Type 2 Diabetes

After talking about diabetes yesterday, I realized that many people may not truly understand what type 2 diabetes is. So I decided today to put this in terms that you can understand what's happening in the body of a type 2 diabetic.

Most type 2 diabetics have been diabetic for 4-5 years at least prior to the time they are diagnosed. This is because you don't feel particularly bad, but damage is definitely being done this during this time. During this period, if we actually measured the output of insulin from the pancreas, what we would find is that the individual is actually putting out higher amounts of insulin than a normal individual puts out.

What happens is this. Think of the cell as a room and the hall way outside is the blood. For glucose which is carried in the blood to get into the cell (where it feeds the cell), insulin is required to open the door to the room. If the insulin - let's think of it as the key to the door - if it doesn't open the door because it doesn't fit quite right into the key hole, glucose cannot get into the cell and stays in the blood stream. Hence, the person ends up with elevated blood glucose or blood sugar levels.

The body in it's efforts to answer the cry of the cells for glucose increases insulin production. Now in the early stages, occasionally the insulin will unlock the door and glucose gets in but perhaps not as much as the cell needs.

This is a simplistic way to look at what is happening on the cellular level in the body. The polyphenols mentioned yesterday assist the insulin in fitting properly into the key hole and opening the door for the glucose.

Diabetes and Diet

I just heard about a family with 4 children, three of which are diabetics. This is a disease that is on the rise in this country very much due to our diets. I'm not going to give you a diabetic diet here, but I am going to make some suggestions about things you should eat and things you should avoid.

I want to mention some of the latest research on polyphenols. These are potent antioxidants found in green tea. They are also in black and oolong tea, but in lesser amounts. There is recent research that demonstrates that polyphenols increase the sensitivity of cells to insulin. In type 2 diabetes there is an increased insensitivity to insulin resulting in higher sugar levels in the blood.

So green tea in particular assists in increasing insulin sensitivity and thereby decreasing blood sugar levels. Now, a word of caution. Teas all contain caffeine and in come cases tea contains more caffeine than coffee. Caffeine in excessive amounts can result in impairing the metabolism of carbohydrates and actually increasing blood glucose levels. So caution is needed here. There are sources of green tea that are decaffeinated. However, investigate what process was used, because most tea that is decaffeinated is done with a high heat process and this actually destroys the polyphenols, so you lose the benefit of the tea.

Poison Sumac

I just returned from northern Wisconsin and was reminded that in addition to poison ivy and poison oak, there is poison sumac. Poison Sumac is beautiful red in the fall and with a hard freeze there, it started to turn.

With any of these, the oil from the plant is the problem. If you know you have been exposed, wash the area with just plain cold water as soon as possible. If the oil bonds with the skin, this is when the reaction occurs. You need to wash the skin off as soon as possible. While the reaction usually does not occur until 24-48 hours after exposure, you need to wash the area in the first hour after exposure.

Some home remedies which will help with the itching are using a baking soda paste on the areas of the itch. You can also use distilled white vinegar to relieve the itching.

Poison Ivy and Poison Oak

A word of caution regarding treatment of poison ivy and poison oak. I found that some references recommend the use of bloodroot. I would not recommend blood root for the treatment of poison ivy or oak.

Bloodroot contains morphine like alkaloids which will attack fast growing cells such as tumors. The primary action is to seal off the tumor and other things are required in order to destroy the tumor itself.

Stay with nature's cure for poison ivy and oak and that is jewelweed.

Poison Ivy

Trusting you all had a great Labor Day holiday. I mentioned in the last post that jewelweed grows near poison ivy. Jewelweed is nature's cure for poison ivy and poison oak. Nature provides for us the remedies to the ills presented by something else in nature.

Jewelweed will inhibit the itching and blister formation that occurs with poison ivy and poison oak. Having once suffered from poison ivy, I understand how uncomfortable that can be. Unfortunately, I did not know about jewelweed as a child and got to suffer with the itching and blistering and breakdown of the skin. Not a fun experience.

You can learn to recognize Jewelweed in the wild and if exposed to poison ivy or oak, take a stem and break it and put the liquid from within the stem of the exposed area. In most cases this will alleviate the outbreak before it starts.