Posts Tagged diabetes

… seems very reliable. It may become really useful as it will enable people to show their risk of diabetes before the symptoms set in, so they can take preventative measures early, possibly …

The Pima Indians are natives of Mexico who live a very rustic lifestyle, without electricity and running water and often walking long distances to get drinking water or to wash clothes. This Indian culture works hard for their food as they cultivate corn, beans, potatoes, squash and other fruits and vegetables.

Another group of Pima Indians decided to move to Arizona many years ago and have become the subjects of ongoing studies into diabetes and obesity. Unlike their relatives across the border for whom obesity and diabetes is rare, most of the Arizona Pimas suffer with type II diabetes and 70% are obese. This has been entirely attributed to their adoption of the standard American lifestyle.

What Role Does Genetics Play?

The Pimas have genetics that predispose them to diabetes and obesity. However, given the difference between the Mexican Pimas and the Arizona Pimas, clearly the more important factor is lifestyle. This is demonstrated when researchers put the Arizona Prima on a more traditional diet and lifestyle and found that they lost significant amounts of weight.

What Causes Diabetes??

This question has been answered in the research literature. According to the U.S. Government’s Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of the individuals who had diabetes 69% did not exercise at all, 62% ate few vegetables or fruits, 65% consumed 30% of their daily calories from fat (10% from saturated fat) and 82% were significantly  overweight or obese.

The answer to the great question “what causes type II diabetes” is “Our Choices”! For the most part; type II diabetes is optional.

Diabetes mellitus comes from the Greek words which translates to “siphon” and “sweet”. Many years ago, before the development of blood glucose tests, physicians would taste the urine of symptomatic patients to diagnose diabetes. If diabetic, the patient’s body would spill glucose into the urine giving it the signature sweet taste from which its name comes.

There are two types of diabetes: type I diabetes, also known as insulin dependant diabetes and type II diabetes which is also called non-insulin dependant diabetes. Because it is now common practice to place type II diabetics on insulin the “insulin dependant” and “non-insulin dependant” terminology has become outdated and should not be used. In this section we will discuss type II diabetes, the current medications for its treatment and the natural alternatives to these medications.

The most common symptoms that diabetics will first present with include increased hunger, increased thirst and increased urination. All of these symptoms occur because the glucose that floats through the blood is not being taken into the cells of the body where it can be properly used for metabolism. This excess glucose then causes various symptoms such as those described above.

Although type II diabetes can run in families, genetics only comes into play when someone has a poor lifestyle. If you have close family members who have been diagnosed with diabetes, this does not mean that you will absolutely develop diabetes. Research into a group of Mexican natives called the Pima Indians has shed some light on this issue. Pima people who live in a rustic manner, planting and gathering their own food while keeping active in everyday chores live almost entirely free of diabetes and obesity. The Pimas who move to Arizona and adopt the Standard American Diet have an extremely high incidence of obesity and almost 70% are diabetic. See our article on the Pimas in our Learning Center for more details. In the majority of the population, diabetes is related to lifesyle, while genetics only play a supportive role.

So, what makes diabetes such a dangerous condition? Diabetes is a condition that magnifies and potentiates every other condition from heart disease to aging. This means that when you develop diabetes, you age at an alarming rate which speeds the rate at which you develop heart disease, nerve damage, obesity, eye degeneration, etc. Pre-diabetes and diabetes are the leading cause of elevated cholesterol and blood pressure. If we could erradicated pre-diabetes and diabetes, we would likely put many drug companies out of business who sell blood pressure and cholesterol medications.

So what is the secret to curing diabetes? To understand this, not so magical secret, let’s take a step over to our common sense corner. Diabetes is diagnosed when blood sugar is elevated to a certain point for a period of time. Although diabetes is a complicated condition that is characterized by a severe imbalance in a number of hormones and enzymes, when all is said and done it comes down to too much sugar in the blood. Thus, it doesn’t take much thinking effort to realize that we need to decrease the amount of sugar that enters or stays in the blood. There are two ways to achieve this: first, decrease the amount of sugar that enters our system through carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice, cake, candy, etc. Cut the carbs! Second, by burning up the sugar that is stored in our system through activity and exercise. If we do this, eighty percent of the battle is won.

