The question really is “Why is a diabetic’s blood sugar so high?”
The body needs insulin for most of the body’s cells to be able to use the glucose in the blood for energy. When the cells need glucose, they use hormones that tell the liver to dump more glucose into the blood stream.
Type II diabetics suffer from two different issues: One is “insulin resistance” and the other is a shortage of insulin. Everybody has some insulin resistance, but people with Diabetes Type II tend to have greater than average insulin resistance. Therefore, they tend to require more insulin.
As a person gets older, they naturally get more insulin resistant, and their pancreas produces less and less insulin. At some point, the body simply cannot produce the insulin it needs.
Because of the lack of insulin combined with the high insulin resistance, the cells of your body cannot metabolize the glucose they need. Therefore, they send signals to the liver to dump more glucose into the body. The liver dumps more glucose. However, if the body can’t use the glucose due to high insulin resistance and the lack of adequate insulin, the glucose remains in the blood. Thus producing high blood glucose levels.
Unless you are severely dehydrated, drinking water won’t help. Sooner or later, your body is simply going to replace the glucose because the cells are demanding glucose.
There are two treatments for Type II diabetes. 1). Increase the amount of insulin. 2). Decrease Insulin resistance.
Medications classified as Sulfonylureas increase your insulin production. Others help lower insulin resistance or slow down the liver’s ability to flood the body with glucose. You can also decrease insulin resistance by decreasing the amount of body fat – especially around the waist. Regular aerobic exercise will also decrease insulin resistance.
Stress can increase your insulin resistance. It’s one of the reasons for gestational diabetes. This normally happens in women who are borderline diabetics and then become pregnant. The extra stress is enough to trigger a diabetes diagnosis. Usually, the blood glucose returns to normal after the pregnancy, but women who have had gestational diabetes are more likely to become diagnosed with diabetes when they get older.
Another disease called PCOS is related to diabetes. In it, the body produces too much insulin which can cause abnormal and irregular menstrual cycles, hair loss, and of course cysts in the ovaries.