Type II Diabetes Muscle Conspiracy

Another interesting study i read from an article from the University of Calgary suggests that muscle in obese people and Type 2 diabetics may be conspiring against them.

Extract of article...

Research by kinesiology investigator Dustin Hittel, PhD, has proven that muscle in extremely obese individuals produces large amounts of a protein called myostatin, which normally inhibits muscle growth—suggesting that for Type 2 diabetics, and the very obese, the task of getting healthy may be more difficult than initially thought.

It has been known for some years that naturally occurring mutations in the gene which controls myostatin results in double—muscling in cattle, dogs and even humans. Many in the body building community believe that blocking myostatin is a shortcut to the Arnold Schwarzenegger body.

The flipside is that producing too much myostatin has been linked with muscle wasting conditions such as HIV-AIDS, starvation and now, Type 2 diabetes.

Hittel believes this may be due to a pre-diabetic condition known as insulin resistance that “tricks” the muscles into thinking the body is starving despite the fact that blood sugar levels are skyrocketing.

“When that happens, the body reverses muscle production using myostatin,” says Hittel. “This is particularly worrisome because losing muscle mass further erodes your ability to control your blood sugar with exercise.”

One of the tell-tale signs of the transition between insulin resistance and full-blown Type 2 diabetes is a loss of muscle mass. “

Losing muscle mass makes sense from an evolutionary perspective since having large muscles during famine puts you at a serious risk for starvation,” explains Hittel. “Unfortunately, this survival mechanism has left us ill-equipped to deal with a Western lifestyle—lots of calories, little exercise—and it has laid the groundwork for the current epidemic of Type 2 diabetes.”

“The goal of my research is to understand how obesity, diet and exercise influence our metabolism and interact with our genome. This research sheds some light on an important part of the puzzle.”

So what does this mean?

Do strength training as well as training in the anaerobic zone i.e. intervals, to control Type 2 diabetes rather that the traditionally prescribed aerobic training. By doing so you also increase muscle receptor sensitivity to insulin.

My observations on man-made drugs

Man made pharmaceutical drugs always exhibit a doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde behavior. All doctors know this and will have to decide if the benefits far out weigh the risks when prescribing them.

One of my clients happened to be on Propecia for nearly 10 years. Propecia controls male pattern alopecia (hair loss). However, side effects include loss of libido, decreased reproductivity and suspected increase in tummy fat due to the reduction in DHT which is antagonistic to estrogen production.

An excerpt of the benefits of DHT( Dihydrotestosterone) are as follows;

"How does DHT protect against estrogen? There are at least three ways that this likely occurs. First of all, DHT directly inhibits estrogens activity on tissues. It either does this by acting as a competitive antagonist to the estrogen receptor or by decreasing estrogen-induced RNA transcription at a point subsequent to estrogen receptor binding.

Second of all, DHT and its metabolites have been shown to directly block the production of estrogens from androgens by inhibiting the activity of the aromatase enzyme. The studies done in breast tissue showed that DHT, androsterone, and 5alpha-androstandione are potent inhibitors of the formation of estrone from androstenedione. 5alpha-androstandione was shown to be the most potent, while androsterone was the least.

Lastly, DHT acts on the hypothalamus / pituitary to decrease the secretion of gonadotropins. By decreasing the secretion of gonadotropins you decrease the production of the raw materials for estrogen production – testosterone and androstenedione (DHT itself cannot aromatize into estrogens). This property of DHT comes into particular utility when it is administered exogenously, and this is to be discussed in further detail in the next section."

With the reduction in DHT, and corresponding icnrease in estrogen, the client had difficulty in increasing muscle density and reducing his hormonal imbalance. This resulted in less than stellar results in his weight management programme.

In conclusion, i sincerely believe that everyone should be fully aware of the consequences of being too dependent on man made drugs. There are always natural alternatives that will give you all the benefits and none of the side effects.