Diabetes Research Paper

Dec. 28th 2014

Brian Rose

What is diabetes?
Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases in Canada. It occurs
when the body is either unable to sufficiently produce or properly use insulin. There
are three main types of diabetes including type 1, type 2, and gestational.
To understand Diabetes, it is essential to know where in the body certain functions
occur, and what molecules are involved. Glucose is a simple sugar and a very
common carbohydrate in modern diets; this monosaccharide is absorbed directly
into the bloodstream during digestion. It is an important carbohydrate in biology,
because cells use it as a secondary source of energy and plays an important role in
cellular respiration. (Roche, 2005)
Possibly the most common chemical reactions that occurs within the body is cellular
respiration. During this process, glucose combines with oxygen and reacts to form
carbon dioxide and water, as well as ATP, which is a form of energy that the body can
use for its day-to-day functions. This is an example of an exothermic combustion
reaction. The carbon dioxide is expelled through exhalation and the water is
absorbed into the bloodstream. This process happens every time you eat and is one
of the primary way energy is made.
This process occurs within the mitochondria of the cell; Mitochondria have a double
membrane. The outer membrane is fairly smooth. It is on the inner membrane called
cristae that food (glucose) is combined with oxygen to produce energy. (Lamson,
2011) However, if you are diabetic, less glucose is able to get into your cells to
produce which is why many diabetics feel fatigued throughout the day. Recent
studies show that for an unknown reason diabetics seem to have smaller and fewer
mitochondria, more than 30% less than the average. (Crovetta, 2013) This greatly
inhibits the amount of energy produced and in turn affects how much insulin is
created.
With type 1 diabetes, beta cells produce little or no insulin. Insulin secretion (fig 1.0)
allows glucose to enter the cells. Without enough insulin, glucose builds up in the
bloodstream instead of going into the cells. This buildup of glucose in the blood is
called hyperglycemia. (Lung, 2014) To remove this excess sugar in the blood stream,
patients are injected with insulin which allows sugar to enter cells, leaving the blood
stream, and lowering the blood sugar level. (Hayes, 2014)

With type 2 diabetes, your body either resists the effects of or doesn't produce
enough insulin to maintain a normal glucose level. Unfortunately if your body
doesnt properly use insulin, there is no quick fix; Glucophage is usually taken to
prevent hyperglycemia from occurring. (Kaplan, 2012) Low blood sugar can also
occur in diabetics through fasting, extremely low levels of glucose in blood are called
hypoglycemia. When your blood sugar is this low the body releases glucagon, which
converts glycogen stored in the body to glucose, raising the blood sugar to an
acceptable level. This is why glucagon and insulin are exact opposites.
(Norman,2014)

Insulin Secretion

Fig.1
(Robler, 2014)
Bioencylocpedia.
com

The blood sugar level is the amount of glucose present in the blood of a human. The
body naturally regulates blood sugar levels as a part of metabolic homeostasis.
(Ehrlich, 2013) The body's homeostatic mechanism keeps blood sugar levels within a
specific range. It is composed of several interacting substances; one of the most
important in this process is insulin. Insulin is a polypeptide which acts as a carrier to
allow glucose to enter cells and create energy essential for life. (Lewcock, 2011)
People with low levels of this hormone often develop diabetes, but some people are
more likely than others.
Race, age, and gender affects how likely you are to be affected by it. As you get older,
your risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke goes up. Which explains why
it is most prevalent in people aged 45-65. Type 2 diabetes used to be so common in
adults that it was once called adult-onset diabetes. However, more and more
children and teens under the age of 18 are being diagnosed with it. (Debelea, 2015)
According to the CDC, more than 186,000 cases of pediatric diabetes were recorded
last year. (Peterson, 2014) Other predispositions for development include being

