(Chelsea Update would like to thank Lisa Mesko of Proactive Chiropractic for the information in this story.)
True story – a friend of mine from school was looking really lean. I said, “Hey Lewis, you’re looking good these days.”
He responded, “Yeah, actually I just found out I have Type 1 Diabetes.”
Open mouth. Insert foot.
Let’s be honest, if you don’t live in Texas you probably don’t need to know much about scorpions. But even if you don’t have diabetes, you might want to know about it because chances are, if you know more than 10 people, you know someone with the disease,
About 10 percent of the US population is living with diabetes. This disease is a complicated one – so let’s uncomplicate it.
We need to start with a smidge of anatomy. We have this incredible organ called a pancreas, which puts insulin into the bloodstream each time we each sugar. Insulin grabs that sugar in the blood and transports it into the body’s tissues where it can be used as energy.
But what happens if the pancreas stops making insulin?
Let’s pretend insulin is a middle school crossing guard and sugar is the middle schoolers. Kids get out of class, the crossing guard safely transports the children across the busy street, and they happily continue on home. But what happens if the crossing guard goes on strike? The kids start piling up on the sidewalk, Jimmy starts a fight with Luke, and the overflow of those little feet start killing Mr. Wilson’s grass. Ahh.
That is essentially diabetes – sugar piles up in the blood when there is not enough insulin to transport the sugar. It can build up in the small tissues of the body and clog the flow of nutrients to that tissue, which leads to long-term negative health effects. This is why diabetes is the leading cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputation, kidney failure, and new cases of blindness in adults in the U.S.
Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes
So now that we have a general understanding of the disease, how are Type 1 and Type 2 different?
In Type 1 diabetes, for reasons still unknown, the special cells in the pancreas that release insulin no longer work. This is like having a brand new car with a full tank of gas that won’t start. These patients will need injectable insulin in order to process sugar.
Type 2 diabetics can typically still make insulin, but the body doesn’t use it as well, or the pancreas creates less than needed, and these changes happen slowly. There is a correlation between lifestyle and Type 2 diabetes but it also has a correlation to genetics. Type 2 diabetes is like having an older car with a quarter tank of gas that needs an oil change and also had a weird rattling sound under the hood when you bought it.
Because of these differences, treatment for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes can vary greatly. However, the end result is still the same – sugar buildup in the tissues.
You might be thinking – if sugar is the problem, then why don’t diabetics just stop eating things like cake? Two reasons – for one, while there is a lot of sugar (aka carbs) in cake, there are also a lot of carbs in other foods including a potato, a glass of milk, peas, bananas, and even quinoa.
Secondly, carbs are our body’s number one source of fuel. It’s how our biceps contract, our heart beats, and even how our brain thinks. Without carbs, our body starts using other things like protein from our muscles, which is why weight loss is actually one of the symptoms of undiagnosed diabetes – your body is literally using itself as energy because it can’t use the sugar stuck in the blood. Crazy, I know, but this is why my friend Lewis was looking so lean.
This disease is no cake-walk (pun intended), but now that you know more about what causes it and why it’s not as simple as cutting out sugar, hopefully you can feel more comfortable talking about it with that coworker who just found out he has Type 1 or Aunt Betty with Type 2.
Both would welcome the friendly support, I’m sure.
Thanks for this information doc, and also your witty humor!