Traditionally the way diabetes has been diagnosed has been with fasting blood sugar. This makes a great deal of sense when dealing with Type 1 diabetes in which the pancreas is unable to make or release enough insulin to let sugar enter the cells and be broken down into energy.
In the case of Type 2 diabetes, however, the cause is different and the body's chemistry is different. In Type 2 diabetes, at least in its early stages, the pancreatic beta cells are able to produce insulin but the body's cells are insensitive to it. Consequently, insulin levels can actually be abnormally high. Blood pressure and heart rate can rise after an intravenous injection of insulin, even when the blood sugar concentration is kept the same with injections of sugar solution. This is probably due to an increase in the blood concentration of noradrenaline that accompanies an injection of insulin. Noradrenaline has to do with setting off the fight or flight response, which increases the heart rate.
A group of researchers in the Second Department of Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Hematology and Rheumatology at the University of Ryukus Graduate School of Medicine in Okinawa, Japan, set out to discover whether glucose intolerance, caused by insensitivity to insulin, could be associated with heart disease in people with normal blood sugars. Results of their work were published the March edition of the journal Diabetes Care.
Two hundred and eighty-seven volunteers were recruited for the study. Oral glucose tolerance tests were performed and their hearts were examined by echocardiography. The left ventricle of the heart was of particular interest because it is the part that pumps blood out to the rest of the body. When blood pressure is high for too long the left ventricle grows overly large, its muscle growing inward to make the hollow space inside the ventricle too small to hold an adequate supply of blood. When that happens congestive heart failure can be the consequence. In congestive heart failure the blood backs up from the left ventricle, the pumping action of the heart becomes less and less powerful and fluid collects in the lungs.
This fluid in the lungs makes breathing difficult and is a medical emergency. Type 2 diabetes is a risk factor for congestive heart failure.
It was found the volunteers with impaired glucose tolerance caused by insulin resistance, had worse left ventricular function than the volunteers who suffered with high blood sugar levels. Therefore it was concluded that impaired glucose tolerance was worse for the function of the left ventricle than high blood sugar levels.
It has long been known that normalizing your weight and exercising regularly are good for your heart, because less weight means less work for your heart and regular exercise gives your heart muscle the workout that all muscles need.
Now it would seem there is even more reason for exercising and losing fat for a healthy heart. Losing fat, especially belly fat, also helps to improve insulin sensitivity which is the basis for Type 2 diabetes.
To discover answers to questions you may be asking yourself about Type 2 Diabetes, click on this link... Natural Diabetes Treatments
Clicking on this link will help you to learn more about Type 2 Diabetes Solutions ... Beverleigh Piepers RN... the Diabetes Detective.
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