We know that Diabetes is a silent killer, being able to inflict damage because we’re looking somewhere else. We thought we were okay by avoiding sweets. We thought we were okay because no one in the family had it. We thought we were okay because we were negative for urine sugar. We thought we were okay because our wounds healed easily. We now know why it’s a silent killer. But we don’t know how.

Diabetes is a serial killer. But it is a SILENT serial killer because it stays behind the scenes. It doesn’t directly participate in the murder of its not-so-innocent victims. It has many guns-for-hire under its payroll. It is the MASTERMIND. Some of its crimes remain unsolved, pointing only to the one who pulled the trigger but not the one who paid the triggerman.

Let us go into a forensic analysis of how the Mastermind works, what his weapons are, and how we can detect his presence even before we can see him.

1. Stroke

I have mentioned that in Diabetics, cholesterol rises years before the blood sugar goes up. Since diabetics lose the capacity to utilize sugar, tissue fat is mobilized as alternative fuel. So fat in the tissues will have to travel via the arteries. The blood carries too much fat, much of which will be imbibed into the arterial walls. By the time the rising blood sugar is uncovered, the tightened cerebral arteries have already choked off the blood that carries oxygen to the brain. And since the brain cannot last more than 6 minutes without oxygen, the area deprived of it dies. If the patient lives, he is found to have Diabetes. But if he dies, he is diagnosed as a stroke, and the diagnosis of Diabetes dies with him. The triggerman is convicted, with the mastermind scot-free.

2. Heart Attack

In the same process it takes for the cerebral arteries to harden and narrow, the blood supply to the heart declines, giving the patient shortness of breathing and easy fatigability. If the patient seeks medical attention, his Diabetes would be uncovered and treated accordingly. But if the blockage is abrupt, the heart stops beating. Blood will stop going to the brain. And the patient will die of a heart attack. The triggerman is convicted, with the mastermind scot-free.

3. Retinopathy

While the brain and heart suffer because of blockage of the large vessels supplying blood, the small arteries bringing needed oxygen to the eye can more easily get clogged. Those with white collared jobs that require frequent reading and writing easily notice the blurring of vision, but put off a visit to the ophthalmologist thinking that glasses would be a burden to their work. But those who have no use of reading skills, or have not even learned to do so, may not even notice the change until they are no longer able to find their way around the house. It is not, however, the lens of the eye that gets damaged in diabetes, but the retina which is the inside of the eyeball that catches the image thrown by the lens. With retinopathy, it would be like focusing a projector onto a cobblestone wall instead of a white screen. Trying to change the focus with corrective lenses would do nothing to improve the image on the cobblestone. Again the triggerman is convicted, with the mastermind scot-free.

4. Kidney Failure

In my 20 years of medical practice, I might have heard this statement more than twenty thousand times. And as if the misconception of “kidney” being an illness was not enough, those claiming to have “kidney” associate it with urine dribbling. So, patients having this problem are unconcerned, thinking they do not have kidney problems. If the bladder is uninvolved, patients do not complain of dribbling. So the damage that diabetes inflicts on the kidney is so subtle that you don’t feel a thing until you start to bloat because the kidney is no longer able to excrete your excess body water. (The low back pain present in kidney infections is absent in Diabetic Nephropathy.) At this point, your only recourse would either be dialysis or a kidney transplant. The triggerman is convicted, with the mastermind scot-free.

There are subtle and not-so-subtle clues that point to Diabetes as the mastermind. If only we would care to notice before the triggermen do their job.

1) Frequent urination.

-sugar in the urine attracts more water into the kidneys

2) Excessive thirst.

-due to frequent urination

3) Big, big appetite.

-hunger because of under-utilization of sugar in the blood

4) Weight loss.

-due to fat mobilization

5) Tingling sensation or numbness over extremities.

-decreased circulation and nerve swelling

These clues can spell the difference between catching the triggerman or catching the mastermind. Between alleviating the symptoms, or treating the cause.

• Controlling Diabetes With Lifestyle Changes
• Diabetic Mellitus - Acute Complications - Diabetic Ketosis - DKA
• What is the Best Diet For a Type 2 Diabetic? How to Lose Weight and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
• What is the Function of the Pancreas and How it Affects Diabetes

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.