Diabetes

Aug

2014

Cholesterol and Sugar

(PharmacistBen) A very strange cultural myth has somehow become health dogma (defined as an authoritative principle, belief, or statement of ideas or opinion, especially one considered to be absolute truth) despite little definitive evidence to support it. A biochemically ignorant speculation and hypothesis (experiment) that many of us have bought into is that you can poison your body and your body’s cholesterol manufacturing system with cholesterol lowering drugs, and somehow be the better for it.

By David-i98 via Wikipedia Commons

This is very important as millions of Americans (an astounding 1 out 8 or 9 Americans) are on one or another. One out of every 4 adults over the age of 45 is on a statin drug. This, despite the fact, that there are hundreds of studies demonstrating their toxicity and relationship to all kinds of health issues ranging from muscle pain to brain and memory problems. Stain drugs have even been linked to diabetes and cancer; two of top three the leading causes of death.

Cholesterol control is best thought of as sugar control. There’s a reason why diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol go hand in hand. But the thing about diabetes is that the designation of it (or the determination of it) is arbitrary. That’s right! Whether or not you’re officially considered a diabetic is arbitrarily determined by the magic of the medical model and the black magicians who come up with so-called diagnostic standards.

According to the American Diabetes Association, there are three main tests that determine whether or not you’re a diabetic. The A1C test measures blood glucose as an average over the course 2 to 3 months. You’re considered a diabetic if you’re A1C score is greater than 6.5%. The Fasting Blood Glucose test is the second test doctors use to assess diabetes. As the name implies, you have to fast for at least 8 hours before this test, and you’re considered a diabetic if your blood glucose is over 126 mg per dl of blood (which works out to about a teaspoonful of glucose for the entire gallon or so of blood that circulates in the average human body). The third test is called the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test, and that measures blood sugar before and after you drink a super sweet glucose drink. If your blood sugar is over 200 after you take an oral glucose tolerance test, the doctor will pronounce you officially a diabetic.

The problem with these tests is no one really knows just exactly what a healthy or appropriate blood sugar should be. All of these numbers and determinations are based on bell curves, reference values, and statistics. Human beings are individuals. To take care of our health, we have to recognize our specific, individual biochemical nature. To superimpose statistics and bell curves on top of individuals is BAD SCIENCE.

Does it make sense to anyone that if your fasting blood sugar is recorded as 125 mg per dl, you are non-diabetic, but if you’re at 126, all of a sudden you have a disease? If you’re at 125, you can go about your business as usual because you’re healthy. No, our blood sugar is still way too high, and just because the medical model hasn’t officially pronounced us diseased, our sugar chemistry is definitely wacked, and we are most assuredly not healthy.

Pretty much all adults (or at least those who are subsisting on the SAD) can assume that blood sugar control is not good. Dysglycemia is part and parcel of our modern lifestyle and of the aging process. A sure sign that your blood sugar is starting to get thrown off is a pot belly. Do you know ANYONE who doesn’t have a little pooch going on? How many people are able to say their gut is the same size when they’re 40 as when they are 20? High blood pressure is another dysglycemic red flag and, most assuredly, so is elevated blood fats and cholesterol.

Think cholesterol and blood fats, think blood sugar. The best way to lower your cholesterol naturally is to lower blood sugar by eating less food that spikes blood sugar and by eating less food in general. Dysglycemia is a food and eating health issue; it’s not a drug issue. Because elevated blood cholesterol is about dysglycemia, if you want to lower your blood cholesterol, change the way you eat: more protein and less sugar. And EAT MORE FAT, and EAT MORE CHOLESTEROL!! (I know this is contrary to all the conventional crapola that you hear from mainstream lobbyist groups, but they care more about your money than your health.) Organizations (really, big business corporations) like the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association have presided over the biggest increases in heart disease and diabetes IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. When, in fact, the more cholesterol you eat, the less cholesterol your body makes! In other words, cholesterol-containing foods are nature’s non-toxic, healthy statin drugs. Tell that to the next boneheaded medical doctor who warns that you better start taking a toxin that poisons the liver cells so they can’t produce this incredibly important biomolecule!

In addition to consuming cholesterol, using sugar-metabolizing supplements can help. The Chromium and Vanadium in the product Sweet Eaze can help lower blood sugar and can lower blood cholesterol. The Sweet Eaze is like a natural statin drug without the drug toxicity. The B-vitamins are incredibly important for blood sugar metabolism. Beyond Tangy Tangerine is loaded with the B-vitamins. If you’re a diabetic (and remember we all are to some extent), you would be very wise to use some BTT after all sweets as well as starchy meals (bread, pasta, potatoes, etc.). Thiamine is especially important for lowering blood sugar. Niacin is one of the most critical of all nutrients for helping the body process sugar. And not coincidentally, niacin is one of the most important nutrients for the liver, and is just as effective at lowering cholesterol as statin drugs. You’ll get a good dose of niacin in the Beyond Tangy Tangerine, but if you’re seriously concerned about elevated blood cholesterol, you might want to add in a 100mg daily dose of time-release niacin too.

