Health Watch is a Public Service of the Office of News and Publications and is intended to provide general information only and should not replace the advice of a medical professional. You should contact your physician if you have questions about any of these topics.
This week on Health Watch, we’re talking about diabetes and how it can be managed. We’ve been talking about type 1 diabetes, in which the body doesn’t produce enough insulin to process sugar. There’s another type of diabetes, type 2, in which the body becomes resistant to insulin.
Type 2 diabetes is often treated with insulin therapy, but Dr. Roger Unger, a diabetes expert at UT Southwestern Medical Center, says that only makes matters worse in the long run. The extra insulin does lower blood glucose levels, but the insulin increases fat in the body, and the fatty molecules increase insulin resistance. The most effective way to deal with insulin resistance is to reduce the number of calories that are consumed, which lowers blood sugar levels and leads to weight loss. Reducing the amount of fatty tissue in the body then reduces insulin resistance.
Visit http://www.utsouthwestern.org/endocrinology to learn more about UT Southwestern’s clinical services in endocrinology.
