your bloodstream most of the time.
When the pancreas puts out more insulin, cells become insulin resistant
because they’re trying to protect themselves from the insulin’s toxic effects and
downregulate their receptor activity. Some cells become more resistant before
others—for example, the liver becomes resistant first, followed by muscle tissue,
and, finally, fat. As all these tissues become insulin resistant, your pancreas puts
out even more insulin. The link between high insulin levels and many diseases is
now well established in the medical literature. High insulin levels have also been
linked to heart disease, stroke, cancer, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol,
infertility, and even Alzheimer’s disease. Years of following a low-fat diet will
cause your pancreas to become strained, and it won’t be able to produce enough
insulin. When this happens, you’ll be diagnosed with type II diabetes.
The New Epidemic: Diabetes in Children
The increasing incidence of diabetes is disturbing and alarming (Fig. 1.2). A
disease that should be very rare in young people is rapidly escalating, even
among young children. The diagnosis rate for diabetes has shot up 100 percent in
the last ten years. At present, 25 million people in the United States are diabetic,
and 60 million more are prediabetic.
At one time, type II diabetes was called “senile” diabetes because it didn’t
usually affect people until they were well into their 60s or 70s. Obviously, no
one wants to learn that he or she has developed an illness that’s associated with
old age. As more and more middle-aged people began to develop diabetes, its
name was changed to “adult-onset” diabetes. Given the fact that so many
children are now being diagnosed with this type of diabetes, medicine has once
again bestowed a new name: “maturity onset diabetes of the young.” Medicine is
trying to keep up with the changing prevalence of this disease. You don’t have
Figure 1.2: Diabetes in the USA