Mary looked at herself in the mirror, and felt just wretched. When she became pregnant with her second child, her weight at the beginning was the same it had been at the end of her first pregnancy.
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Mary tells her story She had never suffered with excess weight before becoming a mother at the age of 33, and felt that her whole metabolism had changed during the next 6 years, with her body getting inexorably heavier. She had also recently noticed some hair growth on her upper lip, and a mild acne that she had thought she had left behind with adolescence.
Her musings left her feeling depressed, so she walked to the fridge and got out a chocolate bar, and after eating it she felt a little better. Then, appetite stimulated, she made herself some toast, buttering it liberally and topping it with jam, and a hot sweet cup of tea to go with it. She thought about her lifestyle, how busy and rushed she always seemed to be, and couldn’t think why some people ate exactly as they pleased and didn’t struggle with excess fat.
She knew she had a sluggish metabolism, and had been diagnosed with hypothyroidism a few months before her first pregnancy. In fact, she had been trying to fall pregnant for a couple of years, and, whether co-incidentally or not, she had managed to conceive within a couple of months of starting medication to treat her under-active thyroid.
A working mother, Mary deals with enormous pressure to cope with running a household, lecturing at college, commuting, and the host of other daily responsibilities. Although she doesn’t exercise at all, she generally feels so tired by the end of each day that it feels like she has run a half-marathon. Nibbling on high-fat, quick carbohydrates, caffeine, and sugar foodstuffs throughout the day is how she feels she can cope with the demands of each day.
When the slump comes, as it inevitably does midday, and then again mid-afternoon, she is practiced at having something on hand to quickly boost herself again. What she doesn’t realise is that she is riding a roller coaster straight towards diabetes, and that her body is steadily becoming insulin resistant.
Carbohydrates Carbohydrates stimulate insulin production, not fats. The quality of carbohydrates we consume determines how quickly they get dissolved into the blood, and they are categorised as having a high or low Glycemic Index. High GI carbohydrates are, for instance; chips, potatoes and bread (including whole wheat bread). Low GI carbohydrates are; oats, lentils, rice, barley and pasta. Sugar is considered a medium GI food. Foods with high GI push glucose more rapidly into the bloodstream, taxing the insulin response.
Many of the foods we eat contain carbohydrates, chains of sugar molecules with different shapes and sizes. As the carbohydrates enter the small intestine, they break down into glucose, a simple sugar that can enter the bloodstream. Any increase in blood glucose causes the pancreas to release insulin, a hormone that helps our cells absorb the sugar. Glucose fuels our brains and bodies, but when we consume too much (and burn too little) it builds up in the bloodstream, causing damage to tissues and organs.
"Apple Shape" When a person is insulin resistant, the distribution of fat deposits becomes more noticeable around the stomach area. The hip / waist ratio results in the classic “apple shape” versus the “pear shape”, and is considered a red flag. The good thing about insulin resistance is that it can be cured before it leads to diabetes, but becoming informed, honest about destructive habits, and pro-active about counteracting them, is critically important.
Lifestyle Exercise is something many people live without, other than the daily rushing around between work and home. Aerobic exercise is essential to our health, and an important mechanism for stress release and detoxification. Our diet can cure us or kill us, and our bodies have finite resources in dealing with the amount of damage we do. We need the essential fatty acids, like Omega 3 and 6, which can be found in certain fish like salmon or sardines, which are proven beneficial for the heart.
Symptoms Diabetics suffer two to four times the usual rate of cardiovascular disease, and it is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in people between the ages of 20 and 74. Nearly half of new cases of kidney disease stem from diabetes, and most diabetics suffer nerve damage, and can end up requiring leg amputations.
In determining if you are at risk for insulin resistance, a GTT (glucose tolerance test) should be performed by your doctor. You may be at risk for diabetes if you experience any of the following symptoms: frequent urination; constant thirst or hunger; blurred vision; numb or tingling extremities; frequent skin infections; slow healing of cuts and bruises.
The Future The World Health Organisation predicts that diabetes cases worldwide will more than double by the year 2025 to reach 300 million, and they expect Asia and Africa to bear the brunt of the increase, as the diets and lifestyles become increasingly Westernised. Genetics plays a large role too, but the fact that the rate of diabetes has gone up 70 percent for people in their 30s, and up by 40 percent for people in their 40s, just over the past 10 years, become statistics that should alarm and prepare us all.
When it comes to infertility, 30 percent of the time the problem lies with the woman, 30 percent of the time with the man, 30 percent the result of a combination of things and 10 percent of the reasons remain unknown.
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