chapter 1 - the diagnosis

Jessica stood their listening to the room full of doctors but she wasn't understanding what they were telling her. It didn't make any sense.

"It is a very, very new form of diabetes Jessica, it's not like other forms. In the preliminary medical literature it's being referred to as Type 6." Doctor Everett explained to her. She still didn't get it though "I don't understand. I was an athlete in college. I am a sponsored ultra-runner and triathlete. I run 60 miles a week, I bike 120 or more miles a week, I am in the gym daily, I swim laps 4 days a week. I maintain a strict whole foods vegetarian diet. People like me do not get diabetes as adults." Jessica argued.

Dr. Everett replied "We understand that. You are right, people that train as hard as you do and maintain as good of a diet as you do, never get traditional adult onset diabetes. It is simply unheard of in disciplined athletes like yourself. However, what you have is not traditional diabetes. It is new, we have only seen a few cases worldwide so far. The few cases we have documented are all young, very fit and athletic women like yourself." Noticing that her hands were starting to shake Dr Everett said "You need to eat something now, you are starting to shake." He handed Jessica a king sized snickers bar.

Dr. Everett continued as Jessica ate the snickers "What we know about this new form of diabetes is that you have extremely high insulin levels coupled with symptoms of extreme hypoglycemia if blood sugar levels are not kept higher than normal. In response, the body has a very high craving for sugar and sugary foods. The much higher insulin levels results in those sugars quickly being metabolized and moved into adipose tissue. As you saw during your last race, as soon as blood sugar levels drop even slightly, even though they are still well above normal, extreme hypoglycemia symptoms manifest and if you do not quickly ingest sufficient amounts of sugar and simple carbs, you risk fainting, going into a coma, and eventual death."

Jessica interjected "There has to be some kind of a treatment".

Dr. Everett responded "We don't have any drugs to treat the condition yet. However, we have developed some nutritional products to sustain you until we can find a pharmacological treatment. Until we have an actual treatment, you will have to consume one of these bars every hour you are awake, and drink this slow release shake 30 minutes before going to bed."

He showed her examples of the bars. At least there were different flavors. He continued "You are just in the early stages. I am afraid it will get much worse. You will soon find you constantly crave sugar and sweets. That is the body telling you what it needs for survival now. It's why we developed these nutrition bars and shakes for the condition."

Jessica asked "So you are saying that I now have a much higher metabolism than normal, hence the reason I need to eat so often?"

Dr. Everett responded "Actually no. One of the symptoms is your actual metabolic rate is lower than normal. Your body doesn't crave all those calories in the form of sugars and simple carbs because it needs the energy. It craves them because it will use them to build more and more adipose tissue and thus quickly depletes glucose levels in the blood as it creates adipose tissue from existing blood glucose."

Jessica worryingly asked "So you are saying I am going to gain weight?"

Dr. Everett replied "Yes, a lot." All the other doctors nodded yes to that statement.