Diabetes is a condition caused by a diet that is too high in carbohydrates over a long period of time. Ultimately, the high carbohydrate diet brings about a condition known as insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance occurs as a result of the body continuously producing increased insulin in an attempt to maintain normal blood sugar levels. The body does this because the digestive process converts carbohydrates into sugar that goes directly into the blood stream.
Insulin resistance as it progresses results in many symptoms, one of which is high blood sugar levels called “diabetes.”
Not everyone experiences all of these symptoms and there is no specific sequence in which these symptoms appear. Some symptoms may appear before the blood sugar levels rise above normal and others may not show up until after the blood sugar levels have gone up.
“High insulin levels, not low insulin levels, are the problem originally associated with Type II diabetes, and high insulin levels are harder to detect because it is normal for insulin levels to rise under many circumstances. The slightly higher insulin level causes slow weight gain, small increases in blood pressure, slow changes in cholesterol numbers and the beginning of artery plaque formation.
“One by one, diagnoses of obesity, hypertension, cholesterol abnormalities, and heart disease are made without taking into account that these are all related to higher insulin levels and to each other. If the underlying physiology is not corrected, Type II diabetes will likely be the next diagnosis.
“The physical changes that occur when you have higher insulin levels are so subtle and cause damage over so many years that it takes approximately ten to thirty years for your blood sugar-levels to rise after the initial changes in insulin levels begin. By the time Type II diabetes is diagnosed, chronic high insulin levels have done a lot of metabolic damage – though it will seem to happen overnight.” – excerpted from The Schwartzbein Principle II, The Transition by Diana Schwartzbein, M.D.
In an attempt to reduce the symptoms of insulin resistance or hold them in check, the symptoms are often treated by drugs, medications or insulin. Addressing symptoms does nothing to handle the underlying condition causing it, and so the condition continues to get worse, resulting often in more and more medications to keep the symptoms “under control.”
It can get so crazy that diabetics can wind up being prescribed for several drugs for high blood sugar, as well as another drug for high triglycerides, and another for high cholesterol, and another one for high blood pressure. Yet none of these drugs addresses or corrects the underlying cause of the diabetic condition, insulin resistance!
If you have not yet done so, you can turn your diabetic condition around and improve your overall health by getting onto a high protein/low carbohydrate diet, taking the correct nutritional supplements, and putting a little exercise into your life!
Bob Held is the Founder and President of the Wellness Support Network The Wellness Support Network’s mission is to help people with health challenges such as Diabetes.http://realfoodnutrients.com/db/home.htm?sid=ezineart A website with recipes that lower blood sugar is available at http://diabetes-support.com?sid=ezineart
