Atkins Diabetes Revolution Read Online Free Page A

first. In fact, many cases of diabetes are diagnosed only because the person went to the doctor for another ailment. Long before you might notice any symptoms of diabetes, your body may already be having trouble regulating your insulin and blood sugar levels.
    UNDERSTANDING BLOOD SUGAR
    We’ve already used the terms blood glucose and blood sugar a lot, and we’re going to use them a lot more in this book. Let’s take a closer look at glucose and how your body puts it to use. Glucose is a simple form of sugar that is one of your body’s primary fuels for energy; glucose is derived primarily from carbohydrates. (Fat is your body’s backup energy source.) Blood glucose,then,is the amount of sugar that’s in your bloodstream at any given time. That amount can vary quite a bit over the course of the day—it’s generally higher shortly after you eat something and lower between meals. Under normal circumstances, your body can also manufacture glucose from dietary protein so that your blood sugar level can be maintained.
    Although the words blood glucose and blood sugar are often used interchangeably, glucose and sugar aren’t exactly the same thing. But because blood glucose and blood sugar are so commonly used to describe the same thing—the amount of glucose in your bloodstream—we’ll use the two terms interchangeably as well.
    If your blood sugar mechanism is functioning normally and you eat a high-carbohydrate food such as a bowl of spaghetti, your body starts to break the starchy pasta down into glucose the moment it enters your mouth. (You can prove this to yourself by chewing a strand of plain cooked spaghetti and holding it in your mouth.As enzymes in your saliva start to break down the carbohydrate,you’ll notice a faintly sweet taste.) The carbohydrate continues to be broken down further in your digestive system, but some glucose enters your bloodstream almost immediately.
    HOW IT SHOULD BE
    As your blood sugar begins to rise, the pancreas releases enough insulin to handle it.The body likes to keep its glucose level within a fairly narrow range, so it quickly releases insulin to carry the glucose into your cells, where it can be converted into energy. If there’s more glucose than the cells can handle, the body can store the extra amount as glycogen in the liver and muscle cells for future energy needs.Once the glycogen storage areas are full, any glucose remaining is then stored as body fat.
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    Normally,after you eat a meal that contains protein,fat,and carbohydrates, you would expect that the glucose and insulin in your blood would first go up steadily within the proper range and then slowly go down again over the next several hours, without wide swings, which cause stress hormone release.
    That’s how it should function. However, if you’re at risk for diabetes, your blood sugar and insulin balance can gradually start to get out of sync. It’s a slow process that happens in stages that almost imperceptibly merge into each other.
    MILESTONES ON THE ROAD TO DIABETES
    Though the progression to diabetes is slow and insidious, Dr. Atkins observed,through decades of evaluating patients with blood sugar abnormalities, that it can nonetheless be divided into six distinct stages. His observations are similar to those of other researchers in this area. 1 The first four stages are milestones on the road to diabetes:
     
Insulin resistance of cells
Insulin resistance with hyperinsulinism (the production of large amounts of insulin)
Insulin resistance with hyperinsulinism and reactive hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinism with impaired glucose tolerance (now called prediabetes)
Type 2 diabetes with insulin resistance and high insulin production
Type 2 diabetes with low or virtually no insulin production
    We’ll be discussing the six stages in more detail as we progress through this book, starting with the first three stages of insulin resistance as it gradually worsens and leads