Professor Roger Ungers Prize
An alternative proposal for the development of type 2 diabetes comes from Professor Roger Unger, who has dedicated his career to clarifying the roles of insulin and glucagon in the regulation of normal blood glucose homeostasis and in the pathogenesis of diabetes.
Professor Roger Ungers 2014 prize winning lecture turns the whole diabetes debate on its head by providing a substantial amount of evidence that its glucagons action, not insulin, that is crucial to the development of type 2 diabetes .
Glucagon stimulates the conversion of glycogen in the liver to glucose to be released into the blood.
He states that Glucagon action is required for type 2 diabetes the way to stop this disease is to block glucagon action.
Exploring this in a little more detail:
- In healthy individuals:
- In people living with type 2 diabetes:
Youre Eating Lean Proteins But Using Unhealthy Cooking Techniques To Prepare Them
Remedy: Sauté using cooking spray or small amounts of olive oil. Instead of frying lean proteins, bake, broil, grill, steam, or stir-fry them.
Proteins, like beef or poultry, dont necessarily affect blood sugar, but fattier varieties, such as sausage, regular ground beef, or a heavily marbled steak, can affect cholesterol and your waistline, Segura says. Lean proteins are better for weight loss and theyre recommended as part of a healthy type 2 diabetes diet, but preparation is also important. Frying or sautéing with butter or too much oil can sabotage weight loss, Segura says. Avoid butter and margarine when cooking and switch to a healthy cooking oil, such as olive, peanut, or safflower oil, suggests the American Diabetes Association . Keep your portion size to one tablespoon, but often a teaspoon is plenty for cooking, the organization notes.
The Role Of Insulin In Weight Gain
Insulin is a hormone present in most biological life from insects to humans. Hormones are chemical messengers targeting specific cells.
In humans, insulins primary role is to regulate nutrient storage .
Consequently,it helps to store energy gained in times of abundance for times of foodscarcity. The storage hormone encourages fat accumulation and signals cells to takeup glucose from the bloodstream.
Hormones deliver their message by binding to a cells receptor. With this in mind, insulin functions in the body as a key opening the cell by matching its lock the receptor. Once insulin opens the door, glucose can enter the cell.
A rise in blood sugar levels is triggering insulin production and release from the pancreas.
Then, after the stomach and intestine have broken them down into smaller parts, different macronutrients have different effects on blood glucose and insulin levels.
Amino acidsfrom proteins have a minimal impact on blood sugar while elevating insulin. Onthe contrary, fatty acids have minimal effects on both blood glucose andinsulin.
Sugars from carbohydrates, which are chains of sugars, are significantly spiking blood glucose as well as insulin levels .
On the other hand, insufficient insulin can cause glucose to build up in the blood.
For example, thats the case when the immune system mistakenly destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas , which results in type 1 diabetes.
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Insulin And Body Set Weight
Hormones are chemical messengers regulating almost everything. For example, they regulate hunger, satiety, thirst, body temperature, and body weight.
The region of the brain responsible for the regulation of those essential processes is called the hypothalamus.
With this in mind, a defining ability of the human body is the adaption to change called homeostasis.
Therefore the hypothalamus is tightly regulating body temperature around a stable level. Thats usually about 36°C or 98°F.
Similarly, the same principle of homeostasis applies to body weight. Hence, it isnt high caloric intake or lack of exercise that causes weight gain.
However, the food industry is trying to tell us so because the calorie approach justifies low-quality food.
Instead, a hormonal imbalance is setting body weight to an unhealthy level. Given that, the hypothalamus commands the body to increase fat mass using available calories.
As a result, the body is short of energy and craves for increased caloric intake.
Consequently, the hypothalamus increases the hunger hormone ghrelin and decreases the satiety hormones peptide YY, cholecystokinin, and leptin.
Restrictingcalories to counteract the bodys effort to increase fat mass doesnt work outlong-term. In that case, the basal metabolism is down-regulated to satisfy thehigher priority goal of gaining body fat.
For thisreason, overeating and lack of physical activity are symptoms of obesity ratherthan its causes.
Losing Weight With Type 2 Diabetes: 3 Reasons People Struggle
Approximately 90% of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese.¹ While obesity often contributes to the development of diabetes, the bigger driver of weight gain is the high insulin levels that are found well before the diagnosis of diabetes.There are some good reasons why the standard advice of âeat less, exercise moreâ doesnât deliver results for people living with type 2 diabetes.
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Extra Weight Extra Risk
Being overweight raises your risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. It can also increase the risk of high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol, and high blood glucose . If you are overweight, losing weight may help you prevent and manage these conditions. And you don’t have to lose a lot to improve your healtheven losing 1015 pounds can make a big difference.
