AVA Conference Adelaide 2016

Increasingly, cats are being diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (80% — 95% Type II Feline Diabetes Mellitus — FDM). This presentation explores the role food-type plays in the etiology of this increasingly common problem. The presentation begins with a brief overview of diabetes as a metabolic disease, with varying degrees of declining insulin secretion & sensitivity, leading to its classification as either type I or type II. Recognized risk factors for FDM include age, obesity, gender, inactivity, drugs, systemic disease and genetic predisposition, while diet type is generally a minor consideration. Numerous studies confirm type II DM as a degeneration process involving mitochondria. The relationship between mitochondrial (Mt) function (determining organelle in cellular metabolism), health, diet and FDM is explored. Metabolic and related problems arising from non-evolutionary diets, where the principal energy source is carbohydrate include hyperglycaemia, hyperinsulinaemia (initially), caloric excess, obesity, lipid accumulation, lipid toxicity, inflammatory cytokines and increased ROS and NO production. Each of these is linked to Mt pathology, including Mt biogenesis, Mt morphology, Mt membrane damage, Mt DNA damage and declining oxidative phosphorylation. Each of these pathological changes is further linked to insulin resistance, declining beta cell function and amyloidosis. This sequence of events (pathophysiology of FDM) provides strong evidence for, and explains why, clinical experience favours diets closer to the evolutionary norm to both prevent and treat (all forms of) FDM. This presentation argues against feeding cats with food, where the principal energy source is carbohydrate, and presents the case for evolution-based (genome appropriate) nutrition as the obvious preventative programme and management tool for — all forms — of FDM