~~ Diabetes- Effects On The Heart~~

[Sherri]

A tribute for Valentines Day. I wanted to share this information for the Diabetics and everyone here.

DIABETES

Effects on the Heart

It starts with that central obesity. Your expanding midsection is not due to an increase in the number of fat cells there. No, when you're overweight, the number of cells remain more or less constant, but each cell increases in size. In other words, the fat cells themselves grow fat. When these cells expand, the insulin has trouble attaching to them properly and unlocking them. That's why, if you weigh to much, the sugar and fat levels in your blood stream rise higher than they should. The insulin key takes longer to open the lock.
That in turn brings about several other blood conditions, all of which are further signs of Type-2 diabetes (and even pre-diabetes), signs that can only be seen by a doctor. They're a familiar list you've been paying attention to health news over the past decade. High blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDL, high ratio of total cholesterol to good and relatively unknown, but critical matter of small bad cholesterol particles.
When insulin isn't working properly, it takes longer than it should to store fat you just ate. Because of the delay, your liver is being flooded with fatty acids. In response to that, the organ emits harmful particles that deposit fat and cholesterol in the blood vessels of your heart--future blockages, in other words.
So this, then, is the link between obesity and heart disease. The danger isn't the carbs or the sugars themselves. It is how they affect your body's ability to process fats. Eating too many jelly doughnuts may not cause a heart attack, but it can and does create the conditions that will lead to one. Obesity itself doesn't damage your cardiovascular system. It's the number one sign of an unhealthy blood profile, which will someday almost certainly curtail your good health and maybe your life.
Today, alarmingly, we're seeing Type 2 diabetes in your young adults and even in adolescents. It's not that we're genetically less healthy than previous generations, but our habits are much worse. Gym memberships and home treadmills are staples of middle class life, but the truth is that we perform less physical activity than our parents and grandparents did. Maybe their jobs required more exertion, or they enjoyed fewer labor-saving devices. Perhaps they just walked a lot more than we do.
This lack of exercise extends even to the youngest among us. It's distressing to know the levels of physical playtime children now get. The trends of building schools without schoolyards-which also means no recess-and of cutting physical education in favor of more classroom instruction are disasters in the making. Time spent in front of the T.V., videogames, and computers have not helped.
Probably more harmful than decreasing exercise, however, is how food has changed. As we delegate more and more of our food preparation of fast food restaurants and food manufactures, its quality has deteriorated. Not just in taste but in fibers and nutrient content. In a sense, food manufacturers have begun the digestion process for us. Until quite recently we did not appreciate the processed food were and have contributed to our epidimic of obesity. We endure hunger once, now the plenty we enjoy as a nation translates directly into the load on our dinner plates. The fact that more than half of all resteraunt meals come in the form of fast food has only worsened things. Once, the carbs we ate were less processed than they are today. More of our bread was baked at home or in local bakeries, not factories, and was made with whole grains, not flour that has been overly processed and stripped of fiber. Back then the convenience and speedy preparation weren't the highest ideals food aspired to. We were in less of a rush and home cooking meant starting with fresh ingrediants. Rice has more of it's fiber intact, and had to be cooked slowly. Potatoes weren't sliced and frozen or powdered and bought in a box. Children's after school snacks weren't limited to what could be micro waved. More of what we ate had shelf lives measured in days, not months and sometimes years.
We didn't require large infusions of sugar in every meal, starting with our breakfast cereal and continuing at every feeding through the late-night snack on pretzels made from pure, processed white flour. We didn't spend quite so much of our time amid food courts and chocolate chip cookie stands and convenience store coolers and slurpees and bis gulps and all the rest.
Even the impulse toward healthy eating brought us closer to this unhealthy state. Next time you visit a supermarket, examine the nutritional information on all "low fat" products. Invariably, you'll find that the processed carbs have been added to replace fats or notice how many breads there are labled "vitamin-enriched" or "fortified" which means so much of the natural fiber (which contains the fiber)has been stripped away that some nutrients had to be added back in. It's the nutritional state of the union that's to blame for what is happening internally to many millions of us. Usually serious damage doesn't show up until you're in your fifties or sixties. But in invisible harm is being done decades earlier, setting the stage for the future catastrophe.
But, as far as I am concerned, this is the true goal of any great diet. Looking good on the outside is important, I know, but having, physically fit blood vessels and a healthy blood chemistry as a result makes it that much more important.

Dr. Aurthur Agatston-Cardiologist