Can Diabetes Be Cured?

About the time I became pastor of our church, a number of people I knew were diagnosed with Type II diabetes. When one of my brothers and a sister were also diagnosed, it really sunk in how close it was. Since that time, the epidemic has grown and I know about fifty people who have been diagnosed. I began to study to see what I could do to help the ones I know, as well as to protect myself. What I have learned is somewhat startling. I would like to share it in hopes of helping someone. Those who have read this blog are aware of some of what I have learned about individual actions, but here I hope to give a more complete overview.

The biggest reason Type II Diabetes is such a serious problem is because of the way we are attempting to treat it. We are approaching it as a malfunction of the body. In fact it is the result of the body trying to function properly in an abnormal situation. I think what I mean can be illustrated with the following story.

In our area, rainfall averages about seven inches per year. Rains of a half inch or more over a wide area are extremely rare. As a result vegetation is sparse and there is nothing to catch large rains. Roads have to be designed to accommodate the run off, and usually they are designed with a one inch rain over the drainage area to give a margin of safety.

A road near Tse Bonito, New Mexico was designed using this standard. Calculations showed that three twelve foot diameter culverts would be more than adequate, and it worked fine for about twenty years. Then one day, we got a rain of about two and a half inches in about three hours. The culverts had been maintained quite well, and they were able to handle the initial rush, but as time passed, they were unable to let all the water through as fast as it arrived, and the excess began to pool on the uphill side of the road.

While the roadway was nearly twenty five feet above the bottom of the arroyo, by the time the rain stopped, the water level had reached the top of the roadway and began to spill over. Within minutes, the road washed away and even the culverts were carried down stream. Repairs required more than a hundred thousand dollars.

The culverts did not fail to let the water through , they were simply overwhelmed by the amount of water coming through. In the same way, Type II diabetes is not the result of a break down of the bodies processes. It is simply overwhelmed with an unnatural situation.

The human body is designed to use sugar, fat and protein to produce energy and maintain itself. Various vitamins and minerals are needed for the body to utilize these three basic dietary items. Protein is the main building block but provides little energy. Fat provides a slow sustained source of energy, and is easily stored in fat cells for use between meals. Sugar is obtained directly from fruits and vegetables, and is the easiest and most readily available energy. Starches are converted to sugar in the digestive system, and the body is able to obtain all the sugar needed from common foods.

Modern technology has enabled people to separate plant sugars from the cellulose in the normal plant and concentrate it. The white granular stuff we call sugar is just one kind of sugar. In 1950, the average American ate about twenty pounds of refined sugar a year. Today, the total is nearly nine times as much, about one hundred seventy pounds per year.

Because the sugar is already in most prepared foods, most people are unaware how much they are eating. The familiar white sugar is a type the body does not readily absorb, and about two thirds of it is passed through the body with little effect. Many prepared foods use fructose rather than sugar because it is cheaper. While it is more common than the white sugar we know, the form used, high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, is highly concentrated, more than twice as sugary as whit sugar. In addition, it is totally absorbed, with the result that the same amount has nearly six times as much usable sugar.

The amount of sugar in modern foods is astounding. A single twelve ounce soda has the equivalent of nine teaspoons of sugar, and most people want a thirty-two or forty-four ounce drink. Few realize that because they use HFCS rather than sugar, a prepackaged donut will have twice as many calories, and nearly six times as much impact on ones sugar level as one from a donut shop. The same is true for many other products.

To use sugar, the body at rest uses insulin as a catalyst. When sugar is detected in the blood the body produces insulin to enable the cells to process the sugar. When the sugar level drops, insulin production is stopped. Excessive insulin can kill the cells, so they have a mechanism to prevent taking in too much. Exercise causes the muscle cells to produce waste products that work in a manner similar to insulin.

When too much sugar is consumed, the body is not able to keep up processing it and continues to produce insulin until the level drops. This triggers a response called insulin resistance to protect the cells. Most Type II diabetics average five times the normal level of insulin because the body cannot process the amount present, which further reduces the amount of sugar processed. The same process which blocks out extra insulin also prevents the body using fat, causing the cells to send signals that they are needing food, and the person feels hungry, eating more.

Fat cells do not have to have insulin so they are able to store some of the sugar and fat, causing weight gain, even as muscle cells are going hungry. As the sugar and insulin levels increase, the blood becomes increasingly sticky and damages blood vessels, leading to other problems.

Most diabetes medicines are aimed at increasing the utilization of insulin or increasing insulin supply on the assumption that the body is malfunctioning. If, instead, the level of sugar is reduced to normal levels, the body functions normally and the symptoms disappear. No medication is required unless the problem has been allowed to continue until the body’s ability to produce insulin is exhausted. At that point, like the water going over the road, permanent damage occurs, and insulin may then be necessary.

Even Solomon warned of the danger of too much sugar in Proverbs 25:27. “It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.” It is far easier to completely eliminate sugar use for a time than to cut back, and doing so allows the body to re calibrate itself. A permanent change in lifestyle will prevent recurrance of the problem. Type II diabetes is not a result of disease, but of a defective lifestyle. It can easily be cured by simple changes. Numerous studies have shown this to be true, and several doctors have written books to guide people in curing themselves.