Curated Paper Ayurveda and Diabetes - Dallas Willden

 Ayurveda is a holistic, almost religious word, that can have many meanings. It is main meaning is balance, balance of Body, mind, and spirit. The words literal definition is “science of life.” The focus of this is to live a healthy lifestyle, that can help promote good health physically, mentally, and spiritually. There are many ways one can do this, we need to take care of our bodies, this comes in many ways, in eating right, in getting enough sleep, and in having enough physical activities throughout the day to keep our body in good and healthy shape.

Having a healthy body can help the mind stay healthy as well. And having a healthy body and healthy mind tend to help your spirit be in a healthy place as well. The idea with Ayurveda is that when one is not in balance between mind, body, and spirit, they are much more likely to get illness and disease if not fixed. I feel like I have seen this in action in real life, both in my own life, and in that of family members or friends. When I am not taking the time each day to destress, and let my mind relax, my body becomes more prone to sickness, or if I am not exercising enough, I feel mentally strained, then again leads me down a path to getting sick. It is all connected, and to the immune system it is very influential to its ability to fight off anything that we do or do not want to have. The lack of having Ayurveda leads to many diseases, or illnesses, one of which is diabetes.

Diabetes is a disease that is increasingly more common in the United States, and across the world, though not all countries are fortunate enough to have medicine to the point where they can treat it. Diabetes is something that occurs when the body loses control of the glucose in the bloodstream, which can lead to many major health problems in many ways. These range all the way to limb loss due to the lack of sugars and nutrients found in the limbs.

            My personal experience with Diabetes comes primarily from my time as a missionary in Argentina, Diabetes is a common disease in the poorer parts of the country. They lack the technology, and proper techniques/training to treat it well. While I was there, I saw hundreds of people who had certain limbs that looked as though they had been severely burned, I used to think it looked as though they had been dipped in lava, and many more who had limbs missing, from their untreated diabetes. I saw how privileged we are here to have such blessings to be able to really take good care of ourselves and not have to worry so much about things like that happening.

            Diabetes can cause for what is referred to as diabetic neuropathy, which is what causes the burnt like look that was described a in the prior paragraph. It looks like there is not much known about exactly why this happens with diabetes, though they believe it is a result of continuous high blood sugar, that interacts with the nervous tissues, which then lead to severe nerve damage, and causing that burnt like look that they can get. The only way in a lot of the world that is really known to get rid of this damage is to amputate the limb that has the damage and is causing the pain.

            Diabetes comes primarily from a pancreas disfunction, making it so it cannot produce, or cannot produce enough insulin. This lowered insulin level can lead to several distinct types of diseases within this one. It has the ability to make you more tired by lowering dopamine released in the morning. It can also cause liver, muscle, adipose, stomach, and intestine, or kidney issues. All of which if not treated properly, can seriously decrease life quality for a person or animal.

            My most recent personal experience with diabetes has been work related. Diabetes is a disease that effects people and animals of all different kinds alike, especially as we have started to care so much for dogs and cats, a lot of the dogs and cats that have gotten overweight, they can develop diabetes, which often shows in them being much more lethargic, having more glucose in their urine, or high glucose levels in their blood stream, their bodies had started to fault on them in the sense of  properly using sugars and processing what is needed. It expresses in different ways than for people as well, for example early stages of diabetes for a dog or a cat can cause the development of a cataract, and if left uncared for, and allowed to develop further can lead to blindness.

            For me personally I have an illness that is often the result of over-treatment of diabetes, though I was born with it, it is something called Hypoglycemia, which is almost the opposite problem of diabetes, with diabetes they have a lowered insulin level, and generally speaking a raised blood sugar, causing slow healing, fatigue, blurred vision, etc. With Hypoglycemia it comes from a lower level of blood sugar, where most people who suffer from it is because of medication for lowering their blood sugars, though there are some people, me included, who can’t seem to intake sufficient levels of sugar that last for the day, leading them to having low blood sugar, which leads to irregular heart rates, heat flashes, lightheadedness, sweating, anxiety, etc. Both stem from the general same issue but have opposing causes for the illness itself.

            Diabetes in the United States has become a major part of our economy, due to the vast amount of money going into treatment, research, and education, in total contributing roughly 413 billion dollars into our economy. The vast majority of that 413 billion is due to treatment, though there is much more to it. As of 2023 approximately 11.6% of the total us population consisted of diabetics, being 38.4 million people. On top of that there are 1 in every 300 dogs is a diabetic, and one in every 250 cats are diabetic. Today there are 78 million dogs, and about 58 million cats in the US, meaning that about 260 thousand dogs are being treated for diabetes, and 232 thousand cats are being treated as well. Making it one of the most common diseases for man and animal.

            Diabetes is today the 8th highest cause of death in the United States. Following behind heart disease, cancer, accidental injuries, covid, strokes, chronic lung diseases, and Alzheimer’s. This is not a small disease and has a major impact on society as a whole, along with individual families. It is unfortunately for most people something that could mostly be avoided if we would learn to better care for ourselves.

            Our society has had a negative impact on this disease, making it all increasingly common over time. Today we are expected often to keep working and doing certain things that overall are a major drawback on our physical health, in the US eating more than we need has become the norm, and to each less you are looked at as poor. Obesity has become normal, and society is trying to teach us that obese is normal, and perfectly healthy, although it is not a healthy way of living, they tell us not to “body shame” or “discriminate” because of someone’s weight, though we should be teaching people to have a more healthy lifestyle, and focus on better self care. Having a disease such as diabetes is something that can be affected greatly by a mix of dietary habits, along with genetic predisposition.

            Diabetes is something that comes often due to an imbalance in our mental, and physical health. Often times people who overeat sweets, and have habits that lead to this disease, come because they do not have good mental health, so instead of taking better care of themselves, they overeat and lead themselves down a path to having diabetes. Ultimately it is important to have that balance between both body and mind, having both can lead to a better healthier lifestyle, and can help to avoid having such diseases. Letting us be healthy and not have any issues physically in the sense of sugars.