Diabetes and Food

Diabetes is an endemic and growing disease, especially in developed countries where it is a major cause of mortality.

Types of diabetes

Type 2 diabetes

It does not makes the person dependent on insulin, and is common to obeses but not only as exemplified by Halle Berry. It promotes death and requires a diet without sugar. The glycemic index of foods must be carefully controlled.

Halle Berry suffers type 2 diabetes. About her illness, she said it made her stronger and more realistic, because conscious of the realities of life.

Type 1 diabetes

This is the most severe form, insulin is not synthesized in sufficient quantities by the pancreas. This causes many ailments, sores can appear without cause on the body and can could lead to limb amputation.
Daily insulin injections are needed to thwart it.

Sonia Sotomayor, of which much has been said recently when she became the first Latin American woman to join the Supreme Court, suffers a type 1 diabetes. This was not regarded as incompatible with its function: the medicine makes it possible to live with no discomfort in his job.

Gestational diabetes

The body does not absorb glucose that is present in excess in the blood. Placental hormones are the source of this provisional intolerance.
It may disappear after pregnancy or to give way to a type 2 or 1 diabetes.

Salma Hayek has gestational diabetes, blood sugar becomes excessive in his blood while pregnant.

There are still many other forms of diabetes associated with various diseases.

The consequences

It significantly reduces life expectancy if not treated well or is too virulent.
It can cause the following diseases:

Prevention and food

We fight diabetes by a diet low in sugar and exercise which consumes the sugar in the blood and stimulates the metabolism.
Avoid alcohol and tobacco: they aggravates the bad effects.
Fast sugars and foods with high glycemic index should be avoided. Vegetables provide a ration of enough slow sugars along with starchy foods.

Diabetes is often hereditary, so should we let it detected if our ancestors were victims of the disease.

Premise of a treatment

Sick patients (type 1) for decades have been cured while insulin did no longer have any effect to them and they gradually sank.

The solution was a transplant of pancreas cells able to restore its normal functions. This treatment is not necessarily safe, so it is reserved for now to most severely affected patients. In addition it must be accompanied by taking immuno-suppressants because antibodies continue to destroy the cells secreting insulin.

The experiment conducted by a multidisciplinary team of Lille (France) has achieved decisive results for 11 patients over 14. And 8 out of 11 became insulin-independent.
A better understanding of human metabolism will eventually extend these results to more people.