This is a pretty good article on the vast increase in type2 diabetes. There are links to other related articles in today's Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/ny...9diabetes.html

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A truly terrifying vision of the future...

Unbelievable! And for the most part.....preventable. Sad. :(

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Great article, it's the first of four. Today's was even more disturbing.

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>^..^<
Esther

Two of the guys installing my floors have diabetes. They look to be in their mid-thirties and fit. One was a professional athlete earlier in life and they both get quite a bit of exercise from the job they do. It's heavy, stressful work for sure.

I'm constantly running into people who have diabetes here in California, and not all are overweight. I wonder if diabetes was under diagnosed in the past? Or, if one of the flu epidemics that swept through in the past caused a higher incidence of an unfortunate immune system response?

DH works at the county hospital. He says they are rapidly increasing the number of dialysis stations due to diabetes-related kidney disease.

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~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

It's kind of a mixed bag, Teel.

The typical type 1 diabetic (auto-immune or other destruction of the beta cells in the pancreas) is not usually overweight. Here, because of some insult to the immune system, or something which triggers an auto-immune response, the beta cells in the pancreas are destroyed in rather short order.

The typical type 2 diabetic is usually overweight. That is because this problem is slow and progressive, usually beginning with insulin resistance. The abundance of insulin produced by the pancreas in an effort to overcome the resistance in the receptor cells and get the blood glucose level down causes more glucose to be stored as fat. The more fat being stored, the greater the resistance. It's a vicious cycle which, uncontrolled, leads to a state where the beta cells burn themselves out, leaving the type 2 in a similar state as a type 1, where exogenous insulin must be used to get any control over blood glucose levels.

The really sad thing about many of the people interviewed is that, were they only willing to change how they ate, they could probably "reverse" their diabetes. I use quotes because I mean they can normalize their blood sugars and keep them that way .... but only as long as they never go back to challenging their metabolism again.

I know several doctors who have gotten numerous type 2 patients off their diabetic medications ... including insulin ... by persuading them to follow a strict low carb regimen for even a month or two. Sadly, most of them (like the folks interviewed in part 2) are unwilling to give up their previous eating patterns.

Type 2 diabetes is one disease where, for the most part, one gets the level of health that one chooses.

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