I’ve wanted to write this post for a while now and when I read the news about the TV chef and cookbook author Paula Deen today announcing that she has type 2 diabetes and became the spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, I said: enough is enough!
Apparently, Paula Deen has had diabetes for 3 years now, but she didn’t make it public until now. Considering that the recipes of her TV show are full of high fat and calorie foods, one might think, she should have said something before and maybe started reeducating her audience with better and healthier food choices, instead of continuing being part of the problem by encouraging people to cook such hyper-caloric meals.
As many doctors and scientists affirm, diet is one of the leading causes of diabetes (clic that link to know other 21 possible causes of diabetes), so being diabetic and keeping cooking that way on her TV show may have been a bit contradictory or unethical. The worst of all, as she said live on TV, is that she’s not going to change the way she cooks on her shows.
Her show and popularity would be a great opportunity for her to help many people make better food choices. However, she seems to ignore that possibility or maybe she has already been brainwashed by big pharmaceutical companies. By the way, as spokesperson of Novo Nordisk (a pharmaceutical company that makes a non-insulin injectable diabetes drug) she is getting paid probably millions to spread the word about this medication, so no wonder that her “sponsors” want to keep the diabetic-making machine at top speed.
Why is it that as soon as celebrities announce that they have diabetes they are already spokesperson for some pharmaceutical company? Of course, for those companies, having a popular person, respected and followed by millions, making propaganda for their products helps hiding the possible negative effects of those drugs and make them seem normal, useful, necessary and good. The return on investment of these companies is humongous, even after having paid millions to these celebrities!
What other cases of celebrities as spokesperson for pharmaceutical companies do we have? Well, an important recent one, especially for young people, is the popular music sensation Nick Jonas who teamed up with Bayer and now sells glucometers through a website (it’s not that I don’t find those glucometers useful, it’s the implications behind celebrities helping keep the number of diabetics around the world as high as it is).
Another case was the well-known actress Halle Berry, who after being in a coma for a week she was told that she had type 1 diabetes. Novo Nordisk convinced her as well to be spokesperson for the pharmaceutical company. Although this case is somehow different, since Halle took full action and was able to manage diabetes without insulin or other drugs by changing diet, doing exercise, yoga… After having announced her healing, the whole health community and media went on to say that she must have been missdiagnosed because type 1 diabetes was “incurable”. WTH?!
It’s amazing how doctors lack curiosity nowadays (and I can confirm this everytime I visit my doctor for my regular diabetic checks). Most of them studied medicine to be able to understand how the body works and to find cures for diseases and help as many people as possible. Then, some time after graduation most of them just sit there and prescribe drugs instead of being curious and trying to find what could be causing this or that symptom (they are forced in this direction by our health system that works the way it works) and why someone could be cured of diabetes and others don’t.
Back to my initial question:
why shouldn’t celebrities be spokesperson for pharmaceutical companies.
Let me explain this with a similar example:
Let’s assume pollution caused by car gases indirectly makes people very sick (lung cancer for instance). Since the whole auto industry is based on oil-driven cars, because that’s the standard and what big oil companies want us to buy, we hardly have any other option but buy and drive this kind of cars.
Some day a celebrity is diagnosed with lung cancer and a multinational oil company reaches that celebrity and pays him/her millions to be their spokesperson for their “environmental efforts” like cutting down the use of paper at headquarters and those kind of campaigns.
Since the automobile industry’s main goal is to sell as many conventional cars as they can there is only one way they can stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution: to stop producing cars that use oil and start making cars run by renewable clean energies, for instance.
In this case, the celebrity would be “greening” that industry’s or company’s polluting actions by making people pay attention to something else.
For me, the case about diabetes, celebrities and pharmaceutical companies is more or less the same.
Since the main goal of those companies is to make as much money as possible by selling loads of drugs, lancets, needles, glucometers… they need a continuous and growing number of patients to sell those products to. There is IN NO WAY a pharmaceutical company (or profit-driven association or foundation) that can seriously and sincerely do efforts to stop or cure diabetes, be it type 1 or type 2. Period! It goes against the natural laws of economy.
According to a research report coducted recently by the Juvenile Diabetes Cure Alliance from the over 330 diabetes type 1 human clinical trials that are underway right now, only 18% can be considered to aim for a cure to diabetes (according to the JDCA requirements).
That means, that the majority of the donations and foundations are funding research that is not even looking for a cure. Now, do you understand why big pharmaceutical companies “buy” those celebrities? So that money goes to the wrong foundations, researchers and purposes (and this applies to some of the main diabetes associations and foundations as well).
Why are those celebrities not becoming spokesperson for research laboratories that are actually getting close to find a cure (or already did it but lack the funds to take it forward) like Dr. Faustman’s project www.faustmanlab.org?
I’m fed up reading news about researchers that, during their clinical trials with humans, achieved a total cut-back of insulin for the majority of their patients for a period of 3 to 4 years, and then had to stop investigation due to the lack of funds.
And, as Sharon Ornsby, a member of the FBI financial crimes unit said, “pharmaceutical fraud is one of our top three threats” So, again, why shouldn’t any prominent person or celebrity promote and be spokesperson of pharmaceutical companies? For me is more than evident.
I think, if those celebrities funded and spread the word about research investigations addressing a cure for diabetes, we could find a cure for type 1 diabetes earlier than we think. For type 2 diabetes they could educate people about healthier food choices and encourage them to exercise regularly instead of encouraging them to take this or that drug.
As some personal development gurus say, we are only 5 people away from anyone in the world (through connections, family and friends). Could anyone please, reach out to those celebs and convince them that they could do much better and REALLY help the world?
Sigue leyendo Why shouldn’t celebrities be spokesperson for pharmaceutical companies?
It seems to me that most people are totally unaware of diabetes facts. It is shocking how many people actually suffer from diabetes in the world today. The prevalence of diabetes is increasing rapidly especially in developing countries like China and India. The WHO (World Health Organization) attributes this partly to increased obesity, changes in traditional eating habits and a more sedentary lifestyle (you can also read my post “The 21+1 Causes of Diabetes“). If diabetes statistics continue at their present levels of acceleration, the WHO predict diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death in the entire world within 20 years.
Here are 9 diabetes facts you should keep in mind:
Diabetes Fact #1: In 2010, there were an estimated 346 Million people suffering from diabetes worldwide according to the WHO. Of these, 25.8 million live in the USA. The USA ranks number 3 in the world for countries with the highest prevalence of diabetes. There were over 2 million new cases of diabetes confirmed in the USA in 2010. Of these, nearly a quarter of a million were children and young people under the age of 20 years.
Diabetes Fact #2: Prevalence by type: There are two major types of diabetes.
- Insulin dependent or Type 1 diabetes is caused by insufficient amounts of insulin being produced. Officially, there is no preventative measure for Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes usually becomes evident in childhood or in young adulthood. It is the most severe type of diabetes.
- In the non-insulin dependant diabetes or Type 2 Diabetes, the body produces insulin, but uses it ineffectively. The non-insulin dependant group is by far the largest group. Approximately 90% of all diabetes sufferers are Type 2 diabetics. Type 2 diabetes occurred traditionally in older people, but the worrying fact now is that younger people and even children are suffering from Type 2 diabetes. The consens now is that Type 2 diabetes occurs predominantly in people with incorrect eating habits, obesity and those who lack exercise.
- A third type of Diabetes is the gestational diabetes. In these cases, blood sugar levels are raised during pregnancy. The blood sugar levels usually revert to normal after the baby is born. Gestational diabetes could be a precursor for developing Type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes Fact #3: There are many millions of diabetics who have never been diagnosed. In USA the figure is estimated at 7 million. In poorer countries, specially if they copy the more industrialized lifestyle, where there are often no facilities for diagnosis or treatment, the numbers could be much higher.
