What You Don’t Know Could Hurt You… Diabetes Lurks

How’ve you been feeling lately? A bit slower than normal? Thirsty? Heartburn often?

These are just a couple symptoms of a silent killer that has quietly become a near epidemic in the United States and other “American-ized” countries, where diet and physical activity levels have changed over the past half century or so. Let’s just talk about Americans here, though.

Noticed anything different these days about your neighbors, the folks you see at the Walmart on Saturday, your husband/wife, maybe even you? Yeah… you know what I mean. We’re all becoming FAT-ASSES! Here’s a nice recent pic of a couple of Walmart shoppers to illustrate:

Now, don’t take this wrong. I surely have nothing against fat folks. I was one for 99% of my life. I have fat friends and family. I love them all. I don’t judge based on the size of an ass. However, I do understand the ramifications of being a fat-ass. One of those, we’ll discuss here today.

Diabetes is a silent killer. It’s coming for ya’. It’ll get ya’. You better be aware. There are currently a large percentage of folks in the U.S. who are suffering from the symptoms of diabetes and don’t have a clue what their problem is. That incipient disease is slowly destroying their liver, kidneys, neurological system, heart, eyes, etc.

I watched diabetes kill my own mother. I’m currently watching it affect many of my relatives and some friends. You must be a self-educated, proactive patient when you deal with your doctor. You cannot just go in there believing he/she is an infallible god-like presence. They’re not. They’re human just like you… and very damned fallible, indeed! So ask, question, nag, learn, study… it’s YOUR life, after all.

I’m a diabetic. That’s the first step for someone, you know. You MUST sit in a quiet corner somewhere and admit to yourself that you are a diabetic. There aren’t any half measures. In the old days, you could be classified as pre-diabetic. That’s all bullshit. If you have high blood glucose regularly, you ARE a diabetic. Your body is no longer handling insulin properly. The cells in your body aren’t capable of using the insulin to process glucose. You’ve got a problem.

How’d you get that way? Well, the chances are you’ve been shoving super-high carbohydrate-laden foodstuffs and liquids in your face for most of your life. As a result, your body’s ability to process nutrients has reached a stage of burnout called hyperinsulinemia. The cells in your body need more and more insulin, which is produced by your pancreas, to process glucose in your blood. Eventually, the pancreas can no longer produce the required amounts and it also burns out. The kidneys and liver then begin to try to filter out the excess glucose in your blood. You’re now on the slippery, and really steep, slope to… well, DEAD.

It gets a lot uglier before dead, though. Blindness, organ failure, amputations, etc. Doesn’t sound fun, huh? It’s not. Educate yourselves and your family and friends. Nag them. You might be saving their lives. Save your own. Read more about Diabetes and check out the links to other resources at this excellent About.com article: Diabetes – a Complicated Disease. For more enlightening information on how you can possibly prevent and definitely control diabetes with diet, get a copy of Drs. Eades’ (Mary Dan and Michael) Protein Power.

Get smart. Live longer and better. There’s nothing worse than a reformed fat-ass. 🙂

Later…

~Eric