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Diabetes Guidelines
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Feeling Fatigued or Irritable? There's a 1 in 4
Chance You Suffer From This Disease...
Much of what you have
probably heard about diabetes from your health care
provider may be incorrect. There is an
enormous amount of misinformation circulating from
seemingly knowledgeable sources about this epidemic
disease.
The vast majority of
diabetics are clueless about how to reverse it, and many
don’t even realize that they can. They believe their
fate has been sealed and all they can do now is
“control” it. More than 50 percent of type 2 diabetics
are also not even aware they have diabetes.
Diabetes rates for both
adults and children are climbing out of control and one
in four Americans either have diabetes or pre-diabetes.
Unfortunately, by following conventional medical advise,
you could be putting yourself on the path toward
life-threatening health problems—and even premature
death.
We are in the Midst of a
Diabetes Epidemic
The latest statistics indicate the U.S. now has up
to 24 million people with diagnosed diabetes, which is 8
percent of our total population. However, the picture is
even grimmer when it comes to the prevalence of
pre-diabetes (impaired fasting glucose).
Almost 26 percent of
U.S. adults over the age of 20 and more than 35 percent
of seniors (age 60 and older) are pre-diabetics. In
total, that’s 57 million Americans walking around with
pre-diabetes, in addition to the 24 million who have
already crossed the line.
That means more than one
in four Americans has either pre-diabetes or the
full-blown disease!
Not only is type 2
diabetes completely preventable, it is usually curable
if you are willing to make some simple, inexpensive
lifestyle adjustments that will restore your insulin and
leptin sensitivity.
Diabetes, Type 1 and Type
2: What’s the Difference?
Diabetes (also known as
diabetes mellitus) is a chronic condition traditionally
marked by high levels of glucose in your blood (high
blood sugar).
Type 1 is called
insulin-dependent diabetes (also known as juvenile onset
diabetes), and Type 2 is called non-insulin-dependent
diabetes (or adult onset diabetes).
Type 1: “Insulin Dependent”
Diabetes
In Type 1 diabetes, your
body’s own immune system destroys the insulin-producing
cells of the pancreas, resulting in a complete
deficiency of the hormone insulin. This
deficiency of insulin is why Type 1 is called
“insulin-dependent”—because more often than not, Type 1
Diabetics must give themselves supplemental insulin.
Type 1 is relatively
uncommon, affecting only about 1 in 250 Americans. It
usually occurs in people before the age of 20. There is
no known cure.
However, recent research
has shown that our preoccupation with sun avoidance may
play a major role in the development of type 1 diabetes.
The further you move away from the equator, the greater
your risk for this disease.
Women can help
reduce their children’s risk of type 1 diabetes by
optimizing their vitamin D levels prior to, and
during their pregnancy as vitamin D has been shown to
suppress certain cells of the immune system that may
play a role in the development of the disorder.
Type 2:
“Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes”
Type 2 diabetes is by
far the more common form of the disease, affecting 90 to
95 percent of diabetics, and is completely preventable
and nearly 100 percent curable.
If you have type 2, your
body is producing some insulin but is unable to
recognize insulin and use it properly. This is an
advanced stage of insulin-resistance.
Since your insulin is
inadequate, sugar can’t get into your cells and instead
builds up in your blood, causing a variety of problems.
This is why diabetics have elevated blood sugar levels.
Symptoms of type 2
diabetes include:
|
Excessive thirst |
Extreme hunger (even
after eating) |
|
Nausea and possible
vomiting |
Unusual weight gain or
loss |
|
Increased fatigue |
Irritability |
|
Blurred vision |
Slow healing of wounds |
|
Frequent infections
(skin, urinary, vaginal) |
Numbness or tingling in
hands and/or feet |
Medications and
supplements are NOT the answer for type 2 diabetes;
restoring your sensitivity to insulin and leptin is
what’s needed.
