It’s time I utilize Type 2 Diabetes (previously called Adult Onset or Old Age Diabetes and the prototypical lifestyle disease) to explain and illustrate - “Your Weight Management = Your Health Management.”
Over the last 25 years or so there has been an increase in the number of people of all age groups including young people and children with Type 2 Diabetes (not Type 1 Diabetes which is a different disease). This Type 2 Diabetes epidemic is worldwide - almost everyone either has or knows someone who has Type 2 Diabetes. Why the epidemic? To answer this question we must first understand what Type 2 Diabetes is.
Type 2 Diabetes is always a genetic (inherited from parents) disease and the genetics haven’t changed in centuries. A Type 2 Diabetes individual inherits two things: first, an inabilty (from birth) for that individual’s insulin to work properly to lower blood sugar – this is called insulin resistance – the need for more insulin to lower blood sugar compared to someone without Diabetes; and, second, a planned or programmed gradual failure from an early age of that individual’s insulin producing cells (Beta cells). Eventually, the Type 2 Diabetes individual’s Beta cells simply fail to the point that they can no longer produce enough insulin to overcome the insulin resistance and the Type 2 Diabetic’s blood sugar (glucose) starts going up. This used to happen (prior to the Type 2 Diabetes epidemic) in an individual’s late 50′s, 60′s, or 70′s – hence the term “Old Age Diabetes.”
If the genetics haven’t changed, why are more and more people, including youg people, being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes? Why this epidemic? The answer is that as an individual with genetic Type 2 Diabetes weight increases, his/her problems with blood sugar elevation increase. This happens because as the individual with genetic Type 2 Diabetes gains weight (eats too much and with less physical activity becomes less fit) doing this causes its own insulin resistance which is superimposed on (added to) that individual’s genetic insulin resistance and this stresses the Beta insulin producing cells even more and they fail earlier and earlier. The majority of young people (children and teens ) who are diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes are morbidly obese. The average individual with Type 2 Diabetes in the USA is obese with a BMI of 33.
The Type 2 Diabetes epidemic is not simply associated with overweight/obesity – it is caused by overweight/obesity and the unhealthy lifestyle that causes the overweight/obesity.
Therefore, “Your Weight Management = Your Health (Diabetes) Management.”
As usual, I would appreciate your comments, discussion or questions.