Will Having Diabetes Make It Hard For Me To Lose Weight
Some medications used to treat diabetes often result in weight gain. But the good news is, they dont have to. Our weight loss specialists will work to design a diabetes regimen that minimizes the use of medications that can lead to weight gain, while achieving good glycemic control. We will also design a healthy eating and exercise plan that will help control your diabetes, and help you lose weight.
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Understanding Excess Weight And Its Role In Type 2 Diabetes
This article is designed to help you better understand the impact of excess weight and its role in type 2 diabetes. Excess weight, obesity and morbid obesity are all risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes. Often times, individuals are not aware of the health risk of excess weight until they are diagnosed with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.
How Diabetes Is Harmful
Most people dont really understand the way diabetes works, but a firm grasp of how it affects your body chemistry will help you better control the disease.
Your body is made up of millions of cells, and these cells use glucose as their energy source. Your body gets glucose from the food that you eat.
After a meal, your body secrets a hormone called insulin into your blood insulin works as a signal to let your cells know that glucose is on the way to feed your cells. But, for people with diabetes, the signals that tell the cells to absorb the sugar are defective, or the body does not make enough insulin. As a result, high levels of glucose remain in the blood, which is thought to alter the structure and function of many different types of cells in your body. This is why diabetes can cause so many different kinds of serious illnesses if not controlled.
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Hypos Hunger And Weight Gain
Insulin has additional problems for weight management. If insulin causes blood glucose levels to go too low , it can leave with you a strong feeling of hunger
The best response to strong hunger or increased appetite is to raise blood glucose levels as quickly and efficiently as possible as once sugar levels are back to normal, the cravings should cease.
If you tend to overeat in response to low blood sugar, its advisable to stick strictly to having only glucose tablets or another fast acting form of sugar to treat hypos and not give in to temptation to eat other foods, such as those containing protein or fat, when or following treatment for a hypo
Other Symptoms Of Diabetes In Children
Similar to adults, hallmark early signs of diabetes in children are increased urination and thirst. When blood sugar is high, it triggers a reaction in the body that pulls fluid from tissues. This will leave a child constantly thirsty, causing them to drink more fluids, which will result in a need for more bathroom breaks throughout the day. Dehydration in children becomes a risk if this occurs.
In addition to the signs of dehydration, children may have these symptoms, too:
- Sunken eyes or cheeks
- Not enough wet diapers
Here are some traits of diabetes found in kids:
- Fatigue: If a child is often tired, it may be a clue that their body is having trouble converting sugar in the bloodstream into energy.
- Vision changes: High blood sugar levels can cause blurred vision and other eyesight problems.
- Fruity smelling breath: This sign could be indicative of too much sugar in the blood.
- Extreme hunger: When a child’s muscles and organs arent receiving enough energy, it can cause extreme hunger.
- Unusual behavior: If a child seems moodier or more restless than normaland its in conjunction with other symptoms that could indicate diabetesit could be cause for concern.
- Nausea and vomiting
- Heavy breathing
Diabetes can be life-threatening if left untreated. If your child is showing signs of diabetes, its important for you to schedule a healthcare providers appointment as soon as possible.
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Fill Your Plate With Nutrient
Getting the green light to up your calorie intake doesnt mean you have permission to eat everything in sight. Sure, loading up on sugary and fatty foods will help you pack on the pounds, but eating a few pints of ice cream every day is not the way to go.
So, what should you focus on? When planning your shopping list, make sure its full of nutrient-dense whole foods that are also high in calories.
Dr Kendrick And The Extreme Exceptions
There will always be exceptions to any hypothesis. Dr Malcom Kendrick notes that:
There is a general principle in science that if you have a proposed mechanism to explain the physiology of a disease, then that mechanism needs to remain true in all scenarios. Often its the case that mechanisms and theories unravel when you look at extreme scenarios. In this case, this would mean looking at people that have absolutely no fat cells, and the most obese population on the planet.
What are these exceptions to the mainstream notion of more body fat means a higher risk of diabetes?
- Sumo wrestlers
- Berardinelli-Seip lipodystrophy
You might expect that sumo wrestlers would have a high prevalence of type 2 diabetes, and people with Berardinelli-Seip lipodystrophy would have a low prevalence. However, in reality, the opposite is true.
Its extremely uncommon for sumo wrestlers to develop type 2 diabetes when training Conversely, 100% of people with Berardinelli-Seip lipodystrophy have type 2 diabetes.
How is this possible? The hypothesis is that its all down to energy storage, i.e. when you eat carbohydrate-containing foods and your blood sugar levels rise, where in your body does that sugar go.
Contrastingly, individuals with Berardinelli-Seip lipodystrophy have no fat cells. So even if insulin levels dramatically increase, excess energy has nowhere to go after a high carb meal. This is why insulin resistance develops in this demographic.
