Type 2 Diabetes-Myths

There are various myths and misunderstandings around the concept of Type-2 Diabetes.‘Diabetes’ means the sugar level in the blood is too high.
What exactly is sugar? The word covers any sweet, simple form of carbohydrate. The sugar in your blood is a particular kind called glucose. Ordinary table sugar is made up of two types of sugar bound together. Half is glucose, and the other half is fructose (a very similar sugar commonly found in fruit). But the kind of sugar does not matter, as your body will convert the fructose to glucose as needed. Glucose is the basic form of sugar that your body uses for energy.

In healthy people, blood glucose levels are very tightly controlled. Overnight, this control happens minute by minute to keep levels constant.
Does this matter? Sugar looks so innocent, sitting there in the sugar bowl, so ubiquitous in our lives today that it may be difficult to imagine that it was once a luxury item, with the supply of honey from monasteries being the only source of added sweetness to food. We have become accustomed to it being added to almost everything. But, yes, it does matter, because if the glucose levels in blood become too high, problems will occur throughout the body. All sugar forms result in high blood glucose levels and can cause similar long-term complications.

As soon as the first mouthful of a meal is swallowed, it is broken down in the stomach and glucose is rapidly released from it into the blood. For instance, from an average plate of rice/beef with vegetables, digestion releases about 30 teaspoonfuls of sugar. To deal with this sudden unleashing of glucose, the body normally responds by rapidly increasing insulin levels. And, if the right amount of insulin is made, blood glucose levels are quickly brought under control. However, if this does not happen, they rise rapidly.

The pancreas – specifically, the beta cells in the pancreas – should provide this insulin, but if they are not working properly or are compromised in some way, they fail to make enough at the right time, and diabetes develops. To make matters worse in type 2 diabetes, the body does not respond well to whatever insulin offers. The insulin levels in the blood may slowly creep up, but even at very high levels the job still can’t be done. And so blood glucose levels rise and rise after meals – and then take hours to decrease.


When blood glucose levels go too high, glucose starts spilling into the urine. And, because glucose draws water along with it, this causes the kidneys to make more urine than usual. In people without diabetes, the kidneys keep all the glucose in the blood and do not waste any of it in urine. Because water is being lost from the body, you will feel thirsty and so find yourself wanting to drink a lot of fluids. This is one of the warning symptoms announcing the presence of your diabetes; however, because the threshold for spilling glucose into the urine varies so much between individuals, other problems may have occurred first. So, that friend or family member who drinks a lot of water is NOT Healthy. Have him get tested for diabetes.

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