What is type 3 diabetes?  We all know there are two main types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2.  There is also the transient gestational diabetes which only affects women during pregnancy.  But now diabetes is being linked with Alzheimer’s and it’s being called type 3. Are you at risk?

The path to diabetes

The path to diabetes is a complex and often long one.  Many people start on the road to this disease from an early age.  Whilst we’re young, our bodies can mostly compensate and cope with the stupidity of consuming rubbish food with a vengeance, regularly bingeing on alcohol and sodas, smoking and using recreational drugs and  taking in a plethora of poisons and toxins.  Now take a look at this 2 minute video.

Normal living conditions are bad enough!

It’s bad enough that we have to contend with environmental hazards and harmful chemicals that we have no control over.  But to then make it even worse by further abusing our bodies with added burdens of contaminating foods and drink is witless!  After all, we do have a certain amount of control over what we put into our bodies.  Problem is, when we’re young, we think we’re immortal.  Another difficulty is the mindset of the human race as a whole.  We’re definitely a very clever species, but we’re certainly not too intelligent!

It will catch up with you.

So here you are, in your prime, not long out of college and rearing to go.  Your whole life ahead of you and you’re determined to enjoy every minute of it.  No matter about your diet or lifestyle, as long as a good time is had by all.  You turn around and suddenly you’re 30 with a spouse and a couple of kids.  The youngsters are growing up fast.  Right from weaning, they’ve had your lifestyle.

Then there’s the TV ads.

What’s worse is that we are all bombarded with continual adverts on TV from the food companies about a super chocolatey cereal or a delicious sugar free drink or a scrumptious pudding.  The kids will harrass you relentlessly until you succumb and buy the rubbish food for them.

What are the kids up to?

So already your children have started to consume the same diet as you.  They eat the same food you do, they drink the same sodas, juices, breakfast cereals etc. and other junk. They’ve probably started smoking unbeknown to you. They observe your habits, hopefully you’ve now stopped smoking cigarettes.  How about the drinking, have you moderated that.  Whatever paradigms you have, your children will likely have them too and they will pass these paradigms on to their offspring.  (Today, about one in three American kids and teens are overweight or obese). 

The kids are grown

The children have grown up now and they’re having children of their own and before long you’re a grandparent.  How’s your health?  Still eating junk food, smoking and drinking sodas and excess alcohol?  What about exercise,  are you keeping fit?  Can you keep up with your grandkids when they want you to play football, tennis or other physical activities? What about your weight?  A little on the heavy side?

Time flies when you’re having fun!

So here you are at 50.  How are you?  Hopefully you’re one of the lucky ones who, despite mistreating your body continually most of your life,  are still well and feel great.  Unfortunately, this is not the usual outcome.

Perhaps you did amend your habits earlier on when the kids were young.  Hopefully, you have a wholesome healthy diet, use necessary good quality supplements, exercise and take steps to keep your stress levels down. If you did change then probably you are feeling fine.  You’re not on any prescription drugs, your energy levels are high, your blood pressure is normal, you’re not too overweight.   If so, I would like to congratulate you for coming through, despite the odds.

Do you still have those bad habits?

For those who have kept the bad habits until now, there’s a good chance you’re not always feeling well.  You may be in the stage of diabesity.  If you have been thirty pounds or more overweight for a decade or so, then this is the classification you’re in.  It means that you are likely to get type 2 diabetes.  The good news is, you can change this state of affairs by doing all the right stuff.

It’s easy to change your life!

1. Change your diet to good fresh foods, including healthy fats like coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil.
2. Kick the sodas to the kerb and keep away from artificial sweeteners like aspartame.
3. Moderate your drinking habits to no more than 14 units a week.
4. Stop using recreational drugs.
5. Stop smoking.
6. Do regular exercise.
7. Reduce your stress levels.
8. Take a good quality Magnesium (Mg) supplement.
9. Try and get 7 – 8 hours sleep.

Burning the candle at both ends

So what will happen if you keep on the same old track of junk food, no exercise, drinking to excess, smoking, burning the candle at both ends and being under stress much of the time?  As a consequence of having long term nutrional deficiencies, from eating junk food and drinking diet sodas, plus all the other bad choices you’ve made, your body will succumb.

You will be Mg deficient!

Because of these debilitating habits, the first thing you will be is Mg deficient.  You will also have all or some of the symptoms of a Mg deficiency which includes being overweight, having high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high triglycerides and elevated uric acid.  You may suffer heart arrhythmias, angina, digestive problems, headaches and more.  These conditions are most often caused by a poor quality high sugar diet.  Sodas, cakes, pastries, biscuits, artificial sweeteners like aspartame and everything that’s junk with little or no nutrition.  Your body doesn’t want it but it gets it just the same, on a daily basis.  Something’s got to give and it will!

Then you’re diagnosed

Once you’re officially a type 2 diabetic you will have, by default, a plethora of other possible conditions that go with this horrid disease.  Some complications are set out below:

1. Nerve damage which affects the feet mostly.  Symptoms are tingling, numbness, burning sensations and pain.
2. Cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, heart attack and stroke.
3. Kidney disease, including kidney stones.
4. Damage to vessels in the eyes causing loss of vision. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in the US.
5. Diabetic foot ulcers which are vulnerable to infections causing gangrene and often necessary amputation.
6. Severe Mg deficiency.
7. Cognitive dysfunction.

