Chiropractic and Diabetes

Chiropractic and Diabetes – How chiropractic may help with management of Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic health problem that involves elevated blood sugar levels.  When we metabolize food – carbohydrates, proteins and fats, they are broken down into glucose or blood sugar.  Glucose is used to supply energy to every cell in the body.  However, if glucose levels become too elevated, this can become harmful to the brain and other organs.

With Type I, the pancreas does not produce enough (or sometimes any) insulin, a hormone required to transport glucose into our cells.  It is not due to an excess of sugar, as is often the case with Type 2 Diabetes, but rather a deficiency of its transporter.  Left untreated, the resulting blood sugar swings from dramatically high (hyperglycemia) to dramatically low (hypoglycemia); this is potentially life-threatening.

Low blood sugar symptoms come on quickly and leave the diabetic feeling dizzy, pale, sweat and confused, possibly with heart palpitations.  Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) can take hours or days to develop and can result in life threatening ketoacidosis.  Other symptoms are frequent urination (children may be constantly wetting the bed), weight loss, excessive appetite or thirst and fatigue or irritability.

Type I Diabetes can occur at any age.  However, it is most often diagnosed in children, adolescents, or young adults, and for that reason has been traditionally known as Juvenile Diabetes.

Type 2 Diabetes usually occurs later on in life and is created by diet and lifestyle. However, today’s propensity towards an inactive (sedentary) lifestyle and obesity occurring in younger ages, Type 2 Diabetes is also occurring in younger ages.

Traditional, Allopathic Treatments

Diabetes is diagnosed through blood and urine tests. Type I Diabetes is usually treated with injections of the insulin that the body has stopped producing. Insulin lowers blood sugar by allowing it to leave the bloodstream and enter cells.  Daily injections are required, along with frequent monitoring of blood sugar levels.  It is generally accepted in the medical world that this method of treatment is life-long.

The amount of insulin needed daily varies according to the degree of the disease as well as whether the individual is exercising, sick, travelling and with the amount of food being consumed.  That’s why Type I Diabetics must either test their blood sugar many times throughout the day, or rely upon a pump responsible for measurement plus administration of the dose.

Insulin therapy is not unlike all other drug therapies in that there can be serious side-effects.  These side-effects include rapid heartbeat, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, and shortness of breath, among others.

Type 2 Diabetes is managed in many different ways. The first step is usually lifestyle and diet changes. The patient will be instructed to limit their sugar intake (added sugars are usually the culprit, not naturally occurring sugars) and also to start doing some kind of regular physical activity. If this does not work for the patient they will then be given some kind of drug therapy. The last resort is actually taking insulin injections.

Type 2 Diabetes is a completely preventable disease.

The Immune System

There are indications that a weak immune system is one of the main reasons that Type I
Diabetes occurs.  Natural care for this would start by strengthening the immune system through nutrition, care of the nervous system and immune system nerve supply and minimizing toxins and toxicity to the immune system.

From a young age, we need to keep the immune system strong.  This means eating properly to stabilize blood sugar levels by avoiding eating sugar and anything that turns into sugar – potatoes, white refined bread, and added sugars (most commonly found in prepared and boxed/canned foods).  Avoid conventional cow’s milk due to a possible reaction to beta A1 casein, the milk proteins associated with the auto-immune reactions.  (Note: beta A2 casein, produced by rare cattle naturally raised, fed, and bred for thousands of years is less likely to create gut inflammation and autoimmunity.)  To further strengthen the immune system, reduce intake of alcohol and caffeine.  Eat foods that are low on the Glycemic Index, increase your intake of healthy fats and moderate your intake of protein.

Chromium deficiency has been linked to diabetes.  Eat lots of brewer’s yeast, onions and garlic to naturally increase chromium levels.

Supplement with Vitamin D3.  People taking higher levels of vitamin D have a lesser likelihood of developing.  While it is not a cure for diabetes, Vitamin D is known to strengthen the immune system and can help in preventing the onset of this disease.

Toxicity

Environmental toxins add to the load on a weakened immune system.  While you can’t do a lot about the toxins you take in through breathing, bathing and just walking around in the environment where you live, you can control what goes on and into your body.  Use natural cleaning products and beauty products.  Eat more organic foods and fewer conventional foods as many toxic chemicals find their way into our body through the fertilizers and pesticides in commercially grown produce and meats.  Genetically modified food also places a strain on our digestive system as we try to digest food that is unrecognizable to the body.

Diabetes – The Neurological Connection

Essential in your management of Diabetes is the strength of your nervous system which controls pancreatic, digestive and immune function. It is vital to give your body the best opportunity to function as it was designed, with no interference.

Studies show that Type I Diabetes is not solely an autoimmune or endocrine problem, but perhaps a more complex problem involving the nervous system.  A recent discovery by scientists in Toronto, Calgary and Maine showed that stimulation of nerves controlling the pancreatic function in diabetic mice caused the mice to increase production of insulin. The nervous system controls and coordinates all functions in the body, it should be no surprise that when nerve impulses to cells of the body are diminished (i.e. to the pancreas), those cells degenerate and die.

Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care corrects spinal misalignments that can interfere with normal health processes in the body.  The chiropractic adjustment activates the nervous system and increases the communication from the body to the brain and back to the body. The enhanced communication allows the brain to get the digestive system to function at a higher level. This may improve digestion and therefore deliver nutrients to starved cells, tissues and organs.

A chiropractor evaluating the nervous system function in a patient with diabetes would naturally evaluate the first cervical vertebra (C1) for any rotational or lateral misalignment potentially affecting the pancreas via the tenth cranial (Vagus) nerve, and the region of the sixth and seventh thoracic vertebrae (T6-T7) where nerves exit the spinal column and lead to the pancreas.  Healthy care of the spinal column and maintenance of proper spinal alignment before the onset of illness is a key factor in maintaining good health. Correction of spinal misalignments once symptoms have appeared would be the focus of corrective care.

Regardless of the condition, current trends continue to show that consideration of dietary and toxic stresses on the body, improved oxygenation of tissue cells, release of stress, and vital control of the nervous system are all critical factors in the maintenance of good health. Type I and Type 2 Diabetics can have hope in the management of their Diabetes without necessarily having to rely increasingly on drugs.

ⁱhttp://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/94/5/752.short

ⁱⁱ http://www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/Diabetes/juvenilediabetes.aspx

ⁱⁱⁱ http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:1021081

^ivhttp://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682611.html#side-effects

^vhttp://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673601065801/abstract

^vi http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=a042812e-492c-4f07-8245-8a598ab5d1bf&k=63970