Type II Diabetes
We will be talking about Types II and III diabetes mostly in this article as these are largely preventable with a little awareness and modest changes in behavior. Type I is otherwise known as Juvenile Onset and is an autoimmune disorder that knocks out the ability to make insulin in the pancreas. The treatment is diet control, regular exercise, risk factor avoidance (smoking, drinking) and insulin injections or insulin pump. Type I diabetics already know these things so this information is for everybody else.
Type II Big Bucks
Types II is increasing and that this really good news for dialysis centers. 44% of new cases of kidney failure can be traced to diabetes. This is also really good news for medical profession in general including pharmaceuticals as the cost of care for people with kidney disease is $32 billion per year. The diabetes portion then is about $14 billion. Lots of people will want to get in on this action.
Find Your Reasons to Change Your Lifestyle
If you are headed down the diabetes path or are already there, you will need reasons big enough to spark a lifestyle change. Motivation is often tied to how many reasons you have to make the changes.
I will do my best to help by repeating a short list of complications of Type II diabetes. Pick the ones that mean the most to you based on your own emotional make-up and maybe a dose of family history.
List of Common Complications
Heart and blood vessel disease. This includes heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure and guess what, erectile dysfunction. As those small arteries become compromised, blood flow becomes impaired in many key places.
Nerve Damage (neuropathy). The small blood vessels also feed your nerves. This tends to show up first in your feet and legs, tips of toes and sometimes fingers.
Kidney damage. We already touched on this.
Eye damage. Look for damage to the small blood vessels as well as increase probability of glaucoma and cataracts.
Poor circulation to feet. Even minor foot ailments can lead to an increase in infections and eventual amputation.
Skin problems. You might experience an increase in bacterial and fungal infections.
Alzheimer's disease. We now know that Alzheimer's is essential Type II diabetes in the brain and we refer to this as Type III Diabetes. People with Type II have a higher probability of developing Alzheimer's. What fun.
Troubling Case History
When I was just out of chiropractic college, I worked in an office with two established chiropractors. We received a call from a woman who wanted someone to treat her husband who was bed ridden. Since I was low man on the totem pole, I got volunteered. The man was about 70 or so years of age, of relatively normal weight. They had a hospital bed set up in a bedroom. His view was out the sliding glass door. He would see the back yard and a piece of sky. This was his only outside view as he was truly not able to move out of bed. He had lost one leg to diabetes and was in danger of losing the other. He had to have a podiatrist come in to cut his toe nails as even the smallest of insults to his skin was difficult to heal and could easily turn gangrenous.
He related to me that he developed diabetes from poor diet, lack of good exercise and minor obesity. He was contractor so wasn't sitting around doing nothing but also wasn't getting the diet and exercise his body wanted. He was now resigned to be in that one bed in that same horizontal position until the end.
I am thankful that I had the opportunity to work in that situation and context. Some situations you just want to stay out of and that was certainly one of them.
Common Problems
I wish I could say that this was a rare occurrence, but public health records tell us that this is more and more common. Next time we will spend some time talking about why people make decisions that aren't in their best interest. The problem is the battle between the limbic brain and the neocortex. The limbic brain is more motivated by immediate gratification and the neocortex can look at the big picture. We all deal with this but can move the needle toward better decisions if we know the game.
Since OVitaminPro is a supplement store, I should mention that things like NuMedica Gluco-Response, Allergy Research Glucose Tolerance and NuMedica CINNergy . Check your blood sugar, treat with your favorite supplement combination and retest to make sure you are on the right track. Fortunately, we don't have to wait for a foot to fall off to know what is coming.