Type 2 diabetes is increasingly one of the most common chronic diseases nationally and locally, threatening early disability and death from heart attacks, strokes, blindness and kidney failure.
In Aroostook County, almost 15 percent of adults have diagnosed diabetes, compared to the state and national average of around 9.5 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Across the country, it’s estimated that more than 25 percent of adults 65 and older have diabetes. Youth risk for type 2 diabetes has exploded in tandem with obesity and diets heavy in processed food, although the true rate of youth incidence is unknown and much of it may be undiagnosed.
Diabetes is a disease of insulin resistance leading to high blood sugar that can be subtle and silent. People can go years not realizing it, but over time, that high blood sugar causes cardiovascular inflammation, which can bring heart attacks, strokes or kidney failure. About 75 percent of people with diabetes will die of heart disease or strokes, and they’re likely to die at a younger age than people who do not have diabetes.
While there is a litany of old and new drugs available for diabetes, none of them are actually cures and some bring significant side effects — everything from diarrhea to low blood sugar to costs of as much as $200 per month. Healthy activity and eating remain as the tried-and-true solution, said Mary Coffin, a community nurse practitioner with The Aroostook Medical Center, during the hospital’s recent healthy aging luncheon.
To reduce insulin resistance, “the easiest way and most effective way is exercise,” Coffin said. “It’s more effective than any medication I can give you. You can do some kind of exercise for 30 minutes five days a week and you will decrease that insulin resistance.”
Type 2 diabetes can be caused by years of poor nutrition, obesity, genetics, lack of exercise and a combination of factors, but no matter the cause there is insulin resistance.
“Your body wants sugar to burn. Every cell needs sugar to burn to stay alive. That sugar runs around your blood. It needs insulin to enter the cell.”
When insulin is working correctly that sugar is being used by cells on a regular basis and being burned up. With type 2 diabetes, “Your body makes insulin and makes large amounts of it, but it does not work the way it used to,” Coffin said. That leaves high blood sugar circulating throughout the body and damaging blood vessels over time.
People with long-term diabetes can experience symptoms that overlap with heart attacks and strokes, Coffin said. Some of these symptoms may be caused by medications leading to excessively low blood sugar.
