Rather than thinking about chronic disease, such as Type 2 diabetes as a “black or white” condition, consider that health and disease exist on a spectrum or “continuum”. First there is cellular dysfunction, then comes pathology and disease. In the case of diabetes, you typically start from healthy and vibrant and slowly over time, with a low quality, high processed carbohydrate diet, lack of activity, and poorly managed stress, your body has to work harder and harder to maintain normal blood sugars. As such, you may not even realize that you are heading down that path if all you are doing is periodically checking your blood sugars. Indeed, an earlier and more sensitive marker of altered health is knowing your INSULIN levels (not to be confused with blood sugar). Insulin is the hormone that regulates your blood sugars. This deterioration process can go on for years and not show up as “high blood sugars”.. yet. Then one day you are told by your doctor that you have diabetes, and while it may have appeared that you suddenly got diabetes, physiologically this is impossible because, again, there are many steps that occur before blood sugars become disrupted. The problem is that most physicians simply never check insulin levels to know if you are “on your way”. Keep in mind that although losing weight and eating less processed carbs typically results in blood sugars lowering, there are many more factors involved in achieving a healthy vascular and endothelium system, healthy blood sugars and a healthy insulin response including the integrity of insulin receptors on your cells which are highly nutrient dependent. Traditionally trained doctors tend to neglect these aspects of patient care and as a result many people slip through the cracks and don’t ever really get better, but rather, their symptoms are merely “managed” with drugs and insulin.
If you are interested in achieving true blood sugar health and knowing what your fasting insulin levels are, please do feel free to make an appointment. My office number is 517 290 6041. Give us a call today!