Diabetes: The Ice Age Code We Still Carry

When I was younger, long before I knew the word diabetes, my body was already whispering the secret.
I ran hot.
I sweated through shirts.
And when winter came, I felt alive. Cold air calmed me, like I was built for it.

Years later, I learned I had diabetes. At first, I saw it as a curse. But what if it isn’t?
What if it’s an echo of an ancient survival code—one written in Ice Age blood?

—

The Neanderthal Legacy in Our Veins

Most people of European or Asian ancestry carry a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA.
That’s not just trivia—it’s biology that still shapes us today.

Neanderthals thrived in harsh winters where food was scarce and plants were seasonal.
When summer ended, berries, roots, and tubers disappeared.
The tribe survived on meat, fat, and marrow.

In those months, their bodies adapted.
High fat and protein meant insulin worked differently.
Blood sugar stayed higher, not lower.
What we call “insulin resistance” today may have been a winter survival switch back then.

—

But Wait—Isn’t Diabetes About Sugar?

Here’s where many people get tripped up. They assume diabetes only comes from eating sugar, soda, and sweets.

But here’s the hidden mechanism:
When your diet is very high in animal fat and protein, especially saturated fat, it makes your cells less sensitive to insulin.
That means even normal amounts of glucose stay in the bloodstream instead of moving into cells.
Result: higher blood sugar levels, even without donuts or soda.

In the Ice Age, this wasn’t a problem.
That mild insulin resistance was useful: more glucose in the blood meant more quick-burning fuel to stay warm in brutal cold.
But today, combine that same mechanism with processed food and constant animal fat, and you get chronic diabetes.

Some researchers call this the thrifty gene hypothesis.
The very genes that once helped us store fat and run hot in the cold now work against us in a world of year-round abundance.

—

Seasonal Diabetes: The Winter Code

Think about it.
Extra glucose in the blood meant quick fuel to generate heat.
Extra fat storage meant insulation against the cold.
Running hot, sweating, and craving the cold wasn’t dysfunction—it was adaptation.

In spring, when plants came back, the cycle reset.
Carbs from roots and berries balanced the system.
The winter switch turned off.

But here’s the catch: we don’t live in cycles anymore.
We live in permanent winter feasts—meat, fat, soda, pastries, sugar, all year long.
The switch stays stuck on.
What once saved us now shows up as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and metabolic disease.

—

From Pathology to Archaeology

So when I sweat easily, run hot, and crave cold air, I see it differently now.
I’m not broken.
I’m carrying the Winter Code—a genetic memory of how my ancestors survived when the world froze.

Diabetes may be a modern burden, yes. But it’s also proof of resilience.
Proof that survival once demanded a different kind of metabolism.
Proof that my body is wired for Ice Age winters, not fluorescent grocery aisles.

This isn’t pathology.
It’s archaeology.

Our biology carries stories older than language.
I write to decode those stories and connect them with the challenges we face today.
Follow along if you’re curious where these threads might lead.

Source link