Diabetes and Obesity Are Often Linked
One of the most common health problems associated with obesity is type II diabetes. Type II diabetes occurs when our bodies become desensitized to an important hormone called insulin. We need insulin to process the food we eat — especially sugars and carbohydrates. When our bodies are desensitized to insulin, that means that our bodies don’t recognize and respond to it like they should. Therefore, we start producing more and more insulin in order to process food.
Over time, the body’s excess insulin starts to cause problems in diabetes and obesity. Sometimes the body cannot produce enough to handle a high carbohydrate or sugar meal, and therefore a person develops high blood sugar. Or, sometimes, such as when we don’t eat for a while or are sick, our body expects to need to produce a lot of insulin that ends up not being needed. The result is low blood sugar.
When, in the case of diabetes and obesity, your blood sugar swings between high and low, long-term damage can be caused in the body, eventually leading to blindness, poor circulation and wound healing, and a dangerously lowered immune system.
The key to preventing the development of type II diabetes is good weight control. Diabetes and obesity are related because as we gain weight, our hormones start functioning differently, leading to insulin desensitization. In addition, according to recent studies, the excess fat we carry, especially around our bellies, functions to begin an anti-inflammatory response that destroys the cells that handle how we process food.
Weight loss is difficult — but it is not impossible. Experts say that even a modest weight loss of five or ten percent of a person’s body weight can be extremely beneficial to blood sugar control, insulin resistance, and the prevention of type II diabetes.
