Gut Health

Is the Solution to Diabetes Hiding in Your Gut?

You or someone you love has probably been hit by the diabetes epidemic. You just may not know it yet.

According to the CDC, more than 100 million Americans have Type 2 diabetes or prediabetes… and many of them don’t know it.

In fact, only 11.6% of the 84 million people with prediabetes know they have it…

And that means more than 74 million people are walking around with a hidden blood sugar time bomb.

Prediabetes usually turns into full-blown Type 2 diabetes within five years… but it doesn’t have to.

You can take steps right now to stop prediabetes (if you don’t already have it) and prevent Type 2 diabetes before they cause irreversible damage to your health. And those crucial anti-diabetes steps start in your gut

How Your Gut Microbiome Manages Your Blood Sugar

One of the most important jobs of your gut microbiome (the trillions of bacteria in your gut) involves digestion and metabolism. The bacteria in your gut control:

  • which nutrients your body absorbs
  • when you feel hungry or full
  • how energy is stored in your body
  • how much energy (usually in the form of fat) gets stored
  • whether you gain or lose weight
  • how your body handles blood sugar

In addition to that, beneficial gut bacteria produce a special compound called butyrate, a short chain fatty acid (SCFA). Butyrate plays a vital role in blood sugar management and metabolism, preventing diabetes and obesity. 

Metabolism is the process that converts food into energy.

Your Microbiome Has a Bigger Effect on Blood Sugar

In turns out that your gut microbiome can have an even bigger effect on your blood sugar than the food you eat!

A groundbreaking study found that considering what people ate could accurately predict after-meal blood sugar spikes around 32% to 40% of the time.

But when researchers looked at the specific bacteria in the gut microbiomes of the subjects instead of the meals, they correctly predicted blood sugar response 62% of the time.

The scientists realized that people’s unique gut microbiomes affected their blood sugar levels more than the foods they ate.

That’s why it’s so important to make sure your gut microbiome is in good balance. Because without a healthy microbiome, your body can’t handle blood sugar the right way.

Dysbiosis Leads to Diabetes

When the bad bacteria (pathogens) outnumber the beneficial bacteria (probiotics) in your gut microbiome, it creates a condition called dysbiosis. And when dysbiosis sets in, it increases the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes

So how does dysbiosis cause diabetes and keep it going? Without enough beneficial bacteria in the gut, your microbiome won’t produce enough butyrate to keep blood sugar levels under control. Studies show that people with diabetes have fewer butyrate-producing probiotics in their guts, making it even harder to keep blood sugar in normal ranges

On top of that, bad bacteria have negative effects on your immune and digestive systems. They make it harder for your body to handle sugar (glucose) the right way. (Read more)

The main weapons of pathogens are called lipopolysaccharides, or LPS toxins.

Here’s how dysbiosis leads to