Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Diabetes - Not A Disease?

I need to vent a bit here. I had someone post a comment to one of my recent posts and in that comment, she said "Diabetic (I think she meant to say Diabetes) is not a disease, it is a metabolic disorder, where your blood sugar level can be easily maintained with dietary and lifestyle modifications."

Now I appreciate that I by creating this blog I am opening myself up to the rest of the world and have enabled people to post their comments on what I have to say. Most of the time, I welcome these comments. It definitely helps me to not feel so alone in all the stuff that I have to go through. And I believe that she started out her comment by telling me she had read my other posts on the blog. Well if that is in fact the case, then I guess she missed the fact that I have Type 1 Diabetes and REQUIRE medication to live my life, dietary and lifestyle modifications can not easily maintain my blood sugar levels. Why would someone say something like that to someone who is a Type 1 Diabetic? I don't get it!

Now I know I am splitting hairs here, and that Diabetes is a metabolic disorder, but come on. Isn't that just a fine point between disease and disorder. I may be overly sensitive but that comment and actually the entire tone of the comment, just made me angry. And happily enough I have this blog to post about my anger! Yipee for me! And this disorder that I live with everyday!

So, please feel free to continue to post comments on what I might write, but please think about what are saying before you hit the send button. That's all I am asking here!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Common Myths About Insulin

There are 3 common myths about insulin. The first is that insulin raises blood pressure and causes dyslipidemia, and, as a consequence, may increase the risk of atherosclerosis. The second is that insulin aggravates insulin resistance. The third is that insulin therapy inevitably results in weight gain.

How did these myths come about? The history of these myths is interesting. Let’s talk first about the myth that insulin is atherogenic. A number of epidemiological studies going back to the 1970s and continuing even now demonstrated that the higher the circulating insulin levels, the higher the likelihood of coronary artery disease (CAD). Most of these studies were done in nondiabetic populations. There is no question that there is an association between insulin levels and CAD. But that’s because insulin is easy to measure, and so epidemiologists measure insulin, not insulin resistance, and may conclude erroneously that insulin is responsible for the increased CAD. One has to appreciate that the reason the insulin levels are high is that there is insulin resistance. The body’s compensatory mechanism to overcome the insulin resistance is to raise the circulating insulin level.

In healthy people who can compensate for the insulin resistance, you can have a higher insulin level and still have a normal glucose level. Hyperinsulinemia is a compensatory mechanism that is not itself responsible for the increased CAD. The culprit is the insulin resistance, not hyperinsulinemia. Insulin resistance leads to both high blood pressure and dyslipidemia. If you look at the mechanisms, the sequence of events becomes clear.

Welcome To One Diabetic

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