GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #22: WHAT Does “Exercise” ACTUALLY Mean?

For the first time since I started this blog eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!

If you are anything like me – over 65; overweight; overeating; over-pilled, and just overtired of all the THINGS I’m supposed to be doing to deal with my Type 2 diabetes, follow me...

I chose this image because for most of my life, that’s how I defined “exercising”:

Let’s look at the WORD itself: exorcise (v.) c. 1400, "to invoke spirits," from Old French exorciser (14c.), from Late Latin exorcizare, from Greek exorkizein "banish an evil spirit (or fatness); bind by oath" (see exorcism).

Oops!!! That’s not EXERCIZE – that’s EXORCISE!!! Like the old/new movie!

Hmmm…truth be told, I have about as much interest in exercising as I taking part in an exorcism…Not even sure how much difference there is between them, to be honest.

At any rate, exercise carries so much weight (pun originally NOT intended, but let’s roll with it), in my mind that even the mention of it or seeing commercials with people exercising in them brings me out in a cold sweat. NOT a hot sweat, so worrying about exercising isn’t gonna do me any good.

Lemme get back on track, I go to an etymological website (no, NOT a bug website!) to explore the ORIGINS of words. In this case, the word exercise has these roots: “…condition of being in active operation; practice for the sake of training," from Old French exercice.”

I’m going to change one word in there – not really change it, but at two letters. Where it says, “…condition of being in active operation; practice….blah, blah, blah”.

I’m going to amend that to a “…condition of being in active COOPERATION…” because you have to cooperate with others if you are actually going to exercise…I suppose you can go it alone, but bringing a cheer squad with you is helpful!

I’m NOT talking about the adolescent acrobatics depicted in the picture above. What I’m THINKING about is the image at the top of the column.

Just start walking…biking…gardening…cleaning up a nearby park…counting hummingbirds for your local or state County or State Park Reserves…band migratory birds or even just COUNT them for population studies. Walk in the winter, too! You don’t have to walk miles – in the winter I started by walking from our house to the graveyard at the top of the hill (TALK ABOUT MOTIVATION!!!) Moving is a good thing. ANY AMOUNT OF MOVING CAN BE GOOD. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying it. So if you don’t want to hear this “moving stuff”, just don’t read my blogs if they have the word “move” in it…

A reasonable read about the benefits of exercise from the Mayo Clinic’s website: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389
Image: https://cathe.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/shutterstock_410678884.jpg Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #17: Why Do Some Obese People Get Type 2 and Some DON’T? BROKEN CLEANING CELLS!

From the first moment I discovered I had been diagnosed with DIABETES, I joined a HUGE “club” that has been rapidly expanding since it stopped being a death sentence in the early 20th Century. Currently, there are about HALF A BILLION PEOPLE who have Type 2 Diabetes. For the past 3500 years – dating back to Ancient Egypt – people have suffered from diabetes. Well, I’m one of them now… Not one to shut up for any known reason, I added a section to this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting Diabetes research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: STARTING with a 2014 article, “Diabetes – Will it Ever be cured?”; I check up on the various therapies mentioned…

If I were to ask you what YOU think causes Type 2 diabetes in people…OK, how about I just ask myself?

“Guy, what do you think caused your Type 2 diabetes?”

I’d answer, “I’m fat.”

And I’d be right – but not ENTIRELY! How is it that I’m Type 2 and someone else I know who is JUST as fat NOT Type 2 diabetic????

“It’s just not FAIR!” I wail, weeping, pounding my chest and “Woe-ing-is-me-ing!” to beat the band.

Well, Mr. Me, I don’t know about fairness in biological problems, challenges, and illnesses – but I DO know that science is hard at work at figuring our a way to stop Type 2 from happening; fixing it; or curing it altogether! It’s an expensive disease that is spreading over the entire planet!

“Scientists and physicians have been documenting the condition now known as diabetes for thousands of years.” “in 1675 the word ‘mellitus’, meaning honey, was added to the name ‘diabetes’, meaning siphon. It wasn't until the 1800s that scientists developed chemical tests to detect the presence of sugar in the urine.”

In 1888, a French physician believed that diabetics were either thin or fat. The fat ones were ALWAYS rich and fat and had what was called “adult onset” diabetes. In contrast, thin diabetics always thin, young, desperately ill and, within a year, dead of what was called “adolescent onset” diabetes. Adult Onset was a disease of wealth and laziness; secondary to poor digestion and bad nerves. If you had it, you would die early, albeit you had longer than twelve months to live! The introduction of insulin in 1921 commuted the death sentence to a life sentence but emphasized the difference between insulin-dependent diabetes or adolescent-onset and non-insulin-dependent diabetes. Today, it’s Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Rates of type 2 diabetes have increased since 1960 unsurprisingly right along with obesity.

In 1985, there were 30 million Type 2 diabetics in the US by 2015 there were some 392 million people who were Type 2; by 2030, they expect some 600,000,000 people will be diagnosed as Type 2. But how is it that some people who gain weight suffer from the disease and others do not. The reasons for these differences are not clear, but they are related to what you body USES the fat it gets for rather than HOW MUCH body fat your body has.

The research below noticed that “Healthy fat tissue protects against new fat getting in deposited in the WRONG places. Human beings ALL need fat! The main purpose is that fat is laid down DIRECTLY underneath the skin. THAT fat protects the body from injury.

But it serves a second job: when you need energy, fat breaks down into sugar and goes to the cells so that can “burn it” to keep running. In PARTICULAR, muscle cells need sugar to keep you moving. You’re sleeping at night, so you don’t need as much instant energy, so the body stuffs your LIVER full of fat just waiting to be broken down and used as energy.

Most of you have heard the word “collagen” and you probably know that collagen is a protein in the body. Different kinds of collagen show up in many body parts like hair, skin, fingernails and toenails, bones, ligaments, tendons, cartilage, blood vessels, and intestines. IOW: It’s IMPORTANT!

Your body MAKES fat to story energy, right? The body breaks down collagen to build up fat reserves.

Scientists have found that the rise in collagen breakdown during adipose tissue expansion is done by large microscopic cells called “macrophage” (it literally means “big eater”! However, if you get OVERLY FAT, the macrophages BREAK, losing their ability to turn fat cells into energy ready for the body to use. The broken pieces of collagen are not just waste products, but they stimulate the making of MORE macrophages. That causes inflammation effects in the cells.

The most amazing discovery was still to come. Those macrophages and collagen fragments.: IT APPEARS LIKE if we can TARGET them, we JUST MIGHT BE ABLE TO PREVENT Type-2 diabetes and other conditions of impaired tissue remodeling!”

In science language: “In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of collagen-degrading macrophages and efficient removal of collagen fragments in adaptive, weight gain–induced adipose tissue remodeling. Our data suggest that impaired macrophage-mediated intracellular collagen degradation in obese SAT cannot be fully compensated for by extracellular collagen degradation. We conclude that collagen fragments, rather than being inert metabolites and solely markers of tissue remodeling, actively participate in shaping the SAT microenvironment. Further research in this area may identify novel targets in the prevention of type-2 diabetes in subjects with obesity and in other areas of impaired tissue remodeling.”

In plain English? Not ONLY can macrophages themselves help prevent Type-2; but the FRAGMENTs of the collagen from that the macrophages made when they attacked collagen, just might help as well.

Links: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/02/240201212856.htm; https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2313185121 ; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6946720/ Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg