For people with adult onset or Type II diabetes, there is another metabolic pathway - insulin resistance. Your pancreas secretes enough insulin but your body doesn't respond as it should, so you don't metabolize the glucose - it is converted to fat, but too much can circulate in the blood, raise blood sugar, and cause a host of metabolic ills, most importantly atherosclerosis, blindness and diabetic neuropathy (causes impotence in the male and can cause gangrene in the foot and leg, leading to amputations!). The unmetabolized sugar in your blood sticks the tiny walls of the capillaries together just like honey or syrup on the floor is sticky when you step on it, and the decrease in blood circulation is what causes the problems. And what causes insulin resistance? Excess body fat, decreased exercise. It's really a vicious cycle.
I guess I am lucky in a sense, I've had rheumatoid arthritis since 1998 and have standing lab orders for blood and urine tests every six weeks - one urine test was positive for a trace of sugar even though I didn't have any symptoms, so I've been monitoring blood sugar and trying to improve my diet ever since. So far, so good. I never would have dreamed of keeping tabs on my blood sugar otherwise. I've been shocked at how high it can get when I am careless with my diet. |
