Every year the Center
for Disease Control (CDC) analyzes data from the national population on our
overall health. As you can see from the trend sheet below Americans are
failing, and in a big way.
I know what you're thinking: alright, just because we are an overweight and obese country, so what? Why do we have to stop eating our saturated-fat packed, greasy, elephant-sized burgers? Well, take a look at another trend sheet from the CDC and you might be surprised.
This map portrays the same trending data from the American public, only it is following Type II Diabetes instead of Obesity. Does it look pretty familiar? To me, it seems there is a direct positive relationship between the obesity trends in the first maps and the diabetes trends in the second map. Type II Diabetes has been a proven complication from having excess body weight resulting in overweight or obesity. But again, you may be thinking: so what?? Why is this an issue?
As it has been bore into all of our brains over and over again, Type II Diabetes can aid in the prevalence of comorbidities such as kidney stones, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and even death. But how does a disease such as Diabetes lead to all of these terrible chronic disease states?
Well, lets first review Type II Diabetes. Check out my blog post from April 2012, titled Down And Dirty With Diabetes:
Now that you have a refresher on the physiology behind Type II Diabetes, lets think about how this can affect some of our most important organs and organ systems. All this extra glucose running though our arteries, veins, and capillaries can cause strain on them. Think about a garden hose. The hose can only stretch so much, but if you increase the amount of particles (water) running through that hose, it has to try and stretch more and more to accommodate that extra "stuff". The pressure increases and there will be strain on every twist and turn of the hose. That is the same thing that happens in our body. The increase in glucose is just an increase in the amount of "stuff" our arteries, veins, and capillaries have to push through our body. As that amount goes up, the pressure through the blood vessels will go up, hence one is diagnosed with hypertension, or high blood pressure.
When you think about a glucose molecule in our bloodstream, what do you picture? A nice round ball rolling through a tube? Wrong! Glucose molecules are rough and bumpy. These rough, bumpy edges can easily damage the vessel walls, causing cuts and abrasions. When a cut is formed from a glucose molecule, the body responds normally: by clotting and patching up that cut. But what is the problem with that in a blood vessel? Well, a blood vessel is only so big in diameter. If the clotting mechanism is too large, the vessel may become clogged or blocked by the clot. Or the clot may break off and travel through the body and cause a clog or block a vessel in a different part of the body. This can cause kidney stones, a heart attack, or stroke.
Now, a little background about one of the most amazing organs in our bodies: the kidneys. I personally, am fascinated by these amazing little filtering systems. Our kidneys are only as big as a fist, but they have hundreds of tiny filtering systems in each one called nephrons. Surrounding each nephron is hundreds of capillaries, all filtering out the toxins from our bloodstream to make urine. Think about how tiny these capillaries would have to be to fit around hundreds of nephrons making up the size of one of your fists. Without this amazing filtering system, you will die. In an individual with diabetes, the elevated glucose levels in the bloodstream filter into the tiny capillary beds around the nephrons of the kidney as well, and most of these capillaries are only wide enough in diameter to accommodate one molecule going through at one time. Added particles, such as glucose, can add so much strain on the capillary, it can burst. These bursting capillaries will cause the nephrons to shut down and eventually cause the kidney to fail. It is the beginning of Chronic Renal Failure, which leads to Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Once you have been diagnosed with CKD, you will need to begin dialysis and wait for a kidney transplant. There is no recovery unless a transplant has been given to you, and your body accepts it. 
Scary stuff, isn't it? Now, hopefully, you understand why the first statistic I stated in this post is so scary to me. Maybe this week you can try to eat a bit healthier. Or go for a walk after dinner each night. It doesn't take much, but it could save your life. And thousands of dollars in health care costs. Its your choice and you life. Is it worth it to you?
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