The insanity that is treatment of Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is not the lack of insulin. It is an excess of insulin. At least, in the beginning. If you catch it early enough, you can avoid turning your life into a slow motion train wreck.

I’ll type that again in capitals because it needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

TYPE 2 DIABETES IS AN EXCESS OF INSULIN

Now, if you have an excess of a particular object in your house, the better idea would be to stop buying more of those, instead of getting a bigger house. For example, I have too many bicycles. Instead of cutting back on bicycles, I now have a seperate room to hold all of them. That’s not a sane way of dealing with the issue. You will agree.

In T2DM, the excess of insulin is caused by an excess of energy in the body stores, that never go to empty. Instead, the fuel is pumped in repeatedly, thrice a day in large quantities in super refined form. The fuel is unaccompanied by nutrients. All it contains is the energy, without the nutrients that are necessary for efficient storage and use. In some cases, people are advised to eat 5 to 6 times a day of that high octane refined fuel, by medical professionals. Mainly dietitians and doctors who treat diabetes.

Everytime people overeat carbohydrates it triggers insulin release. The insulin forces the excess carbohydrates into muscle at first, then into fat cells and the liver.

It wouldn’t matter if the muscle and fat were relatively empty when you refueled. But hardly anyone on the planet these days has empty fat or muscle glycogen stores.

At some point, these 3 main meals with 3 “healthy snacks” to “keep your blood sugar up” will start needing more and more insulin to force the excess glucose into the overfilled storage areas. This is insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance then goes on to hyperinsulinemia. The hyperinsulinemia will exacerbate inflammation. The inflammation accelerates aging, increases the rate of degeneration. Putting you at increased risk of cancer, diabetes, hypertension, infertility, arthritis, autoimmune diseases. Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia are what keep the healthcare industry in perpetual boom.

Hyperinsulinemia will also cause you to get more and more hungry. You’ll continue to over eat.
Once you get on that path, there’s no coming back, unless there a conscious decision to cut back on the stuff that is making you sick, ie-Empty calories- sugar, grains, refined oils, artificial oils.

How does the healthcare industry respond to the T2DM that is caused by overeating of carbs and the resulting hyperinsulinemia?

By giving you drugs that make your over worked Pancreas produce more insulin( sulfonylureas- glipizide, gliclazide,glimepride) . That’s like flogging a horse that’s stumbling from overwork. It’ll just die earlier. The same ends up happening to your pancreatic beta cells.

When most of them are dead, and there is not enough insulin being produced, insulin then steps in to save the day. Now, a person who started off with excess insulin capacity and production ends up insulin dependent. He has to be on insulin now to survive.

They have a gun to your head and you have to pay. For the rest of your life. What’s funny (and sad at the same time) is that you helped them put that gun there. Even at that point, you’re being asked to eat several meals a day of “healthy whole grains” to “stabilise” your blood sugar. Insulin dose continues to creep up, because the fat cells and muscle are still overfilled.

By this point you’ve been diabetic for a decade, and continuous high insulin levels have stiffened and narrowed your blood vessels. The continually elevated blood sugar has destroyed the proteins that form the physical and mechanical structures of your cells. You’ve paid a fortune in healthcare bills.

You’ve now got heart disease, kidneys are failing, dementia starts to make it’s presence felt. A stroke or two livens up the party. Your joints feel 3 decades older than what your birth certificate shows. Your feet are on fire. At first, only in the night, later on, throughout the day . Toes start rotting away one by one.

Right now, you’re thinking that this sort of a horror story will not take place in your life. You’re wrong.
Half the adult population in Kerala is pre diabetic or diabetic. Half the adult population in Chandigarh was prediabetic 10 years ago. The situation has only gotten worse since then.

You’ve got to fix this.
If the dose of your diabetic drugs are going up every year, if your weight is climbing every year, if the insulin dose needs to be constantly increased, you’re doing something wrong.

Don’t just blame your doctor. If your blood sugar is high, he/she is just going to increase your drug/insulin dose. They don’t know any better.
Even if they know better, thet know you’re not going to stop loading up on carbs. They’ll do what it takes to bring down your blood sugar. Because an uncontrolled blood sugar level is worse than what the drugs might do to you. So they trade-off. Increased drug doses and insulin.

Take responsibility for your own health. Cut back on the carbs. Adjust your carbohydrate intake according to your activity level. Most of you overestimate your carb requirements.One hour of walking uses 70 calories. A single chapatti contains around 70 calories. How many hours of walking will you have to do to compensate for the 6 chapattis a day you’re eating? What about the curry, the biscuits, the fried snacks and the sugar in your tea and coffee? When you consider the quantity you’re eating. If you really track how much you’re eating, you’ll realise how hard your body is working to keep you healthy. It’s a wonder.

If you’re looking for ideas on what diet to try, have a look at an earlier post I’d made on the topic

https://www.evomedindia.com/2019/12/18/a-diet-for-sedentary-indian-diabetics/

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