male, family history, high blood pressure, high-fat and carbohydrate diet, and high
alcohol intake.
When you have diabetes, excess glucose builds up in your blood. The Kidneys are
forced to work overtime to filter and absorb the excess sugar. If your kidneys can't
keep up, the excess sugar is excreted into your urine along with fluids drawn from
your tissues. This is why diabetes is referred to as the sugar urine disease in China
and other parts of the world. (Matsuzaki, 2012)
Through the dehydration from increased urination the energy needed for daily tasks
is excreted through urine leaving diabetics fatigued. When you lose sugar through
frequent urination, you also lose calories. At the same time, diabetes may keep the
sugar in the blood stream, from reaching your cells leading to constant hunger. The
combined effect leads to rapid weight loss; especially in have type 1 diabetes.
(Ogunjimi, 2013)
High levels of blood sugar pull fluid from your tissues, including the lenses of your
eyes. If these changes progress undetected, they can lead to vision loss and
blindness. Diabetes may weaken the bodys ability to fight germs, which increases
the risk of infection, leading many diabetics to get urinary tract infections.
How is diabetes tested?
Many people believe that being overweight leads to a predisposition for diabetes, this
isnt exactly true. A new discovery by a team of Swedish researchers was just
published in FASEB Journal helps explain why some men and women of normal
weight develop type 2 diabetes, despite not having any known risk factors.(Clarke,
2013) The results indicate that waist and abdominal fat deposits are directly related
to the development of type 2 diabetes. In general, men are considered at risk if their
waist circumference is more than 40 inches, women if their waist circumference is
more than 35 inches. This survey also says that the traditional Body Mass Index
approach to predict diabetes is outdated and insufficient as it may overestimate body
fat in those with muscular builds and underestimate body fat in older people. A more
reliable indicator is the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).
There are many ways to test for diabetes and these methods have many interesting
chemical applications. The most common test is the Glycated hemoglobin or A1C
test. This blood test indicates your average blood sugar level for the past two to three
months. It measures the percentage of blood sugar attached to hemoglobin, the
oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells. (Gale, 2008) The higher your blood sugar
levels, the more hemoglobin you'll have with sugar attached. This test is most

commonly used because it can also determine if someone has prediabetes or is at

risk for the disease.
If type 1 diabetes is suspected, your urine will be tested to look for the presence of a
by-product produced when muscle and fat tissue are used for energy called ketones.
In this case a doctor would also likely run a test to see if you have autoantibodies.
Autoantibodies are proteins that mistakenly target and attack a person's own tissues
or organs. Usually the immune system is able to determine between foreign
substances and the bodys own cells. It produces antibodies only when it perceives
that it has been exposed to a threat, such as bacteria or viruses. However, in type 1
diabetics the immune system sometimes ceases to recognize one or more of the
body's organs. The autoantibodies attack these organs and slowly render them nonfunctional. (Mackar, 2012)
Is diabetes a by-product of our society?
In the 19th century diabetes was one of most deadly and misunderstood diseases on
the planet. Doctors knew that insulin was necessary for glucose to be absorbed into
cells and that diabetics lacked the hormone. What they didnt understand was how to
administer it. Experiments including feeding patients ground pancreas to replace
the insulin missing failed miserably. The most effective treatment was to put
patients with diabetes on very strict diets with minimal carbohydrate intake,
diabetics usually had less than a one year life span after diagnosis. (Debelea, 2015)
In 1889, two German researchers, Minkowski and Mering, found that when the
pancreas gland was removed from dogs, the animals developed symptoms of
diabetes and died soon afterward. This led to the idea that the pancreas was the site
where pancreatic substances what would later be called insulin, is produced. Later
in 1910 a young surgeon named Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best
figured out how to remove insulin from a dogs pancreas. (Hayes, 2014)Most of their
colleagues regarded it skeptically and doubted its usefulness. Banting and Best
experimented on a dog with severe diabetes and found that their extract worked.
With this success, a more refined and pure form of insulin was developed, this time
from the pancreases of cattle.
In January 1922, Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy dying from became the first
person to receive an insulin injection. Within 24 hours, Leonards dangerously high
blood glucose levels dropped to near-normal levels. The news about insulin spread
around the world like wildfire. In 1923, Banting and Macleod received the Nobel
Prize in Medicine. By 1936 insulin had been patented and was now being distributed
to hospitals and diabetics all over the world.

