People with diabetes cannot properly metabolize glucose. In the case of type 1 diabetes, the beta cells of the pancreas are defective and do not produce insulin. With type 2 diabetes, the body becomes insensitive to the insulin that is successfully produced.
Though type 1 diabetes results from faulty DNA and type 2 diabetes comes from poor lifestyle choices, they both result in the same thing: wildly volatile glucose levels.
This in itself is detrimental to the body. Too much glucose, called hyperglycemia, can lead
to coma or death. Too little glucose, called hypoglycemia, can essentially fry the brain by depriving it of ‘fuel.’ Both scenarios are indeed traumatic but are not the primary cause of death among diabetes patients.
In fact, secondary complications of diabetes cause the most death among diabetes patients.
The Damaging Effects of Secondary Complications of Diabetes
Though hyper- and hypoglycemia are indeed dangerous, they are not the primary causes of death among people with diabetes. Heart disease is the main cause of increased death rates among diabetics
Not only is it the greatest killer of diabetics, but it also develops much earlier in diabetics than people without diabetes.
Heart disease comes as a result of compromised blood vessels that are weakened by uncontrolled glucose levels.
Kidney disease is also a common complication that can lead to a premature death. Vision loss, serious nerve damage in the eyes and extremities, and ongoing infections are other common life-threatening complications.
The good news? With type 2 diabetes it can be pretty easy to avoid these serious complications. With an active lifestyle and a clean, whole foods diet, type 2 diabetes can reverse in many cases!
While we can’t legally make any promises here, it is worth the effort to make small changes in your current lifestyle. Perhaps you won’t reverse the disease, but you could at least postpone many of the complications for just a little while longer.
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NY Times. URL Link. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
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