Type 2 Diabetes: Could You Have it and Not Even Know?

Do any of these sound like you?

1. You feel sluggish or have a little less "get up and go" than previously, but you attribute it to high stress levels or increased age.
2. You've had gradual weight gain and chalk it up to age.
3. You have an increased desire for carbohydrates and never really feel full after eating.
4. People close to you wonder how you can always eat at the drop of a hat.

If so, you could you be one of the 7 million people in the U.S. with undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 or adult-onset diabetes does not normally come on like a lightning bolt or an earthquake, but silently develops over years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, type two diabetes affects more than 25.8 million people or 8.3 percent of the U.S population. Experts predict a whopping 10 percent increase in adult diabetes in the next decade.

Anne Peters, M.D., a leading diabetologist and researcher at University of Southern California (USC), believes that the average person diagnosed with type two diabetes actually had it for seven years prior to diagnosis!

How can this happen? Or better yet, how can you monitor whether you are a type two diabetic or at risk for diabetes?

1. Get a physical every year and monitor your fasting glucose (blood sugar) levels. The ideal number is less than 95. If your numbers are consistently above 100 or are in the 100-115 range, you could be pre-diabetic or diabetic.

2. Ask your physician yearly to monitor a blood test called glycosylated hemoglobin A1C. This simple test measures what your blood sugar has been averaging over the previous three months. The number (depending on the laboratory) should be between 4-6. If it is over six, you could be diabetic. If you have a parent or sibling with type two or adult onset diabetes, this test is a must on a yearly basis.

3. Check your triglyceride levels. This blood test is part of the cholesterol panel. Triglycerides are the storage form of fat and are associated with carbohydrate sensitivity in the body. An ideal number is below 150. If your number is over 200, it is associated with insulin resistance and possible future diabetes.

4. Check your cravings. If you are continually craving starchy carbohydrates and sugar, you may be insulin resistant. Insulin resistance can be genetic or acquired by an unhealthful lifestyle. Eating regular amounts of processed carbohydrates can lead to continual cravings for more food, which not only increases weight, but taxes the pancreas on a regular basis, increasing risk for diabetes.

5. Monitor your waist circumference. Men with a waist circumference larger than 40 inches, or women with a 35-inch waist or greater, are at a high risk of type two diabetes due to increased visceral or belly fat. A large waist circumference is an early indicator of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

Other Ways to Take Control

Some individuals are just born with a predisposition toward insulin resistance and need to adjust their diets to eat more protein and consume their carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables and unprocessed starches such as brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, etc.

Adding regular activity and exercise on a daily basis helps lower levels of insulin resistance and offset the genetic tendency toward diabetes.

Having your blood measures regularly monitored is essential. The goal of preventing and managing type two diabetes is education.

Keep yourself out of denial that it could never happen to you. With one in three individuals being insulin resistant and overweight, the odds of type 2 diabetes are high.

High levels of thirst, urination or hunger are critical signs of high blood sugars and not the norm. Therefore, close monitoring of blood work and subtle shifts in energy, weight and cravings may be necessary to protect yourself so you don't find your physician imparting the "no warning" earthquake of a diabetes diagnosis in your near future.

Susan is the author of "A Recipe for Life by the Doctor's Dietitian." For more information, visit susandopart.com.

 

 

 

Follow Susan B. Dopart, M.S., R.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/smnutritionist

Comments

[Hemant Chourasia]

04:36 AM on 03/08/2011

We all try to make every possible effort to keep ourselves from any ailments, but often problems such as diabetes come without any notice. Every disease comes with a number of linked problems and diabetes is no exclusion. We all know that when an individual develops diabetes; not only their body’s ability to make insulin deteriorates; it also leads to high level of cholesterol. The excess cholesterol slowly deposits in arteries and veins and hampers the flow of blood. Diabetic socks

[katmeyster]

07:55 PM on 02/20/2011

I was pre-diabetic for years and didn't realize it -- my fasting blood glucose was always in the high 90's or 100. Unfortunately, since that fell in the normal range I wasn't counseled of the dangers. But since my partner and I (he is diabetic) have switched to a very low carbohydrate diet, I am no longer pre-diabetic, and his daily numbers are usually in the 80's -- he takes about half the insulin and has much better control. My last fasting blood glucose was 82 with an A1C of 5 -- getting much better simply with diet. Also, as triglycerides are mentioned in the article, low carbohydrate eating is the way to dramatically lower your triglycerides and raise your HDL.

[awesomeiam]

01:27 PM on 02/22/2011

Just curious to know what is your low carbohydrate diet usually like. Do you have some carbs, or none at all? As I had posted below, even though my readings have been anywhere from 80 to 135 since I stopped rice altogether, I am not sure I can totally eliminate all carbs from my already slimmed down diet. Do you add nuts or beans to your diet? Thanks for your suggestions.

[katmeyster]

07:53 PM on 02/22/2011

Usually breakfast is eggs, bacon, a flax meal muffin (no flour), and coffee with heavy cream. Or sometimes an omelet with veggies. Lunch can be lunch meat and cheese, or a salad with veggies with meat and cheese, or a homemade soup. Dinner can be steak with broccoli and a salad, or chicken parmigiana (low carb recipe), ribs with a dry rub, carne adovada -- dinner is whatever anyone else has but you have to tweak it to make it low carb -- lots of recipes out there and low-carb products (try and stay with the real food as much as possible). We use a lot of healthy saturated fat like coconut oil and butter -- you can get too much protein if you don't up your intake of fat -- an essential component. We do eat nuts and very occasionally beans. It is amazing how quickly you can get used to not eating grains -- we make muffins, pancakes, and breads from flax meal, coconut and almond flour. You can make some things with pumpkin which seems like sweet potato. It really is a matter of commitment and creativity. Since we are eating so much protein, we are trying to find more grass-fed and nitrate-free meats. No need to up the chemicals while you are getting healthy. Good luck, its worth it.

[ninetailedfox]

09:22 AM on 02/19/2011

Whether I have diabetes or not, it does not run in the family, but cancer does. I will not go for chemo and radiation therapies if i do get cancer, because the treatment is just as bad as the cancer itself.

[ninetailedfox]

09:20 AM on 02/19/2011

Ive watched my best friends grandpa die from diabetes. Let me explain further, he died from the treatment. Doctors may not realize it, but the insulin is sodium based, and it hurts the kidneys, which in turn hurts the diabetic. He was on dialysis before he died, and one of my siblings (who works in the medical field mind you) suspects it may be the insulin that caused it. Now that some people are going herbal I think its time for doctors to revamp the insulin treatements.

[bocheball]

01:05 AM on 02/19/2011

I have had the same 32 inch waist that I had in my 20's that I now have in my 50's. Unfortunately,
it seems to be in my genes as my dad and brother have type 2. I exercise, maintain a good weight.
What has changed in the past 2 months is my stopping of all cookies, cakes, and other obvious sweets. I have lost 10 pounds, feel more energetic and see my AIC drop. however I am on Janumet,
a insulin drug. I will start weaning myself off it and see what happens to my levels. I also take Dr. Whitaker's glucose supplement which I found helps. I always resisted changing my diet, thinking that it was all in the genes. I was wrong.

[DrP]

11:14 PM on 02/20/2011

It is in the genes, so we have to acknowledge our genetic predisposition and follow the correct diet for our metabolic type. Sounds like your genes are like mine, so I follow a very low-carb diet and have never had an abnormal blood sugar reading despite my family history.

[plaidsportcoat]

12:56 AM on 02/19/2011

By the way, you do not need a prescription to buy insulin nor syringes for insulin in my town in central California. It is for my cat. But it's human insulin. I can get it all with no prescription. So spread the word to the diabetics who can't afford a doctor, but know how to take their own blood sugar readings.

[DrP]

11:29 PM on 02/19/2011

If you have been told you have Type II, then don't take insulin. If something raises your blood sugar, don't eat. Your body doesn't respond to insulin, and high insulin levels wreak havoc on your system and prevent lease of fat stores. Get off the insulin and manage blood sugar with a low-carb diet. What you are doing is really dangerous.

[katmeyster]

07:59 PM on 02/20/2011

I agree the absolutely first thing to do is dramatically decrease the carbs and constantly check the effect of any carbs on your BG numbers. But if you have done this, exercise, and take meds -- and you still don't have normal (80's all the time) numbers, insulin may be required. It is more important that you have normal BG numbers to prevent complications -- a small amount of insulin necessary to get there is not dangerous. Source: Richard Bernstein, MD: The Diabetes Solution (He's a Type I).

