Baby Boomer Aging, Diet, Stress Create A ‘Diabetes Perfect Storm’

Baby Boomer Aging, Diet, Stress

Chromium needed to prevent Type 2 tidal wave among 45+ crowd, “Boomers” consider three diabetes triggers.

Chicago, Illinois, September 8, 2006 – 50% of all diabetes diagnoses occur at age 55 or older, according to American Diabetes Association statistics.

Most recent studies keep finding, that baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) this health fact gains increased significance with each passing year.

Not just because the probable risk for diabetes gets closer to home with every added candle on the cake.

But because current ADA statistics may seriously understate the personal chances (as opposed to historically-based odds) of Type 2 diagnoses.

Why?

Consider these three diabetes triggers:

• Aging: The older people get, in general, the more sedentary their lifestyle. The less active they are, the more they become overweight or obese – a prime diabetes trigger. Also, as individual’s age, their ability to absorb critical trice minerals, such as chromium (which combines with niacin to form GTF, working with insulin for efficient glucose control) dwindles.
• Diet: Unlike their parents, forty- and fifty-something boomers were raised, since childhood, on a ‘Western diet’ of highly processed, highly sugared products – Twinkies, Coca-Cola, Wonder Bread, Fruit Loops and others, filled with high fructose sweeteners and processed flour. These two ingredients, over time, not only build up calories, but actually deplete chromium (a necessary trace element that helps control healthy blood sugar levels). Scientists estimate that chromium deficiencies can take from 10-40 years to manifest themselves as glucose intolerance (resulting in Type 2 diabetes).
• Stress: Another diabetes trigger, stress, is the new normal among dual-income, career-oriented, post 9/11 fast-track boomers, which adds another chromium diminishing factor to the statistical calculation of diabetes incidence.

Everyone ages, but the baby boomer generation is the first with the added complications of largely processed food diets and prolonged, sustained anxiety, reaching the milestone 55 year mark – the right conditions for a diabetes perfect storm.

According to John H. Olwin, MD, Professor of Surgery, Emeritus, Rush Medical College in Chicago, the results will soon be obvious to baby boomers:

“Sugar supplies 25% of total calories consumed by the average American diet. The major source of carbohydrates (today) is from refined white flour. White flour may cause depletion of body chromium, just as does the refined sugar. An estimated 50-90% of Americans fail to ingest the required daily allowance of chromium recommended by the National Research Council. Dietary awareness with regard to the effect of insufficient dietary chromium is bound to affect, beneficially, the growing number of individuals with Type 2 diabetes.”

Reversing Chromium Depletion

Olwin further stresses that although the gestation period of chromium depletion can take decades before triggering a diabetic reaction, he adds that “the condition can be reversed very quickly when adequate chromium is added to the diet.”

Natural sources of chromium include brewer’s yeast, cheese, liver and whole grains.

But daily intake of chromium through foods like these is not enough to overcome the effect of 40-year diets of Twinkies and Wonder Bread.

Kevin Rourke, author of Consumers Turning to Natural Supplements to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes, published in Natural Products Insider, addresses the increased popularity of supplements.

He states “chromium (supplementation) is by far the most important mineral for anyone dealing with blood sugar issues.”

Available  as chromium chloride, picolinate and others, consumers have many chromium supplement choices, with an equally wide range of effectiveness.

Based on recent studies conducted at Harvard and Georgetown Medical Centers, chromemate (a niacin-bound form of chromium) may be the most effective.

Clinical studies show that chromemate’s higher absorption levels (up to 600% more absorptive than chloride or picolinate forms of chromium), and it’s ability to reduce body fat, may make this specific type best suited for addressing chromium deficiencies that can trigger a diabetic reaction.

Regardless of the type used, chromium both in natural and supplementary form, may help to stave off the baby boomer diabetic perfect storm.

About Proven Results Health  (http://www.ProvenResultsHealth.com)

Proven Results Health is a leading provider of all natural, clinically-proven supplements for Diabetics, that promote healthy blood sugar levels and weight loss.