Obesity and Diabetes

Obesity and type 2 diabetes has been confirmed to go hand in hand.  Obesity and diabetes are related to bigger waist sizes, telling us that glucose intolerance is coming up with diabetes just behind it.

Research has confirmed that being overweight inhibits the action of insulin.  Insulin is the hormone that regulates sugar levels is the bloodstream.   The accumulation of visceral fat in stomach obesity is the prime culprit.  Visceral fat is active, releasing its own set of hormones called resistin that are thought to prevent insulin from being effective.  The bigger the belly, the more resistin is released into the bloodstream.  And the lesser the visceral fat, the lesser the resistin levels in the bloodstream.   If no action is taken to lose weight, especially visceral fat, the long term health issues will be extremely challenging and life-threatening.

The Malaysian government has recognised the link between obesity and diabetes and are especially alarmed over childhood obesity.  The impact of this on the Malaysian healthcare system cannot be underestimated.

The effects are serious and life changing.  For one, the more rice, bread and other high glycemic food consumed, the more insulin resistant we potentially become.  This means that we will need to change our lifestyle and diets anyway, when diabetes comes knocking at our door.  This will need to be a permanent change as any reversal only brings us closer to the threshold.

Diabetes can result in our healing process become slower.  A cut or abrasion can take months to heal, so we have to be careful of how we approach and do things physically.  Diabetic foot syndrome can result in our feet become numb from nerve damage, resulting in injuries going unnoticed and untreated.  This has resulted in amputation in many cases.

Kidneys can become damaged due to scarring which in the end, we may need to go for dialysis due to kidney failure.  Retina detachment which can lead to loss of vision and probably blindness if not treated fast enough.

There are a string of various conditions that result from diabetes.  Diabetes cannot be cured.  Current treatments only result in a creeping resistance to the treatments, requiring higher and higher doses and changes in medication.

But there is one very simple treatment to prevent obesity related diabetes.  Lose weight.  Weight loss programs are many but we need to focus on weight loss programs that can effectively treat visceral fat.