Diabetes is NOT a Disease
of Blood Sugar
Diabetes is a disease of
insulin and leptin signaling, not a disease of blood
sugar, which is why the medical community’s approach to
its treatment is not getting us anywhere.
In addition to diabetes,
elevated insulin levels are associated with a number of
diseases, including:
Diabetes, like all
chronic disease, results from cellular
miscommunication.
Leptin: Is It the Missing
Link Between Obesity and Diabetes?
Leptin is a hormone
produced in your fat cells.
One of
leptin's primary roles is regulating your appetite
and body weight. It tells your brain when to eat, how
much to eat, and most importantly, when to stop eating.
And leptin tells your brain what to do with the energy
it has. Leptin is largely responsible for the accuracy
of insulin signaling and whether or not you become
insulin resistant.
The only known way to
reestablish proper leptin (and insulin) signaling is
through proper diet.
When your blood sugar
becomes elevated, insulin is released to direct the
extra energy into storage. A small amount is stored as a
starch called glycogen, but the majority is stored as
your main energy supply—fat.
Therefore, insulin's
major role is not to lower your blood sugar, but rather
to store the extra energy for future times of need.
Insulin’s effect of lowering your blood sugar is merely
a “side effect” of this energy storage process.
This is why diabetes
treatments concentrating merely on lowering blood sugar
can actually worsen, rather than remedy the actual
problem of metabolic miscommunication.
Taking insulin is one of
the WORST things you can do for type 2 diabetes, since
it will actually worsen your insulin and leptin
resistance over time.
Fructose—One of the Major
Culprits in Obesity and Diabetes
The presence of massive
amounts of fructose in today’s Western diet is a driving
force behind our diabetes epidemic.
Regular table sugar is
50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose, and
the two are metabolized very differently. Nearly
every cell in your body was designed to use glucose for
energy—especially your brain cells—but fructose breaks
down into a variety of toxins that can have devastating
effects on your health.
Fructose has the
following adverse metabolic effects:
- Fructose does not
stimulate a rise in leptin, so your satiety signals
are suppressed.
- Fructose raises
your insulin and your triglycerides, which
effectively reduces the amount of leptin crossing
your blood-brain barrier. This interferes with the
communication between leptin and your hypothalamus.
Your brain senses starvation and prompts you to eat
more.
- Fructose does not
suppress
ghrelin like glucose does. Ghrelin is the
“hunger hormone,” making you want more food.
All of this also sets
the stage for overindulgence and hence overweight,
placing you on the path toward diabetes.
I strongly advise
keeping your total fructose consumption below 25 grams
per day.
However, it would be
wise for most people to limit fructose to 15 grams or
less as it is virtually guaranteed you will be getting
“hidden” sources of fructose from just about any
processed food you eat.
This includes fruits,
which also need to be carefully measured to make certain
that you’re not inadvertently going over the fructose
limit. For a helpful chart listing the fructose content
of several common fruits, please see this
previous article.
Diabetes Drugs Miss the
Mark, and are Dangerous
Regardless of what you
may have heard, you cannot successfully treat the
underlying cause of diabetes with drugs.
For example, consider
Avandia.
Avandia works by making
diabetes patients more sensitive to their own insulin,
helping to control blood sugar levels. In fact, most
conventional treatments for type 2 diabetes utilize
drugs that either raise insulin or lower blood sugar.
Avandia, for example, reduces your blood sugar by
increasing the sensitivity of your liver, fat and muscle
cells to insulin.
The problem is, diabetes
is not a blood sugar disease, as I have already
explained. So, drugs that focus on the symptom
of elevated blood sugar, rather than addressing the
underlying cause, are doomed to fail in most cases.
Not only that, but drugs
like Avandia have dangerous side effects, including
causing
extensive heart problems that have killed literally
thousands of people. In fact, Avandia has been linked to
a
43 percent increased risk of heart attack and a 64
percent higher risk of cardiovascular death compared to
patients treated with other methods!
The good news?
