oh sugar, sugar
One of my personal guiding beliefs is that I won’t be the cleverest person at the party, but, by the same token, I won’t be the dumbest. On that basis I always assume that if I don’t know something, then others out there won’t know it either, and today I’ve finally learned what diabetes is. Appreciating that diabetes is on the rise I thought I’d do a bit of research and find out what it is, what causes it, can it be cured and am I going to get it?
Put simply, if you’ve Type 1 diabetes, and hence experience a complete lack of insulin production from the pancreas, then there’s nowt you can do about it and your day will be punctuated by those pen-like syringes popping some insulin into your body. About 10% of diabetes suffers have type 1 and it’s largely due to genetics, so blame your ancestors. Type 2 occurs when the pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin to control an individual’s blood sugar levels, and is largely self-inflicted. The pancreas can only produce so much insulin and if the individual consumes more sugar than the body is able to deal with, it’s stored away. This sugar then has a massive impact on the organs and structure of the body. An impact that can include kidney failure, blindness, the need to wee all the time, and putting on massive amounts of weight. The irony is that, if you don’t use the sugar you’ve consumed the body ends up craving even more of the stuff and you’re in a vicious, albeit self-induced, downward spiral.
Until 2000, not one single case of type 2 diabetes had been recorded in under-18s. Now however, in the western world, children as young as six or seven are developing type 2 diabetes and in total, in the UK, there are over four million sufferers, and the number’s growing – literally and metaphorically. Doctors are absolutely 100% convinced the surge is due to poor diet and lack of exercise. It can only be these two factors – we’re stuffing our faces with sugar-laden processed foods and not doing enough to burn the stuff off. And get this, if you get it at 12 or 15 years of age, you’re well on your way to a heart attack in your mid-20s. Ouch. The good news is that, by catching it early enough and changing our life-style, it is possible to reverse the trend and limit the impact this condition has on our health. I don’t know about you but I know I won’t be the cleverest person at the gym, but at least I’ll be at the gym!
