Pre-diabetes & Type 2

As we age, normally past our 30’s some things tend to come to light. We might ache more, not be as fit as we once was (debatable) we can no longer eat as much as we once could and more frequent doctor visits. Though once we are over 40 these things seem to worsen. (At the time of writing I am only 37) With how things are looking when it comes to how we work, eat and interact with the world, metabolic disease seems to be on the rise (heart disease, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and dementia). There are many things to blame for this, though I am not going to get into that here.

I want to talk about pre-diabetes and type 2 (T2) diabetes. About how we can prevent or even reverse this as best we can. Years ago, T2 was known as adult on-set diabetes, which meant older adults got this, though now children are being diagnosed as young as 8 (probably younger too but I haven’t found any info yet).

I have dealt with hundreds of over 40’s regarding diabetes and pre-diabetes. One of the frequently asked questions is “but I don’t eat sugar/junk food my diets normally pretty good” Not to sound cynical, this isn’t always the case or the truth. Rather than tell them this, which lets face it you don’t want to be judged by the person who is meant to help you. I give, what is the most biological answer I have found. That is they don’t have enough muscle mass. This is only a small piece of the puzzle. There are some studies that show as we age muscle declines1,2 another one I read, suggests that we tend to lose 1lb of muscle every year from the age of 25.

Why is muscle important to the prevention or reversibility of Type 2? Every cell in our body uses glucose (a form of sugar) for energy. Glucose is nothing like table sugar or the sugar that’s added to our food. Glucose is stored in our muscles and liver and becomes glycogen (something like starch) for later use. It’s a great system, though with modern diets it now backfires on us. Lets say at 20 years old you’re eating 2,500kcal a day. This goes on all the way to 60 years old. Now regardless if it is 1lb of muscle a year or not you would have lost some muscle (different if you have been working out for 40 years), which means that your storage capacity has diminished some. With less muscle to now hold on to glucose, insulin will now deposit the glucose in to adipose (fat). This is an over simplification of it. This would mean that your glucose stores in the muscle and liver are full, which then means you are now insulin resistant (IR). To help be less IR we now need to look at how active we are or are not being. You wouldn’t need to hit the gym to get your body moving. Look at your day, could you do things that have you move more? Most people drive. When you have to go to the store/mall/supermarket rather than trying to park at the front park further away and walk in. Use the stairs more in places that have escalators (travelators) and lifts (elevators). Getting the bus? Walk to the next stop or even get off a stop earlier. Whatever you do in your day to day you will be able to find a handful of 10 minutes every few hours to move around. If you have mobility issues, just do what you can and if that’s only changing your diet then that’s great.

Just by taking a few small steps in changes in life style a persons could halt or even reverse the situation. With no changes made you can become susceptible to a whole host of issues. Things like: Cardio vascular disease (CVD), dementia, obesity and that’s not including any other long-term complications that come with it. There is a Finnish study that took 10,000 pre-diabetics (if memory serves me correctly) and put them in a group setting over 10 or 12 months to help them understand and explain how to make life style changes. With a success rate of 52% (again I read this a while ago) that’s great news. The Japanese did a very similar one, which I think was with only men, with a success rate of over 60%.

What can we do to prevent type 2 diabetes this from happening? In my previous post I talked about the importance of making small changes with losing weight, this also rings true with T2 too. Changing how we eat doesn’t need to be a hardship or completely eliminating everything from your diet (at first). Start by looking at what you currently buy, look at the amount of sugar, can you buy the same thing with a little less in it, not talking about sugar free and sweeteners, that can be a whole other post.

Processed food will keep us sick, the more that you can minimise this in your life the better. Food is the most powerful medicine we have access too, we don’t need a prescription for it either. I might do something where I talk about the state of the food and health industry (good and bad) maybe. A journey of a thousand steps starts with one, don’t think about where you want to end up, enjoy the journey of getting healthier. Stick with the tortoise mentality not the hare.

References

1  Keller. k, Engelhardt. M (2013) Strength and muscle mass loss with aging process. Age and strength loss. Muscles, Ligaments and Tendons Journal

2 Faulkner J et al. (2007) Age-related changes in the structure and function of skeletal muscles. Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology.