
Understanding and Managing Type 2 Diabetes
At least one in three people will develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime.1 I am in my sixties and have type 2 diabetes, which is particularly common in older adults. Over one-fourth (25.9 percent) of Americans age sixty-five and older have some form of diabetes, and over half (51 percent) are prediabetic.2 If you’re walking down the street and see someone over sixty-five, it’s highly likely that that person is prediabetic or diabetic.
As a psychiatric physician, I am not a diabetes expert, but I have learned a lot about it in the twelve years since I became ill, and I continue to learn. When new information comes along that seems worthwhile, I share the it, even if it contradicts prior information. Most importantly, I am a firm believer in the importance of eating a Wise Traditions diet if you have type 2 diabetes. Were it not for the information that I obtained through the Weston A. Price Foundation, I would have been disabled, at the very least.
HOW DIABETES DEVELOPS
To understand how type 2 diabetes develops, there are little islets of beta cells clustered in the pancreas, and everyone is born with a certain number. Beta cells produce and secrete insulin. Science is still learning about the life cycle of a beta cell, but we think that when there is a metabolic stressor, the beta cells start producing more insulin. We haven’t even identified all the metabolic challenges that elicit this response, but we do know that once the beta cells are taxed, consuming a lot of carbohydrates can be hard on them.
When beta cells start putting out volumes of insulin, a funny th
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