Podcast 175: Diabetes – Part 2

Diabetes is commonly thought to have no cure. It is progressive and often fatal, and while the patient lives, the mass of medical complications it sets off can attack every major organ. Though public health officials acknowledge that their ability to slow the disease is limited, and though doctors fear a huge wave of new cases will overwhelm public health systems, “Public health authorities around the country have all but ignored chronic illnesses like diabetes, focusing instead on communicable diseases, which kill far fewer people,” according to the New York Times.

Hospitals around New York City are full of diabetic patients and on any given day, nearly half the patients are there for some trouble precipitated by the disease.

Magnesium is known to be necessary for nerve conduction; deficiency is known to cause peripheral neuropathy symptoms and studies suggest that a deficiency in magnesium may worsen blood glucose control in type 2 diabetes. Scientists believe that a deficiency of magnesium interrupts insulin secretion in the pancreas and increases insulin resistance in the body’s tissues.

Author: Martin Pytela