April 7th is celebrated throughout the world as Health Day.

In iNews Cayman we have deliberately featured a number of articles on health. The most alarming one is obesity. Followed by diabetes and both are linked.

Premier Alden McLaughlin highlighted diabetes in his World Health Day Message giving this somber projection – the World Health Organization (WHO) says diabetes will become the world’s 7th leading cause of death by 2030. So their theme this year is “Halt the Rise: Beat Diabetes”.

He also mentions the link between diabetes and obesity saying it is a lifestyle disease and “in some cases it is preventable”. He mentions “maintaining normal body weight, engaging in regular physical activity and eating a healthy and balanced diet.”

In our article on obesity today it headlines this staggering FACT. Yes a FACT. Not a projection – MORE OBESE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD THAN UNDERWEIGHT, SAYS STUDY!!

In men it has tripled from 1975 to 2014 and in women it has doubled.

Prof Ezzati (lead author of the study published in The Lancet) said: “Our research has shown that over 40 years we have transitioned from a world in which underweight prevalence was more than double that of obesity, to one in which more people are obese than underweight.”

“Unless we make healthy food options like fresh fruits and vegetables affordable for everyone and increase the price of unhealthy processed foods, the situation is unlikely to change,” he added.

A study published on February 23rd 3015 by Nature Medicine based on findings from Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, discovered that the inflammatory molecule LTB4 promotes insulin resistance, a first step in developing type 2 diabetes. What’s more, the team found that genetically removing the cell receptor that responds to LTB4, or blocking it with a drug, improves insulin sensitivity in obese mice.

“This study is important because it reveals a root cause of type 2 diabetes,” said Jerrold M. Olefsky, MD, professor of medicine, associate dean for scientific affairs and senior author of the study. “And now that we understand that LTB4 is the inflammatory factor causing insulin resistance, we can inhibit it to break the link between obesity and diabetes.”

Here’s what’s happening in obesity, according to Olefsky’s study. Extra fat, particularly in the liver, activates resident macrophages, the immune cells living there. These macrophages then do what they’re supposed to do when activated — release LTB4 and other immune signaling molecules to call up an influx of new macrophages. Then, in a positive feedback loop, the newly arriving macrophages also get activated and release even more LTB4 in the liver.

This inflammatory response would be a good thing if the body was fighting off an infection. But when inflammation is chronic, as is the case in obesity, all of this extra LTB4 starts activating other cells, too. Like macrophages, nearby liver, fat and muscle cells also have LTB4 receptors on their cell surfaces and are activated when LTB4 binds them. Now, in obesity, those cells become inflamed as well, rendering them resistant to insulin.

SOURCE: http://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2015-02-23-type-2-diabetes-and-obesity-molecular-link.aspx

Therefore if we cut down on eating and drinking and exercise regularly we stand a better chance of not being smitten with diabetes. And being a diabetic will change your lifestyle forever. And not for the better.

You have been warned.