166 Achieving pH Balance to Treat Specific Ailments
whose food intake is moderate—who eat a limited amount of sweets but
lots of foods containing nutrient-rich fi ber—are not likely to have high
blood sugar and suffer from diabetes. In fi ber-rich foods, the fi bers are
broken down gradually, with the result that glucose is released in a slow,
steady stream. This makes it possible for all the blood sugar to be
absorbed into the cells and utilized to generate energy. On the other
hand, a diet high in refi ned sugar and fl our is converted into glucose so
quickly that blood sugar becomes elevated, and if there is not enough
insulin to transport it to the cells, blood sugar levels remain high.
In those who have effi cient insulin-producing beta cells, the excess
glucose that can’t be absorbed by the cells is carried by the blood to the
liver where it is converted into glycogen (starch). When it is needed, it
is converted back into sugar and gradually siphoned into the blood.
But when the liver is so overloaded with sugar that it can no longer
absorb it, the pancreas releases additional insulin, which transports the
excess blood sugar to cells that synthesize it into fat. When neither of
these alternatives is an option, blood sugar levels, being chronically
high, spill over into the urine. When tests reveal sugar in the urine, the
diagnosis is diabetes.Ty p e 2 D i a b e t e s
Type 2 diabetes, formerly referred to as adult-onset diabetes because it
usually affected individuals past fi fty, is the most common form of the
disease—90 percent of those with diabetes have the type 2 form.^2 In
recent years, however, it has become a disease of young adults and even
children as well as the middle-aged and older segments of the popula-
tion. Young adults are harder hit by type 2 diabetes than preceding
generations because the processed foods they eat were less common
when older generations were growing up.
Betty, age fi fty, who worked as a secretary for an insurance company,
had pain, numbness, and tingling in her wrists, the symptoms of carpal
tunnel syndrome, a health problem associated with diabetes. John Ellis,
M.D., wrote that 27.2 percent of the carpal tunnel patients of a Dr.
George Phalen either had diabetes or had a family history of it.Tw o
years later Betty developed insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes. Although
insulin-resistant patients produce enough insulin, the insulin doesn’t
lower their blood sugar because it is unable to transfer sugar molecules