The Preventable Epidemic

Dr. Debbie Wallace

Host of True Health Doctors

Adjunct Professor; Morehouse School of Medicine

Are you one of the 84 Million with Pre-Diabetes and don’t know it?

It’s almost certain you have heard the term Diabetes, but do you realize just how dangerous it can be to your health? Diabetes Mellitus, commonly referred to as Diabetes, is a chronic metabolic condition in which your blood sugar (glucose) remains high in your blood. A high blood sugar level is a serious condition that affects approximately 30 million Americans. It can often go undetected for years while wreaking havoc on your body. Normally, your blood sugar levels should be under 100, yet people can walk around looking completely normal with blood sugar levels of 400 or more. That is the problem. Diabetes is virtually undetected, yet it is the number one cause of blindness. It can also lead to heart disease, kidney disease or renal failure. In fact, it is the main reason so many Dialysis Clinics are popping up all over the place. Diabetes is a very insidious disease – you can function normally while all the time it’s killing you.

So how does this happen? Normally, everything you eat, including protein and fat, eventually breaks down to sugar that provides fuel to the cells. Your cells uptake the blood sugar via the action of insulin; a hormone normally produced by your pancreas. If this mechanism doesn’t work because your body doesn’t produce enough insulin, then we call it Type 1 Diabetes or Juvenile Diabetes (as most Type 1 diabetics are born with this condition). Or if your body doesn’t utilize the insulin properly, then we call it Type 2 Diabetes. Too much sugar in the blood will spill over into the urine. This was called ‘sweet urine’ because this is how most Type 2 Diabetes was diagnosed.