AODM

<– Previous Next–>

Adult onset diabetes is not genetic and is curable. Many in the medical profession would disagree with both. Quantitative Medicine clinical practice has cured adult onset diabetes consistently and repeatedly.

This is the second post in an in depth series which examines Adult Onset Diabetes, or, as it is also called, Type II Diabetes. We’ll abbreviate it AODM. In this post, we discuss the diagnosis of AODM, and its impact.

AODM is usually defined as a failure to properly manage glucose. Since it is the “job” of circulating insulin to get rid of glucose, it was decided that the problem was caused by insufficient insulin, and thus got the disease categorized as diabetes, i.e. not enough insulin. Although it is possible to have an impairment in insulin production, by far the principle cause of AODM is not lack of insulin, but instead, way too much glucose.

Diagnosis and Insulin Resistance

AODM is usually diagnosed from glucose levels alone, and it is odd that insulin is not part of that definition. There are three glucose measurements that are usually considered.

Two-hour glucose tolerance test

. (There are several variants of this test but this is the most common one.)This is meant to simulate the body’s response to a meal. 75 mg of straight glucose is consumed as a sugar drink, and the glucose level measured after two hours.

Fasting glucose. This is blood glucose concentration after a 12-14 hour fast.

Average glucose is also known as Hemoglobin A1C, or simply A1C. This is a surrogate measurement, meaning that the percentage of blood hemoglobin that is “glycated” (has a sugar molecule attached to it) is measured. This is normally given as a percentage of total hemoglobin. Often an equivalent blood glucose concentration is presented. A 5% A1C means an average glucose level of 97 mg/dl, 6% means 126 mg/dl.

Here are the official levels that usually define AODM

	Healthy Level	“Normal” Upper Limit	AODM Lower Limit
Two-hour Glucose	120 mg/dl	140 mg/dl	200 mg/dl
Fasting Glucose	80 mg/dl	110 mg/dl	125 mg/dl
Average Glucose (in A1C percent)	100 mg/dl      (5.1%)	125 mg/dl      (5.9%)	140 mg/dl      (6.5%)

Now this is a rather odd way to define a disease. If your fasting glucose is 140 mg/dl you have it. If it is 139, you don’t. It is probably better to think of AODM as a condition. A condition where there is excess circulating sugar. When glucose is high, insulin should be higher too. People with more severe AODM can have glucose levels significantly higher than the above chart. Above 250 is considered dangerous.

This excess glucose is largely dietary. All starches (bread, rice, corn, potatoes) are converted to 100% glucose in the digestive process. Table sugar and fruit are a mix of glucose and fructose, another sort of sugar. Effectively, that fructose also ends of as circulating glucose.

So What If the Sugar is a Little High

This doesn’t sound so bad does it? After all, isn’t sugar life’s energy, and fuel for the brain?

It’s just too bad that this isn’t so, given the availability of sugar and starch in our diet. Fruit bats, butterflies and humming birds do great on a high sugar diet. But we are none of the above. For us, excess circulating sugar is deadly. We are not exaggerating one whit. Sugar in excess is toxic, and for some, any amount of sugar is toxic.

All this circulating glucose and insulin promotes cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s as well as damaging the eyes, the kidneys, the fingertips and toes, the brain, and the heart. It lowers testosterone, impairs memory, and speeds loss of bone mineral density.

We Do Not Need Any Sugar or Starch

Neither of these were part of our regular diet until 10,000 years ago. Before the agricultural revolution, we went most of the year without dietary sugar or starch. Any sugar needed, by the brain for instance, would be manufactured by the liver. Any sugar that became available was stored as fat for the lean winter months.

Almost overnight, in evolutionary terms, we went from a low/no sugar and starch diet to a high one. It is no wonder the system is overwhelmed.

Is High Insulin the Culprit?

This is possible, but insulin and glucose are joined at the hip. They will usually be high together, so there is no way to tell. When a person takes some sugar or starch, the body immediately secretes insulin into the blood. This is a signal for cells to use the sugar. The body is using insulin to try to get rid of that sugar ASAP. So high sugar usually means high insulin as well. Insulin also acts as a growth hormone, and high insulin encourages cancers.

So the conclusion: Both circulating glucose and circulating insulin need to be at safe levels or there will be health problems.

If Insulin is taking care of the excess sugar, why is there a problem?

We will cover this in the next post in this series, but basically the problem is this: The system is simply overwhelmed. The body’s ability to clear excess glucose is not all that great to begin with, and deteriorates with age. When the glucose measurements reach the pre-diabetic level, the system is already overloaded: More glucose is arriving than the body can dispose of.

Three Important Points

1. It is possible for a type 1 diabetic to become an adult onset diabetic as well. This has likely occurred if significantly increased amounts of additional insulin are needed to maintain good glucose levels.
2. Note that the AODM diagnosis is only about glucose. However, chronically high insulin is dangerous too. A type 1 or 2 diabetic may drive their glucose down to a safe level . If doing this requires chronically high insulin levels, the purpose is defeated. To be healthy, both glucose and insulin need to be at safe levels.
3. AODM and obesity are not the same thing. It is possible to be obese, and not have AODM. Think sumo wrestler. It is also possible to have AODM and not be overweight.

Aren’t There Pills For This?

Most adult onset diabetes research is looking for a loophole in the biology of how a starch/sugar overwhelmed system is incapable of coping. So far, none have been found, so little progress is made.The most recent attempt was a pill that tricked the kidney into dumping circulation glucose. However, this basically was dissolving bone. The glucose dumping caused a commensurate loss of minerals, and the body dissolved bone to maintain healthy levels. This leads, of course, to osteoporosis and high fracture risk.

Perhaps in another 50,000 years, we will have evolved some protective mechanism. Maybe we will be able to thrive on potato chips and sodas.

The series:

Adult Onset Diabetes – Part 1 – Introduction
Adult Onset Diabetes – Part 2 – Diagnosis and Impact
Adult Onset Diabetes – Part 3 – The Cause
Adult Onset Diabetes – Part 4 – The Cure
Adult Onset Diabetes – Part 5 – Strange “Standard” Practice
Adult Onset Diabetes – Part 6 – Case Study 1
Adult Onset Diabetes – Part 7 – Case Study 2
Adult Onset Diabetes – Part 8 – Summary