[maribelles]

07:42 PM on 02/18/2011

I believe that turning to health building is still a more constructive and productive pathway and approach than looking for disease. EVERYONE needs to adjust their diets these days, and that should be the very first place to look. Diabetes need not become a medical condition, nor a medical cash cow. Many books exist to help people with this, including the standard "Reversing Diabetes" by Julian Whitaker, MD. I have personally known numerous people who simply used that book, restored their health by changing diets. " Primal Body, Primal Mind" discusses early insulin resistance development which is the result of the high carb/low fat diets erroneously touted for the past 20 years or more. "There is a Cure for Diabetes" by Dr. Gabriel Cousens is a plant-based approach, for those seeking a counterbalance to "Primal Body". Many short term raw /live food diets will restore the body, with meat/dairy being added later. Its sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, and high glycemic diets prevalent in our country which bring about the deterioration that the medical community has termed "diabetes". While I respect a variety of views, this article presents primarily a medical view, and I urge/encourage people to look outside that box- the medical community is not our source of "health building", restoration, or sound nutritional education- its a source of disease management- often of diseases you do not even need to develop let alone maintain. It takes time for the body to restore on a cellular level.

[awesomeiam]

06:07 PM on 02/18/2011

Being a rice eater all my life, I had to make a difficult decision to eliminate rice from my diet completely. I was diagnosed with 'pre-diabetes' 2 months ago. I started testing my blood sugar three times a day. Consistently my readings went above 140 - sometimes between 160 to 220 - every time I tested myself 2 hours after eating. It did not matter that I had cut down my portions, exercised regularly, or that I substituted my favorite white Jasmine rice with brown rice! Rice in any form, by any amount, was raising my blood sugar drastically. This month I decided to eliminate rice and replace it with pearl millet. I am also only sticking to whole foods like bran, wheat germ, flax meal etc for all my other 'baked' recipes. Amazingly, my blood sugar has not risen above 130 during any of my tests done 2 hrs after meals! My fast blood has always been below 100. Could this be the solution to my pre-diabetes? But being a vegetarian, I think I can avoid white flour, white rice and anything highly processed. From have 3 plates of rice per day (21 plates a week!) to none at all has done wonders to my diabetes, and I felt like sharing this with others like me. I do not want to push my body towards medication to control my sugar. This has been easy because I can also eat my fill and never worry about extreme portion control.

[awesomeiam]

06:27 PM on 02/18/2011

I forgot to add that my A1c was 6.1 at the time I was diagnosed. Can I hope to see a better number after 6 months if my blood sugar is controlled with millet instead of rice? I have also added barley to my pantry. Are there any other healthy grains or options to try? Quinoa seems to be very expensive for some reason!
Thanks!

[katmeyster]

08:02 PM on 02/20/2011

Highly recommend Dr. Richard Bernstein's The Diabetes Solution. He will recommend that you eat very few carbohydrates (eliminate all sugar and grain) to keep your blood sugar numbers in the 80's most of the time. 130 is too high if you want to prevent long-term complications. The solution to your pre-diabetes is a very low carbohydrate diet -- this is how diabetes was treated before the invention of insulin. Please read the book and decide for yourself, but you really need the knowledge. (In our world, there is NO healthy grain)

[morethanfoodinc]

05:58 PM on 02/18/2011

There seems to be a bit of confusion about type 1 vs. type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetics can develop some signs of type II diabetes when over using insulin to tamp down glucose levels to match recommended levels. Often this is in response to over eating. The excessive insulin and calories drive the metabolic processes associated with type II diabetes.

Likewise, someone with type II diabetes may continue to experience worsening B cell defect and eventually need to use insulin for effective treatment. For this reason, we no longer talk about insulin dependent (IDDM) versus non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM).

[Mary OGarbiadd]

11:45 AM on 02/18/2011

Please everyone, diagnosed or not, get your insulin levels checked when you have a blood test...if it is high, even with normal blood sugar levels, you are most likely insulin-resistant...it will keep blood sugars in normal range for a while but you are in a diabetic state and depending on other factors, will most likely progress on to diabetes. mg

[ApolloniusofTyana]

03:39 AM on 02/19/2011

Exactly right. Why don't articles like this one point this out? if blood sugar gets out of hand, it is too late. People should be checking their insulin levels and they would catch it faster.

Checking for blood sugar problems is like waiting for the oil light to come on in your car. It tells you that your engine is toast already.

[BeyondKen]

07:53 AM on 02/18/2011

You do not need to see a doctor to take an A1C test. You can purchase this test at your pharmacy or at Walmart and do it in your own home. If your result is under 6% you're doing fine. If it's over 7% you should see your doctor. In between, you should watch your carbs & eat less sugar.

[MrBadExample]

12:54 AM on 02/18/2011

Folks--

Don't screw around with this. the ramifications of not taking diabetes seriously are amazingly bad--people in their 40's and 50's getting strokes, having amputations, getting neuropathy. Diabetics go blind at a young age. There's kidney failure and cardio-vascular complications.