Diabetes Fact #4: Ethnicity does play a role in your chances of suffering from diabetes. In USA the Hispanic Puerto Rican group have the highest prevalence at 13.8% and the non-Hispanic white group the lowest at 7%.
Diabetes Fact #5: Diabetes has many health consequences, especially when blood sugar levels are not kept under control. Diabetic sufferers are very prone to develop the following illnesses if not controlled:
- Heart disease causes more than 50% of premature deaths in diabetic sufferers (WHO)
- High blood pressure is extremely common in overweight Type 2 diabetics.
- Dental and oral problems and fungal infections occur frequently.
- Raised blood sugar levels affect the eyes and might cause blindness.
- Goat and problems with kidney.
- …and the list can go on and on…
Diabetes Fact #6: Diabetes is the number one cause of kidney disease and kidney failure. Almost half of the cases of kidney failure are diabetics. Many of these can end up needing dialysis if sugar is not controlled. Life quality and span are adversely affected.
Diabetes Fact #7: Diabetes causes damage to the nervous system. More than half of all amputations are as a result of diabetes. More than half of all diabetic patients suffer from neuropathy in some form, usually in the limbs. Some of the common symptoms experienced are, pain, numbness, lack of strength or ‘pins and needles’.
Diabetes Fact #8: Treating and living with diabetes, is very costly, both to yourself in terms of lost work, medical expenses and much more, but also to the State in the form of health care and Disability Grants. People suffering from diabetes cost the Government more than twice as much as people without diabetes.
Diabetes Fact #9: Large numbers of diabetes sufferers and complications could have been prevented very simply by:
- maintaining a healthy body weight
- eating a healthy diet with fresh fruit and vegetables and avoiding highly refined, fatty, fried and processed foods, sodas…
- following a regular exercise program
- avoiding tobacco and high alcohol consumption
- early diagnosis (if you then do the things mentioned above)
I think it is good thing to be aware of diabetes facts. Although they can be depressing at first sight, they can also be the motivation to do something different to what we have always done in terms of health.
It is just as important to make up your mind you are not going to be part of these diabetes statistics while you are healthy. Prevention is far better (and cheaper) than cure.
Diabetes facts should act both as a warning and as a motivation for a healthier lifestyle.
Photo: IDF Diabetes Atlas
Hi there,
I just wanted to send a quick note to let you know that if you are interested in The 30 Day Diabetes Cure plan or want to know a little bit more about it, they have created 30 days of diabetes-healing giveaways (one for each day of November and each day of The 30 Day Diabetes Cure plan.)
You can sign-up here: http://30daydiabetescure.com
Once you sign-up (for free), each day of november you will receive sneak peeks into corresponding days of The 30 Day Diabetes Cure in your email, so you get an idea of the content of the book before buying it.
They also give away prizes each day, but that is not my point and should not be the reason why you sign up.
If you haven’t heard about this book yet, you can read my review of the 30 day diabetes cure plan.
Throughout the 13 years that I have lived with Type 1 Diabetes, I read a lot about the subject, visited different types of physicians, and tried different diets and alternative treatments.
My research and experience made it clear to me that there are many possible causes for diabetes and, therefore, there are many types of therapies or treatments for it.
I am providing a list of all possible causes (of either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes) that I’ve heard of or read about. Many of them will not be “officially” recognized as causes of diabetes, but if you know me you also know that “official” matters little to me! Since no one seems to know the exact causes, the list is more of a collection of hypotheses of possible causes.
Many doctors and websites say that the main cause of diabetes is the body’s inability to produce insulin or even insulin resistance. In my opinion, these are symptoms, not actual causes.
21 Possible Causes of Diabetes
1. Hereditary: this is one of the main hypotheses for causes of diabetes, which appears to have a consensus among allopathic doctors, naturalists, and scientists. In some countries diabetes may be more prevalent than in others, since several members of one family might have the disease.
The thing about having a hereditary disease is that you don’t know for sure if it will develop; it depends on other factors that trigger the gene that activates diabetes. There are cases of twins, one of them developed diabetes and the other did not. Therefore, if you have a family member who has or had diabetes, you should take care of proper nutrition, exercise, and avoiding stress (or developing good coping mechanisms!) to ensure the lowest chance of developing diabetes.
2. Lifestyle: this is another one of the most acknowledged causes of diabetes. This term refers to the type of life one leads. That is to say the food you eat (your diet), whether or not you exercise, if one has other habits that impact one’s health such as obesity, poor sleep, smoking, drinking alcohol and other habits.
While some say that the food itself (e.g., eating too many sweets) does not cause diabetes directly, they could cause it indirectly. By eating sweets or refined flours one is constantly bombarding one’s pancreas with simple sugars, which pass very quickly into the blood. As a result, the pancreas is constantly strained to keep glucose levels under control. In addition, too much glucose in the blood causes inflammation of internal tissues, which could contribute to causing diabetes or other associated diseases.
Obesity is also directly associated with diabetes. The epidemic levels of cases of diabetes in the world parallel to the increase of obese people. Indeed, it seems clear that today poor nutrition in industrialized societies, the lack of regular exercise, combined with high levels of stress in our daily lives, are causing 50% of humanity to be in worse health than they were 50 or even 100 years ago! Given all the scientific and educational advancements, statistics should be the other way around: people should be in better health.
3. Autoimmune processes: this is a cause mainly associated with Type 1 diabetes.
Insulin-producing cells in the pancreas of people with Type 1 diabetes are destroyed by cells that normally protect us from invading organisms. What triggers this is still not clear, but there is some evidence suggesting that a virus infection or cow’s milk can start the process of the body to attack its own cells.
There seems to be evidence that the pancreatic beta cells (responsible for the production of insulin) have significant inflammation, leading the immune system to create a type of antibody which is responsible for destroying these cells. Others say it’s some kind of virus that directly attacks the beta cells of the pancreas. Still others associate this process to emotional states, as an autoimmune disease is a metaphor for an “allergy to himself,” so continued long-term psychological or emotional issues could cause the problem of self-attack.
4. Environmental factors: in different countries there are different incidence rates of diabetes according to race, climate, diet, latitude, etc. Which makes one suspect that unidentified environmental factors act as predisposing to diabetes. (1)
5. Glucose intolerance: 1/4 of people with glucose intolerance developed diabetes. Some patients‘ intolerance actually experienced it to be reversed. Modifying your diet and adding exercise may slow -or even stop!- the process that leads to diabetes.
Glucose intolerance may last 7 to 10 years before the onset of Type 2 diabetes. The intolerance often goes undiagnosed, until it develops into full-blown diabetes.
6. Stress: there are scientific studies suggesting that depression, general emotional stress, and anxiety (along with sleep disturbances, anger/hostility) are associated with an increased risk for developing Type 2 diabetes.
Stress can cause diabetes because in that state the body produces the adrenaline and cortisol hormones, which result in increased blood sugar. Stress can also cause you to make wrong eating choices. Some scientists believe that stress is the cause of 95% of diseases.
7. Age: a clear fact is that diabetes, especially Type 2, is much more prevalent in adults from the age of forty. The older the age group, the higher the incidence of diabetes. A shocking 80% percent of diabetes cases occur after age 45! This could be because, as a person ages, they become less active and tend to gain weight, causing dysfunction of the pancreas.
8. Virus or illness: some research suggests that viral infections may trigger diabetes in genetically susceptible individuals.