Notice that medications did not make the list for a diabetes cure. Not only do medications not cure diabetes, they may actually speed your path to the grave. Unfortunately, I can not explain why this is the case without first giving you a little scientific background about sugar metabolism. Insulin is a hormone produced by the body which carries sugar into the cells. Without insulin, sugar could not enter the cell and the cells would die from lack of fuel. Insulin is designed to be produced in small amounts within the body and is quickly cleared from the blood as sugar levels go back to normal. In an ideal world, we would eat a little bit of sugar and a little bit of insulin would be produced in response. This happens naturally when we eat “natural” foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Nobody ever developed diabetes by eating fruits and vegetables? Whole foods such as fruits, vegetables and ture whole grains are mostly fiber and water and naturally low in carbohydrates. When a grain is refined, the fiber is removed leaving the calorie dense material. This calorie dense material is then ground into a fine powder and baked with sugar and oil to produce baked goods, cereals and breads. This process leaves a tasty product that contains tons of calories and is nearly devoid of nutrients. diabetes occurs when sugar enters your blood at a rate that is higher than your body can handle. When sugar spikes in the blood, a hormone called insulin spikes as well and carries the sugar into the cell. After a certain point, the cell can not handle the sugar load and then causes

Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, June 22, 2006

The researchers tracked over 3000 non-diabetic study participants through the 70s, 80, and 90s and followed for an additional 8 years for new cases of diabetes. Between the 70s and 80s, the chances of getting diabetes increased by 40% while between 70s and 90s, they doubled. Between the 70s and 90s, women’s incidence of developing diabetes increased 84%, while men’s new cases more than doubled.

The researchers did not assess the effect of exercise or diet in the study, but they did measure BMI (body mass index), which has been increasing steadily in time, with most incidences of diabetes among those with the highest BMI. (Summary by Kasia Kines, MS, CN, CNS, LDN)

Dr. Ray Hinish’s Comments:

So diabetes is increasing in our society, this is certainly not news to us and I assure you that most health care providers do not need a study to alert them to this fact. We could have saved a lot of money and just looked at the sale of diabetes medications. While we are at it we could get an even better idea by looking at the sale of medications for heart disease, hypertension, nerve damage (neuropathy) & antibiotic use. All of these medications will increase with the incidence of diabetes. So now what? Now we need to prescribe a dose of honesty to ourselves and realize that we have more medications to treat diabetes than we ever have and the incidence continues to rise. Medical experts will say, “yeah, but people are getting older…” as if diabetes is perfectly in line with the normal course of aging. We must realize that diabetes is very preventable, it is not a part of normal aging, and we must change our methods of treating it. More importantly we must do more to prevent it in the first place. We can start by removing the blinders! Check our articles section for articles on how to beat diabetes.

Researchers looked at the blood tests of 3,289 Chinese subjects between the ages of 50 and 70. A blood test called serum ferritin, a measure of stored iron, was determined to be an independent risk factor for metabolic syndrome and diabetes. In fact, the group who had the highest ferritin level was more than 300 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and nearly 300 percent more likely to develop metabolic syndrome. This connection held even when the study controlled for other potential risk factors such as obesity, markers of inflammation, adipokines and other risk factors.
(Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2008; 93(12): 4690-4696.)

Dr. Ray’s Notes:
First, it is unlikely that iron overload is the primary cause of metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Clearly, the most prevalent cause of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome is a diet full of refined carbohydrates and a lifestyle devoid of activity. With that said, it is interesting to see how other factors that are not normally associated with diabetes may in fact play a role with insulin resistance and blood sugar control. Iron overload can cause problems for the body by causing the production of high levels of free radicals, basically leading to a “rusting” of the cells. This rusting effect may cause important receptors, such as insulin receptors, to lose function. If you suspect metabolic syndrome or suffer with diabetes, it may be helpful for to have your doctor order a test for ferritin to determine if you have an issue with iron overload.

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