During the past few years, there has been an awakening of the
interested. Those who are interested in true prevention are actually
hungry for the information that can change their lives. We are acutely
aware of a threat that is inflicting major harm on our society, our
family, and our children. Avoidable in every way, it is still
threatening our society as we know it. When I reflect on my career, I
do myself find it odd that I have taken such a passion in helping
people with Diabetes and Obesity. If it were NOT for my personal
experience with being obese and having a strong family history of
Diabetes, I might not have made such a major shift.
You
see, as many of you know, I was well over 80 pounds overweight, I was
obese. It just snuck up on me. My heart is heavy for so many of my
patients. I saw a young girl this week who has been my patient for over
8 years. I have seen her weight increase from 140 pounds to over 240
pounds. I have spent hours with her talking about diabetes,
hypertension, and high cholesterol. She is in her early 20's. She has
an incredibly strong family history of diabetes and elevated blood
pressure. She was very tearful in the office because of the medications
that she was on by her primary care doctor and for the fact that she
did not feel well. She asked for my opinion, again!
I
told her, again, exactly what was going on. She got really tearful and
stated that I always talk about her weight. I explained to her in
detail that her problems, essentially, had nothing to do with her
weight. Her weight was just another manifestation of her one problem.
You see, the syndrome that is affecting over 54 million Americans is
affecting her. It is estimated that 1 in 3 people born in the United
States will develop diabetes. As I explained to her that all her
problems really related to one common problem. Her diet and
lifestyle. We had spoken of this at least 10 times over the years.
She has not been ready to hear it. I am not sure she really is right
now, but I am very hopeful. She sees the disease and debilitation that
has run rampant over her family. She does not want that for herself but
she feels powerless to stop it! I have explained to her the only way
to reverse the destination that she is headed for, is to reverse the
direction in which she is headed.
There are
two main types of Diabetes, Type I (actually physical defect in the
pancreas with minimal to no insulin production) and Type II (mainly
related to lifestyle, diet, and some genetics). We are able to reverse
Type II Diabetes. The statistics are in. 75% of people with Type II
Diabetes are overweight or obese. In fact, it is estimated by the CDC
that there are over 10 million Americans who are diabetic and do not
know it. And many of these people have had this disease for over 10
years. The real issue is too much insulin. Diabetes
Type II is really a problem of too much insulin long before it becomes
a problem of too little insulin.
If you meet the following criteria, you owe it to yourself to have a fasting insulin level checked (NOT a fasting blood sugar):
- Overweight or obese
- Smoker
- Sedentary
- Family history
- Pregnancy that was affected by gestational diabetes
- African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, and Samoans
- Have high blood pressure
- High Cholesterol
- Heart disease
- Continually thirsty
- Frequent urination
- Extreme fatigue
- Problems with your vision
- Numbness in hands or feet
If
you have one of these or more than one of these, you OWE it to yourself
to find out if you have Type II Diabetes. More importantly, if you
feel that any of these potentially apply to you, you should intervene
ASAP so that you don't have to head down the same path as my patient
above. I pray that she finally gets it. She is really on my heart and
I would love to be able to break through to her. However, I think
people have to hit their own wall of misery to make that change. I know
that I did. That was back in 2005!
Let's keep the conversation going.