Among the suspected viruses are enteric viruses that attack the intestinal tract. Coxsackie is an enteric virus of particular interest. Epidemics of the coxsackie virus (as well as mumps and congenital rubella) have been associated with the incidence of Type 1 diabetes.
In a scientific study, 73 pancreatic samples of young people who had died from diabetes were examined. The results found that 60% of the organs contained evidence of beta cell infections from entero viruses.
By contrast, researchers barely found any infected beta cells in tissue samples taken from 50 children without diabetes (2).
9. Vaccines: “Currently, vaccines are related to increased cases of allergy (rhinitis, conjunctivitis, asthma, …) and autoimmune diseases (diabetes mellitus or multiple sclerosis). This is because in the people receiving innoculations, the vaccines stimulate a reaction of the defense system (immune system), which then protects one from getting the diseases to which they were vaccinated. While vaccinations can cause allergic reactions and various types of diseases (such as autoimmune), the same alteration of the immune system, can instead cause the immune system to protect us against external aggressors such as bacteria and other kinds of germs. However, this change of the immune system can also result in attacks on our own body, either by producing an excessive response (allergy) or affecting specific organs (diabetes or multiple sclerosis).
It is assumed that vaccines could alter the functioning of the defense system, favoring the emergence of these diseases.”(3)
10. Accident or trauma: a chiropractor and an osteopath I visited a few years ago told me that my diabetes could have been caused by a car accident that I had a year before discovering my diabetes. This might come into play: the strong emotional stress of the moment, the emotional guilt later on, trauma, or blockage of any vertebrae in the backbone through which passes the energy/communication that connects with the pancreas.
11. Parasites in the pancreas: recently I found that research shows that many diabetics have a parasite known as Eurytrema (Eurytrema pancreaticum) or pancreatic fluke.
Through the repeated consumption of beef and derived products (especially when raw or semi raw), the pancreas is continually re-infected with the parasite. It has also been shown that the accumulation of wood alcohol (methanol) in the pancreas provides a good breeding ground for this parasite in the pancreas. Surprisingly, methanol is found in many popular foods, either through packaging or preparation, including water bottled in plastic, cans of soft drinks, artificial sweeteners and even baby formula. “By killing this parasite and removing wood alcohol from the diet, the need for insulin can be cut in half in three weeks (or sooner!).”(4)
12. Poor cellular communication: cellular communication is receiving a lot of attention from many scientific magazines in recent years. As I wrote in another article on glyconutrients and cellular communication, we can not be healthy without good cellular communication. Every cell in every body’s systems needs to constantly communicate to do its job. If this communication is broken or blocked in some way, there will be some organ or tissue that won’t get the necessary nutrients to function properly, and the cell won’t know what is missing or needed.
13. Lack of vitamin D: for years naturopaths have warned about the impact of Vitamin D deficiency. Finally, it seems that this issue is being taken more seriously. After observing more than 5,000 people over 5 years in an ongoing study conducted in Australia, researchers found that those with Vitamin D levels lower than the average, had a 57% higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes than those people with levels in the recommended range.
Previous studies have shown that Vitamin D may also help to keep blood sugar levels under control, helping Vitamin D release more insulin.
Vitamin D has also been associated with reduced risk of asthma, heart disease, and certain forms of cancers.
The main source of Vitamin D is the sun. That is to say that when we’re in the sun we get charged with this vitamin. It is estimated that in some societies, like the United States, 90% of the population is Vitamin D deficient. Some studies are relating this deficiency to the Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes epidemic.
Researchers from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported in May 2004 that Vitamin D improves insulin sensitivity up to 60%! (5)
14. Pregnancy: As with other types of diabetes, the causes of gestational diabetes are unkown. Gestational diabetes may be due to insulin resistance by cells in the body, which is of equal amounts in non-diabetic pregnant women as when they are not pregnant, but in diabetics is found to be three times higher than when not pregnant. The placenta is responsible for providing nutrients and water to the growing fetus, and produces several hormones to maintain pregnancy, which in turn can have a blocking effect or act against insulin (6).
15. Medications: Certain drugs or medications (such as steroids and Dilantin) can raise the blood sugar through a variety of mechanisms. Other medications (such as alloxan, streptozocin, and thiazide diuretics) are toxic to pancreatic beta cells and, thus, may cause diabetes. Clozapine (Clozaril), olanzapine (Zyprexa), risperidone (Risperdal), quetiapine (Seroquel) and ziprasidone (Geodon) are known to induce this lethal disease. (7).
16. Toxins: the results of a research study (“Toxins and Diabetes Mellitus: An Environmental Connection?”) suggests that two environmental toxins, arsenic and dioxin (dibenzo-p-dioxins), may have some association with increased risk of diabetes. It should be noted that the results only indicate a possible link between diabetes and environmental toxins (8).
It is also known that long-term exposure to pesticides may increase the risk of Type 1 diabetes, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases (9).
17. Alcohol: alcohol use disrupts the pancreas and can cause pancreatitis, diabetes, peritonitis, and so on.
18. Infant exposure to cow’s milk: the protein in cow’s milk directly harms the pancreas of some babies by causing a complicated autoimmune reaction where the baby’s own immune system attacks the pancreas. The result will almost always be Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Several clinical studies indicate that children with Type 1 diabetes drank cow’s milk at a younger age than other children without diabetes. (10)
19. Pancreatitis: “Pancreatitis is the inflammation of the pancreas. It occurs when the enzymes that digest food are activated in the pancreas instead of the small intestine. Pancreatitis may be acute or chronic. Acute pancreatitis is very sudden and lasts for a few days while chronic pancreatitis occurs over many years. Chronic pancreatitis has multiple causes and painful symptoms.”(Wikipedia)
20. Hypothyroidism: Hypothyroidism is a condition that affects the thyroid gland. While this causes many complications in itself, hypothyroidism can lead to other health problems, one of them being diabetes. Hypothyroidism is a condition where the thyroid gland does not produce enough hormones to stimulate the metabolism, causing all the body systems to slow down.
When a disease such as hypothyroidism is involved, the pancreas decreases its ability to convert blood sugar into energy. This complication can lead to diabetes.
21. Polycystic ovary syndrome: Polycystic ovary syndrome is a disorder that affects up to 10% of women in the age of fertility.
Common symptoms include infertility, menstrual irregularities, obesity, excess facial and body hair. Up to 10% of women with POS develop Type 2 diabetes at 40 years and more than half of women with POS will develop both Type 2 diabetes or prediabetes at that age. (11)
22. Gluten intolerance (Celiac disease): between 5 and 10% of people with type 1 diabetes also have gluten intolerance, although many do not know. In fact gluten intolerance may be what is causing their diabetes, especially in young children and if you act fast and find to have celiac disease, go to a gluten-free diet as soon as possible. It could stop and even reverse the process of diabetes (or at least use less drugs, insulin …) Therefore, ask your doctor to take a test of gluten intolerance as soon as possible after having been diagnosed type 1 diabetes (it also works if a long time passed by, but the reversal of diabetes could be easier the sooner you know it and act on it), especially if there’s family history with diabetes or celiac disease.
As you can see, there are many possible causes of diabetes, some with more scientific rigor, others less, but even if there was only one person whose diabetes was caused by one of the hypotheses mentioned above, it is worth mentioning and studying. At the end of the day, not just large study groups have value; each of us is important and worth to consider the cause(s) or optional treatment(s) of the disease in each case.
Chances are that in most cases several factors combine to cause diabetes.
So, my questions to you are:
Did any of these causes speak directly to your gut?
What will you do with the information/statistics/data you just read?
Are you going to try to find the most likely cause of your diabetes?
Are you going to seek a remedy to that cause?
