As you know, having diabetes means having problems with your blood sugar and your insulin levels.  When you are diabetic it is a daily effort to manage these levels & keep yourself healthy.  In our office we use Functional Medicine to address and correct several aspects of daily living to help you control your diabetes and be your best self.  These include looking at specific blood markers to determine what to eat, if you are getting enough of the right nutrients, and when to eat to control sugar fluctuations.  We also help guide you how to best stay active, manage stress, and avoid environmental toxins to help control blood sugar. .

Diabetes 101: The Basics

Whenever you eat, carbohydrates are broken down into your body’s primary source of energy—Glucose.  When this glucose enters your bloodstream, your pancreas reacts by making insulin.  This allows the glucose to enter into the body’s tissues.

Any excess amounts of glucose will be stored in the liver.  When you haven’t eaten in awhile and your blood sugar starts to dip, your liver will release some glucose.  Then your pancreas will release insulin.  This process will help the glucose get into the cells where it is needed for energy. 

This is the cycle that you go through all day long to keep your blood sugar levels stable.

So, Where’s the problem…?  There are a few…

In Type I diabetes-the pancreas produces little or no insulin

In Type II diabetes you typically make enough insulin but instead have a problem with what is called insulin resistance.  Insulin resistance means the cells in the body start to ignore what insulin is telling them to do.  This in turn makes you less able to respond to insulin.  Ultimately this pushes your sugar levels higher and higher until you eventually become diabetic.

Over time, high blood sugar levels can

- cause nerve damage anywhere in the body

- cause damage to brain tissue (some researcher have re-named Alzheimer’s disease “Type III Diabetes”)

- damage the eye which can cause blindness

- damage the kidneys

- damage arteries which can lead to heart attack and stroke

So, you ask “What can I do to control all of this?”

            Most important is what you eat (and what you shouldn’t eat)

Eating processed, refined and “junk” foods all cause inflammation in your body.  This inflammation can lead to insulin resistance and other diseases.

Whatever you eat will directly affect your blood sugar & your insulin levels.  If you don’t eat every few hours or you tend to starve all day and then eat a huge dinner, you will cause big highs & lows in blood sugar levels.  Have you ever started to feel jittery or cranky or like you have “brain fog” & then realize you haven’t eaten in hours?  Then you eat and you feel better?  This is due to a drop in blood sugar.  Eating smaller meals more often will prevent these spikes and drops.

Eating foods you are allergic to or have sensitivity to causes immune & inflammatory responses in the body, which then cause insulin resistance.  Lots of people have food sensitivities and they don’t even know it.  (We can help you identify and treat those sensitivities.)

The Right Nutrients

For your body to function at a healthy level, you must have certain essential nutrients.  A lot of times people with blood sugar issues are missing some of these necessary nutrients.

Alpha-Lipoic Acid—an antioxidant used by the body to make sugar into energy.  It has anti-inflammatory properties & it helps decrease insulin resistance in people with Type 2 diabetes.

B-Vitamins—responsible for more than 500 chemical reactions taking place in the body.  Certain diabetes medications can lessen b-vitamins in the body.

Cinnamon—has anti-inflammatory properties, can help regulate blood sugar & reduce insulin resistance.

Green Tea (EGCG)— an antioxidant that helps improve insulin resistance in diabetics and can help protect against inflammation & some types of cancer.

Magnesium—people who don’t control their diabetes often have magnesium deficiency.  Magnesium helps regulate insulin sensitivity and blood pressure.  Low levels of magnesium can cause symptoms like muscle cramps or weakness, depression and dizziness.

Why you should Exercise

When you exercise, you burn fat and calories.  The fat cells in your body all have insulin receptors.  The more fat you lose, the less insulin your body needs.  Regular activity makes your cells more responsive to insulin which lets the insulin work more efficiently. 

It can lower your blood glucose, your blood pressure and can help you lose weight.  Plus, it improves your mood!  And it helps relieve…

Stress

77% of people regularly experience physical symptoms caused by their stress.  Your body’s insulin levels are dramatically affected by stress.

Stress:

- decreases the sensitivity of your insulin receptors meaning the body has to make even more insulin to have the same response to blood sugar.

- elevates cortisol levels which can increase your blood sugar levels

- causes your liver to elevate blood sugar, which is your body’s way of increasing energy to help you handle a stressful situation.  More insulin is then required to handle this elevated blood sugar.

Environmental Toxins

Toxins are found everywhere these days-in the air we breathe, the food we eat and our water.  Even the containers our food and water come in.  Our bodies are working overtime trying to eliminate them, causing inflammation and increasing our insulin resistance.