While this discovery is useful and has prevented many deaths; diabetes and obesity
rates are still rising and have nearly tripled from the 1950s. (fig 3.0) The best and
most researched way of preventing a disease like diabetes from happening to you is
through correct diet and exercise. Unfortunately it isnt that simple. The multibillion
dollar fast-food companies like Coke, Kraft and Nestle make it much more difficult.
These companies know that fat, sugar, and salt are integrally craved by all humans
and take advantage of it. Food giants use science and piles of money to discover what
they call the bliss point of eating to engineer cheap and convenient food that creates
an addiction to carefully-formulated amount of fats, salts, and sugars. When humans
consume this trifecta the brain releases dopamine, giving the person eating the food
a sense of pleasure. The brain is hardwired to seek out this chemical, which causes
the craving experience people feel when walking down the aisle at the grocery store.
A lot of time and money goes into designing this complex artificial food that triggers
the reward system in the brain and causes an addiction similar to a drug.

Diabetics 1981-2011

Fig. 2
(Fieden,
2014)
CDC.gov.co

A well-known junk food is Cheetos. Frito Lay employs a team of 500 chemists,
psychologists and technicians at a research plant near Dallas at a cost of $30 million
a year to create the perfect crunch, mouth feel and aroma for their products. Frito
Lay also has a $40,000 device that simulates a chewing mouth to create the perfect
break point of a chip.(Lindsay, 2013) It turns out people like about four pounds of
pressure per square inch. Cheetos are one of the most engineered products on the
planet, designed specifically to make the brain want more. The Cheetos ability to
melt in the mouth has a name, it`s called vanishing caloric density. If something

melts quickly in the mouth, the brain is tricked into thinking that less or no calories
were consumed, leading the consumer to overeat.
But its not just fatty foods like cheesies, in a recent study head scientists of
Bordeaux University, France discovered that sugar is more addictive than cocaine.
Research published in 2007 showed that 94 percent of rats, who were allowed to
choose mutually-exclusively between sugar and cocaine, chose sugar. Even rats who
were addicted to cocaine quickly switched their preferences once it was offered as a
choice.
Another interesting fact is that food scientists and processed food company
executives themselves know more about maintaining their own health than anyone
else. In the new York times bestseller, Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss he
discussed how while researching at Frito Lay he met a former scientist who was fired
from the company for suggesting that they cut down on salt. He ate plain, cooked
oatmeal and raw asparagus for lunch and didnt have a single processed food
product in his cupboards or refrigerator. The people who work for these companies
don't eat their own products because they know better. They know about the
addictive properties of sugar, salt and fat and understand how unhealthy and
addicting these substances are.
Canadian and American obesity statistics are now neck and neck, with about one
quarter to one third of adults in the obese category. A staggering two-thirds of
Americans are overweight; these statistics drive the skyrocketing diabetes rates. An
estimated 22.3 million people were living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes in 2012, up
from 17.5 million in 2007. (Moss, 2014) In our society food companies have
engineered their products to cause an addiction to boost sales and popularity, while
simultaneously ignoring the influx of diabetes and obesity that they are
singlehandedly causing. The reason these numbers are on the rise isnt because
people simply arent motivated to be healthy, but because corporations are allowed
to chemically addict you to their products.
In conclusion diabetes is one of the most prominent diseases of today and affects a
large range of people. It involves many important organs and functions in the body
such as the pancreas, liver and cellular respiration. Most simply put diabetes is a
disease that occurs when not enough insulin is available, raising the blood level.
Whether diabetes is a product of junk food giants like Frito-Lay is unknown but it
seems more than likely.