Tuesday 14 May 2013

Type 2 Diabetes at the Cellular Level

Author's Note: If your goal is to get your Type 2 diabetes under control (stop the rot), or possibly reverse your diabetes, then is critical that you acquire the proper knowledge to understand and learn how this disease works to rot out your body from the inside out. In addition, it may be just as important to unlearn a lot of myths you believe to be true about diabetes, drugs, and nutrition.

The following is some of that knowledge and information that you need to understand about Type 2 diabetes.

And, once you understand how diabetes rots out your body, it will make it easier to understand how to stop the rot, and reverse the disease.

What is Type 2 Diabetes?
In simple terms, Type 2 diabetes is a rotting disease that gradually spreads the rot and damage throughout the body, driven by cellular inflammation, insulin resistance (hyperinsulinemia), celluar dehydration, toxic overload, mineral deficiencies, and other nutrient deficiencies.

Type 2 diabetes (non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, NIDDM) has reached
epidemic levels in the United States and other countries around the world. There are more than 24 million diabetics in the U.S. and more than 190 million worldwide.

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder where the body is unable to maintain glucose homeostasis and the cells have lost the ability to effectively utilize the insulin produced by the pancreas.  This is known as insulin resistance.

Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes, because it primarily affected older adults. But today with more children being overweight and sedentary, Type 2 diabetes is affecting children as well as adults. As a result, Type 2 diabetes has reached such an epidemic level that 1 out of every 2 people knows someone who is diabetic! In fact, you may be surprised at the number of famous people and celebrities who are diabetic.

Type 2 diabetes is a combination of
cellular dehydration, nutrient starvation (vitamin/mineral deficiencies), insulin resistanceleptin resistance, cellular inflammation, lack of glucose homeostasis, rotting, toxicity, and oxidative stress that affects trillions of cells and damages many of these cells -- which can lead to a dysregulated immune system. In other words, Type 2 diabetes is more than just a "blood sugar" disease!

This is important to understand because once you realize that
controlling your blood sugar is only one component to defeat and reverse your diabetes, achieving the ultimate goal of "death to your diabetes" is within your reach.

Insulin resistance
and cellular inflammation reinforce each other via a positive feedback loop, causing more cell damage and preventing your body's cells from effectively using the insulin produced by the pancreas. That is, the insulin receptors on the surface of each cell are damaged (inflamed), ignoring the presence of insulin in your blood and refusing to allow glucose from your blood to enter your cells.          

                        Death to Diabetes: Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

 
Cell Biology
The cells in your body require the glucose (as fuel) in order to produce energy. Without this fuel, your cells cannot produce energy and perform their functions.

Some of this glucose is stored in the liver. But most of it enters the bloodstream and travels to the cells to be used as fuel. Glucose needs the help of a hormone called
insulin to enter the cells. Insulin, which is made in the pancreas, is released into the bloodstream in response to the presence of glucose in the blood (i.e. after eating food). Think of insulin as a key. When insulin reaches a cell, it attaches to the cell wall. This signals the cell to create an opening that allows glucose to enter the cell.

But with Type 2 diabetes, your
cells don’t respond properly to insulin. Because of this, less glucose than normal moves into cells. This is called insulin resistance. In response, the pancreas makes more insulin. As less and less glucose enters cells, it builds up to a harmful level in the bloodstream. This is known as high blood sugar or hyperglycemia. The result is Type 2 diabetes. The cells become starved for energy, which can leave you feeling tired and rundown.                 Death to Diabetes: Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

Blood Glucose Mismanagement

The sustained high blood glucose levels drive the beta cells of the pancreas to produce more insulin, which may cause the beta cells to begin to "wear out". Gradually, this may lead to beta cell dysfunction, which will reduce insulin production and cause blood glucose levels to rise even further, creating a vicious cycle of metabolic, biochemical and hormonal imbalances.

Over a period of years, these metabolic imbalances of
insulin resistance, beta cell dysfunction, and cellular inflammation continue to feed each other, spreading more damage to more cells, leading to an increase in the production of fat cells and the need for more insulin from those cells. This increases the fat storage, especially in the abdomen area, while inhibiting fat metabolism because of the excess insulin (known as hyperinsulinemia).

In addition, there is an increase in oxidative stress, glycation, and a depletion of key micronutrients such as potassium, chromium, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E causing a severe nutrient deficiency.
 
All of this dysfunction leads to more cell membrane damage and a buildup of homocysteine, which causes damage to the artery walls. This leads to arterial plaque formation, an increase in blood viscosity and blood pressure, and, in some cases, an increase in cholesterol.  That's why many diabetics end up taking prescription medications for diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Unfortunately, this combination of medications just make matters worse.

However, there is more to diabetes than the insulin resistance and inflammation. There are other biochemical and hormonal imbalances  (root causes) that fuel diabetes, including excess oxidation, adrenal fatigue, toxicity, and  insufficient nutrient absorption by the gastrointestinal system. All of these biochemical and hormonal imbalances must be addressed in order to properly treat diabetes and provide the opportunity to reverse the disease.

Since billions of cells have been damaged by the diabetes, the body requires a comprehensive nutritional and detox program that removes the excess toxins, reduces the oxidative damage, and initiates the body's repair process to repair the cellular damage and heal the body.

If Type 2 diabetes goes untreated, the excess insulin and excess blood glucose (hyperglycemia) damages the pancreatic beta cells and the body's blood vessels. This can lead to thicker blood, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high homocysteine, high c-reactive protein, arterial plaque formation, and low levels of chromium, magnesium, calcium, zinc, CoQ10, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E.

Please Note!
These vitamin and mineral deficiencies tend to lead so-called nutritional experts to recommend that diabetics take a bunch of vitamins and minerals to fight their diabetes. Nothing could be further from the truth! Instead, a better treatment strategy is to feed the body the whole foods that contain these key vitamins and minerals, i.e. green/bright-colored vegetables, sea vegetables, beans, wild salmon, organic eggs, and some dark-colored fruits.

These complications affect nearly every organ in the body, leading to
kidney failure and dialysis, diabetic retinopathy and blindness, peripheral neuropathy and amputation, serious skin infections, gangrene, cardiovascular disease, stroke, disability, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, hearing damage, nonketotic hyperglycemic hyperosmolar syndrome, and death.

However, the good news is that these biological changes and metabolic biochemical imbalances can be corrected and these complications prevented with a superior nutrition, anti-inflammatory foods, a proper exercise regimenspiritual health, and less stress in your life.

For more details about the science of diabetes, refer to the pathophysiology web page. For more details about repairing and healing the body from the damage caused by the diabetes (and the drugs), refer to Repairing & Healing web page. 

The following diagram depicts how a cell pulls in glucose from the bloodstream in a non-diabetic's body vs. a diabetic's body.

Death to Diabetes: Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

The following diagram depicts how a cell performs its major functions in a non-diabetic's body. 
     
Death to Diabetes: Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

The following diagram depicts how a cell is unable to perform its major functions in a diabetic's body.
Death to Diabetes: Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

Death to Diabetes Website Reference: 
http://www.deathtodiabetes.com/Death_to_Type_2_Diabetes.html

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