People often ask how do I make the connections that I do. 

If you understand inflammation and you understand type 2 diabetes - then you understand all the health problems associated with them and can make the connections. 

Therefore - I like to point out the different symptoms.

Remember that pre type 2 diabetes is also called Syndrome X and Metabolic Syndrome. 

Type 2 diabetes is not something where one day you don't have it and the next day you do.  It usually takes decades. 

For some people - it may only take 20 years.  For others it could be 40, 50, 60, or 70 years before they catch it. 

Note that back in my grandparents generation - it was a senior citizens disease and considered just a part of getting old. 

Today - you have kids graduating high school with type 2 diabetes. 

Consider "pre" type 2 diabetes / Syndrome X / Metabolic Syndrome the half way point to full blown type 2 diabetes.  At this stage you can reverse most of the health problems - but most people ignore them. 

So what are the symptoms?

I plan to list the symptoms as defined in several different sources.  See how many you see in yourself, members of your family, and friends.

Since Dr Atkins is considered the highest authority on treating this condition - I thought I would start with him. 

Dr Robert C Atkins in his book "Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution", Copyright 1992, 1999, Second Hardcover Edition, ISBN 0-87131-886-5.

It figures.  I thought his book would be an easy list - but its not.

Chapter 3, starting on page 28 he asks - "Is This You?"

Group A

• Are you overweight despite the fact that you don't eat that much?
• Do you follow standard weight loss diets and still make no headway losing weight or get stuck far short of your goal?
• Have you noticed that slim people definitely consume more food and more daily calories than you do?
• Are you just plain unpleasantly hungry on low calorie diets?
• Do you find the amount of food you eat is really the least you can take in without feeling physically unsatisfied?
• Do you feel a sense of unfulfillment when you eat a normal meal?
• Do you find that when you eat the amount of food that feels just right, you don't lose - or you even gain?
• Have you often said, "I'm really very disciplined, it must be my metabolism"?

Group B

• Do you have an inexplicable obsession with food?
• A habit of night eating?
• A tendency to binge?
• A craving for such carbohydrate foods as sweets, pastas, potatoes, french fries, rice, and breads?
• Do you nibble all day long when food is available?
• A strong desire to eat again shortly after you've eaten to fullness?
• Do you consider yourself a compulsive eater? Have you ever said "I only wish I could control my eating behavior"?
• Do you have specific symptoms of ill health, such as the ones I'm about to list, that lessen or vanish as soon as you eat?  Do you suffer:
• Irritability?
• Inexplicable drops in your strength and stamina at various times throughout the day - often overwhelming bouts of fatigue, especially in the afternoon (for example are you sometimes really tired a couple of hours after a large lunch)?
• Mood swings?
• Difficulty in concentrating or focusing?  ADD?
• Sleep difficulties - often a need for considerable quantities of sleep, waking up and moving to the couch, waking up around 3 AM?
• Anxiety, sadness, and depression for which there's no situational explanation? Are you usually stressed?
• Dizziness, trembling, palpitations?
• Brain fog and loss of mental acuity?

Group C

• Do you have a single food or beverage you feel you could not do without?
• Would you pass up an elegant meal to get your favorite food?
• Is there a specific food or beverage that makes you feel better as soon as you get it?
• Do you ever think "I wonder if I could be addicted to that food or beverage"?
• Do you feel this way about a category of foods? (Sweets, soft drinks, dairy products, grains, pastas, breads, etc)

I thought that It would be more a list of symptoms - but Dr Atkins took a different approach here.  Note that I did edit his list a little bit. 

I will do similar extracts from other books - and soon you will see a pattern emerge. 

When I first read a book that listed symptoms (obviously not this book) - they jumped out at me like - my god - that is me they are describing!

I need to find THAT book!