Please share your ideas below.
Sources:
(1)http://www.hormone.org/diabetes_symptoms.cfm
(2)http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/03/05/us-diabetes-viruses-idUSTRE5246GM20090305
(3)http://www.naturalnews.com/023902.html
(4)http://www.drclark.net/en/drclark_protocol/illnesses/diabetes.php
(5)http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/27/us-vitamind-diabetes-idUSTRE73Q6VH20110427
(6)http://www.babycenter.com/0_gestational-diabetes_2058.bc
(7)http://visionmissionfoundation.org/cause_of_diabetes.htm
(8)http://spectrum.diabetesjournals.org/content/15/2/109.full
(9)http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/Blog/Flashpoints/diabetes_the_toxin_connection/
(10)http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajmg.10340/full
(11)http://www.health.com/health/condition-article/0,,20187970,00.html
As a follow up to my recent blog post “The 30 Day Diabetes Cure Review” I wanted to give some extra insight into what can you expect from this book and from this diet/plan.
Therefore, I asked someone in the sales team of this book if I could use some of the information revealed in the book in my blog. They agreed, so here you have and overview of what to expect from Dr. Ripich’s diabetes cure plan (I write it literally as it appears in the book.)
I hope this encourage you, as it did with me, to give it a try. There’s a lot to win and nothing to lose.
The 30-Day Diabetes Cure Structure:
PHASE ONE: Blood Sugar “Boot Camp”
“This is the strictest stage of the plan. During the first 10 days, you‘re going to go “cold turkey” off all the diabetes-causing foods, beverages, and bad habits that have been making you sick and threatening your life.
For the next 10 days you won’t be consuming any sodas, sugary beverages, fruit juice, candy, or refined carbohydrates (including breakfast cereals, chips, cookies, ice cream, and energy bars). You’ll also abstain from bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, whole grains, and baked goods. No beer, wine, or alcohol of any kind. You won’t even eat any fruit. And you’ll eat no restaurant meals of any kind.
Before you freak out, know that you will be eating three regular meals a day, plus two healthy snacks (whether you feel like having them or not!). I want to reassure you that you’ll never feel hungry during this initial period — or ever on The 30-Day Diabetes Cure.
You’ll be enjoying a satisfying variety of delicious and filling foods; from meat, fish, and poultry to dairy, eggs, veggies, and cheese. Plus, your withdrawal from the diabetes-causing foods will be gradual over the next 10 days and you’ll be able to reintroduce many foods (though not all of them) in Phase Two.
During Phase One, you’ll also re-learn an essential skill, one you were born with: how to distinguish between true hunger and mere appetite, the latter being a psychological desire for certain tastes.
If the cold-turkey approach to quitting certain foods seems harsh, let me explain why my patients and I have found this to be the quickest, most effective way to halt the progression of diabetes and start reversing it:
Cutting back just doesn’t work. Study after study shows that gradual withdrawal from cigarette smoking, alcohol dependency, and other drug addictions just doesn’t work. The same is true for food addictions — and that’s basically what people with diabetes and blood sugar irregularities have developed over the course of their lives. “Cutting back” is like giving a hungry wild cheetah a can of cat food. This only aggravates the animal’s hunger, driving it to kill and eat anything it encounters. Your eating habits, along with the particular tastes, appetites, and desires you’ve developed over a lifetime of consuming food, are not unlike this ravenous animal, and they aren’t swiftly changed by gradual withdrawal.
Imagine asking a heroin addict to limit himself to just one injection every 24 hours. Or allowing an alcoholic just one drink a day. Try telling a lifelong smoker she can have just one cigarette every 24 hours. It’s impossible to succeed this way because consuming smaller amounts of any troubling substance simply feeds the desire for more of it.
Think about eating just one potato chip. Remember the advertising campaign “Bet you can’t eat just one”? I absolutely don’t want to set you up for failure — a sure thing with any slow withdrawal method — because it can lead to feelings of guilt, low self-esteem, and “justification” for quitting the program entirely.
In the long run, it takes far more willpower to limit your consumption of these disease-causing foods every day than to simply say “absolutely no” to them.
Your body needs time to recondition. We human beings are creatures of habit. And the older we get, the stronger these habits become — sometimes taking on a life of their own. If you’re accustomed to curling up on the couch and munching an after-dinner snack while watching TV, your mind and body will come to expect this night after night. Many of our urges and habits are triggered by our subconscious and we generally obey them without question.
Saying no to the list of diabetes-causing foods for the next 10 days will break one of your enduring habituated patterns. It will also weaken your dependency on (and sometimes even an addiction to) certain strong flavors, whether it’s sweet, salty, greasy, gooey, or alcoholic. While it may be challenging for the first few days, these bad patterns will diminish relatively quickly. With determination and commitment during these initial days, you’ll find yourself in charge of your subconscious habits and urges, instead of the other way around. And like many of my patients who have worked with this plan, you’ll discover this gives you tremendous confidence to keep moving forward.
Most importantly, Phase One will change you internally. That’s because every night, during the eight hours you sleep, your body’s biochemistry becomes a clean slate, returning to what we call “baseline.” It’s as though every morning you’re given a new chance. Your goal in Phase One will be to maintain this baseline state by keeping taboo foods out of your system.
You’ll break the vicious “carbohydrate craving” cycle. Eating bad carbs creates the desire for more, and by eating more, you continue the cycle over and over, like an endless feedback loop. This isn’t just a psychological phenomenon. It’s actually very physical. You see, when you eat a food that quickly breaks down into glucose — as all simple carbohydrates do — your pancreas triggers an insulin spike to quickly remove the sugar from your bloodstream. So, first you get a jolt of energy from simple carbs, but this is followed by an equally strong valley of fatigue … and hunger all over again as your bloodstream and brain chemicals actually crave more carbohydrates.
Your blood sugar will normalize. Cutting out these bad carbs during Phase One will relax the near-constant demand you’ve been placing on your pancreas. This means its insulin-producing beta cells can take a much-deserved vacation from being overworked. Quitting simple carbs will also re-sensitize your cells to insulin so they’ll need less of it — even if you have Type 1 and take insulin injections. If you have Type 2, this re-sensitization will start to reverse the insulin resistance in your cells. And that means your doctor can lower your dose of medication.
You’ll lose weight without trying. Before Phase One, when you fed your body all that glucose in the form of simple carbs, your body couldn’t use it all. Anything extra was turned into fat and stored on your belly and hips. Eliminating bad carbs from your diet will not only halt the fat-storage process, but can reverse it. Without a constant supply of glucose-producing foods, your fat cells will be forced to release their contents back into the bloodstream, where they’re reconverted into fuel for energy. That’s why, by the end of Phase One, many people on The 30-Day Diabetes Cure experience a loss of between two and six pounds. And that’s without dieting.
You’ll be surprised how quickly these 10 days move along. And while the first few days may seem challenging, once you get beyond them the rest of The 30-Day Diabetes Cure is relatively easy. As your food cravings drop away, everything gets a lot easier.
During these first few days, if the going gets tough I urge you to return to this chapter and re-read the description and benefits of Phase One. It will remind you of the importance of these first 10 days and firm up your resolve.
PHASE TWO: Inside the Bubble
Phase two is a bit like being a newborn in an incubator, where you’re relatively safe from temptations and distractions that can undermine your progress.
Once you’re able to eliminate your cravings for bad carbs and other diabetes-provoking foods, you’ll gradually reintroduce many of the foods you’ve come to enjoy — but in healthier versions. You’ll be able to eat bread and baked goods … pasta … pizza … potatoes … rice … fruit … dessert … and even alcohol in moderation. But no restaurant food just yet.