This country should be treating diabetes the way it treated polio--as a major long-term threat to the well-being of the country at large. if you want to know why Medicaid budgets are expanding, look at the number of people going on disability owing to diabetes-related complications. Several years ago, the NY Times ran a four-part series on diabetes in the city, and found whole neighborhoods in Harlem where virtually every household has been touched by the disease.

And not to bring up politics, but the healthcare system we have (or will have) has no particular interest in managing the disease properly. For-profit insurers don't want to cover endocrinologists and dietitians because they don't want to be known as 'diabetes-friendly'. they pay for the mandated costs and hope that by the time catastrophe strikes the patient, they've changed jobs and moved to another insurer.

[DrP]

11:04 PM on 02/17/2011

So-called Type II Diabetes could be virtually eliminated if people with insulin-resistance would reduce their carbohydrate consumption.
"The New Atkins for a New You" is an excellent phased plan by which you can determine your own carbohydrate tolerance in terms of number of grams/day and the type of carbohydrates you can tolerate.
Gary Taubes has written two excellent books on the science of metabolism that thoroughly covers insulin-resistance: Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why we get fat and what to do about it. I also recommend drjaywortman.com
I credit the individuals and books above for saving me and much of my family from suffering the same fate as my father and grandfather who were treated by a medical establishment that didn't understand insulin-resistance and the necessity for carb restriction. . My father was nearly blind when he died of congestive heart failure, and my grandfather died a month after his leg was amputated. Both had "Type II Diabetes." Two tragedies that could have been avoided if only their doctors had know better. I shudder to think what would have happened if my sibs, children, and I had continued our low-fat, high-carb diets. Thank God we "saw the light" 11 years ago and are all in excellent health now with no signs of abnormal blood sugar, etc.

[ApolloniusofTyana]

03:41 AM on 02/19/2011

I totally agree with the Taubes books. Everyone should read them, including doctors!

[DrP]

11:25 PM on 02/19/2011

Or, especially doctors! Required reading for all medical professionals before they are licensed.

[chickenflu4]

10:48 PM on 02/17/2011

Go vegetarian and your future generation will thank you!

[Riva Greenberg]

08:38 AM on 02/17/2011

There is an inaccuracy at the start of this article. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention does cite nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes. However, 3 million of those have type 1 diabetes, leaving almost 23 million with type 2 not 26 million. Also, what you need to know to be on the alert whether you might have diabetes are the risk factors for type 2 diabetes: diabetes is in your family, you're over 40 years of age, you're overweight or have a BMI over 25, you belong to a high-risk group - African American, Native American, Latino or Pacific Islander - you had gestational diabetes or a baby that weighed more than nine pounds at birth, you have metabolic syndrome (high triglycerides, cholesterol and blood pressure, obesity and insulin resistance) and you have polycystic ovarian syndrome (lack of periods, unusual hair growth and excess weight.) Author of "50 Diabetes Myths That Can Ruin Your Life and the 50 Diabetes Truths That Can Save It."

[Susan B. Dopart, M.S., R.D.]

10:54 AM on 02/17/2011

Thank you Riva for your comments. I took that statistic from the CDC website and the article is about type II diabetes, not type I. This article is about helping those who may not suspect they have type 2 diabetes. Many people with a family history may already be aware or those of a certain high-risk group. I was coming from a standpoint of pointing out things people may not be aware of and that is the spirit of the article which included many symptoms of metabolic syndrome.

Susan B. Dopart, M.S., R.D.
www.susandopart.com
Author - A Recipe for Life by the Doctor's Dietitian

[Riva Greenberg]

02:10 PM on 02/20/2011

Hi Susan,

I certainly appreciate the spirit of your article, the more information we get to people about diabetes and their risk the better. I also know it can be easy to misinterpret the statistics. In your reference the CDC did not distinguish between type 1 and type 2, but the statistic is 25.8 million Americans have diabetes, that includes type 1 and type 2 and likely gestational and LADA. In fact when I looked on the CDC web site for a break down of type 1 and type 2 it incensed me I couldn't find one as if the two conditions are the same, but they're not: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riva-greenberg/the-type-1-versus-type-2_b_611662.html

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation web site http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=71927021-99EA-4D04-92E8463E607C84E1 gives the break down just so you know. The total number of diabetics, and how many of those have type 1, leaving the remainder with type 2:

The Scope of Diabetes

Nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes (8.3 percent of the population)
Diagnosed: 18.8 million
Undiagnosed: 7 million
As many as three million Americans may have type 1 diabetes.
Diabetes currently affects 285 million people worldwide and is expected to affect 435 million by 2030.3
In the U.S., a new case of diabetes is diagnosed every 30 seconds; more than 1.9 million people are diagnosed each year.