The reality of T2DM. A personal perspective

[ButtterflyLady]

That is easilty explained. People who are obese but not insulin resistant have a favourable fat disposition. The fat is tucked away at non dangerous places, compared to people with type 2 diabetes genetics, they get their fat stored at poor places,liver pancreas and organs.

This is a swedish youtube video about a swedish company specializing in scanning people for where their fat is located.

If you stop at 1:05 in the video, you will see an example where they compare a pair of female monozygotic twins.

Women 1. has a weight of 94kg a bmi of 34 and a waist of 103cm.

Women 2. has a weight of 109 kg a bmi of 39 and a waist size of 112cm.

The strange thing is this, the first women which seemingly have the better markers,has a liverfat percentage of 5.2 %, But the second women has a liverfat of 1.8 %.

So genetics but also lifestyle matters.

People who smoke get more viscerfal fat than others, and it is probably something to do with toxins in cigarettes,and activity also matters.

Do you know if visceral fat is still affected after the person stops smoking?

 

[Roytaylorjasonfunglover]

Do you know if visceral fat is still affected after the person stops smoking?

When you lose weight, visceral fat is the first to go,not the nice non-dangerous fat. If you stop smoking I think it would help, and you will probably have less visceral fat.

 

[Erin85]

I have very little knowledge of how the body stores fat and the resultant insulin activity, but think this is a very interesting topic. Thanks for the theory, and for the videos - I'll be watching them over the next few days and will share with my partner. I'm t1 and his pancreas is just bloody perfect (I've tested it lol), but we both like to theorise about t1 and t2...might be back in a weeks time with another post x x

 

[waleed]

Pioneering scientists are throwing away the old modality of treating T2DM and conquering new Lands. They compiled many data revolving around visceral fat being the root cause of the condition, but they have not yet put in place all the pieces of the puzzle.
I am a 55 years old engineer, and have been type 2 diabetic for 17 years. For a good reason I became opssessd with my sickness. This is in brief due to the death of my first wife 7 years ago from breast cancer and my quick remarriage to a younger woman. and for having two wonderful kids soon after. This all made me want to renew my youth again and enjoy the blessings destiny has generously endowed me after the agony that I went through. I consider myself the most motivated person on Earth to want to eradicate his T2DM. And If any is feeling curious, Yes, improving my sexual performance is the biggest reason.
I may continue this personal story, but who cares. Let me tell you what I think diabetes really is.
To describe it better I have to remind you of the presence of a starvation mode. This describes the state through which the body acts when deprived from carbs for a long time. The body literally adapts in one step after the other and tries to allocate energy resources to the organ that needs it the most. But virtually the body will take a beating and suffer from protein deficiency before further complications and death. Most scientists agree on the existence of this starvation mode.
But when people gain weight, no one defines this stage as a storage mode. If the human body can identify a starvation period and take necessary measures, why is it so difficult to assume that when it detects the beginning of a food abundance period it will again take necessary measures to store the anticipated surplus energy!!!
So. A person just swallowed a high quantity of carbs and fat. and the pancreas reacted with a large spike of insulin, loud enough to send the extra fat in the meal to the visceral stores. This starts a signal to the body to physiologically embrace itself for the abundance period and that it's time to start saving energy. So it resorts to the only way it knows how to keep the fat over there without releasing it later between meals.
It elevates its basal insulin levels. And instantaneously instructs the muscles to lower their sensitivity to insulin to avoid hypoglycaemia.
This is the first time in history that it is suggested that IR develops for a good reason. And that IR is not the culprit behind elevated insulin levels.
The rest of the story is very simple. The elevated insulin level makes it even easier to store more fat from the next meal and so on, expecting that in few months this abundance period will come to an end and that a starvation period will ensue just as it has evolved to experience for thousands of years.
However, this is not what happens in our modern days of excessive eating. The storage mode never halts, and the visceral stores become full, meaning that fat will be deposited forcibly in extremely wrong places. The body orders the pancreas to reduce its secretion of insulin, which albeit remains relatively high. And while insulin levels subsides gradually, a point will come when it can no longer serve the muscles' requirements of glucose.
This is not a medical advice. Please consult with your Doctor to manage your diabetes.

A slight modification to my theory:
It makes more sense that the human body when in storage mode and wanting to keep the stored fat is to raise its insulin levels by inducing IR first in the muscles cells. This should be the simplest way to inviting the pancreas to raise its production of insulin.
The body is known to know how to do this in two examples. One when in ketosis, the body does what is called physiological IR to save the glucose for the brain, and the other case when in fight or flight mode when again IR is increased in response to adrenaline secretion.

 

[waleed]

When you lose weight, visceral fat is the first to go,not the nice non-dangerous fat. If you stop smoking I think it would help, and you will probably have less visceral fat.

While it is true that visceral fat is the first to go in non diabetic people, it is actually the opposite in highly insulin resistant people where visceral fat becomes so stubborn it may never go without extreme methods.

 

[Roytaylorjasonfunglover]

While it is true that visceral fat is the first to go in non diabetic people, it is actually the opposite in highly insulin resistant people where visceral fat becomes so stubborn it may never go without extreme methods.

Do you have a reference to that? I have always understood as you loose weight, the visceral fat goes away first. That is for instance why bariatric surgery patients get cured, even though they have lots of excess weight left. If they lose 4 kg of visceral fat, it is gonna do miracles for their health, than it does not matter that they have lots of subcataneous fat left.

 

[waleed]

Do you have a reference to that? I have always understood as you loose weight, the visceral fat goes away first. That is for instance why bariatric surgery patients get cured, even though they have lots of excess weight left. If they lose 4 kg of visceral fat, it is gonna do miracles for their health, than it does not matter that they have lots of subcataneous fat left.

It is not understood yet why bariatric surgery patients cure from T2DM even before weight is lost. It is thought that some signalling pathway gets interrupted by the procedure.
If you surf the net for visceral fat either the first to go" or the last to go. You will find equal number of posts claiming both. And in fact both are true. The fact that it is the last to go in IR patients stands for the reason why it is so difficult to combat.

 

[graj0]

That is for instance why bariatric surgery patients get cured

I was advised to have Bariatric Surgery (Gastric Band) but declined the opportunity because after attending several support group meetings I realised it was easier to reduce calories more than I had done already. I also discovered that they were liquidising chocolate and ice cream to get their calorie intake up to 1200 calories per day. As a diabetic I certainly don't do ice cream or chocolate. I have met the dietitian from the hospital's Bariatric team since then and pleased to say that they don't do that any more.

The other thing is that I think it's only those who have bypass surgery that seem to be cured of type II and they're still not 100% sure as to why or how it works. That's not to say they haven't a clue, just that they're not 100% sure.