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Recently diagnosed diabetic here. Yes, I'm fat, but no excessively so. When I tell people I'm diabetic they're confused as I don't look the type. What I can s

Recently diagnosed diabetic here. Yes, I'm fat, but no excessively so. When I tell people I'm diabetic they're confused as I don't look the type. What I can say is that I can see the effects of cortisol (stress) on my fasting glucose levels. When my ex does something that causes strife, my glucose levels will be 20-30 pts higher for the next few days. In general, I ate fairly decently, and didn't consume mass amounts of sugar. It's my belief, that our diabeetus epidemic is related to more than just our diets. Perhaps our modern living environment is too stressful and makes certain segments of the population susceptible to metabolic disease?

dlo 10y ago
Have you gotten tested for sleep apnea?
- cyeb 10y ago
  I'm interested, what is the relevance of sleep apnea in this context?
  - 0xcde4c3db 10y ago
    The exact nature of the relationship hasn't been figured out, but there is definitely some nexus of chronic stress, sleep disruption, and metabolic syndrome/prediabetes. Sleep apnea is fairly common but often goes undiagnosed. People aren't routinely screened for it, and even when they are screened, the questionnaires are heavily biased toward people who present with drowsiness as their primary symptom.
mads 10y ago
Maybe there is a relationship between sugar consumption and our ability to cope with stress? I found, that when I stopped eating sugar, it wasn't exactly a big revelation, but merely a subtle change (mentally), that made me somehow less anxious and when I had irrational anxiety "attacks", I was able to suppress them better. I don't have any better way to explain this psychological stuff, but for me there was a change for sure. A subtle one, but it made a big impact on my life long term. The reason I stopped eating sugar was that I saw a pattern in my moods depending on what I ate. I initially thought that it my eating habits were dictated by life circumstances and that life circumstance were dictating my mood, but two things stood out, which left me to try going without sugar. First I wanted to loose weight, so I went on a protein only diet during a very stressful time and it made me feel pretty good. Second, I was feeling even better, when I was fasting. Third, I had my worst "breakdown", when I was training for a marathon (I ran many, so it wasn't marathon stress) and ingested a lot of sugar.
- drvdevd 10y ago
  I'm very much of the opinion that sugar should be considered a psychotropic substance in line with Caffeine and other addictive drugs. When I crash from sugar, it feels very much like any other addictive substance - I feel my mind craving another hit. [edit] I love caffeine btw, so I'm not saying this is inherently bad -- just something we often forget.
- mercer 10y ago
  Interesting thought. Another option is that it's more of a link between substance dependence and anxiety. In the same way that alcohol, weed and other drugs create a feedback loop of 'feel bad' -> 'easy, instant solution' (to which absence of the solution can become the 'feel bad' itself, creating a loop), I suppose it could be the same for food/sugar.
- adrice727 10y ago
  This isn't surprising given everything we're starting to discover about the connection between gut bacteria and mental health[1], and that sugar has been shown to promote the growth of unhealthy gut bacteria[2]. [1]http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/gut-bacteria-on-the-brain/395918/ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/gut-bacter... [2]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3448089/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3448089/
- Afton 10y ago
  In the interests of anecdata, I went ketogenic for about 18 months. One of my reasons for doing this that my sister described in glowing terms how eating this way had all sort of positive mental health efforts (more muted emotional responses, mental clarity, lack of anxiety). I had no effect of that sort. I can only assume that this is one of those 'some people respond well to this, others not so much'.
  - mads 10y ago
    "Muted emotional responses" .. this describes very well how I experience it actually.
jawngee 10y ago
Because it is related to more than diet. There is a ton of literature on all of the different factors that induce insulin resistance (assuming you are talking about type 2). Diet, lack of exercise, genes, pollution, stress, chronic inflammation, the list goes on. And there isn't a type to look like. The idea that only obese people have type 2 is ignorant at best. Consider yourself lucky you have type 2, you can control it very easily if you choose to do so. I would gladly swap my son't type 1 for type 2 any day of the week.
Cozumel 10y ago
If you're type 2 diabetes you can cure yourself with an 8 week change in diet, clinically proven, http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal.htm http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal.htm be careful Googling this as well, there is a TON of junk sites using the same keywords now.
overgard 10y ago
Stress definitely matters, but honestly you're probably just not eating right (not your fault, most diet advice is rubbish). Type-2 diabetes is mostly about insulin resistance, and you can become insulin resistant without necessarily being fat just by eating things that provoke a strong insulin response. All foods have an insulin response, but generally speaking, from high to low: sugar, refined carbohydrates, unrefined carbohydrates, protein, fat. If you limit things that have a high insulin response you'll probably improve!

