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submitted: Aug 25th 2008 | by: JuliaHanf | Total views: 1 | Word Count: 604 | |

With the rising number of people diagnosed with diabetes, one has to wonder, will I be next? According to the American Diabetes Association, 7% of the population is diabetic or in pre-diabetic stages. In just one year, 1.5 million people age 20 and older were diagnosed with the disease. Of the youth population, 1 in 6 overweight children are pre-diabetic. Unfortunately, the cause of diabetes and it's pathology are not clearly understood. To make matters worse, our society has become soft and lazy. It's no surprise that the obesity rate is increasing as quickly as diabetes.

The vagueness surrounding diabetes unfortunately does not aid in determining a concrete plan of prevention. Without fully understanding its cause, one cannot educate the public as to how to avoid developing diabetes. Unfortunately, even insulin's role in diabetes and metabolic processes is not completely clear. It is known that poor nutrition, increased levels of stress and physical inactivity are environmental factors that can bring on diabetes, with or without genetic predisposition.

What causes diabetes is not clear. Experts can only establish that it has existed since the 19th century. In the early 1900's, Canadians Frederick Banting and Charles H. Best established the connection between the pancreas and diabetes. It wasn't until 1976, however, that Alexander Beam wrote a paper referring to diabetes as being an inherited disease. He said that negative environmental factors, like poor nutrition and physical inactivity, were likely to bring on the disease. It's important to not that not all diabetics are overweight at the time of diagnosis. However, the question remains: does being overweight make you diabetic, or does diabetes make you overweight?

While exact causes of diabetes are not clear, there is speculation concerning obesity and diabetes. It is the classic cyclic question, which comes first. As an individual's weight increases as result of poor nutrition, over indulgence and an inactive lifestyle, the body responds less and less to its natural metabolic processes. It fails to convert glucose into fuel for the cell. As a result, the glucose is stored as fat, contributing to the existing weight problem. It is acceptable to state that reduction of weight can assist in prevention or management of the disease.

Another speculation is the role of acidity and the body's response to elevated pH levels. It is thought that over consumption of caffeine, sugar and other carbohydrate rich foods stimulates the liver, muscles and fat cells. Once stimulated, these cells release their respective glucose into the blood stream. This is the elevation that individuals record when monitoring blood sugar level. In order to counteract elevated acidity, the body uses fat to neutralize pH levels. Fat is stored, then, as a safeguard to protect cells. Over time, acidity can lead to other serious health risks, including diabetes. The repeated pattern of elevated blood sugar levels can cause damage to the cardiovascular system, endocrine system and circulatory system.

Elevated levels of pH can cause inflammation and damage to the cardiovascular system, endocrine system and circulatory system to name a few.

There is also a belief that insulin is needed to regulate blood sugar levels in the bodies. The term "insulin dependent" was created in the 1950s to create the impression that muscle and fat require insulin to take up glucose (the sugars created by eating high carbohydrate and sugary foods). However, current studies show that many different things in the body transport glucose. Cells require glucose for their cell respiration process. The body makes sure that the cells

About the Author

Julia Hanf author of the book How To Play the Diabetes Diet Game and Win Through a real life crisis Julia figured out how to live diabetes free. Visit http://www.yourdiabetescure.com and learn more about your solution for diabetes.

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