May

2013

Fighting Diabetes With Benfotiamine

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

With 100 million plus diabetics and prediabetics in the U.S., and with all the health issues associated with poor blood sugar control, any fresh information about helpful supplements is always welcome news. That’s why the recent study published by the American Society of Nephrology, which focused on a relatively unknown vitamin, benfotiamine, demonstrating its kidney protecting effects against sugar, is so exciting.

Technically referred to as “glycation”, the damaging effect of glucose on the delicate renal circulatory system has long been regarded as one of the more significant health challenges faced by diabetics. According to the researchers from the nephrology department at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) who published the data, the B-vitamin benfotiamine may be a new weapon against glycation of the kidney and other tissues faced by so many unfortunate Americans.

Actually, it’s not so much a new weapon as it’s a recent twist on an old one. Benfotiamine is a fat-soluble version of vitamin B-1, the old standby nutrient for improving blood sugar health that is better known as thiamin. This slight biochemical modification allows benfotiamine to pass into the bloodstream through the digestive tract with much greater facility.

A study published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology in 1996 found that supplementation with benfotiamine resulted in blood levels 5 times higher than thiamine. Fat-solubility also allows benfotiamine to penetrate into cells more effectively. This may give it greater protective and restorative activities than its water-soluble cousin. Benfotiamine is a component of the allithiamines, a naturally occurring class of vitamins found in the allicin group of vegetables which includes garlic, shallots, onions and leeks.

First synthesized by Japanese scientists in 1962, benfotiamine is the considered the most potent of the allithiamines complex. After some initial excitement, when it was discovered that lab mice were able to tolerate over 20 times the amount of benfotiamine than regular vitamin B-1, enthusiasm for this intriguing nutrient faded. It wasn’t until 2003, when Dr. Michael Brownlee of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine published data that showed that benfotiamine blocked several destructive diabetic biochemical pathways that interest was reignited. Since then, attention to benfotiamine has increased dramatically and it’s now possible to obtain in supplemental form from numerous sources.

What’s even more interesting about thiamine’s fat soluble analogue, is that it’s not just diabetics who may benefit. Based on information gleaned from numerous studies and articles, benfotiamine may be helpful for improving numerous health conditions including sciatica, neuropathy, hypertension, accelerated aging, fibromyalgia, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Benfotiamine is readily available in health food stores and via the internet and though there is no consensus on what’s the perfect daily dose, it’s recognized as safe and non-toxic. I would start off with a dose of 300mg a day and increase as needed until adequate benefits (e.g. blood sugar control, pain relief, improved cognition and memory) are achieved. As always, to achieve maximum B-vitamin benefit, when supplementing with one of the B’s, it’s important to include the entire complex in your nutritional supplement protocol.

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Healthy Body Blood Sugar Pak™ 2.0

May

2013

Vitamin E Is Misunderstood

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Of the six essential vitamins (D, E, A, K, C and the B complex) perhaps none is more misunderstood and unappreciated than Vitamin E. Originally discovered as an anti-sterility factor (tocopherol is Greek for “to bear children”), today Vitamin E is known to provide support for a wide variety of biological systems.

Unfortunately, beneficial levels of this critical fat-soluble nutrient are almost impossible to get from food. The best bets for Vitamin E-containing foods are sunflower seeds, wheat germ oil and rice bran oil. The RDA for Vitamin E is around 22 IU, and according to an article published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, over 93% of Americans don’t even get this minimum amount. This may be one of the main reasons that health issues associated with Vitamin E deficiency are rampant.

For example, according to Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg of Tufts University , numerous studies indicate that Vitamin E can slow down the production of atherosclerotic plaques, a major cause of heart disease which is a major cause of death in this country. And earlier this week, scientists at Ohio State University published research in the journal Stroke that showed that this important nutrient can protect against stroke, a medical emergency which results in oxygen starvation of brain tissue and affects 800,000 people a year.

And there’s more. According to Dr. Patrick Manning, writing in the journal Diabetes Care, “Vitamin E could have a role to play in delaying the onset of diabetes in at-risk individuals”. Diabetes and pre-diabetes currently affect almost 100 million Americans and the numbers are climbing.

Last year, researchers published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed that Vitamin E can provide relief for many of the estimated 10 million patients who suffer from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The author of the study, Dr. Arun J. Sanyal, Chairman of the division of gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition at Virginia Commonwealth University said “This clearly shows that vitamin E is effective for treatment of patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (fatty infiltration of the liver). Other studies indicate that vitamin E can help lower blood cholesterol, improve post workout muscle soreness and help provide relief from inflammatory diseases like arthritis and colitis and help reduce risks of developing cancer.

