Obesity Causes Diabetes / Diabetes Causes Obesity

Although Type I diabetes, previously called juvenile diabetes, is a serious problem of inadequate production of insulin, in this posting we will primarily be speaking about type II which is 90-95% of all diabetes. Whereas most Type I diabetics are not obese, Type II diabetes is frequently associated with obesity. In fact, the curve associated with the increase in frequency of obesity parallels the increase in type II diabetes. That makes perfect sense since patients who suffer from obesity develop resistance to insulin resulting in increasing blood sugar levels. Most people understand that they increase their risk of developing Type II diabetes as they increase their weight and the longer they are heavy the more likely they will develop Type II diabetes.

What is surprising to people is that the reverse is also true; the treatment of Type II diabetes causes obesity. When your blood sugar is high we try to lower the blood sugar by taking diabetic pills or insulin to lower the blood sugar. However, the glucose does not just disappear. Many of the medicines drive the glucose into the cells of the diabetic so the glucose can be used for fuel. Unfortunately, many medicines including Insulin, Glyburide, Glucotrol, Amaryl, Pranlin as well as Starlix, Actose and Avandia drive glucose into fat cells increasing the amount of calories stored as fat. As a result the person becomes heavier. This in turn causes more insulin resistance requiring more diabetic medicine to keep the blood glucose down! How frustrating is that; obesity causes type II diabetes and type II diabetes make the obesity worse.