Type 2 Diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. It is where the pancreas produces enough insulin, but the cells cannot utilize the insulin properly, because they have developed a resistance towards it. Type 2 Diabetes is also called Insulin Resistance, and the high blood sugar is known as hyperglycemia.

This article Type 2 Diabetes and Intermittent Fasting will help you understand what type 2 diabetes is and how it works as well as give you and understanding of intermittent fasting and its health benefits in relation to Type 2 Diabetes.

What Happens When We Eat?

When we eat, food becomes glucose in the blood stream to fuel our body with energy. In order for this glucose to get into the cells, insulin is released by the beta cells in the pancreas to bring the glucose into the cells. Insulin acts as a key to open the cell’s insulin receptors, for the glucose to get into the cells. Insulin is at the same time also a fat storing hormone and stores the excess food energy in the liver and the muscles for later use. It also dumps the excess energy as fat on the belly and inside the body and around the organs such as the liver and the pancreas. This fat is known as visceral fat.

The liver and the pancreas are the two blood sugar regulating organs, and when they get filled up with fat from overeating they loose communication with each other. This results in Type 2 Diabetes because they no longer can regulate the blood sugar optimally.

Type 2 diabetics overeat. They love to eat all the time simply because their blood sugar levels are high, and when they drop a bit, makes them crave more food to keep the blood sugar levels high. It’s a vicious circle, and one that increases Insulin Resistance and promotes overweight.

How Insulin Resistance Works

Insulin Resistance works like this. When you have Insulin Resistance you have high blood sugar. And as your blood sugar increases you get more Insulin Resistance and so on.

With Insulin Resistance only a small portion of glucose gets into the cells. In this situation, the cells don´t get enough energy any longer, and blood sugar gets backed up in the bloodstream, causing a high blood sugar level. At the same time, it causes our cells to starve of energy. This, over time, can lead to many serious complications, such as infections and amputations. In essence, the organs of the body slowly start to rot. Type 2 Diabetes is therefore also known as a rotting disease. Because our cells do not get adequately fueled by the glucose. Due to this many diabetes patients are often tired; simply because they don´t have the energy, they are supposed to have, due to their Insulin Resistance.

The reason, Insulin Resistance develops in the body, is because of either poor nutrition, overeating, and stress which all contribute to type 2 diabetes.

So rather than Type 2 Diabetes being an incurable chronic disease, it is actually a lifestyle disease that can be overcome through proper nutrition and gentle daily exercise. Research done by some doctors in America and Canada shows that this condition is fully reversible due to this fact. Also, many holistic health professionals recognize this.

Intermittent Fasting is a Major Successful Treatment Protocol For Type 2 Diabetes

A major successful and popular treatment protocol for Type 2 Diabetes today is fasting also known as Intermittent Fasting.

Intermittent fasting means eating in intervals of eating-stop eating, and eating again. It is a great tool for combating Insulin Resistance and obesity. It is not a diet that suggests what you should be eating. But it is rather a way of eating that involves periods of eating and not eating anything at all.

When we fast, the opposite happens as to when we eat and store energy.

Insulin goes down, and the body begins to burn fat.

First, the liver and the muscles are emptied of glycogen, which is stored as glucose or energy. This can take up from 24 to 36 hours. Afterward, the body begins to break down stored fat for energy. When there is no more body fat to be burned, it begins to break down proteins. But not before then.

Our bodies can only exist in two states. Either we are in the fat-storing state, the feeding state, or we are in fat-burning, the fasted state.

When we are in the feeding state, we burn glucose for energy. This is the natural metabolic state. But when we enter into the fasted state, glucose is emptied and, we begin to burn fat instead. Here our metabolism is changed from running on glucose to running on ketone bodies. This state is also known as ketosis.

So when we fast, we change our metabolism from burning glucose to burning fat instead.

The Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Fasting has many health benefits, such as:

• Improved Human Growth Hormone (HGH):The growth hormone increases up to 5-fold, which benefits fat loss and muscle gain. It also gives life and vitality to the body.
• Decrease in Insulin:Insulin levels drop dramatically, so the fat reserves come into play, and insulin sensitivity increases.
• Improved Metabolism
• Cellular repair:Autophagy, the cells initiate cellular repair processes, where they remove waste, old and dysfunctional proteins, which had built up inside them.
• Gene expression:The genes change in relation the longevity and protection against disease.
• Weight loss:without consciously having to restrict calories.
• Reduce Insulin Resistance:also lowering blood sugar by 3–6% and fasting insulin levels by 20–31%.
• Reduce inflammation:which is a key reason for many chronic diseases.
• Heart health:reduce “bad” LDL cholesterol, blood triglycerides, inflammation, blood sugar, and Insulin Resistance.
• Decrease cancer:Animal studies with rats show that intermittent fasting decrease cancer cells.
• Increased brain health:increases the brain hormone BDNF and can aid in the growth of new nerve cells. It may also protect against Alzheimer’s disease.
• Anti-aging:prolonging of lifespan in rats. Studies showed that rats who fasted lived 36–83% longer.
• Increased energy

My recommendation

I myself have use intermittent fasting in beteween meals: I have also done 8:16 fasting which I extend everyday from 4 pm to 8 am the next moring. And I have also tried a 24 hour fast. If however you would like to learn more about intermittent fasting which essentially is eat-stop-eat I recommend the book Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon who explains all about it.

Its particularly good for obese people who want to loose weight. Instead of eating less and depriving your body of nutrients, the Eat-Stop-Eat method will teach you how to stop eating a couple of times per week to dramatically reduce weight. I highly recommend this book.

Conclusion

Type 2 Diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. I

Intermittent fasting can help to reduce and eliminate insulin resistance. When you fast you decrease your insulin level. You get into the fatburning state, and begin to loose weight.  This can have a profound positive effect on Type 2 Diabetes.