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There are millions of
people around the world who are suffering from Type 2 Diabetes now.
Many of them do not realize that they have
blood glucose levels that
are above the normal level. People will suffer from diabetes if
their fasting plasma glucose test equals or above 126 mg/dL. Type 2
diabetes is the result of metabolic abnormalities in our body. Most
often this condition has occurred for years and caused various
complications to our body before we realize it. In general, type 2
diabetes is caused by two causal factors:
People who are
overweight usually have more fat cells in their body. They also
cannot move their body easily. This is worsen by the rapid
changing in their lifestyle. In the past people have to work
hard to obtain food. They work in the farmland, go hunting or
row their boat to catch fish. Now efficient mass production of
food has replaced all the physical activities that are good for
body metabolism. Modern people tend to sit in front of the
computer typing all day and at the end of the month receive
wages that are enough to feed all the family members. Machines
and automation have replaced most of the physical labor in
factories and trades causing people to spend much less energy in
their efforts to earn money.
Sedentary lifestyle is a common
scene in most of the modern society. We work less but eat more.
Our food contains high amount fat, sugar and salt. According to
a number of books that I read about diabetes, fat cells produce
chemicals that resist the work of insulin. When our blood sugar
is high, insulin will be secreted from our pancreas to transport
the excessive glucose into cells in our body. The storage of the
glucose in the cells is known as glycogen. If insulin cannot
work properly due to high fat cells in our body, long term
accumulation of high blood glucose level in our blood vessels
will cause complications in our eyes, kidneys and nervous
system. Therefore it is important for overweight people to
increase their physical activity to lose weight and to improve
their body metabolism so that they can reduce the amount of fat
cells in their body to enable insulin to work well in
transporting glucose and maintaining the blood glucose to normal
level.
When glucose is high
in our blood vessels, beta cells in pancreas will produce more
insulin to bring or transport the sugar into our body cells.
Continues overwork in producing insulin will cause pancreas to
lose its ability. The pancreas of people with obesity, advancing
age and sedentary lifestyle, might still make insulin but the
amount it produces is not enough to keep the blood sugar levels
within the normal range. Over time, the
blood sugar level
drifts up to pre-diabetes condition and then to diabetes
condition.
It has been explained
above that obesity and sedentary lifestyle should be avoided in
order to fight diabetes. Regular exercises, cycling or walking to
work can greatly improve our body metabolism. In addition, eating
foods that contain more fiber, and less fat and sugar will be
beneficial for maintaining our body weight within an ideal level. by
Charles Roring
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