The goal of Phase Two is to re-educate your taste buds so you actually enjoy and desire meals and foods that heal your diabetes. With our menu selections, this shouldn’t even be a challenge. All meals are based on the flavorful, brilliantly-colored Mediterranean Diet, perhaps the healthiest way of eating on earth. The emphasis in on plenty of fresh produce, including the most luscious vegetables; tummy-filling whole grains, beans, and legumes; succulent fish and healthy meats; flavorful olive oil and monounsaturated fats; heavenly nuts and fruit; and moderate amounts of fresh eggs and dairy foods.
Phase Two will also introduce you to the specific vitamins and supplements that have been shown to be especially helpful for people with blood sugar problems.
Finally, because uncontrolled stress is particularly bad for people with diabetes, you’ll discover how to de-stress your nervous system and de-activate the hormones cortisol and adrenaline, which actually push your blood sugar to dangerously high levels.
You’ll also notice an acceleration in your weight-loss. By the end of Phase Two, most people lose between eight and 15 pounds — again, without even thinking about dieting or losing weight loss. If you’re like my other patients who’ve employed this plan, you’ll begin to notice that your clothes fit better. In fact, at this point many people are able to slip into outfits they haven’t been able to wear for years.
But more importantly, your weight loss is confirmation that you’re well on your way to reversing Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. In addition to losing weight, people who have Type 1 should be able to significantly reduce their insulin dosage (with their doctor’s permission, of course).
PHASE THREE: Ready for the Outside World
After 20 days on The 30-Day Diabetes Cure, you’ll be ready for the real test: The outside world and its relentless enticements to eat and drink as you once did. After spending almost three weeks inside a “bubble” of protection while you learned to replace the foods and beverages that harmed your body with those that can help and heal it, you’ll be well prepared to snub the seductions.
During Phase Three, you’ll learn how to conquer the biggest temptations a person with blood sugar irregularities must face. You’ll discover proven strategies for surviving dinner parties, restaurants, travel, gas stations, airports, the food court at the mall — and even fast-food menus. Remember those two daily snacks? They’re an integral part of moving into Phase Three.
Think of this as your “advanced training.” You’ll gain valuable insights into the subtle ways some people sabotage their progress so you can avoid these pitfalls altogether. You’ll learn how to identify where to find friendly support for your new mission. You’ll read about special nutritional supplements that can help elevate you to the next level of natural glucose management — and possibly even support and repair your damaged beta cells. And you’ll see how easy it can be to add more lean muscle to your physique, which will help your body utilize insulin much more efficiently.
Meet the New “You!”
In just 30 short days, you’re going to transform your mind, your body, and your biochemistry. You’ll go from being sick, feeling tired all the time, and relying on multiple medications … to being a “younger,” stronger, leaner, healthier, and more energetic human being. How will you change? Let me count the ways …
- Right off the bat, starting with Day One, this program begins to reverse your cells’ insulin resistance, the root cause of Type 2 diabetes.
- You’ll discover a wide variety of delicious foods and non-strenuous physical activities that actually increase your cells’ sensitivity to insulin.
- Your pancreas won’t be flogged into producing as much insulin — and this alone will protect the health and longevity of your beta cells, as well as your entire body.
- This improvement naturally leads to weight loss as your cells begin to empty out their stored fat, using it for energy.
- Less sugary glucose in your arteries means they won’t be so inflamed (the number-one way heart disease develops). And by consuming more antioxidant-rich foods and supplements, you’ll begin to heal the damage that past inflammation has caused. Result? In addition to healing your diabetes and insulin resistance, you’ll also be reversing the process of heart disease … Alzheimer’s … and quite possibly cancer at the same time.
- Less fat in your bloodstream will make your blood platelets less sticky, which can dramatically improve your circulation. At this point, more oxygen-rich blood and nutrients are reaching the tiny capillaries in your eyes, your brain, and your extremities. All of this greatly reduces the underlying problems that lead to the most horrific complications of diabetes — vision loss, dementia, and Alzheimer’s, plus the horrible amputations that are so common when insulin and glucose are out-of-control.
- Better circulation and nutrition also means more energy gets delivered to all parts of your body. As a result, you’ll feel better … have more energy … and find you’re more lighthearted because the “happiness neurotransmitters” in your brain will be getting fed.
Bingo! In a relatively short time, your metabolism will be acting “normal” again, just as long as you don’t go back to the crazy foods and lifestyle that triggered your disease in the first place. It’s actually that simple and straightforward.
And It Really Works!
Day by day — —in a simple, systematic way –— you’ll remove the diabetes-causing substances and habits that threaten your life and happiness. And, one by one, you’ll replace them the life-affirming foods and behaviors that can repair, regenerate, and revitalize your entire being from head to toe.
By the end of my program, you may not be completely free of diabetes — but you will be well on your way and absolutely grounded in the Diabetes Healing Lifestyle that can conquer Type 2 and reverse insulin resistance, while normalizing your blood sugar and hormone balance.
Those of you with Type 1 should find your need for supplemental insulin significantly reduced as your body becomes better able to utilize insulin. Best of all, your risk of nasty diabetic complications will be dramatically reduced.
What If You Slip Up?
I’ve planned for that, too. We’re only human, after all, and sometimes we fall back into old habits. If this happens to you, you’ll quickly recognize you’re in trouble by the junky stuff you’re eating again … by the tired, half-sick way you feel … and by the pounds and inches creeping back on your body.
Should the slip occur, just go back to Phase One and start with the first day. It will be easier this time, because you’ve already followed my plan once. Stay there as long as you like, but at least until you get things back under control.
Keep in close touch with your doctor. If you fall off the wagon for a lengthy period, you may need help with medications temporarily until you can regain your balance.
But keep in mind that you will never, ever be able to return to the lifestyle that upset your blood chemistry in the first place and damaged the beta cells in your pancreas as a result. The 30-Day Diabetes Cure is not a magic bullet that allows you to go back to a life of junk food, sodas, and rich desserts. That path will always lead to diabetes and other serious health complications.
More than anything, The 30-Day Diabetes Cure is a lifestyle, not a temporary fix. As they say at Alcoholics Anonymous: “It works if you work it.” So work it, friends. I have every confidence you can.
Make Your Doctor Your Partner in This
I strongly urge you to seek your doctor’s help and support in implementing this program — especially if you’re on any medication. Never discontinue any medicines without your doctor’s approval. If you’re self-administering insulin, your blood sugar reading will be your best guide as to the dose you need. But always advise your physician of your progress.
Many doctors are skeptical of the power of natural healing, nutrition, and lifestyle modifications, so be sure to explain everything you’re attempting on The 30-Day Diabetes Cure to your physician. Your success could open his or her mind and perhaps even trigger a significant change in the way your doctor treats diabetes as a result. (Wouldn’t that be nice?)
Occasionally, you’ll encounter a physician whose beliefs are so rigid that he/she refuses to entertain any unconventional therapies. If this describes your doctor, you may want to reconsider whether this clinician is right for you.
Always remember: Your doctor works for you — not the other way around. If your physician isn’t supportive and cooperative, find one who is. Modern medicine is changing rapidly, so it shouldn’t be difficult to locate a physician or health practitioner who is willing to incorporate new ideas, as long as they aren’t dangerous (or nutty).
In fact, the reverse is often true. Many doctors are excited when their patients make a commitment to getting well using steps like the ones in my plan. The truth is, physicians just don’t see that many patients who want to try. Imagine how depressing it is to try to save the lives of patients who won’t lift a finger to save themselves. In many cases, doctors have to fight just to get a patient to take his or her medications. No wonder they get so discouraged.
