Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Maintain Your Computer and Use it More Effectively to Design a Web Site and Make Money on the Web. ~ ~ ~ January 26, 2006 Volume 6 Number 2 ~ ~ ~

Chronic Fatigue and Why Am I Always So Tired?
Part 10: Fatigue Caused by Diabetes

By Stephen Bucaro

Are you always tired? Everything takes so much energy. When you wake up in the morning you're tired. You tried to get more sleep, but that didn't help. The fatigue just won't go away. If this describes you, read on ...

In Part 9 of this series of articles, I explained how tiredness could be caused by a thyroid gland that produces too little thyroid hormone, or "hypothyroidism", and how a taking thyroid hormone replacement pill daily can help you get your energy back. In this article, we'll explore the possibility that your tiredness is caused by diabetes.

In previous parts of this series of articles, I explained that when you eat carbohydrates, they are broken down during digestion into sugar that your cells use for energy. Too high levels of sugar in your bloodstream are damaging to the body, so if you have more sugar in your bloodstream than your cells need for energy, your pancreas releases a hormone called insulin to clear the extra sugar from your bloodstream.

People with Type 2 diabetes have "insulin resistance" and respond sluggishly to insulin. Therefore their cells cannot absorb the sugar molecules well. Even though they may have normal levels of sugar and insulin in their bloodstream, their body doesn’t effectively use insulin to transport the sugar into their cells. As a result, their cells become energy starved, so they always feel tired.

- People with Type 1 diabetes can't produce insulin; as a result, sugar builds up in their blood. Sustained high blood sugar can damage eyes, kidneys, and nerves, resulting in amputations. It can put you at high risk for heart attack and stroke. If, in addition to feeling tired all the time, you experience frequent urination, excessive thirst and blurry vision, ask your doctor to check your blood sugar. Type 1 Diabetes can kill if not properly treated. Treatment for Type 1 diabetes usually involves taking insulin shots.

The symptoms of Type 2 diabetes can be subtle, just a general tiredness and fatigue. Because of insulin resistance, to clear the extra sugar from the bloodstream the pancreas tries to produce greater and greater amounts of insulin until it wears out. Eventually, Type 2 diabetes can develop into Type 1 diabetes. In fact, doctors are seeing a new phenomenon called "double diabetes" where patients have both Type 2 and Type 1 diabetes. This is unfortunate because Type 2 diabetes is simple to control - just lose weight and eat better.

Overweight people need more insulin to process blood sugar, so the pancreas has to work harder to produce insulin, which causes it wear out. In fact, researchers have discovered that some people who are genetically predisposed to diabetes never got it because they stayed thin.

If you're always tired, avoid foods like candy, soda pop, baked goods, refined wheat products, and alcoholic beverages. Instead, eat natural whole foods like whole grains, fruits, nuts, berries, beans, and vegetables. It may be difficult at first, but it should get easier as your energy and health begin to return.

If you think your tiredness may be caused by diabetes, have your doctor do a FPG (Fasting Plasma Glucose) test, a blood test that measures blood sugar early in the morning after a fast. For more information visit: American Diabetes Association and Joslin Diabetes Center.

Your kidneys are bean-shaped organs that filter waste and toxins and remove extra water from your blood. When your kidneys don’t filter enough waste from your blood, you feel tired and out of breath. In the next part of this series of articles, we'll explore the possibility that your tiredness may be caused by kidney disease.

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