With diabetes, you’re never too young to die

I’ve got to tell you, this latest diabetes study really blew my socks off. And needless to say, that’s not so easy to do…

After all, it’s part of my job to be (and remain) extremely familiar with the very worst consequences of this slow, insidious disease. Blindness, amputation, heart disease, impotence… the list is as long as it is terrifying. And while it may take years to do it, don’t kid yourself into thinking it won’t kill you.

Because guess what? It can, and it will. Even if you’re young. Which brings me back to this study I’m having such a hard time wrapping my head around…

Researchers analyzed data from a group of more than 14,000 Danish subjects between the ages of one and 49 years old, all whom had died over the course of a decade. And as it turns out, diabetics accounted for a disproportionate number of these deaths — both sudden cardiac deaths and deaths from any cause.

Now, we’ve always known that diabetes increases all kinds of disease risks. So, its role in premature death isn’t surprising by itself. What’s surprising, though, is just how seriously we’ve underestimated the impact of this disease among its youngest patients — at least according to this study’s findings.

Roughly five percent of the study’s deceased patients had diabetes — most were type 1 diabetics (70 percent, to be exact), while 30 percent were type 2 diabetics.

Researchers also found that more of the deceased diabetics had heart disease — 20 percent, as compared to just 7 percent of non-diabetics. Ultimately, there were 35 sudden heart deaths among the diabetics. Of those, an irregular heartbeat was most often attributed to sudden heart death in the patients under 35. In the over 35 group, a swift majority died from coronary artery disease.

That’s compared to just five sudden heart deaths among non-diabetics. In other words, we’re looking at a seven-fold increase in risk of sudden heart death among diabetics. But these young diabetics also died at a rate that was nearly five times higher than their non-diabetic counterparts, regardless of the cause.

It’s not hard to see the bottom line here. Diabetes kills — and it doesn’t care how old you are. It will take you down just the same.

This message is especially important for type 2 diabetics to hear. Because ultimately, you can stop, and even reverse, the damage. But not if you don’t know you have it in the first place — and ultimately, rates of undiagnosed diabetes remain sky high.

High blood sugar can silently destroy your body for years before the most serious complications set in. So it’s no wonder so many people discover their diabetes too late. That’s at least one of the reasons we’re in the midst of an epidemic in the first place. (Well, that and the dietary deception perpetuated by Big Agribusiness with the help of our very own government—but I’ll save that rant for another day…)

So I’ll leave you with this urgent piece of advice: Get tested for diabetes early — and keep getting tested routinely, especially if you have a history of diabetes within your family. And remember that fasting blood sugar levels can only tell you so much.

You’ll also need to know your HbA1C (also known as the A1C or hemoglobin A1C test) — a measure of your blood sugar control over a longer period of time. This is a routine test you can ask your primary care physician for.

Generally, an HbA1C under 5 is healthy. A result between 5 and 6 indicates prediabetes. And anything above 6 is considered diabetes. The sooner you know what your number is, the better.

For more drug-free strategies to prevent and reverse type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and metabolic syndrome, refer to my Metabolic Repair Protocol. You can learn more about this online learning tool, or enroll today, by simply clicking here.

 

 

Source:

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/888639