You’ll Be a Hero to Everyone around You
But you’re not that kind of patient. You’re going to be a “diabetes warrior.” You’re going to fight for your health as if you’re life depends on it (because it does!). You’re going to turn your condition around, starting tomorrow on Day 1 of The 30-Day Diabetes Cure. You’re going to inspire your doctor and your friends by your example. You’re going to be the poster child for self-healing. Are you smiling at the prospect?
You’re also going to declare your independence from the greedy corporations that run the food, insurance, and advertising industries, as well as our corrupt medical system. And in doing so, you’re going to help change the world.
You’ve already read in Chapter One about the numerous studies that prove the effectiveness and superiority of simple lifestyle modifications over drug therapy. As I’ve said before, the deck is stacked against you. Everyone will be pushing diabetes drugs on you, including TV ads, the ADA, your local pharmacy, and, most likely, your doctor.
Corporations — especially drug companies and food manufacturers — are counting on Americans to take the lazy way out. They don’t believe we’re strong enough to take real responsibility for ourselves. They’ve watched us go soft in just two generations, and they don’t believe we’ve got the grit to resist their junky foods, insipid television programs, heavy-handed politics, and their sneaky undermining of democracy and our individual freedoms. This is your opportunity to prove them wrong.
This Is Also Your Chance to Take Back Your Power
Diabetes isn’t a contagious virus you catch. It isn’t a genetic aberration (except in the case of Type 1, and new research is beginning to cast doubt on this theory). And it isn’t some unpredictable accident, like a car crash or falling off a ladder.
Rather, 95% of all diabetes is something we give to ourselves. It doesn’t begin in your blood or pancreas. Diabetes begins in your mind. And that’s also where the real cure resides.
There is no doctor, drug, or treatment that has more power over this disease than you do. Saving your life requires changing your life. It means taking the next step up the stairway of evolved thinking and discovering a smarter, stronger, happier, and healthier you. It’s like the line in the Bob Dylan song: “Them not busy being born are busy dying.”
You’re never too old to get better. So let’s get started…”
Here you can get more infos and watch videos and testimonials about The 30 Day Diabetes Cure Book
This time I come with good news, especially for those with type 2 diabetes.
Two days ago newspapers and online news sites started publishing news referencing the discovery that British researchers have made in which diet can cure type 2 diabetes.
In my opinion, this shouldn’t really be news today, because there are several methods (in this blog you can read about some of them) who long claim that with proper diet and sport diabetes type 2 can be reversed. Anyway, all the hype that is being given to this news will be good too.
In a nutshell, they have discovered that taking a 600 calories diet for 2 months, type 2 diabetes disappears with the elimination of fat around the pancreas. This is also what they are doing in some hospitals to remove obesity (and diabetes) in obese people. Of course, such a treatment costs about $20,000. With the diet, however, the cost is reduced to almost zero.
They say they will have to continue doing experiments to see if the cure of diabetes is permanent or only temporary, and apply it to many more patients.
The question I bear in mind is if such a diet is only applicable to obese people or it may be used by non obese or thin individuals with type 2 diabetes. I would also like to know what kind of supplements have been used to energize the body, since I find 600 calories very little to the average person.
For a long time I’ve been an advocate of using a proper diet and sport (ie a change in lifestyle) to treat type 2 diabetes.
If you want to cure your type 2 diabetes but 600 calories seem too little for you, I recommend the book “The 30 Day Cure Diabetes” by Dr. Ripich, which reveals how to eliminate diabetes (especially type 2) in 30 days, step by step.
In this link I reviewed Dr. Ripich’s book and why I love it so much.
Here the news source.
Go find your way to cure your type 2 diabetes!
After some years of research, trying and writing about all possible treatments to cure diabetes, I recently stumbled upon a magnific source of information for all of us, searching hopelessly for guidance and/or a therapy to heal our diabetes, be it type 1 or type 2.
The book is called “The 30 day diabetes cure” (The drug-free solution to America’s #1 health crisis), by Dr. Stefan Ripich, ND, CNP.
In this post I’m going to review said book, explain what I like about it and what I don’t, and hope that this will help you decide whether you too want to give it a try or not.
First of all, I don’t know anything about you, but I do care a lot about my health and the potential consequences of my diabetes.
For many years (soon it will be 13 years since I was diagnosed with diabetes type 1) I’ve purposely tried to say to myself that I’m not going to suffer all those horrible complications associated with diabetes, and therefore didn’t want to read about the “dark-side” of diabetes.
I’ve tried to eat healthy with few carbohydrates and a minimum of sugars, exercise regularly and keep a possitive attitude.
Although that’s already more than what 90% of the people with diabetes do, after having read Dr. Ripich’s book I realized that this was not enough, at least in some aspects.
“The 30 Day Diabetes Cure” helped me accept that diabetes can be a terrible disease if not properly controlled, leading to a possible loss of mobility, eyesight, independence and 10-20 years of your life. And that’s one of the things I’m gratefull for, thanks to this book, I’m more motivated than ever to fight for my health and my life.
What I like most about the treatment to cure diabetes exposed in this book is that it’s a step by step guide, one day at a time, with great practical tips and written in a language that anyone can understand.
With this “diet” or “way of living” you don’t go from 0 to 100 overnight, but you are accompanied by professional medical guidance (allopathist, naturopath and nutrition specialist) step by step, gradually making the necessary changes in your life in order to control and reverse diabetes.
Although I’m aware that this treatment mainly addresses people with type 2 diabetes, I was encouraged by the testimonial of a type 1 diabetic who could reduce his insulin dose by 80% following the advice given in the book. Each chapter has a case study or testimonial showing the before-and-after numbers concerning A1C, weight, triglicerides, blood pressure and medicines taken and eliminated.
For people with type 2 diabetes, this sentence from the book speaks for itself: “I have never had a type 2 diabetes patient who hasn’t gotten completely off their medications and returned to a normal, healthy, drug-free life.”
Encouraging, isn’t it?
I really like the holistic approach, connecting the right food, exercise, emotions, natural vitamins, relaxation, sleep, elimination of toxins, avoidance of stress… That’s what most of the treatments lack, just considering one approach.
And, there are lots of scientific studies behind his approach mentioned in the book.
Now let’s turn to the two things I’m a bit skeptic about: on the back cover of the book it says “…It’s virtually a FREE solution…” Although lots of the things recommended are so cheap that you could consider it almost a free therapy, there are also some natural vitamins/suplements recommended, and we know that those aren’t cheap.
But I have to agree, that compared with the costs of drugs, medical insurance and hospital visits when diabetes complications arise, it really is a cheaper and safer option.
The second thing I don’t really agree with is the claim that “This is the best and only viable alternative you have to surrendering your life to diabetes.” My years of research on healing diabetes treatments made me clear that there are many approaches in different cultures and through different means to cure diabetes, some of them easier to follow than others and some very difficult to follow. But it’s true, that this the most comprehensive, hollistic, well-structured treatment that has come to my hands, and which is not as restrictive as other “diets”.
Since I’m really taken by The 30 Day Diabetes Cure, I wanted to finish this review with another aspect that I like about this book: it doesn’t make you believe this is a magic bullet, where you take a natural pill and your diabetes is reversed. On the contrary, Dr. Ripich is very open in this regard and states that it will take commitment, determination and persistence.
I highly recommend this book to any person suffering diabetes (specially if you have type 2 diabetes you’ll see faster positive results). Do yourself a favor and don’t wait too long for science to discover and market the next new transplant solution or drug for diabetes. You can do something for your health NOW.
And if you are backed up with a 100% positive results achieved by The 30 Day Diabetes Cure, you don’t have anything to loose, but a LOT to win: your life and health!
