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Type 2 diabetes affects around 10% of people over forty in the UK. It’s a lifestyle disease, meaning it’s largely preventable, and usually reversible with healthy dietary and lifestyle habits. Yet it’s on the rise, with many more people likely to be currently undiagnosed. Worryingly, the disease is now affecting people at a younger age.
In this article, you’ll learn about what causes type 2 diabetes, along with some natural ways to reduce your risk.
What is Type 2 Diabetes?
The disease takes many years to develop, but it occurs as a result of your body’s cells becoming resistant to insulin. A hormone produced by your pancreas, insulin’s job is to regulate the amount of sugar in your bloodstream.
When you eat, your digestive system breaks down the food and releases the sugar contained in it. Your brain senses the increase of sugar in your blood and tells your pancreas to release insulin.
Insulin tells your cells to let in the sugar that’s in your blood so they can use it for energy. Balanced blood sugar is important, because if it’s too high, sugar can damage blood vessels and nerves.
However, if your cells lose insulin sensitivity, in other words becoming insulin resistant, they won’t allow sugar to enter. Then, not only will blood glucose remain high but your cells will be starved of energy.
In other words, type 2 diabetes is associated with difficulties in using the insulin your body produces. It’s thought insulin resistance may partly occur as a result of fluctuating blood sugar levels. Over time, cells gradually stop listening to insulin’s message.
The Diet/Blood Sugar Connection
The speed sugar enters your bloodstream will vary depending on when and what you’ve eaten. Meals containing a balanced ration of protein, complex carbohydrates with plenty of fibre, and healthy fats result in a slow absorption of the sugar they contain into your blood. This gradual rise in blood sugar is easily controlled by the pancreas releasing controlled amounts of insulin.
Unfortunately nowadays, sweet and processed foods, with their fibre removed, are everywhere. If you eat a sugary food devoid of fibre, there’s nothing to slow down the release of sugar into your blood, so your blood glucose will rise rapidly. This causes a burst of insulin from your pancreas and a sugar roller coaster will begin.
This situation tends to cause sugar cravings, too. In an attempt to counteract overly high blood sugar levels, blood sugar will often end up crashing too low. This can cause jitters, sugar cravings or energy slumps between meals. While the solution may seem to be to reach for a sweet pick-me-up, it will only perpetuate the cycle.
What are the Signs and Symptoms of Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes?
Signs of unbalanced blood sugar include:
- Sugar cravings
- Energy slumps between meals
- Headaches and migraines
- Feeling jittery if you go too long without food.
- Waking in the night
Signs you may have developed type 2 diabetes can be:
- Needing to frequently pass water
- Thirst, even if you drink plenty of liquid.
- Feeling hungrier than usual
- Fatigue
- Blurred vision. This can be connected with damage to the tiny blood vessels in your eyes.
- Slow healing of cuts and wounds, due to poor blood supply in turn caused by damage to your blood vessels by excess sugar.
- Tingling and numbness in your hands and feet, due to sugar-induced nerve damage.
- Recurrent yeast and bacterial infections
Type 2 diabetes can cause serious health issues if it’s not addressed.
Natural Strategies to Reduce Your Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
- Ditch the Sugar
A sweet tooth, believe it or not, can be unlearned, and it’s easier than you think. Replace sweet ‘treats’ with satisfying, healthy whole foods, and before long, sugar-rich foods will start to taste unbearably sweet. Small yet beneficial changes you can make right now include snacking on nuts and seeds - perfect packages of protein, fibre, and fat - rather than sweets and biscuits. Or switch to whole fruits – berry fruits are particularly beneficial – instead of fruit juices, soft drinks, and smoothies, which create a sugar rush.
Another good habit to get into is to check food labels for sugar. It can lurk in the most unexpected foods, including savoury ones like sauces and salad dressings. Processed food manufacturers love to add sugar as it’s so addictive.
A Functional Nutritionist can provide lots of actionable advice about the best diet for you personally to improve insulin sensitivity.
On the other hand, you may benefit from Integrative Hypnotherapy if you feel uncontrolled eating is an issue for you.
- Lose the Fat
Being overweight or obese is connected with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. However, the link is particularly strong when fat has collected around your belly. It’s called visceral fat, and it’s different from the fat you find just under your skin. Visceral fat emits chemicals that cause insulin resistance. In turn, poor blood sugar control encourages the deposition of belly fat. However, there are many other reasons why this type of fat can accumulate, including stress, lack of sleep and excess alcohol.
If you have a waist measurement over 40 inches for a man and 35 inches for a woman, you may have excess visceral fat.
- Exercise, Stress and Sleep
Exercise helps improve insulin sensitivity and has been found to improve blood sugar control for as long as 48 hours afterwards.
Meanwhile, research has established that poor sleep can impact insulin sensitivity (1). Ever craved carbs when you’ve had a broken night’s sleep? This is a sure sign your blood sugar levels are out of balance. Start tonight by aiming to set a consistent bedtime and pledge to avoid staring at screens for a couple of hours before you go to bed.
Finally, chronic stress is known to impair insulin sensitivity. Here at the Forbes Clinic, we have a range of somatic therapies to help you better deal with stress.
Help and Support to Reduce Your Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
If you would like support in preventing or managing type 2 diabetes, it’s never too late. As a first step, we recommend an Integrative Health Assessment, after which you’ll receive a detailed health optimisation plan, personalised to your unique needs, with recommendations for functional tests or other supportive therapies if needed. Take charge of your health today – we’ll support you every step of the way.