Nearly 100 percent
of type 2 diabetics can be successfully cured without
medications.
Preventing or Reversing
Diabetes in Six Simple Steps
Here are my top six
actions to take for increasing your insulin and leptin
sensitivity, thus reducing your chances for developing
diabetes—or reversing it if you already have the
disease:
- Exercise
Exercise is an
absolutely essential factor, and without it, you’re
unlikely to get this devastating disease under
control. It is one of the fastest and most powerful
ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance.
If you’re unsure of
how to get started, I recommend
reviewing my exercise program for tips and
guidelines. It is also critical to work your way up
to include some
Peak 8 exercises.
- Eliminate Grains
and Sugars, Especially Fructose
A large reason for
the failure of conventional diabetes treatment over
the last 50 years has to do with seriously flawed
dietary recommendations.
Fructose and grains are largely responsible for your
body’s adverse insulin reactions.
You will want to
eliminate ALL sugars and grains—even “healthful”
grains such as whole, organic or sprouted ones. This
means avoiding all breads, pasta, cereals, rice,
potatoes, and corn (which is in fact a grain).
You might even need
to avoid fruits until your blood sugar is under
control.
- Eat Right for Your
Nutritional Type
Exercising and
avoiding grains and sugars might not be enough
unless you balance your protein, carbohydrate and
fat ratios for your specific genetic biochemistry.
The first step is finding out your
nutritional type, which then gives you
information about your optimal
protein/carbohydrate/fat ratio. I now offer the
full nutritional typing program for FREE, so you
can get started today!
- Monitor Your
Fasting Insulin Level
This is every bit as
important as your fasting blood sugar. You’ll want
your fasting insulin level to be between 2 and 4.
The higher your level, the worse your insulin
sensitivity is.
- Optimize Your
Vitamin D
Interestingly,
optimizing your vitamin D levels not only treats
type 2 diabetes but as already mentioned, can
virtually
eliminate your children's risk for type 1 diabetes
if you are pregnant. It’s also vital for infants to
receive the appropriate amounts of vitamin D in
their early years for the same reason.
Ideally, you’ll want
to do this by exposing a large amount of your skin
to
appropriate amounts of sunshine (or a
safe tanning bed) on a regular basis,
year-round. Your body can safely create up to 20,000
units of vitamin D a day by direct UV exposure. If
you are not getting regular sun exposure on large
amounts of your skin you may need anywhere from 5 to
20,000 units of oral vitamin D3 per day.
However, if neither
of these options is available, you may want to use
an oral vitamin D3 supplement. But remember, if you
choose to take an oral supplement, it’s essential
that you get your
level tested regularly by a proficient lab to
make sure it’s in the therapeutic range, which is 60
to 80 ng/ml.
- Probiotics
Your gut is a living
ecosystem, full of both good bacteria and bad.
Multiple studies
have shown that
obese people have different intestinal bacteria than
lean people. The more good bacteria you have,
the stronger your immune system will be and the
better your body will function overall.
Fortunately,
optimizing your gut flora is relatively easy. You
can reseed your body with good bacteria by eating
fermented foods (like natto, raw organic cheese,
miso, and cultured vegetables) or by taking a high
quality probiotic supplement.
For Further Information
This is just a brief
overview of the causes, prevention, and treatment of
diabetes.
Over the years, I have
posted many articles that go into far greater detail on
this subject. Below you will find a list of these
articles, and I encourage you to do some further
reading. Knowledge is power, and with that you can arm
yourself against ignorance and misinformation—bringing
you one step closer to taking charge of your health.
Diabetes Articles/Links:
What You Know About
Diabetes May Be All Wrong
The Fructose/Uric
Acid/Diabetes Connection
How Probiotics Can Help
Diabetics
Vitamin D Against
Diabetes
The Benefits of
Exercise
Choose Slow Carb Foods
to Control Diabetes
How Diabetic Drugs Can
Make Your Diabetes Worse and Further Endanger Your Health
More Articles:
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