You're on The Diabetic Spectrum

I am. We all are. Chronic diseases may be noticed acutely on a single day, but they were gathering steam for a while.

Think about it like when you’re born, if totally healthy, you are on the left side of a continuum, a state, and we will define that side as totally insulin sensitive and glucose tolerant. On the right hand side is another theoretical boundary, which we will call totally insulin resistant and glucose intolerant. As we go through life, different patterns move us right or left.

Most move us to the right. You don’t magically and spontaneously become diabetic. That’s an arbitrary measuring point, made up by a variety of smart people, which nears the right hand side. Various lifestyles, exercises and activities, and nutritional practices work you leftward.

This has been rigorously studied. Sitting makes you move rightward. Call it prediabetic if you like. Just breaking up sitting time makes people less diabetic: https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/35/5/976

And strict parameters reverse type II diabetes altogether: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/…/very-low-calorie-diet-can-reve…

Part of the confusion lies in calling a natural human phenomenon a disease, rather than thinking about biology as existing in various undulating cascades and spectra.

The receptors in the body which respond to sugar can be deafened in all of us. As that happens, glucose, insulin and A1C numbers begin to rise. That’s natural. And they can be made to listen again. Glucose, insulin and A1C numbers can begin to drop. That too is natural. Though the majority of signals may seem to be pointing rightward, we can invoke many which push us leftward.

People pat themselves on the back because they didn’t cross above the doctor’s line on a fasting glucose number meant to diagnose diabetes. But if that number is above 84, you’re trending right. A leftward trending individual will pull 75-85 on glucose AFTER eating. Additionally, on A1C confirmations, incredibly unhealthy people have a fast cell die-off ratio. So you can have someone prediabetic or diabetic who has a “normative” A1C.
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Think about it, because we’re all on the diabetes spectrum.