Diabetes: 10 Ways to Nip it in the Bud
About 11 million Canadians have been diagnosed with diabetes. The risk of kidney disease, loss of nerve function, heart disease and stroke are greatly increased with diabetes. Complications associated with diabetes are cataract formation glycosylation and slow wound healing. What is diabetes? It is a chronic metabolic disorder of fats, carbohydrates and protein marked by hyperglycemia, and characterized by blood sugar levels elevating after fasting.
Type I diabetes mellitus - caused by autoimmune destruction of beta cells (insulin-secreting) of the pancreas.
Type II diabetes mellitus - a result of decreased or lost sensitivity to insulin. The major contributing factors are obesity, a high glycemic diet with low fibre and protein.
The difference between diabetes II and metabolic syndrome is the degree of insulin resistance. Mostly likely an individual had metabolic syndrome before developing type II diabetes. Metabolic syndrome gives you periods of hyperglycemia (high glucose levels) and hypoglycemia (low glucose levels) in response to meals. This progresses to diabetes II puts an individual into perpetual hyperglycemia meaning the glucose has nowhere to go but to the bloodstream because very little glucose can get into the cells, and blood sugar rises after a meal.
It is important achieve and maintain your ideal weight for restoration of normal blood sugar levels. If you are diagnosed as pre-diabetic, then dietary treatment should be tried first because most type II diabetes can be controlled just by your diet. Many physicians opt for giving you prescribed drugs for control, but you can change your diet first.
Prevention
1. It takes years of not getting enough exercise, putting on weight and eating simple sugars, so change your diet and lifestyle to prevent diabetes.
2. Have 3 main meals and 3 snacks. Never skip a meal! This helps stabilize blood sugar levels, so they don't dip low or spike high.
3. Have high fibre. This includes water-soluble fibre like pectin. This slows down the absorption of carbohydrates. Also, insoluble fibre found in vegetables and grains that passes through the bowels to reduce autointoxication and binds secreted cholesterol with bile salts into the bowel to prevent reabsorption.
4. Keep a healthy gut with good bacteria to prevent Candida. This sugar loving fungus gives you those cravings for sweets and simple carbs.
5. Focus on eating on low glycemic index foods. Charts can be found online.
6. Eat foods that have an insulin-like activity. Garlic and onion in particular both decrease insulin deactivation.
7. Avoid luncheon meats as they contain nitrites or nitrosamines, which is suggested to contribute to beta cell damage.
8. Drink lots of water.
9. Don't eat fruit on an empty stomach, as the sugars are quickly absorbed and can rise blood sugar levels. Eat fruit with fibre, fats and/or protein (apple & cheese or pear and nuts).
10. Being deficient in zinc can play a role in developing diabetes because it is involved in all aspects of insulin metabolism and protects against the destruction of beta cells.
Pure grade zinc is available at my Fullscript store. It delivers to your door in Canada. Think you have a good quality zinc or other supplements? Put it to the test and see if they dissolve in water. If they don't, then it is time to put good quality supplements into your body so they can do the job they are intended to do.
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