WARNING: In America, every second adult will have either pre-diabetes (84 million) or full-blown diabetes (30 million). Of those carrying excess weight who have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes, 30 percent of these will become full blown diabetics within 3 years.
PROMISE: But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Most people can turn off their pre-diabetic condition within weeks, and most of those on medication for full blown diabetes can disarm their disease and reduce or even eliminate their hypoglycemic medications, such as pills and injections.
Incidence: Tripling during the last 30 years
Since World War II diabetes has been advancing relentlessly, tripling during the last 30 years. It has now become one of the leading causes of death. In North America, babies born today will have a one in three chance of developing diabetes in their lifetime. There is no known medical cure. And yet, many people are now actually beating diabetes. They are normalizing their blood sugars, and they are getting off their pills and insulin injections. They do this by making better lifestyle choices.
What exactly is diabetes?
Diabetes occurs when the body becomes unable to handle glucose (sugar), which builds up to dangerous levels in the blood. A diagnosis of diabetes is usually made when a blood sugar test shows that the blood sugar levels (glucose) are consistently above 125 mg% (7.0 mmol/L) after an eight-hour fast. Fasting blood sugar (FBS) levels of 100-125 (5.6-6.9 mmol/L) are known as pre-diabetes.
There are two kinds of diabetes. Type 1 afflicts about 5 percent of diabetics (1.25 million). They are usually thin and have a defective pancreatic tissue that no longer produces sufficient, if any, insulin. This type of diabetes usually begins in childhood and is commonly known as juvenile diabetes. Since these diabetics cannot survive without insulin, it is now officially called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM).
Type 2 diabetes is different. Called adult-onset diabetes, or noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), it is the most common kind, affecting more than 90 percent of diabetics. While this type traditionally hit around age 50 as people get older and fatter, some people with the recent epidemic of obesity are developing this disease now in their teens. In contrast to the juvenile diabetics, most Type 2 diabetics have plenty of insulin in their bodies when diagnosed, but something diminishes the insulin's ability to do its job effectively.
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What are the warning signs of diabetes?
The classical symptoms are polydipsia (excessive thirst), polyphagia (excessive appetite), and polyuria (excessive passage of urine). Early in the disease, however, few symptoms show up—perhaps some increase in urinary frequency and thirst.
The Plague of the 21st century
Of the estimated 30 million diabetics in America, 7 million (or 23%) don’t even know they have it. With another 84 million being in the pre-diabetic category, some 114 million Americans are at risk. That's every second adult! As the disease progresses, its effects are devastating affecting all organs of the body and gradually destroying them. That’s why some have called it the “Mother of all chronic Diseases.”
Consider the risks of unrecognized or poorly controlled diabetes:
• Eight out of 10 diabetics develop eye problems. Diabetes is the leading cause of new blindness in developed countries.
• Diabetics are 18 times more likely to experience serious kidney damage than are nondiabetics. Some 25 percent of kidney dialysis patients are diabetics.
• Diabetes is a potent promoter of atherosclerosis (narrowing and hardening of the arteries). The result is that diabetes more than doubles the risk of heart attacks and strokes. It can also lead to sexual impotence, hearing impairment, intermittent claudication (disabling leg cramps) and gangrene (half of all foot and leg amputations in adults are from this cause).