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Physiological Effect of Sugar on Type 2 Diabetes

When not treated properly, sugar can have a devastating effect on people with type 2 diabetes, but alternatively, a lack of sugar can be just as damaging.

  1. Identification

    • The most important issue with sugar and type 2 diabetes is identifying the problem. Diabetics should know blurred vision, fatigue, dizziness, thirst and excessive urination are all associated symptoms of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) and nausea, hunger, irritability, irrational anger, and shaking or weakness are indications of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Though doctors should set individual values, a good target blood sugar for a diabetic is between 80 and 120.

    Effects

    • When sugar hits the blood stream of a type 2 diabetic, the body strains to produce enough insulin, but can't come up with enough to process the glucose (sugar in the blood stream). High blood sugar can be physically uncomfortable (with dizziness, fatigue and blurred vision), but more importantly it upsets the balance in the body; when blood sugar is high, it's very hard for the body to fight off infection or circulate blood properly.

    Prevention/Solution

    • As a type 2 diabetic, you must prepare your body for sugar. This can be done in several ways; exercise can increase your insulin sensitivity (the effectiveness of the small amount of insulin in your blood), medications can both stimulate insulin output and increase insulin sensitivity and insulin medication can replace the insufficient insulin in the blood stream.

    Misconceptions

    • Many people assume that excess weight is the main cause of type 2 diabetes, and while weight can trigger insulin to be less effective in the blood stream, type 2 diabetes is primarily caused by genetic inheritance.

    Fun Fact

    • Little about diabetes may seem fun, diabetes is actually Latin for "sweet urine," a name derived from the original method of diagnosis: doctors would drink the urine of patients (where excess sugar is dumped from the body) and if it were sweet, they would know the cause was diabetes.

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