturated-fat diet is an absolute
oxymoron (self-contradictory effect), because those high complex carb diets are nothing but a high glucose diet, or high
sugar diet, and your body is just going to store it as saturated fat, which is
body fat.
9
Insulin doesn't just store carbs. It is an anabolic* hormone, which increases
the storage of glucose, fatty acids and amino acids in cells and tissues. Body builders are injecting themselves with
insulin now, because it is legal, and because it builds muscle and it stores
protein too.
*anabolic means occurring inside the body, where it builds more complex substances from simpler ones.
A lesser known fact is that insulin also stores
magnesium. It also plays a role in
vitamin C and it stores all sorts of nutrients.
But what happens if your cells become resistant to insulin? First of all
you can't store magnesium so you
lose it, and you lose it out the urine.
9
Magnesium's Major Roles
See
10. Intracellular magnesium relaxes muscles. When you can't store magnesium because the
cell is resistant you lose magnesium and your blood vessels constrict. This increases blood pressure, and reduces
energy since intracellular magnesium is required for all energy producing
reactions that take place in the cell.
But magnesium is also necessary for the action of insulin and for the
manufacture of insulin.
So when your insulin is raised you lose magnesium and
the cells become even more insulin resistant.
Blood vessels constrict, glucose and insulin can't get to the tissues,
and that makes them more insulin resistant, so the insulin levels go up and you
lose more magnesium. It is a vicious
cycle.
What's more this starts before you were born. Insulin sensitivity is going to start from
the moment the sperm combines with the egg.
If your mother while you were in the womb was eating a high carb diet, which is turning into sugar, it follows that you
will be born with insulin resistance.
Does that mean it is genetic? No,
you can be born with something and it doesn't mean it is genetic. Diabetes is not a genetic disease as
such. It is caused by diet.
Insulin also causes retention of sodium, which causes
water retention, which causes high blood pressure which causes congestive heart
failure. One of the strongest stimulants
of the sympathetic nervous system is high levels of insulin.
The immediate effects of raising blood sugar from a
high carb meal, is to raise insulin and that
immediately triggers the sympathetic nervous system which will cause spasms and
constriction of the arteries.
How Cells become Insulin Resistant10
Cells become insulin resistant because they are trying
to protect themselves from the toxic effects of high insulin. They down regulate their receptor activity
and the number of their receptors so they don't have to listen to that noxious
stimuli all the time.
So the pancreas
puts out more insulin, but the cells are not responding no matter how much it
produces. But the pancreas cannot keep that up forever without breaking down.
What Cells Become Insulin Resistant First?10
If all of the cells were resistant to excess insulin
we wouldn't have a problem, but not all cells become resistant.
The liver becomes resistant first, then the muscle
tissue, then the fat [body]. When the liver
becomes resistant it responds by suppressing the production of sugar.
Sugar comes from two areas. What you have eaten and from your liver.
If your liver is listening to insulin
properly it won't make much sugar. If
your liver is resistant, those brakes are lifted and your liver starts making a
bunch of sugar.
What is the action of insulin in muscles? It allows your muscles to burn sugar for one
thing. If your muscles become resistant
to insulin it can't burn the sugar just manufactured by the liver. The liver is producing too much, which the
muscles can't burn, and it raises your blood sugar.
It takes fat cells a lot longer to become insulin
resistant. What is the action of insulin
on your fat cells? It is to store that
fat. It takes sugar and it stores it as
fat, so until your fat cells become resistant you get fat, and that is what you
see.
As people become more and more
insulin resistant, they get fat and their weight goes up. They will
plateau at a certain weight. For some it is 300 pounds, for others it
is
one hundred and fifty pounds. Eventually
they plateau as the fat cells protect themselves and become insulin
resistant.
All the while your pancreas is putting out more
insulin to compensate.