Dr Kendrick concludes:
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Ways Sugar Makes You Fat
Every nutritionist, dentist and parent will tell you that sugar is bad for you. Its something we all know, and yet most Americans consume almost 57 pounds of sugar each year. It is surprisingly easy to do. Pre-packaged foods are often loaded with added sugar, even ones that the average person wouldnt think of as sweet.
Too much sugar in your diet can be harmful in a lot of ways, but today we are going to focus on the fact that regularly eating lots of sugar can and will make you fat. And in more ways than one.
Visceral Fat And Metabolic Syndrome
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute notes that visceral fat also plays a role in a disorder called metabolic syndrome, which is a group of symptoms that together can put you at risk for serious health problems. People with metabolic syndrome tend to be overweight and physically inactive. You could have this syndrome, according to NHLBI, if you have three of these conditions:
- Visceralfat.
- Lowgood cholesterol .
- Highblood pressure.
- Highfasting blood sugar.
Metabolic syndrome, which may be linked to insulin resistance, increases your risk for diabetes as well as heart disease and stroke, says NHLBI, and having diabetes, personally or in your family, increases your risk for metabolic syndrome. In fact, most people with diabetes have metabolic syndrome, says NHLBI.
Harvard health says that chemical messengers hormones from belly fat may increase blood pressure and blood clotting. Visceral fat is also associated with higher total cholesterol, lower good cholesterol and higher bad cholesterol , all of which increase your risk for cardiovascular disease.
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Managing Weight Loss With Diabetes
Managing weight loss with diabetes begins with getting blood sugar under control, so it’s critical to involve a healthcare provider to activate a treatment plan.
Some people’s diabetes can be managed through lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise. People with type 1 diabetesand some with type 2will require supplemental insulin or other drugs to ensure their bodies get back on track.
Typically, once someone is treated for diabetes and their blood sugar normalizes, their weight loss will stabilize. It is critical to continue to monitor diabetes under a healthcare provider’s care at home because it is a lifelong condition.
What Causes Unintentional Weight Loss In Diabetes
While intentional weight loss in people with diabetes is usually a goodthing, unintentional weight loss is not. If blood sugars are very high,patients with diabetes tend to urinate a lot, and this results indehydration as a possible cause of weight loss.Also, muscle breakdown canoccur if sugars are too high, causing an unhealthy weight loss. Actually,many patients with diabetes present for the first time to their doctor’soffice because of unexplained loss of weight. In addition to diabetes, thereare other concerning causes of unexpected weight loss which should beexplored such as thyroid disease and cancers.
In summary, a supervised attempt to lose weight in people who can exercisewithout risk is usually of benefit. However in certain cases such as ifblood sugars are too high or too low or if heart disease is present, it canbe dangerous. This is why all exercise and weight loss programs should bestarted only after discussion with a physician. Any unexplained weight loss,in patients with or without known diabetes may be a sign of high bloodsugars or another serious illness. It is absolutely necessary to see aphysician and undergo a complete evaluation in these cases.
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What To Do If You Think Youre Monw
Working a few small changes into your everyday habits can have a big impact on your health.
- Eat a balanced diet. Visceral fat is very responsive to diet and exercise. Eliminating processed, fried, sugary and fatty foods can help you lose visceral fat.
- Incorporate movement into your day. Aim to get 150 minutes of physical activity per week.
- Reduce your stress levels. Getting your stress levels down can lower your risk of diabetes. Try avoiding stressors, exercising more and practicing mindfulness with yoga or meditation.
- Improve your sleep. Try for 6 to 8 hours of sleep per night. If you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, try cutting back on screen time before bed and making sure your bedroom is dark. Dont consume caffeine for 8 hours before bedtime and limit alcohol before you go to sleep.
How Does Insulin Cause Weight Gain
We now knowthat insulin functions in the body as the primary regulator of energy storageand energy balance. With this in mind, we can add the hypothesis that its alsothe critical regulator of body weight in the brain.
That means insulin also functions in the body by triggering the hypothalamus to up-regulate weight.
As a result, appetite rises, and we want to eat. Like many other things, the brain centrally controls weight gain through the nervous system.
In this case, the function of the hypothalamus uses hormones to execute regulations through the endocrine system. We do not consciously regulate essential body functions like heart rate, breathing, or basal metabolic rate.
Furthermore, hormones regulate anything related to metabolism. In the body weight set point theory, insulin and weight gain are in a cause-and-effect relationship since its the triggering messenger.
Given that, people with high insulin levels should gain weight easier.
And studies have found this aspect of the body weight set point theory to be correct. Not only do obese patients insulin levels after an overnight fast, but they also react with stronger insulin responses .
On top ofthat, insulin levels remain high in obese subjects after a meal for a prolongedtime, while in lean subjects, they quickly drop back to a healthy range.
Moreover, there is a strong correlation between high fasting insulin levels, waist to hip ratio, BMI, and obesity . But is the relationship causal too?
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