How obesity causes diabetes

If you are an individual who is considered to be obese according to your Body Mass Index (BM), you should be concerned with how obesity causes diabetes. Researchers who have studied the disease of diabetes for years have discovered links between obesity and type II diabetes. Type II diabetes is also called adult onset diabetes. This dreaded disease is being diagnosed more and more these days in children, adolescents and adults who are obese. Studies have proven that complications of obesity interfere with the way the body uses insulin.

In the United States the number of obese children has doubled since 1968 and the number of young obese children being diagnosed with type II diabetes has been keeping pace. The rise in type II diabetes cases has increased in both children and adults alike. We now know that glucose intolerance has been directly linked to abdominal fat. People with a body mass index (BMI) of over 40 are considered to be obese and at a high risk for developing diabetes. People who carry a large amount of abdominal fat are at high risk for diabetes.

People who are obese tend to eat a diet that is very high in carbohydrates and bad fats which have been found to be key contributors in the development of Type II diabetes. When simple carbohydrates are eaten it causes blood sugar levels to rise. When blood sugar rises the pancreas senses it and will release a hormone called insulin. Insulin then instructs the cells in the body to open up and allow the blood sugar to enter in and the cells then use the blood sugar for energy production. When an obese person, or any person for that matter, eats foods all day long that are high in carbohydrate, the pancreas eventually tires out stops producing insulin. Not only that, but cells may become resistant to insulin. When insulin is not being produced the blood sugar does not enter into the cells to make energy because it is not there to tell the cells to open up. Blood sugar levels remain high and can get dangerously high. So now we can see how obesity causes diabetes. The simple explanation of how obesity causes diabetes all boils down to the foods that obese people eat and how much they eat.

This is not to say that all obese people have diabetes or that only obese people have diabetes. Diabetes is a disease or malfunctioning of the pancreas and its out put of insulin and the malfunctioning of a special membrane in cells that synthesizes proteins and blood fats in the body. If a person over eats that means they are getting way to much nutrition. When people eat more than their body can process at one time on a continual basis, it puts daily stress on the special membrane in the cells that need to take in the blood sugar. The cells insulin receptors eventually stop reacting to the high blood sugar levels in the body and won’t open up to allow the blood sugar in. If overeating high carbohydrate foods is kept up for days and months and years, the cells simply begin to ignore the blood sugar levels which means the obese person now has diabetes.

There is also a substance that fat cells produce that is called Resistin. Resistin resists insulin. If not in overabundance it is a good thing for the body because it is a natural response to famine. It slow metabolism down to conserve energy. Risistin also has been associated with interfering with the body’s ability to transport glucose. It is all connected with the transportation of blood sugar to the cells. It is not a far leap to see how obesity causes diabetes when you see how fat cells produce Resistin. The more fat cells a body has, the more Reisistin it produces.

Last updated on May 12th, 2011 and filed under Diabetes Mellitus. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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