Drastic weight loss is one of the common symptoms diabetes patients experience before the occurrence of other more complicated diabetes related health complications. The rate of weight loss can be surprisingly fast even though the patient does not go for any gym or weight loss exercise.
When a diabetic patient realizes his waist line is getting smaller, he might think that could be the result of the change of diet and he mistakenly assumes that is a positive sign that his body is becoming healthier and fitter. This misconception can be fatal!
This kind of drastic weight loss is usually experienced by people who are having Type 2 Diabetes which is also known as Insulin Resistance. At the early stage of Type 2 Diabetes, the patient should experience frequent thirst and urination. Then the patient will also experience frequent tiredness and hunger, even though he has enough sleep and takes proper meal with sufficient amount of carbohydrate.
Frequent thirst and urination is the direct result of the elevated glucose level in the blood which increase osmotic pressure in the blood that "sucks" the water away from the body cells. This process is known as dehydration.
When someone is suffering from Insulin Resistance, there is enough insulin produced by the pancreas to cope with the glucose surge after a meal. But the problem is that the insulin cannot be effectively utilized by the insulin receptors on the cell membrane to open up the glucose channels that allow the glucose molecules to enter the cells to be used for energy production.
And when the glucose cannot enter the cells, it bounces back into the bloodstream and that is why the blood sugar level remains high even a few hours after the meal. And these unused glucose molecules will be excreted out from the body through urine. This means that the food you eat will be wasted into the toilet bowl!
When the cells do not get the glucose required for energy production, it will send out the signals of tiredness and hunger to the master hoping that he will take in more food. If the owner of the body cannot withstand the hunger and eat to quench the hunger, he will only push the blood glucose level even higher. Long term exposure to high blood glucose will result in the thickening of the artery wall and blockage of fluid exchange passages.
But if the patient manages to resist the hunger pang and suppresses himself from eating anything, this will force the body to shift to alternate source of energy supply, the stored fat. In order to maintain the fundamental metabolisms, the body has to try its best to source for alternative energy supply. The most direct way is to break down the stored fat through a process known as lipolysis which converts the fat into fatty acids and ketones to be used by the cells for energy production.
It is fine if lipolysis happens gradually, but if this process is called up on a continuous basis, it will burn away the stored fat in a rapid rate and releases those toxics (that are hidden in the fat over the years) into the bloodstream. This is the beginning of the domino effect of organs failure where one organ fails after another which will eventually take away the patient's life in a painful way.
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