Basically there are two types of Diabetes- Type 1 and Type 2
Type 1 diabetes is when the pancreas, which creates insulin, stops working.This type is rare.
Type 2 diabetes means your cells has begun to resist insulin and has stopped utilizing insulin created. This is more common.
Insulin is a hormone which lets sugar from your blood into the parts of your body which require it. When this vital hormone is missing or your cells cannot absorb insulin properly, sugar builds up in your blood, which causes you to get ill.
Treatment=
Type 1- People with Insulin Deficiency May Need Insulin Injections. Those patients requiring insulin can be divided into two categories:
1) Total Insulin Deficiency: The most severe form of insulin deficiency, seen in the classic patient with type-1 diabetes, requires daily insulin supplementation, otherwise the patient will become severely ill (ketoacidosis), and often die without this vital replacement.
2) Trim People with Partial Insulin Deficiency: Most people with blood sugars above 126 mg/dL, who are also trim (not overweight or underweight) fall into the category of partial insulin deficiency. Doctors often refer to this as type-1½ diabetes. These patients produce enough insulin to avoid life-threatening illness, but not enough to keep their blood sugars normal. With the elevated sugar levels they may also develop adverse effects, such as excessive thirst and urination, and too much weight loss. Insulin injections easily remedy these undesirable condition.
Type 2 - Treating Type-2 Diabetes in the Overweight Patient
The typical patient I see with a diagnosis of type-2 diabetes is overweight or obese and on a multitude of medications intended to lower their blood sugar. Yet their sugars remain elevated in the 200 mg/dL to 400 mg/dL range; even with their doctors' best efforts. No matter how often the blood sugar is checked daily, or the amount and kind of medication given, the blood sugars are never normal; they are usually way too high, and on occasion, dangerously low, causing confusion and coma. Obviously, even in the best professional hands, the treatments do not work.
The first step Dr McDougall takes is to stop all of their oral medications on the first visit. He does this because these medications have serious adverse effects and no real health benefits. (Yes, they do cause the numbers - sugar and HgBA1c - to look better.) The medications do nothing to fix the illness and they compound the patient's problems by raising the levels of insulin in his or her body -- One important effect of insulin is to facilitate the storage of dietary fat into fat cells. These lower the blood sugar level for time being and the body cells ( which usually in normal conditions absorb the sugar from blood) further stop working towards lowering the blood sugar levels, making the person more dependent on higher dosage of medicine as time passes.
By removal of the pills, medication induced "hyper-insulin-state," the body can now begin making overdue corrections; an important one being weight loss.
The second crucial step is to change to a low-fat, animal-food-free, starchbased diet. Starchy foods (rice, corn, potatoes, beans, etc. cause the body's own insulin to become more powerful; insulin sensitivity is increased. To further make the point about the benefits of carbohydrates on the function of insulin; even pure simple sugar improves insulin sensitivity. A classic experiment on people found an improvement in diabetic control as measured by fasting blood sugar levels, insulin levels, and glucose tolerance tests when diabetics were fed an extreme diet consisting of 85% of the calories as simple sugar (glucose and maltose). Animal proteins, like milk casein, and animal fats and vegetable oils reduce the sensitivity of insulin.
The third step is to start exercising which further lowers blood sugars and enhances the weight loss. With these changes a simple cure is possible for essentially everyone with type-2 diabetes
Reference---
1. Goetz FC, French LR, Thomas W, Gingerich RL, Clements JP. Are specific serum insulin levels low in impaired glucose tolerance and type II diabetes: measurement with a radioimmunoassay blind to proinsulin, in the population of Wadena, Minnesota. Metabolism. 1995 Oct;44(10):1371-6.3)
2.Henry RR. Glucose control and insulin resistance in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.Ann Intern Med. 1996 Jan 1;124(1 Pt 2):97-103.
3. Bradley U, Spence M, Courtney CH, McKinley MC, Ennis CN, McCance DR, McEneny J, Bell PM, Young IS, Hunter SJ. Low-fat versus low-carbohydrate weight reduction diets: effects on weight loss, insulinresistance, and cardiovascular risk: a randomized control trial. Diabetes. 2009 Dec;58(12):2741-8.
4. Barnard ND, Scialli AR, Turner-McGrievy G, Lanou AJ, Glass J. The effects of a low-fat, plant-based dietary intervention on body weight, metabolism, and insulin sensitivity. Am J Med. 2005 Sep;118(9):991-7.
