Calories need to scream when you burn them. Then exercise will be fun ~Anon

November 14th is recognized as World Diabates Day. I pay particular attention to Diabetes Mellitus as it is one of the two leading causes of chronic kidney disease. Further, it is responsible for many complications chief of which touch on the heart leading to premature deaths.
Diabetes is thought of as a sugar problem. However, that viewpoint maybe a little skewed as the meaning gets lost in the interpretation. According to various health journals and groups like World Health Organisation, Diabetes is primarily an insulin problem. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas.
This hormone helps our body cells to absorb sugar in its simplest form (glucose). Insulin is the engine that must be present for our bodies to utilise the fuel that is glucose. Understanding this therefore helps us to understand how to manage and handle Diabetes Mellitus. It forms a foundational framework for any further reading. It is the bedrock upon which further understanding is based.
Because we need insulin to absorb glucose, its lack means that our body cells stay hungry while the bloodstream is full of glucose. Talk of being too close yet too far. We eat, digest the food and break it down to glucose which is now in the bloodstream but it can’t be utilized by the body cells. That causes cellular starvation.
Starvation of cells causes many problems including loss of consciousness. The other issue is that blood cells can only accommodate high glucose levels only to a certain degree. Beyond that, they get affected and stop working as they should. For example, white blood cells become less effective in their ability to protect the body from infections.
On the other hand, the pancreas may release enough insulin but the body cells become resistant to it. This is the bane of today’s blogpost.
Insulin And Fat cells
Ignorance, I have had to admit to myself, is not as blissful as previously advertised. I came to that conclusion when my endocrinologist looked at me and told me I was overweight and it would make management of some condition I was dealing with even more difficult.
I was in denial for a while. Because I have been overweight all my life. It doesn’t show because it comes wrapped up in all the right places. A curve here and a corner there. However it was not until I started paying close attention to Diabetes that I realized that I was preaching water while drowning in a pool of wine.
A high Body Mass Index (BMI)has been credited with the risk of developing Diabetes. BMI is calculated in relation to one’s height. What I do not understand is whether we have values for particular ethnic groups. Is it just me or do Africans and some Asians tend to be shorter than their Caucasian counterparts? Is it why they say ‘American height’ at the runways? We will never know.
Fat cells with time become resistant to insulin. That by itself is enough for the insulin produced by the pancreas to be rendered useless. Let me explain this concept further.
When one is overweight, it simply means they have more fat tissues. These fats decide to surround internal body organs. They are the shock absorbers par excellence. My colleague recently joked that he has a chiseled six-pack only that he protects it using one thick layer of fat. You get the drift, yes?
When we have excess fat layers surrounding the body organs, it becomes difficult for insulin to reach the targeted cells of those organs. Picture this, insulin is a fire engine that needs to get to town on time. But this is Nairobi city where the traffic menace is in itself a tourist attraction site. Our fire engine will try all it can but chances are, it won’t get to town on time.
That may not have been a very accurate analogy but it directs you to what happens with insulin resistance. We may not change the fact that we are from certain descents and families which may predispose us to developing Diabetes; but we can change the aspect of being overweight.
If anything, it shows the universe that we aware of our surroundings and we are willing to do something about it. I hear that the universe responds to what we give it. Weight loss should however not be a do or die matter. Not a critical deadline issue. On a personal level I am horrible with too much pressure. I however like deadlines. I like the sound they make as they fly past me. Ha ha. Weight loss is a lifestyle change.
Diabetes especially type 2, is mainly a lifestyle disease. It then follows that if we can modify at least one aspect of our lifestyle, we are keeping it at bay. This one lifestyle choice is healthy living.
Healthy living besides pointing to a healthy weight sustenance involves physical activity too. The caveat here is that being physically inactive is as risky as being overweight. Inactivity simply increases the level of low density lipoproteins (bad cholesterol) in the body which in turn increase the risk of developing Diabetes and heart diseases. What I encourage us to do is be physically active.
We do not have to kill ourselves in the gym to be able to flash some muscles for the Gram for likes and comments. We can realize that we are doing it as part of our new chosen way of life. That explains my new habit of taking a walk or a jog in the outskirts of Edinburgh city. And boy, Edinburgh looks splendid in the cover of dawn or dusk.
Some people take up cycling. Others swimming. Others simply dance their hearts away. My GP (General Physician in the UK and Doctor everywhere else in the world) tells me that the trick is to deliberately increase my heart rate. I think he emphasized on deliberately because he knows there are various unhealthy ways I can decide to increase my heart rate. Cute.
Physical activity also makes the brain release good hormones that stabilise our mood. The next time you and I are tempted to stress-eat, we might want to get out of the house and talk a walk. Probably by the time we come back home we will have found new ways to address the situation. Better ways than a bag of more fries.
What I am doing with these anecdotes, is steer you towards better living without the pressure of social media. The day we start living for ourselves, then we start living. Living sounds like a very good thing to do so let’s do it together.
It is costly to manage Diabetes especially for our Kenyan society where good quality healthcare costs an arm, a leg and a pound of flesh. We are better off keeping it at bay if we can.
As we gear up to acknowledge 14th November as World Diabetes Day, it would be a good thing to be pragmatic about weight loss management. Targeted physical activity simply shows an appreciation to our pancreas for the work it does. It sends a candid message that we see her and we recognize her. I think this is where I put a wink emoji