dlo 10y ago

Have you gotten tested for sleep apnea?

cyeb 10y ago
I'm interested, what is the relevance of sleep apnea in this context?
- 0xcde4c3db 10y ago
  The exact nature of the relationship hasn't been figured out, but there is definitely some nexus of chronic stress, sleep disruption, and metabolic syndrome/prediabetes. Sleep apnea is fairly common but often goes undiagnosed. People aren't routinely screened for it, and even when they are screened, the questionnaires are heavily biased toward people who present with drowsiness as their primary symptom.

mads 10y ago

Maybe there is a relationship between sugar consumption and our ability to cope with stress? I found, that when I stopped eating sugar, it wasn't exactly a big revelation, but merely a subtle change (mentally), that made me somehow less anxious and when I had irrational anxiety "attacks", I was able to suppress them better. I don't have any better way to explain this psychological stuff, but for me there was a change for sure. A subtle one, but it made a big impact on my life long term. The reason I stopped eating sugar was that I saw a pattern in my moods depending on what I ate. I initially thought that it my eating habits were dictated by life circumstances and that life circumstance were dictating my mood, but two things stood out, which left me to try going without sugar. First I wanted to loose weight, so I went on a protein only diet during a very stressful time and it made me feel pretty good. Second, I was feeling even better, when I was fasting. Third, I had my worst "breakdown", when I was training for a marathon (I ran many, so it wasn't marathon stress) and ingested a lot of sugar.

drvdevd 10y ago
I'm very much of the opinion that sugar should be considered a psychotropic substance in line with Caffeine and other addictive drugs. When I crash from sugar, it feels very much like any other addictive substance - I feel my mind craving another hit. [edit] I love caffeine btw, so I'm not saying this is inherently bad -- just something we often forget.
mercer 10y ago
Interesting thought. Another option is that it's more of a link between substance dependence and anxiety. In the same way that alcohol, weed and other drugs create a feedback loop of 'feel bad' -> 'easy, instant solution' (to which absence of the solution can become the 'feel bad' itself, creating a loop), I suppose it could be the same for food/sugar.
adrice727 10y ago
This isn't surprising given everything we're starting to discover about the connection between gut bacteria and mental health[1], and that sugar has been shown to promote the growth of unhealthy gut bacteria[2]. [1]http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/gut-bacteria-on-the-brain/395918/ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/gut-bacter... [2]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3448089/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3448089/
Afton 10y ago
In the interests of anecdata, I went ketogenic for about 18 months. One of my reasons for doing this that my sister described in glowing terms how eating this way had all sort of positive mental health efforts (more muted emotional responses, mental clarity, lack of anxiety). I had no effect of that sort. I can only assume that this is one of those 'some people respond well to this, others not so much'.
- mads 10y ago
  "Muted emotional responses" .. this describes very well how I experience it actually.

jawngee 10y ago

Because it is related to more than diet. There is a ton of literature on all of the different factors that induce insulin resistance (assuming you are talking about type 2). Diet, lack of exercise, genes, pollution, stress, chronic inflammation, the list goes on. And there isn't a type to look like. The idea that only obese people have type 2 is ignorant at best. Consider yourself lucky you have type 2, you can control it very easily if you choose to do so. I would gladly swap my son't type 1 for type 2 any day of the week.

Cozumel 10y ago

If you're type 2 diabetes you can cure yourself with an 8 week change in diet, clinically proven, http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal.htm http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal.htm be careful Googling this as well, there is a TON of junk sites using the same keywords now.

overgard 10y ago

Stress definitely matters, but honestly you're probably just not eating right (not your fault, most diet advice is rubbish). Type-2 diabetes is mostly about insulin resistance, and you can become insulin resistant without necessarily being fat just by eating things that provoke a strong insulin response. All foods have an insulin response, but generally speaking, from high to low: sugar, refined carbohydrates, unrefined carbohydrates, protein, fat. If you limit things that have a high insulin response you'll probably improve!