If you are more a visual person who prefers to see and listen to the doctor instead of reading what he has to say in a book, you can pay a little bit more and get access to “The 30 Day Diabetes Cure Video Coaching Program“, where Dr. Ripich guide you via video on every step of the process.
In future posts I’ll write about my experiences following this plan. Until then, you can take a look at Dr. Ripich’s site and consider buying the book for yourself or a loved one: www.30daydiabetescure.com
Update July 4, 2011: I just published a new post with a detailed overview of how “The 30 Day Diabetes Cure” plan works.
Please, don’t forget to comment here how you are doing following this book’s plan. We may all learn from you and get motivated.
In my nearly 13 years with type 1 diabetes I’ve tried many things, diets, therapies … without total success (which does not mean they couldn’t work for others.) I am convinced that each of us is different and what works for you may not work for another and vice versa.
But my recent researches are leading me toward something that seems to be common to all, as it is on the biological basis of our body as a human species.
I mean the glyconutrients.
Many scientists believe that research on glyconutrients is the greatest advance in health and nutrition.
Science, the world’s most popular magazine for researchers and scientists, dedicated one of his runs entirely on educating the medical and scientific community about Glyconutrients, Glycobiology and glycoscience (March 23, 2001 issue: Carbohydrates and Glycobiology)
It also demonstrates the importance of the fact that 4 out of the last 9 Nobel laureates in medicine have been associated with cell communication and its importance to our health. As we shall see, the main function of glyconutrients is enabling and improving cellular communication.
MIT Research Institute cited the 10 new technologies that will change the world, being the first in the list glyconutrients, that is, the study of sugars.
What are glyconutrients?
They are the most important discovery in the last 100 years for your immune system. Some scientists go even further by proclaiming that it is the most important discovery in the history of medicine: the secret to a long and healthy life.
The Glyconutrients are vegetal carbohydrates (monosaccharides). There are over 200 carbohydrates or sugars but only 8 are essential for the functioning of the body.
The main function of these special carbohydrates is not to be used by the body to generate energy (as is normal in carbohydrates), but for other uses way more specialized and important.
These 8 saccharides are: D-Glucose, D-galactose, D-Mannose, L-Fucose, N-acetylgalactosamine, N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylneuraminic acid and Xylose.
Scientists believe that the main role of glyconutrients in the human body is to create glycoproteins for cellular communication. Every cell in all body systems (immune system cells, cells of the digestive system, nervous system cells …) need to communicate constantly to do its job.
The problem is that without good cellular communication, we can’t be healthy. In other words, to be healthy, we need optimal cellular communication.
Worst of all, in my opinion, is that we can’t (or it is hard) get these 8 carbohydrates from food the way Nature (or God, as you wish to put it) put them at our disposal.
Scientists say that the typical modern diet is highly deficient in 6 of 8 saccharides that the body needs to create glycoproteins.
Fresh fruits and vegetables we buy today have few glyconutrients (or any nutritional value at all) because they are usually grown in nutrient-deficient soil, collected from the tree before natural ripening, are irrigated with pesticides, are stored for days, weeks or months, cooked, frozen, processed, pasteurized, genetically modified … Cooking and processing food eliminates further glyconutrients.
For example, tomato, after going through the whole process from planting to our table, has just 2.39% of their original nutrient content (here’s a little hint for us to start eating more ecological vegetables and fruits from our area).
Glyconutrients and Degenerative Diseases
While our food has been declining nutrients, a number of diseases such as autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic degenerative diseases have increased at an alarming rate even at young ages.
There is more and more evidence that these diseases are caused by a single deficiency in the diet: glyconutrients. Among the nutrients that are missing from our diet, are also antioxidants, which help control free radicals and support our body to deal with toxins.
The scientific evidence makes clear that if your body suffers from an autoimmune system disorder or a degenerative condition, can benefit greatly from the 8 essential glyconutrients. They help the body to exercise his incredible ability to heal, repair, regenerate, regulate and protect itself by giving the raw material is already preprogrammed for use.
Some scientific studies were carried out to test the effect of adding glyconutrients to the diet (with supplements), and tests showed significant improvements in health.
Role of Glyconutrients
Glyconutrients are not focused on a single body system or organ, but on improving the health of the entire body. Therefore, do not look at the glyconutrients as a cure or solution for a given health problem (that’s what drugs from the pharmacy do, if anything). They are rather the essential nutrient that the body needs for optimal general health.
No matter how good (or bad) allopathic medicine could be, it has no answer or solution to the alarming increase of autoimmune diseases, cancers and degenerative diseases in western societies. Time will tell whether glyconutrients will soon be part of standard medical care for these diseases or if the pharmaceutical industry is also going to want to delay as much as possible their use in health centers and hospitals. In any case, it would be a paradigm shift, as it would treat the root of the problems instead of symptoms, and unfortunately I do not see the medical community ready for this yet.
The responsibility for our health is only ours.
I have found on PXP Forte the source of glyconutrients (polysaccharide peptide) to support my body to regenerate. It is a quality product with excellent customer service.
I liked it so much that I registered as a distributor of the product, since I have the opportunity to help many people through this website.
If you are interested in this product you can contact me directly by sending an email to info @ healing-diabetes . com (remove the spaces before and after the @ and the dot. I put this to prevent spam)
Although I try to focus my posts about my research and experiences concerning the cure of diabetes, and I never tried to explain what is diabetes, what types of diabetes are there, which are the symptoms of diabetes…(mainly because there are lots of other webs already explaining and defining that) I realized that some visitors of this blog could not know that yet and that it would be easier for them to find all that information in one place.
Well then, I start today with the topic: types of diabetes.
The four main types of diabetes are type 1, type 2, type 1.5 (LADA) and gestational diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 Diabetes was formerly known as “Juvenile Diabetes” due to its propensity to affect a person during their childhood up to their early adulthood. It is also known as “Insulin Dependent Diabetes” since the person with this type of diabetes is contingent upon insulin injections in order to stay alive. Type 1 Diabetes is the most serious and least common of all three diabetes.
The reason for Type 1 Diabetes is normally pancreatic malfunction due to an autoimmune break down. With Type 1 Diabetes, the pancreas is attacked until it is left permanently damaged and unable to produce insulin on its own. Since an individual with Type 1 Diabetes does not generate any insulin (or not enough), their intake of insulin is measured meticulously.
Risk to those who suffer with Type 1 Diabetes is a condition called hyperglycemia or high blood-sugar. Hyperglycemia is a surplus of blood sugar and symptoms include hunger, excessive thirst, tiredness, blurred vision, nausea, increased urination, yeast infections, genital inflammation, and perhaps vomiting. Another condition known as hypoglycemia is also a risk of Type 1 Diabetes. This is where there is a lack of blood sugar (maybe caused by an excess of insulin dosis). Symptoms include confusion, anxiety, lethargy, dizziness, and fever like symptoms.
Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes used to be called “Adult Onset Diabetes“, but not anymore. Today, children around the globe are developing Type 2 Diabetes every year. Fast food, lack of exercise, and childhood obesity can be the main culprits. The key cause for Type 2 Diabetes is not the breakdown of the pancreas, but because of unhealthy lifestyles. When an individual has persistently overloaded their body with sugar and refined flours and fats, this creates consistent blood sugar levels that the insulin and pancreas have to tussle with. The insulin leads the sugar into the muscles, however, the muscles cannot get rid of the glucose due to lack of exercise. The consequence is an accretion of blood sugar for extended amounts of time. This leads to “Insulin Resistance“, which is the chief cause of Type 2 Diabetes.
