You don’t just wake up one morning and have diabetes. It is a progression of events that occurs of years, if not decades. Ninety percent of our diabetics today start by developing insulin resistance, which eventually leads to prediabetes and then to full-blown diabetes. As you have been learning, as soon as you “tip over” into this abnormal metabolic state called the metabolic syndrome, your arteries begin aging much faster than normal. By waiting until the patient becomes diabetic, it is simply too late. In August of 2008, the consensus conference I discussed in the last Health Nugget strongly recommended that we begin treating patients with prediabetes with intensive lifestyle management. This is a major step in the right direction. However, physicians must begin to recognize the early signs of insulin resistance and begin to intervene with aggressive lifestyle management even before they become prediabetic.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has projected that over one-third of the children born after the year 2000 will develop diabetes sometime during their lifetime. If they happen to be Black, Hispanic, or Native American, the CDC projects that nearly 50% of the children will become diabetic. When you consider that diabetes is the leading cause of amputation, kidney failure, blindness, and neuropathy, the strain this projection will place on our health care system and society in general is tremendous. The answer is encouraging individuals to become proactive in protecting their health by firmly establishing these new, healthier lifestyles that improve insulin sensitivity.
Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has projected that over one-third of the children born after the year 2000 will develop diabetes sometime during their lifetime. If they happen to be Black, Hispanic, or Native American, the CDC projects that nearly 50% of the children will become diabetic. When you consider that diabetes is the leading cause of amputation, kidney failure, blindness, and neuropathy, the strain this projection will place on our health care system and society in general is tremendous. The answer is encouraging individuals to become proactive in protecting their health by firmly establishing these new, healthier lifestyles that improve insulin sensitivity.
Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)