Some Tissues Don't Become Insulin Resistant10
However, the lining of the arteries do not become
resistant very readily. All of that
insulin is affecting the lining of your arteries, which are loading up with
plaque.
Insulin floating around in the
blood causes a plaque build-up.
There
are many studies that prove this is happening so it is hard to understand why
the blame is put on cholesterol and saturated fats.
Insulin also causes blood to clot, affects the bones,
and it controls growth hormone.
How to Stop or Control the Rate of Insulin Resistance10
The rate at which our cells become insulin resistant
can be controlled by diet. It starts by
eliminating certain carbs which act just like sugar
in the body, i.e. starches, grains, and by eliminating sugars, including
fruit.
Therefore it stands to reason
that a low-carb diet will create less insulin
resistance by the cells.
It is
obvious by the above information that curing diabetes is related to insulin
resistance and that insulin production and resistance can be controlled by
diet.
Therefore curing candida and diabetes starts with same the diet, which consists of
moderate protein, high "good" fats and low carbs, and no
starches and sugars.
Also, the
elimination of toxins in the diet and the environment are also important for
overall body health. This means eliminating soy and all soybean based products,
"bad" fats and oils, processed foods, and all of the other toxic sources talked about in the
article
How to Successfully Overcome Candida.
A healthy
diet, with adequate nutrients, is necessary for maintaining an effective immune
system as well. Dietary changes recommended are not only useful for continued candida control, but also are ideal for the
prevention of other chronic disease
states such as cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease,
and diabetes.
4
Diabetics Should Follow These Simple Recommendations
-
Consume a diet that is high in "good" fats such as butter, coconut oil,
lard and other natural occuring animal fats as discussed in Fats & Oils from The Skinny on Fats By Mary Enig, PhD, and Sally Fallon.
A high fats diet is also recommended by Dr. Jan Kwasniewski, in Poland,
who has been curing people of diabetes and other serious illnesses with
his Optimal Diet for over 30 years.
-
Go on a low-carb diet. Carbs are defined as all foods that are not
classified as protein or fat. That includes eliminating all sugars
(including fruits), grains, nuts, starches and high-carb foods, i.e.
cereal, bread, pastries, donuts, cakes, cookies, pasta, carrots,
potatoes, beets, etc. - see this food list, which is for candida sufferers, but this diet is also very important for diabetics.
Did you know that you can be perfectly healthy not eating carbs of any
kind? That is because 58% of protein and 10% of "good" fats turns into
glucose inside the body providing all the body requires for maintaining
blood sugar levels.
-
Eat a moderate protein diet.
-
Eliminate as many sources of toxins as possible, including drugs,
processed foods, and toxins in the environment, personal care products,
cleaning products, etc. See Toxins, Vegetable Oils' Toxic Effects, Food Facts & Information [includes toxic & damaging foods]and Sugar, Fruit, Sugar Substitutes & Artificial Sweeteners.
-
Take Supplements
that together with the diet will provide all of the nutrients your body
requires. The body can heal itself when it is given the proper
nutrients to do its job!
-
Eat Enough Food! Inadequate food intake over
an extended time will cause many problems – including fatigue, weakness,
depression, irritability, sleep disturbance, headaches, muscle aches and pains,
numbness and tingling, frequent urination and water retention. Many of these symptoms also resemble Type II
diabetes. Not eating enough food can in
fact lead to medical problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and weight
problems, including obesity.3
-
Eating small meals may make the
problem worse. Consistently eating less than you need to make
you feel full can stimulate your body's natural starvation defenses
– and you feel hungry, crave sweets, and become tire, irritable, depressed,
etc. In addition, eating small meals can
inhibit insulin production, causing more blood sugar problems. Nutritional deficiencies are more common when
eating small meals, which can aggravate the conditions that cause blood sugar
problems.5
-
Eat
until you feel full at least twice a day.
You can eat more often, but at least two times a day
you should eat until you feel full.5
References
Thrush is the most common form of yeast infection
