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modern day epidemic
Dia-besity
If you thought the era of epidemics were a thing of the past regretfully, this is not so. Canada’s newest epidemic ‘Dia-besity’ was coined when experts noted the distinct relationship between the growing number of people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus that were also overweight or obese.
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An incurable chronic disease, diabetes directly affects over 2.25 million Canadians and is a contributing factor in the deaths of approximately 41,500 Canadians yearly.
Over 90% of those suffering from diabetes have Type 2 diabetes, and of those, 60% are obese, for youth with Type 2 diabetes this number leaps to 97% – staggering to say the least.
Although the proportion of Canadians who are active in their leisure time has increased, the proportions that are obese have also grown. The Canadian Community Health Survey reports that from 1994/95 to 2000/01, the number of obese Canadians aged 20 to 64 grew by more than 500,000 to almost 2.8 million. Today, one in ten children are overweight, this number has tripled since the mid 80’s.
Diabetes broken down
A condition that changes the way your body uses food for energy. When you eat, food gets broken down into a simple form of sugar called glucose (serves as an energy source for the body’s cells). Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, helps glucose move from the blood into your body’s cells. When there’s not enough insulin made or, the insulin you have doesn’t work properly, diabetes occurs. Simply put, diabetes means there is too much sugar in your blood.
With Type 1 diabetes the body doesn’t make insulin and is often diagnosed in people less than 30 years old. With Type 2 diabetes the body doesn’t properly use the insulin it makes and usually starts after age 45. However, Type 2 is being diagnosed more in our children, as young as eight years old. This increase is due to childhood obesity, unhealthy eating habits and inactivity.
A lifelong condition that’s not curable diabetes must be taken seriously. Having too much sugar in the blood for a long time not only leads to long term complications such as heart disease, kidney failure, blindness or amputations, if managed poorly your life can be shorten up to 15 years. The good news is that blood sugar can be controlled.
Treatment
Today, people with diabetes can expect to live active, independent and vital lives by making a lifelong commitment to careful diabetes management:
- Nettle Leaf is reported to improve symptoms
- Quercetin, (a type of plant known as a flavonoid) appears to work in a similar way to the common allergy drug cromolyn
- Grape seed and pine bark are anecdotally reported to be effective
- Research with the herb butterbur suggests that it may effectively reduce some allergy symptoms.
Diabetes broken down
A large study examining those at risk for Type 2 diabetes found that losing 5-7% body weight through exercising moderately for 30 minutes/day reduced the overall risk by 58%. In people over 60, the risk was cut by almost 70%.
Due to the connection between lifestyle factors and the actual onset of Type 2 diabetes it is possible to play an active role in disease prevention by: increasing physical activity; eating healthy to maintain a healthy weight; not smoking; and reducing stress levels.
Implementing these steps lowers your risk and creates a healthier future.
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