Diabetes: Early action is the key for a lifetime of happiness
Diabetes needs no introduction as it is a metabolic disease that causes high blood sugar. Generally, the hormone insulin moves sugar from the blood into your cells to be stored or used for energy. With diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t effectively use the insulin it does make.
In fact, it is not a disease and falls under the category of metabolic syndromes/lifestyle diseases (LSD), which means that an active healthy lifestyle (guided by a professional) could go a long way in containing and/or even reversing the ailment.
If ignored, it can damage your nerves, eyes, kidneys, and other organs.
Types of Diabetes:
Type 1 Diabetes: In this type, the body does not produce insulin. Therefore external insulin has to be given. This disease cannot be reversed. To avoid complication, caloric input and energy output have to be maintained at a constant level.
Type 2 Diabetes: It is lifestyle related, where the body produces insulin but it is not able to control the blood sugar levels. It is a symptom of an ailment called Insulin Resistance (IR). If you address the symptom instead of the underlying disease i.e. IR, diabetes cannot be cured. But if you cure IR before the damage is done to the pancreas (the gland that produces insulin) diabetes gets cured automatically.
Symptoms of diabetes:
1. Weight loss
2. Blurry vision
3. Extreme fatigue
4. Hunger
5. Increased thirst
6. Frequent urination
7. Sores that don’t heal
Complications:
1. Hearing loss
2. Depression
3. Dementia
4. Nephropathy
5. Heart disease
6. Stroke
7. Skin diseases
8. Vision loss
What is Insulin Resistance?
The digested food, in the form of nutrients, enters the blood and the insulin (master hormone that affects all organs including uterus) facilitates their entry into the cells. IR occurs when more than normal quantity of insulin is required to make the cells accept the nutrients.
For more information – Insulin Resistance
How to measure IR?
If the TS/HDL is greater than 3.5, it is an indication of IR and this also means the predominance of small and dense Low-Density Lipoprotein particles which may lead to heart problems.
Food related functions of insulin:
a. Transport the blood sugar (glucose) into the muscle cells
b. Stop glucose production by the liver
c. Prevent the release of fatty acids from the fat stores
d. Help the brain prevent excess eating
IR typically starts ten to twelve years before the onset of Diabetes. For most Indians, the bulging belly is the first sign of IR.
IR generates fat. But before the fat generation begins, our bodies’ dispose of the excess calories by increasing the metabolism. This is the period when people wrongly believe that nothing happens to them even if they do not stick to healthy eating habits. But once the fat is generated, it is difficult to get rid of it, because the body is designed to retain fat, so it does not cooperate in fat reducing measures.
Cure for diabetes is almost always worse than the disease:
Anti-diabetic medicines reduce the Blood Sugar by making the body produce more insulin. So even if these pills control the Blood Sugar (BS), the excess insulin generated creates bigger health hazards than the original problem.
The false security generated by the pills, makes the diabetic patient flout the healthy eating and lifestyle practices even more. So, generally, the patient ends up with problems associated with both excess BS and excess insulin, necessitating additional pills for BP, Cholesterol and other such lifestyle diseases. The diabetic pills work best when used with meal planning and exercise.
Also, remember – Diabetes being a hereditary condition is a myth!
Genes take thousands of years to change. They cannot change in a couple of generations. Then how is it that we see diabetes running in some families? What a person’s mother ate when he/she was in the womb, or even what his grandmother ate when his mother was in the womb could predispose a person to diabetes.
Ayurveda recognized this fact ages ago and suggested that people should select foods according to their ‘jhataragni’, crude translation of which is ‘fire in the stomach’. Modern science calls it the Glycemic Index.
Here’s how we can help:
Diabetes can lead to serious medical conditions and corrective lifestyle changes at an early stage can ensure that the individual can reverse or correct it. And, our experts advise and treat you in the best way possible.
1. We analyze your medical reports from a nutrition standpoint and recommend a course of action
2. We help you make your medication more effective with appropriate nutrition and help reduce your medications and maybe even help in reversing your lifestyle-related ailments
3. We use Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to transition you into a lifestyle that is conducive for your LSDs.
4. We also use the Scientific Mind and Body Processes that can reduce the medical condition or even reverse the condition
