There is a staggering amount of misinformation on diabetes, a growing epidemic that afflicts more than 26 million in the United States today. The sad truth is this: it could be your very OWN physician perpetuating this misinformation
Most diabetics find themselves in a black hole of helplessness, clueless about how to reverse their condition. The bigger concern is that more than half of those with Type 2 diabetes are NOT even aware they have diabetes.
Diabetes: Symptoms of an Epidemic
The latest diabetes statistics 1 echo an increase in diabetes cases, both diagnosed and undiagnosed. By some estimates, diabetes has increased more than 700 percent in the last 50 years!
At least 26 million Americans are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and another 79 million are prediabetic.
What’s hidden behind medical smokescreen is that Type 2 diabetes is completely preventable. The cure lies in a true understanding of the underlying cause (which is impaired insulin and leptin sensitivity) and implementing simple, inexpensive lifestyle adjustments that spell phenomenal benefits to your health.
Type 1 Diabetes and Insulin Dependence
Also known as diabetes mellitus, type 2 diabetes is a chronic health condition traditionally characterized by elevated levels of glucose in your blood, or simply high blood sugar. Type 1 diabetes – dubbed “juvenile onset diabetes” – is the relatively uncommon type, affecting only about one in 250 Americans. Occurring in individuals younger than age 20, it has no known cure.
In Type 1 diabetes, your own immune system ravages the insulin-producing cells of your pancreas. The result is a loss of the hormone insulin. Type 1 diabetics need to be supplemented with insulin for the rest of their lives as failure to do will rapidly result in death. At the current time other than a pancreas transplant there is no known cure for type 1 diabetes.
Type 2 Diabetes: Virtually 100% Curable
The far more common form of diabetes is type 2, which affects 90 to 95 percent of diabetics. In this type, your body produces insulin but is unable to recognize and use it properly. It is considered an advanced stage of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance allows sugar to increase and cause of host of complications.
The signs of diabetes may all be there, but the often-overlooked fact is that Type 2 diabetes is completely preventable and nearly 100% curable.
| Excessive thirst | Extreme hunger (even after eating) |
| Nausea and possible vomiting | Unusual gain weight or loss |
| Increased fatigue | Irritability |
| Blurred vision | Slow healing of wounds |
| Frequent infections (skin, urinary, vaginal) | Numbness or tingling in hands and/or feet |
How They Got It All Wrong About Diabetes…
Diabetes is NOT a disease of blood sugar, but rather a disorder of insulin and leptin signaling. Mainstream medicine largely fails in treating diabetes – even worsens it – because it refuses to investigate and act on this underlying cause. Insulin sensitivity is key in this matter. Your pancreas secretes insulin into your bloodstream, lowering your glucose. Insulin is meant to control the lifespan in some organisms, but what is its true purpose in humans?
“Your doctor will say that it's to lower blood sugar, but I will tell you right now that that is a trivial side effect.Insulin's evolutionary purpose as is known right now, we are looking at other possibilities, is to store excess nutrients.
We come from a time of feast and famine when if we couldn't store the excess energy during times of feasting, we would not be here because all of our ancestors encountered famine. We are only here because our ancestors were able to store nutrients, which they were able to do because they were able to elevate their insulin in response to any elevation in energy that the organism encountered.
When your body notices that sugar is elevated, it is a sign that you've got more than you need; you're not burning it so it is accumulating in your blood. So insulin will be released to take that sugar and store it...”
Insulin regulation plays such as an integral role in your health and longevity, that elevated levels are not only symptoms of diabetes, but also heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer, and obesity.
Diabetes and Leptin and Insulin Resistance
Leptin is a hormone produced in your fat cells. One of its primary roles is to regulate your appetite and body weight. It tells your brain when to eat, how much to eat, and when to stop eating, which is why it’s called the “satiety hormone.” It also tells your brain what to do with the energy it has.
Not very long ago it was determined that mice without any leptin became very obese. Similarly when one becomes leptin resistant, that mimics leptin deficiency and it becomes very easy to rapidly gain weight.
Leptin is responsible for the accuracy of insulin signaling and for your insulin resistance. As Dr. Rosedale discussed in the excerpt above: when your blood sugar becomes elevated, insulin is released to direct the extra energy for storage. A small amount is stored as glycogen (a starch), while the majority is stored as fat, your main energy supply.
Thus, the primary role of insulin is NOT to lower your blood sugar, but to store the extra energy for future consumption. Its ability to lower your blood sugar is merely a “side effect” of this energy storage process.
“Treating” diabetes by merely concentrating on lowering blood sugar can be a dangerous approach, because it does not address in any way shape or form the actual issue of metabolic miscommunication.
Taking insulin can actually spell greater trouble for Type 2 diabetes patients, as it will worsen their leptin and insulin resistance over time. The only known way to reestablish proper leptin (and insulin) signaling is through your diet. This can have a more profound influence on your health than any known drug or modality of medical treatment.
Fructose: A Driving Force Behind the Diabetes and Obesity Epidemic
Dr. Johnson reviews this fascinating topic in the interview below that I did regarding the landmark book, The Fat Switch, which carefully explains how consuming fructose activates a powerful biological switch that causes use to gain weight. This is actually highly beneficial capability that allows many species, and early humans, to survive times of food scarcity and winter.
Unfortunately technology advancements has allowed food to be pervasively and easily available for most so this fat switch has lost its biological advantage and instead of helping many people live longer, it is actually working to their disadvantage and killing them prematurely.
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