Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group vitamin D

another way to get more D:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stame...=healthy-living

i already knew some about mushrooms and D.
give a whole new meaning to the words "magic mushrooms"!

Sue, did your doctor ever mention what he thinks causes diabetes or insulin resistance?

hi violeta,

it runs in my family, simple as that. its genetic.

over time our cells become less and less receptive to insulin. the more sugar and complex carbs (anything with glucose or other simple sugars in it) we ingest, the more insulin that is produced. the more insulin, the more the cells become resistant over time. its a slow process. i had always known to watch my weight, exercise, and keep sugar low. but didn't know about the complex carbs until i started having real problems.

there are things that help:

weight loss / maintenance

low carbs (low sugar, low complex carbs, with beans being the exception. beans are digested so slowly (in the large intestine) that they are actually good for blood sugar)

supplements perhaps, like alpha lipoid acid, fish oil, vitamins C, E, D, maybe cinnamon, maybe chromium, etc

exercise. exercise allows the cells to respond to insulin better thus allowing them to accept glucose better. technically a diabetic or prediabetic should take a walk after every meal.

blood sugar 101 is a great website for all of this:

http://bloodsugar101.com/

i've been dealing with prediabetes for over 10 years now, with no diabetes yet. most people in my family developed diabetes by age 40, in the past. but we know a lot more about diet, exercise, diabetes control than we did in the past.

why some people are genetically predisposed to their cells becoming resistant to insulin whereas others are not is an interesting question.

here's some more info:

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/prediabetesanddiabetes/a/insulinresistan.htm

http://www.chiropracticsportscare.com/ch...r-than-low-fat/

from what i'm reading, i think i've always been somewhat insulin resistant. or at least from the time i was a child, i can remember sugar and me not getting along very well. it would make me tired. it would make me headachy. i could only eat sweets after a meal and then only a small amount. likewise, a lot of complex carbs (say pasta for lunch) would put me to sleep, but in moderation, could handle complex carbs better. but as time marches on, more and more of a problem. and weight was never a problem, til i hit my late 30s, it only gets worse every year. and the liver only started showing signs of distress last year with elevated enzymes and fat showing up on the ultrasound. they never reported on that on the ultrasound before last year. but all we can do is keep doing our best......

nice work with the weight loss so far. insulin resistance is definitely a crucially important factor in type 2 diabetes and something worth targeting through diet and lifestyle. the role of beta cell dysfunction also appears to be very important.

"because of the feedback between plasma glucose concentration (the major stimulus for insulin release) and beta cell insulin secretion, it is virtually impossible to develop diabetes due to the severity of insulin resistance found in most type 2 diabetic patients unless the capacity to secrete additional amounts of insulin to compensate for the insulin resistance is impaired."
The Genetic Basis of Type 2 Diabetes Mel...lin Sensitivity

there have been some interesting studies done on very low calorie diets for diabetics inspired by the 84% of diabetic patients experiencing complete remission after gastric bypass surgery, often before significant weight reduction.

"The marked improvement in metabolic profile, observed in severely obese patients with type 2 diabetes after a 7 day VLCD, was primarily due to the amelioration of beta cell function, whereas no contribution of insulin sensitivity was shown." - http://www.ajcn.org/content/early/2012/02/07/ajcn.111.023697.short

Another study found that liver fat was reduced in just 1 week - "In the first 7 days of the reduced energy intake, fasting blood glucose and hepatic insulin sensitivity fell to normal, and intrahepatic lipid decreased by 30%. - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21656330

Sue..Look up the role of Vitamin K in particular K2 MK4 in a protective role of keeping calcium out of the arteries

I am not a huge mercola fan but this is a pretty good write up

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articl...ns-d-and-k.aspx

drizzit, thanks for that. molly has mentioned vit K quite a bit. its the one thing i haven't thought much about. maybe its time to.

thank you for those.

last night after posting here, i did more reading.

realized that my saying that my problem is insulin resistance might not be completely true. came to the conclusion that it could be decreased beta cell function. or more realistically, a combination of both.

i had been under the impression that insulin resistance could be turned around.

but didn't realize beta cell function could be as well. that's encouraging.

and i knew about those gastric bypass observations. how people's diabetes turned around before the weight loss. but the last time i read, they hadn't known why. now i see they can tell why. interesting.

maybe if i went on a liquid diet on the weekends. cut way back. i get headaches when i don't eat enough. so would have to be a day when i haven't nothing to do.

well, either way, now even more determined to limit my calories.

thanks again!

yep, probably a combination. apparently there are tests that can distinguish between insulin resistance issues and insulin secretion issues. it gets even more confusing when they start to distinguish between different types of insulin resistance -

"Although impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) are intermediate states between normal glucose tolerance and overt type 2 diabetes, they represent distinct states of glucose intolerance, which are characterized by different pathophysiologic mechanisms. Both IGT and IFG are insulin-resistant states, but they differ in site of insulin resistance. Subjects with IFG predominantly have hepatic insulin resistance and normal muscle insulin sensitivity, while individuals with IGT have normal to slightly reduced hepatic insulin sensitivity and moderate to severe muscle insulin resistance. Subjects with chronic glucose intolerance manifest both forms of insulin resistance in severe form."
- Contributions of B-Cell Dysfunction and ...Fasting Glucose

i find it confusing how hepatic insulin resistance refers to the reduced ability of insulin to decrease liver glucose output whereas in muscle it refers to the reduced ability of insulin to increase glucose uptake. i wasn't aware that hepatic insulin resistance was the main factor in fasting hyperglycaemia as these authors claim -

"Experimental observations in people with newly diagnosed diabetes or in insulin withdrawn patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes have shown that there is a strongly positive relationship between the fasting blood glucose concentration and the rate of hepatic glucose production...it is the extent of the hepatic overproduction of glucose (Ra) that sets the degree of fasting hyperglycaemia; the higher the fasting hyperglycaemia, the higher Ra and the more severe the diabetes...The use of tracer glucose infusions has shown not only that hyperglycaemia in the face of insulin deficiency is the result of over production of glucose by the liver but also that insulin infusion lowers blood glucose by inhibiting hepatic glucose production. Indeed, rather than stimulating glucose uptake in tissues such as muscle, insulin in fact reduces glucose uptake. This is because the main factor driving glucose uptake is the ‘mass action’ effect of hyperglycaemia and the concentration gradient between the extracellular and intracellular glucose concentrations. Glucose transporters are not rate limiting under these conditions, even in the face of severe insulin deficiency."
- Insulin: understanding its actions in health and disease

trying to understand the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes makes my brain hurt . definitely encouraging though that both the insulin resistance and beta cell dysfunction seem to be quite responsive to diet. good luck with it.

thanks for all the interesting articles.

learning so much more.

yeh, i was thinking much too simplistically about it before. simply insulin resistance by muscle cells.

and also understanding: excess glucose (because body can't utilize it properly) leading to excess triglycerides leading to fatty liver.

and knew in diabetes about loss of beta cell function.

but hadn't realized could have impaired insulin secretion prior to clinical diabetes. and didn't know about this insulin resistance of muscle cells vs liver.

lots more reading to do.......

and i do agree with your one statement very strongly........

understanding diabetes, both 1 and 2, and the metabolism on the road to type 2, gives me a headache as well! its all very complex to me, and i teach metabolism too!

I don't know how you guys take your magnesium but I take it in the morning and at night but I take them an hour after I take the rest of my meds. Milk of Magnesia is what I take and boy is it a great laxative. That is why I leave some room. I want the rest of the meds to absorb before I hit the gut with the Magnesium.