Vitamin E is available in two different classes, tocopherols and tocotrienols, which are then further divided into four subclasses: alpha, beta, delta and gamma, yielding 8 different forms of the essential nutrient. While most supplements only contain alpha tocopherol, each of the eight subclasses has slightly different biological activities. Thus for maximum benefit it may be wise to supplement with both tocopherols and tocotrienols. Look for the word “mixed” on the label as in mixed tocopherols or mixed tocotrienols. This will assure your ingestion of the full range of tocopherols and tocotrienols for the broadest spectrum of Vitamin E activity. A good daily dose is 400 i.u., although like all fatty vitamins, tocopherols and tocotrienols are stored, so missing a day or two shouldn’t be a problem.

May

2013

Turmeric and Diabetes

One of my favorite medicinal herbs. It’s delicious as a spice or you can just use the capsule or extract. Mix a little bit into you’re favorite night cream to take advantage of it’s anti aging benefits for your skin.

From Wikipedia
Turmeric grows wild in the forests of South and Southeast Asia. It is one of the key ingredients in many Asian dishes. Indian traditional medicine, called Ayurveda, has recommended turmeric in food for its potential medicinal value, which is a topic of active research. Its use as a coloring agent is not of primary value in South Asian cuisine.

Phytochemicals found in turmeric have been investigated in preliminary research for their potential effects on diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, diabetes and other clinical disorders. As an example of such basic research, turmeric reduced the severity of pancreatitis-associated lung injury in mice.

According to one report, research activity into curcumin and turmeric is increasing. The U.S. National Institutes of Health currently has registered 71 clinical trials completed or underway to study use of dietary curcumin for a variety of clinical disorders (dated September 2012).

In a post by Mike Barrett :
Research highlighting turmeric’s powerful health-boosting properties just seems to never cease, with some recent research showing yet again that the super spice can help to prevent diabetes risk thanks to the spice’s active compound curcumin. What’s more, the compound helps to prevent diabetes among those with prediabetes – indicated that extremely high blood sugar levels that could ultimately result in type 2 diabetes. Without a doubt, there is a clear connection between turmeric and diabetes.

Turmeric and Diabetes – Curcumin in Turmeric Fights Diabetes Risk, Even for those with Prediabetes

Published in the journal Diabetes Care, the study involved 240 Thai adults with prediabetes. The participants were divided into 2 groups, with one group taking curcumin capsules containing 250 milligrams of curcuminoids, while the other was given a placebo. After a 9 month period, it was found that 19 individuals of the 116-person placebo group developed type 2 diabetes, while none of the participants of the 199-person curcumin group developed the disease.
Source: Natural Society

May

2013

Diabetes is an Eating Disease

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Surprise, surprise, I’ve been saying this for years! Diabetes is an eating disease.

In an article Titled “Low Calorie Diet Helps in Type 2 Diabetes” by Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today she states ..
Among patients with type 2 diabetes, insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function improved to a similar extent with a very-low-calorie diet as they did after bariatric surgery, a small study showed.

Insulin secretion fell from 13.8 mcIU/mL to 6.8 mcIU/mL (P<0.001) in the diet group, compared with a drop from 23.1 mcIU/mL to 12.7 mcIU/mL (P<0.01) in the bariatric surgery group, Judith Korner, MD, PhD, of Columbia University in New York City, and colleagues reported online in Diabetes.

C-peptide, a measure of beta-cell function, dropped from 3.59 ng/mL to 2.55 ng/mL (P<0.01) in the diet group and from 3.72 ng/mL to 2.95 ng/mL (P<0.05) in the surgery group, they noted.
“Contrary to our expectations, this study demonstrates that Roux-en-Y gastric bypass [RYGB] in subjects with type 2 diabetes does not result in greater improvement in beta-cell function compared with equivalent weight loss achieved over the same period by a very-low-calorie diet,” the authors wrote. “These data indicate that the changes in glucose homeostasis that occur within 2 to 3 weeks after RYGB are primarily due to very low energy intake, as opposed to specific surgically-induced hormonal effects.”
Diabetes is a lifestyle disease. Diabetes is a choice If you choose to have a diabetes, great! God loves you too. But if you don’t, all you need to do is reduce you caloric intake, especially calories derived from processed foods, i.e fast burning carbs, desserts, breads, pastries cakes candies, soda pop etc. Don’t bother with will power. Using protein supplements can make carb reduction easy. Get on the Ketogenic Diet. Use sugar metabolizing supplements chromium vanadium , B-Vitamins (especially thiamine and niacin), magnesium, zinc taurine and choline.