Diabetes is on the rise. Estimates are that in a few short years diabetes will be one of the most significant diseases worldwide. Today we wanted to look at diabetes symptoms, and whether increasing your intake of Omega 3 fatty acids can help reduce your risk of diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common form of diabetes, affecting roughly 90 percent of all diabetes sufferers. It is more common in older people, including women, but can also be contracted by younger people.

If you have type 2 diabetes your pancreas is not making sufficient insulin for your body’s needs resulting in too much glucose in your blood. This results in a wide range of symptoms, though can also be characterised by a lack of obvious symptoms, and for this reason it is considered that there are many sufferers who have never been diagnosed.

Those suffering from Type 2 diabetes may notice an increase in urine passed, unusual thirst, blurred vision, a sense of lethargy, mood swings and even notice that small cuts or abrasions may take a long time to heal, and gradual weight gain, and others.

Type 2 diabetes should be distinguished from type 1 diabetes which is a disease of young people, where the pancreas is unable to make insulin. This is much less common.

What are the diabetes risk factors?

The exact causes of type 2 diabetes are mixed and not totally understood, however the risk factors certainly are well understood. These risk factors include a genetic predisposition as well as a range of unhealthy lifestyle factors including poor diet, low levels of exercise, high blood pressure and obesity.

In other words the greatest risk of type 2 diabetes is an unhealthy lifestyle. And it can be managed in many cases by reversing these factors and increasing the level of exercise, improving the diet and reducing weight.

You are also at greater risk as you get older, though of course there is nothing you can do about this.

Women who have type 2 diabetes however have some specific concerns that are not shared by men. And women who are or intend to be pregnant have some very specific concerns. For example women with diabetes must pay specific attention to managing their diabetes during pregnancy as failure to manage blood sugar levels properly can lead to specific health problems such as high blood pressure and can even lead to health complications for the baby including birth defects or excessive weight.

Can you cure diabetes?

It is more difficult to cure diabetes than to prevent it, and for this reason much effort goes into type 2 diabetes prevention. Once a person has diabetes it is more common to manage it than to cure it, though good management can often lead to remission.

By paying more attention, in the early years of life, to maintaining a healthy lifestyle potential diabetes sufferers may well be able to prevent the condition occurring in the first place.

Does Omega 3 supplementation have a role in preventing or managing diabetes?

It would now seem as a result of a recent Chinese study that one of the tools that diabetes sufferers may use in managing their diabetes or even preventing it is Omega 3 supplementation. A Chinese study of around 110,000 people published in June 2011 has found that there is an inverse relationship between the amount of fish consumed and the incidence of diabetes.

In other words those who ate more fish had a lower level of diabetes.

Of course fish contains the 2 essential fatty acids known as the Omega 3 fats, DHA and EPA. It is well known that these are very important to the proper functioning of your body and there are a wide range of health conditions which may be improved or possibly even prevented by increasing your intake of DHA and EPA. It would seem, from the results of the study, that type 2 diabetes may be one of them.

In the study those with the highest levels of fish intake ate the equivalent of around 7 servings of fish per week. In the US this intake of fish is extremely rare.

The best way to increase your Omega 3 intake to this level is by taking Omega 3 supplements.

It’s fascinating to watch the gradual development of the scientific evidence in support of the conclusion that increasing your intake of the Omega 3 fats has very specific health benefits. The health benefits in relation to cardiovascular disease are now well established, and researchers gradually extending that 2 other conditions such as diabetes.

Of course this study does not prove that taking Omega 3 supplements, or eating lots of fish, can prevent or cure diabetes, but it certainly gives grounds for further study, and supports the conclusion that there are widespread health benefits for all of us in increasing our intake of the Omega 3 essential fatty acids.

To read the study click here

There is a growing body of evidence that one of the major causes of much disease in our society is inflammation. Inflammation is a silent killer, and many of us are completely unaware that it may be happening to us right now.

Suggestions now are that inflammation also has a significant role in the onset of diabetes amongst overweight or obese people. Type II diabetes can occur when an overweight person starts to suffer from inflammation.

Whilst there is a clear link between being overweight or obese and contracting diabetes it is not demonstrated that it is simply the fact of being overweight that causes the diabetes. There must be a cause for the diabetes, and being overweight triggers the cause.

And it seems one of the major culprits is now considered to be inflammation in those who are overweight or obese. Several studies have found that inflammation in overweight people can be provoked by immune cells which are called macrophages and that this in turn leads to insulin resistance, and then to Type II diabetes.

The researchers have also demonstrated that obesity alone without the inflammation is not a cause of insulin resistance. This research has been done on mice and goes by the long winded name of  “JNK1 in hematopoietically derived cells contributes to diet-induced inflammation and insulin resistance without affecting obesity.” You can read it here.

Of course there are drugs specifically targeted at reducing inflammation, however in many cases the side effects may outweigh the benefits. However foods such as fish high in Omega 3 essential fatty acids can also combat inflammation very successfully without side-effects.

And of course there are also foods which you should avoid as these have a negative effect, and in particular it is best to avoid alcohol, refined sugars, hydrogenated oils and saturated fats. In see a complete anti-inflammatory food pyramid here if you are interested in learning more about what you should not be eating and what you should.

The anti-inflammatory properties of Omega 3 essential fatty acids may well be the reason why they are so beneficial to so many areas of the health, but this is still in the process of being proven. However many studies are now suggesting that increasing your intake of Omega 3 essential fatty acids, most easily by taking fish oil supplements, may have a positive and beneficial effect on so many areas of your health.

Diabetes may also now be one of those conditions positively affected, or possibly even prevented, by increasing your dietary intake of essential fatty acids.