Type 2 Diabetes

Merry sent me a very important question about Type 2 diabetes and how eating well and exercising can help combat this terrible disease. I want to tell the whole story in the blog, it will take a few installments.

First, I'd like to qualify myself so that readers can feel confident that I am giving sound information. I have a bachelors degree in Chemistry, and I've taken lots of college level biology, including Anatomy and Physiology. For most of my (full time) working life, I was in sales and sales management with Bristol-Myers Squibb. I sold many Cardiovascular and Diabetes products, including Glucophage, the first insulin sensitizer to come to the market in the US. So I had lots of training, and I attended many (physician delivered) lectures on the topic of Type 2 diabetes.
As a personal trainer, I have worked with some clients who are diabetic and pre-diabetic to help them combat the disease. I am always looking for articles on exercise and diabetes that are research based.

Let's start at the beginning. The only thing Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes have in common is high blood sugar. They are not at all related diseases. We now know that Type 1 is caused by a virus that someone gets that causes the body's immune system to make antibodies to it's own beta cells in the pancreas. The immune system destroys all the beta cells, which are the cells that make insulin. This happens quickly, so the onset of the disease is unpredictable and sudden, and blood sugar rises dramatically in a short period of time. Type 1 diabetics do not make any insulin, and before it's discovery in the 1920s, they died within a year of getting this disease. They must take insulin daily, and balance the amount of insulin with their food and exercise, not an easy thing. We are close to finding a cure for this disease. Less than 10% of people with diabetes have Type 1. To avoid complications in both types of diabetes, good control of blood sugar is very important.