Scary symptom No. 7

All these symptoms are alarming but No. 7 is the symptom that most people are more concerned about because if cognitive dysfunction results in Alzheimer’s or another dementia, it will change your personality and you and your loved ones will lose who you are.  For statistics on Alzheimer’s see http://www.alzheimers.net/resources/alzheimers-statistics/

Nearly 70% of the population of the US are overweight and this means a pre-diabetic state which is, in fact, the early stages of diabesity.  This means you have serious risks of developing disease and shortening your life.  This does not just mean overweight people.  Those who are not overweight, can also be at risk.  These people, despite being a normal weight, carry much of their size around their middle.

The risks

The risks of being in a state of diabesity are: heart disease, stroke, cancer, blindness, kidney disease, hypertension and Alzheimer’s or other dementias.  The research shows evidence from neurocognitive tests which suggests that “cognitive dysfunction should be listed as one of the many complications of diabetes, along with retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy and cardiovascular disease.”¹

3 of the largest studies ever done.

1. The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study of 85,000 women.
2. The Health Professionals Follow-up Study of 43,000 men.
3. The Iowa Women’s Health Study of 40,000 women.

All three studies showed that those people with the highest amounts of Mg intake had the lowest risk for developing diabetes.

Renowned diabetes researcher Dr Jerry Nadler says: “diabetes is a magnesium deficiency state”.  Dr Dennis Goodman MD FACC, a professor in cardiology says: “The rise of type 2 diabetes parallels the rise in magnesium deficiency.”

Dr Joe Mercola states: “Rarely do so many studies from around the world find universal agreement on a subject! The evidence is clear: if you want to optimize your metabolism and keep your risk for type 2 diabetes low, one of the things you need to do is consume adequate magnesium. Unfortunately, this is not the norm, as an estimated 80 percent of Americans are magnesium deficient.”

Please note:

I  want to add that the figures that estimate how many people have a magnesium deficiency are based on those that have had a ‘serum magnesium test’.  This commonly used test is highly inaccurate and will often give a ‘false positive’.  In other words, more people will be Mg deficient than the test will show.

The importance of Mg

Most of the conditions mentioned in this article can develop if you are Mg deficient.  Type 2 diabetes is an insulin resistance. The pancreas releases insulin, the insulin binds to a cell receptor which then stimulates a protein within the cell, allowing glucose to enter the cell membrane.  If the receptors don’t work then insulin builds up as does the glucose which is actually toxic to the body unless taken into the cell.  Mg is required to activate the ‘on/off’ switch which allows insulin receptors to function.

Calcium calcifies 

Our modern foods are low in Mg because of agricultural practices using fertilizers and pesticides which have stripped the soils of basic nutrients.  Foods are fortified with Calcium (Ca) without balancing with Mg, which means many of us, especially women, are overloaded with this ‘star’ mineral. This makes the Mg deficiency even worse because Mg is necessary to control Ca.  Our bodies are being calcified as we grow older because Ca is too abundant and gets laid down in soft tissue.  This is one of the prime causes of atherosclerosis and other calcifications and a precursor to heart disease.  This image shows calacification within the arteries of the heart.  Mg and Ca intake should be in balance with a 1:1 ratio.

Is Alzheimer’s disease “type 3 diabetes”?

Research has indicated that those who have Alzheimer’s disease have brains that show a diabetic state.  This fact is partly due to the resistance or decreased sensitivity to insulin.  There seem to be several parallels within the brains of diabetics and Alzheimer’s sufferers. But this does not give positive proof that someone with diabetes is bound to develop a dementia.²

It doesn’t matter what it’s called

When all’s said and done, it doesn’t really matter what the medical professionals call this condition, Alzheimer’s or type 3 diabetes.   What matters is will you develop these life threatening conditions.  What are you going to do about it.  How will you reduce your risk of becoming a statistic?

Don’t be a couch potato!

Come on, get off the sofa, turn off the telly and go for a walk.  Take the dog out.  Take the grandkids to the park.  Go to the beach and walk along the sand in your bare feet.  Go for a picnic and take some healthy food with you.  Get some exercise and don’t be a couch potato.  There’s more to life than languishing indoors.  Do something positive for you and your family’s health and change all those bad habits to healthy ones, for your sake and for your loved ones.

Magnesium is VITAL!

It will give you energy, it will lighten your mood, it will help stabilize your blood pressure, it will reduce angina and arrhythmias. It will enable transfer of glucose into cells.  You cannot make or secrete insulin without it.  Mg keeps Ca soluble in the bloodstream.  If you already know you have a Ca burden after a Coronary Calcium Scan, take vitamin K₂ along with your Mg.  This will help direct that rogue Ca back into the bones where it belongs.

I welcome comments and I’m interested to hear your input.  Try Mg for yourself, there’s nothing to lose.  Remember this alkaline metal is absolutely vital for your continued health and is completely harmless.  This is NOT a drug, it is a natural nutrient that your body needs as much as you need water!

1. Cognitive Dysfunction and Diabetes Mellitus
   Christopher T. Kodl and Elizabeth R. Seaquist
   Dept of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Minnesota
   Endocr Rev. 2008 Jun; 29(4): 494–511.
   Published online 2008 Apr 24. doi: 10.1210/er.2007-0034
2. Alzheimer’s Disease Is Type 3 Diabetes–Evidence Reviewed
   Suzanne M. de la Monte, M.D., M.P.H. and Jack R. Wands, M.D.
   J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2008 Nov; 2(6): 1101–1113. 

   Published online 2008 Nov.