Chapter 1- Contrasting Type I and Type II DiabetesWant More Diabetes Info? Search HEREType II diabetics experience chronic hunger like type I diabetics, but the bodily processes creating that hunger are quite different. The type II diabetic’s pancreas has typically been trained to produce far too much insulin. This creates its own dangers. Too much insulin can cause a condition called, “ insulin shock.” In the presence of insulin levels that are habitually too high, in order to prevent the occurrence of insulin shock, our body’s cells develop a resistance to the insulin as a means of survival. Unfortunately, when the cells become resistant to insulin, they prevent themselves from receiving the vital blood sugar – glucose – as food for converting to energy. The result in this case is also cell starvation and is experienced as hunger and sometimes, pathological, rapid weight loss. So type II diabetes patients may suffer the same hunger symptoms as the type I diabetic, but the hunger experienced in type I and type II are the result of two very different – actually opposite – causes . The type I diabetic’s hunger is from a lack of insulin. The type II’s is from too much insulin and the resulting development of insulin resistance. These conditions simply cannot be treated the same way by just administering more insulin. While insulin helps the type I diabetic, it only contributes to degeneration in the type II. Therefore, treatment and dietary recommendations that may benefit the type I diabetic patient would actually contribute to worsening the problem in the type II. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of this distinction between the two! Knowing this difference and working with it consciously can make your life far more comfortable, healthy and fun! In either case, whether there’s no insulin to carry the blood sugar into the cells or the cells just won’t let the blood sugar in, in addition to hunger, other symptoms develop. One is obviously too much sugar in the blood. Your digestive system does its job to convert your foods to glucose (and by-products) and deposits it into your blood as blood sugar to be carried to all the cells in your body to feed them and provide energy. Too much sugar in the blood actually draws moisture |
