Sweet ... but deadly

Natalie Hilton, a physical education teacher at Bahrain's St Christopher's School, has joined the GulfWeekly team with a mission to help our readers get fitter. As well as holding a physical education degree she has written a thesis about body image and was co-founder and co-editor of a university newsletter. The 36-year-old has also written health and fitness columns for Australian newspapers. Diabetes is a top ten cause of death in developed nations and is on the increase.

In Bahrain, it is a leading cause of serious health complications and can lead to death. The recipe for the disease is simple (despite the disease itself being very complex) - just add fat, sugar and let sit for a few years.

Diabetes is one of the oldest diseases known to man. It was described in India in 400BC and in between 500 and 400BC in Egypt.

The term 'diabetes' stems from the word 'mellitus', meaning 'honey'. When one thinks of diabetes, the misconception that always comes to mind is its link with consuming too much soft drink, sweets, honey and other sugary delights.

This over-simplified "cause and effect" idea is can be dangerous.

One does not get diabetes from eating sugary foods, although having a diet where the majority of your calories come from simple carbohydrates and/or sugar is a big factor. Diabetes can be the difference between having your cake, or being able to have your cake and eat it too!

Diabetes is a serious metabolic disorder characterised by having insufficient insulin secretion. Insulin is a hormone that transports glucose or glycogen into energy-giving cells in the body. Think of insulin as a taxi - food (turned into glucose) as a passenger and the working cells as the welcome destination.

When you have diabetes, the taxi just won't start up or you are not allowed anymore to go to your destination!

There are two types of diabetes. Type One means you were born with poor insulin production and/or activity. Type Two is late onset.

No one is immune to Type Two diabetes. If you are born with normal insulin production and secretion but do not maintain a healthy weight or body fat percentage, then you have a good chance of developing it later.

If your parents or grandparents have suffered from diabetes, then your risk increases further.

If you are over the age of 40, the news gets even worse, I'm afraid.

Basically, if you are middle age and overweight the deterioration of your body and excess fat cause damage to the receptors on the membrane (outside shell) of the cells that allow insulin to get in.

If the body's cells are not receiving its precious passenger in the form of glucose, it will accumulate in the blood.

It is then that the danger starts.

One of the first symptoms of diabetes is extreme fatigue. No insulin means no energy because cells are not able to utilise glucose for movement and growth.

Additionally, the blood-sugar level in the blood rises and "spills" into the kidneys because the body senses a need to rid itself of excess glucose.

Muscle weakness often accompany the fatigue.

The kidneys are working so hard to excrete the body of waste, urination becomes frequent and so thirst increases.

Due to tiredness, the body induces hunger as a means to gain more energy, so the patient may want to keep eating while risking an even more pronounced spike in blood sugar.

Free fatty acids in the blood also are released from their stores all over the body as a means of more fuel.

This is dangerous as fatty deposits can settle in arteries or cause blood blockages to the heart and brain.

It also presents itself as a sign in the patient as weight loss.

Hold on a minute! Weight loss is a good thing, right? Wrong. No change now in body fat or shrinking muscles can magically make insulin do what it is supposed to do.

Also, the patient is at real risk of malnutrition.

Other symptoms and complications from diabetes include this ugly list:-

Kidney failure; Blindness; Liver disease; Skin abscesses, ulcers and other infections; Hardening of the arteries; Heart disease; Nerve damage; Coma; Death.

Both types of diabetes can be managed. One way is to physically inject insulin on a daily basis to stabilise blood sugar, along with careful monitoring of blood-sugar levels. There is no reason these people cannot go on to live normal active lives, since the discovery of this miracle method was discovered about 80 years ago.

Type Two diabetes should be prevented rather than cured, but the good news is that if you are a sufferer, the cornerstone in management is a lot less complicated than having to use needles and hormones.

Eat healthy and stay active.

Yes, it really is as easy as that.

Now this is the part where I'm supposed to explain to you all how to do that.

Simply, eat wholesome, low-fat, low-sugar foods.

If you are ready, willing and able, you should be doing cardiovascular exercise on most days of the week and resistance training three times a week.

Talk to a caring and qualified fitness instructor for a personalised fitness programme.

If you have any of the symptoms of diabetes, or are over 40 and overweight, you should see a doctor for a simple blood-sugar test.

A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, sang Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.

The trouble is, not many of us stop at just one spoonful.

Stop now! Think! Nourish your body.

Good luck everyone!