Have you ever wondered ...

what under weight babies in India and paunchy middle aged men in Western society have in common? Can't say that most people have given it lot of thought.

The answer is a predisposition to diabetes.

A malnourished foetus grows tissue for central fat storage at the expense of muscle and less vital peripheral fat storage. When they are born and they catch up in total weight to other children, a greater proportion of fat continues to be deposited centrally.

And what of the expectant MAMs (middle aged males who look as though they ought to be calculating a due date.), what of them? Well their problems are similar. Men tend to deposit fat centrally. Women tend to deposit it peripherally. There is good and bad news with this. Weight losses is generally easier for men.

The bad news is that central fat deposits can cause T2 diabetes and T2 diabetes can cause pot belly syndrome. Its a chicken and egg situation. Elevated blood glucose enters the liver in an uncontrolled fashion and is converted to fats and bad cholesterol. There is a blood test called HBAc1 that finds out whether blood sugars are fluctuating wildly.

The average length of time before an adult onset diabetic's condition is discovered is 6 to 8 years. This means 50% of diabetics in a community are undiagnosed and untreated. They will carry on till they get grand dad's driving disease. You know the slow drivers who drive near the centre of the road because the untreated diabetes has caused macular degeneration of the central eye and taken away their fine detail vision for ever.

Thanks goodness we are not under weight babies born in impoverished parts of India.
At least we have much, much control over our destiny.

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