The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus has been on the rise throughout the 21st Century according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with the latest figures reflecting that 8.9% of the US population – a whopping 29.7 million Americans of all ages – have been diagnosed with the condition. Despite decades of research and heightened public awareness, efforts toward the prevention of diabetes by the medical establishment have been powerless to reverse the upward trend.
Learn about type 2 diabetes, its primary causes, and how NAD IV therapy can help to mitigate some of its most deadly threats to human health.
What is Type 2 Diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder caused by lifestyle factors. When you eat carbohydrate foods, your body breaks them down during digestion into your cells’ usable form of sugar – glucose. Glucose is your body’s preferred energy substrate, converted in your cells’ mitochondria to ATP, the energy molecule.
Glucose utilization is mediated by insulin released from your pancreas. When you eat carbohydrates, your brain signals your pancreas to release insulin into your bloodstream. Insulin is the key that unlocks the door to your cells, allowing glucose to enter. People with type one diabetes are born with a limited capacity to produce insulin, and must rely on insulin injections to manage their blood glucose levels.
Glucose is stored in your muscle cells and liver in the form of glycogen, ready to meet energy demands at a moment’s notice. But your cells and liver have a limited capacity to store excess glucose. Once cells are full to capacity, they become insulin-resistant, preventing glucose molecules from entering.
Low-grade chronic systemic inflammation is often referred to as a silent killer because of its gradual onset. Most people are not aware of the problem until it begins to manifest as a serious health threat. According to one report, chronic inflammation is the underlying cause of 3 out of 5 deaths worldwide.
When carbohydrate consumption exceeds your body’s energy needs, your circulating blood glucose levels become elevated. People who are sedentary and consume more energy than they use develop chronic high blood sugar – a condition called type 2 diabetes. Over time, elevated blood glucose can lead to peripheral nerve damage, kidney disease, and damage to the mitochondria.
The good news is that type 2 diabetes is completely reversible with certain interventions and lifestyle changes.
Inflammation, Mitochondrial Damage and NAD+ in Diabetes
Chronic systemic inflammation is a characteristic of type 2 diabetes and a driver of metabolic disorders like hypertension, heart disease and stroke. Inflammation is your immune system’s response to metabolic threats, including excess glucose. One of the most threatening consequences of chronic inflammation is its effect on mitochondrial function.
Mitochondria are the “energy factories” found within every cell in your body, where fats and carbohydrates are converted to ATP. Mitochondria are highly sensitive to energy demands. Athletes and physically active people with high energy demands develop larger and greater numbes of mitochondria. By contrast, physical inactivity shrinks mitochondria and impedes glucose metabolism, causing sugar to accumulate in your cells and bloodstream.
One of the biochemical abnormalities in diabetes is a reduced level of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). NAD+ is a coenzyme present in all cells, responsible for mitochondrial function and DNA repair. Your body synthesizes NAD+ from dietary precursors derived from niacin (Vitamin B3). Diabetes dysregulates NAD metabolism, impairing its ability to support and protect mitochondrial function.
Chronic inflammation is closely associated with mitochondrial damage. In people whose cells are already insulin-resistant due to high blood sugar, damage to mitochondria can worsen the problem by impairing the cell’s ability to convert stored glucose into ATP.
Reduced mitochondrial function combined with low levels of NAD+ and lack of physical activity is a recipe for Type 2 diabetes and its associated metabolic disorders.
Diabetes and Kidney Disease
Inflammation has also been cited as a significant factor in type 2 diabetic kidney disease. According to one study, type 2 diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease in the United States. When researchers treated diabetic laboratory mice with nicotinamide riboside (NR), a precursor to NAD, several manifestations of kidney dysfunction were prevented.
The kidneys are rich in mitochondria, where NAD+ is considered as a critical cofactor for turning glucose into energy. Diabetic kidney disease is known to cause mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Researchers believe that supplementing with NAD+ can be beneficial in reducing the risk of diabetic kidney disease and mitigating its damage to mitochondria.
Type 2 Diabetes Prevention
Making healthy lifestyle choices is key to the prevention of diabetes. For people who grew up with a high carbohydrate diet full of fast and processed foods, lifestyle changes can be a huge challenge. But if you want to live a long life free of disease and disability, you have no other choice. There is no doctor or medicine in the world that can offset the damage caused by bad habits
Lifestyle behaviors for the prevention of diabetes:
- Avoid overeating – stop before you feel full.
- Give up sugary drinks like soda and juice, and replace them with plenty of plain filtered water.
- Steer clear of fast foods and prepare meals at home – it will save you money and improve your health!
- Shop the perimeter of the grocery store for fresh foods, and avoid all processed foods.
- Exercise daily – just walking for 30 minutes is enough to deplete glucose stores and improve insulin sensitivity. Adding weight training will dramatically improve insulin sensitivity because of its high glucose energy demand.
- Take supplements to offset nutrient deficiencies if necessary. Regular NAD+ IV therapy can be a powerful tool to enhance mitochondrial function, increase insulin sensitivity and reduce your risk of diabetic kidney disease.
Adopting healthy lifestyle behaviors will not only help prevent type 2 diabetes – it can completely reverse it. Exercise coupled with a whole-foods diet and NAD IV therapy can help to lower blood sugar levels and set you on the path to better health.
NAD+ IV Therapy for Diabetes Treatment in NYC
Making lifestyle changes is not easy, and even when you change your diet, it can be hard to get all the nutrients you need to support your mitochondria and ward off inflammation and diabetes, especially if you’re trying to lose weight. NAD+ is a nutrient and not a drug, so there are no risky side effects, and you don’t need a medical prescription to leverage its health benefits.
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InVita Wellness offers NAD IV therapy, along with a host of other nutrient therapies and cryotherapy, to support your healthy lifestyle. Contact us today, and get the nutritional support you need to prevent diabetes and live your best life.
Resources
Chandrasekaran, Krish, et al. “NAD+ Precursors Repair Mitochondrial Function in Diabetes and Prevent Experimental Diabetic Neuropathy.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences 23.9 (2022): 4887
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35563288/
Fan, Lan, Jose M. Cacicedo, and Yasuo Ido. “Impaired nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) metabolism in diabetes and diabetic tissues: Implications for nicotinamide‐related compound treatment.” Journal of Diabetes Investigation 11.6 (2020): 1403-1419.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7610120/
Myakala, Komuraiah, et al. “NAD metabolism modulates inflammation and mitochondria function in diabetic kidney disease.” Journal of Biological Chemistry 299.8 (2023).
https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(23)02003-3/fulltext
Xu, Jing, Munehiro Kitada, and Daisuke Koya. “NAD+ homeostasis in diabetic kidney disease.” Frontiers in Medicine (2021): 1176.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.703076/full
