Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that results from a deficiency of insulin. Insulin is required to
remove sugar from the blood into your cells for energy immediately or to store for later. Insulin also
stimulates protein synthesis and free fatty acid storage in the fat deposits. When a person lacks
sufficient insulin, body tissues have less access to essential nutrients for fuel.
There’s a few different types of diabetes, the most common are Type I and Type II. Type I is due
to the destruction of the beta cells of the pancreas due to an autoimmune reaction. Type II diabetes
results from a combination of chronic resistance to the biological action of insulin and the body’s
inability for the pancreas to produce enough insulin to overcome the resistance.
It has been revealed that insulin deficiency may be due to a breakdown in the communication
and signaling mechanisms associated with the central nervous system and metabolism. “Disturbances in
cell signaling are central to disturbances in insulin secretion and action, which lead to diabetes…” –
American Diabetes Association
Let’s get technical…what in the world is your metabolism, and how is it related to the brain?
Metabolism is the sum of all physical and chemical changes that takes place — all energy and material
transformations that occur within living cells. Within the brain there is the limbic system; one of the jobs
of the limbic system is to maintain homeostasis. The major player of the limbic system’s homeostasis
and metabolic regulation is the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus tightly controls homeostasis and
metabolic activity via neurological and endocrine pathways. Metabolic regulation is maintained by
controlling blood sugar levels, temperature, fluid and electrolyte balance, blood pressure, and body
weight.
The effectiveness of the hypothalamus to control metabolism and other functions is directly
related to the functional capability of the nervous system to be able to send and receive nerve messages
and especially to maintain the integrity of those nerve messages as they travel along the spinal cord.
Hyper- or hypo- functional neurons along a neural chain prevent normal nerve transmission causing
disturbances in the homeostasis of the cells, tissue, and organs. Chiropractic adjustments restore normal nerve function, improve spinal biomechanics, range of
motion, reflex arcs, and posture; all of which are essential to proper metabolic balance.
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