When an individual becomes insulin resistant, their muscles and other possible passages for the glucose, start to oppose entry of the insulin, so no glucose is delivered. Although the main treatment for this type of diabetes is metformin or other drugs, many doctors are saying now that Type 2 Diabetes requires no medication but more exercise and keep-up a healthy diet in order to manage their blood sugar levels (read “The 30 Day Diabetes Cure” for a reference).
Latent Autoinmune Diabetes of Adults (LADA)
This type of diabetes, also know as Type 1.5 diabetes, refers to a slow-onset Type 1 autoimmune diabetes in adults.
LADA is an hereditary autoimmune disorder that results in the body mistaking the pancreas as foreign and responding by attacking and destroying the insulin-producing beta islet cells of the pancreas: some kind of an “allergy to self.”
Adults with LADA are frequently initially misdiagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes, based on age, not etiology.
A way that doctors have to determine if a non-obese adult has LADA instead of Type 2 diabetes is by performing islet cell, insulin, and GAD antibodies testing.
Gestational Diabetes
Gestational Diabetes is a temporary type of diabetes that affects around 2-3% of pregnant women, and usually goes away after the pregnancy is over. This type of diabetes can be very complicated to diagnose because many symptoms are similar to those of a normal pregnancy. Symptoms like blurred vision, tiredness, increased appetite and urination, in addition to thirst, are all potential symptoms of a standard pregnancy.
However, Gestational Diabetes is a serious form of diabetes. If it is not diagnosed, Gestational Diabetes can have harsh injurious effects on the baby, which could lead to the baby being either stillborn, or possible death not long after birth. Gestational diabetes could also leave the child and mother with an increased risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes later on in their lives.
More about the possible causes of diabetes here.
I hope all of you had a good end of year 2010 and that 2011 has started with all the energy, motivation and courage that you desire and deserve to improve your health or any other area of your lives.
As I said in my previous article “World Without Diabetes Day” my new year resolution is to try some treatments or foods to help my body to regenerate and stay healthy.
I decided to start by PXP Forte because I think in my case it can help a lot to my body to regenerate organs affected by diabetes and thereby reduce the need for external insulin.
A few days ago I ordered the product and I have it at home and have been using it for the last 3 days. It is early to see changes, so if you’re interested stay tuned because I will publish any change that I notice with PXP as well as further product information and its effects on health.
If PXP Forte works as they say, I plan on becoming a distributor for this product through this website, and that could help many people to improve their health. Anyone interested in testing the PXP now, can contact me via email from the contact page.
How about you? What is your New Year resolution regarding your health?
Today I want to share with you some of the plants or foods that I have recently learned help improve the health of diabetics, or even help cure diabetes.
Yacon (Peruvian ground apple)
Yacon is a root vegetable grown in Peru that has some fabulous properties for diabetics.
Yacon root is the edible part of the tuber and is composed mostly of water and fructo-oligosaccharides (carbohydrates metabolized by the digestive system). That means it has a sweet taste but in doesn’t cause blood sugar to rise due to the type of carbohydrates it contains.
Its hypoglycemic action makes it an ideal food for diabetics.
In addition, fructo-oligosaccharides act as probiotics to improve gastrointestinal health, the immune system and to prevent the development of various diseases.
Thanks to the bifidobacteria stimulated by the consumption of yacon, fewer toxin are created and therefore there is a lower risk of colon cancer.
Yacon leaves also have medicinal properties, since taking an infusion or tea of yacon leaves stimulates the pancreas and lowers blood glucose levels.
It seems that the root of yacon is hard to find as such, but more and more health food stores and tea shops are offering teas or other products made from this root.
Silymarin
Silibinin, also known as silybin, is the major active constituent of silymarin, the mixture of flavonolignans extracted from milk thistle, one of the most powerful and protective substances known.
The most prominent effect of silymarin on the liver seems to be its ability to stimulate protein synthesis. This supports the liver’s ability to replace damaged cells with new ones. It is also interesting to know that silymarin does not have the same stimulating effect on malignant tissue.
This substance has a strong antioxidant effect.
Silymarin accelerates the recovery of liver inflammation caused by viruses, drugs and toxic substances. Its cellular regeneration action is so powerful that it has managed to heal livers of cirrhosis. It can prevent the formation of gallstones and lower cholesterol levels in bile.
“It can help people with type 2 diabetes to control their glucose levels and reduce the level of glycation. In a study related to diabetes it was found that after four months at a dose of 200 milligrams of silymarin three times a day, Type 2 diabetes patients achieved a considerable reduction in their levels of blood glucose. There were also significant reductions in other measures such as glycosylated hemoglobin, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (the so-called ‘bad cholesterol’) and triglycerides.”
Dr. Claudia Angélica Soto Peredo found that SILYMARIN:
- Regenerates ß-cells, (beta), which produce insulin in the pancreas
- Restores the normal gradient of blood glucose, lowers blood sugar
- Makes cells permeable to insulin again
This implies that the silymarin can improve all types of diabetes.
This revolutionary discovery earned her the award Canifarma 2003.
Neem (Azadirachta indica)
Among the thousands of plants used in ayurvedic medicine, one in particular has aroused interest in studying its traditional uses, verify them and magnifying them. the plant is named Neem. Neem has now emerged as not only “The Village Pharmacy,” as the Indians call it, but also as a wonder plant for today and of the future.
Compounds found in the seeds, bark and leaves have been tested as being antiseptic, fever reducing, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antifungal. The effectiveness of neem has been demonstrated many times.
One outcome of its application in diabetic patients was that oral doses of neem leaf extract reduced the insulin needs between 30 and 50% for patients with type I diabetes.
Based on the many existing studies of the effects of neem to reduce the need for insulin, the Indian government approved the sale of neem tablets for use by diabetics (some of these products are just crushed neem leaves).
I hope this information will be useful for someone. As always, if anyone has had any experience taking these substances, a comment would be appreciated so that others can benefit from your experience.
Sigue leyendo Yacon, Silymarin and Neem: allies against diabetes
Dr. Mercola, an American physician who I have been following for more than a year, has posted another entry on his website (the most visited website about natural health, with more than one million hits a month) on type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Mercola is a licensed physician who realized how ineffective many conventional medical treatments to cure chronic diseases are. Now he practices his medicine in a more natural way, taking into consideration what helps and what harms the body.
Anyway, here is the article:
The Glaring Diabetes Error That Even Most Doctors Don’t Recognize
The concept that is being overlooked by conventional medicine is that diabetes is not a disease of blood sugar. Yes, blood sugar becomes elevated in people with diabetes, but this is a symptom of the real problem, and it is an attempt by your body to keep things in balance.
The real problem in diabetes is insulin, and more specifically insulin resistance, along with faulty leptin signaling.
When blood sugar becomes elevated it is a signal for insulin to be released to direct the extra energy into storage. A small amount is stored as a starch called glycogen in your body, but the majority is stored as your main energy supply — fat. Thus, in this regard insulin’s major role is not to lower sugar, but to take the extra energy and store it for future times of need.
Insulin lowers your blood sugar as a side effect of directing the extra energy into storage.
This is why treatments that concentrate merely on lowering blood sugar for diabetes while raising insulin levels can actually worsen rather than remedy the actual problem of metabolic miscommunication. And most treatments for type 2 diabetes involve drugs that either raise insulin or lower blood sugar (which they do by multiplying your fat cells at a faster rate), ultimately contributing to the side effects and the shortened lifespan that diabetics experience.
To put it simply, these treatments just don’t work because they are not addressing insulin resistance and leptin resistance, which are the result of metabolic miscommunications.
If Your Diabetes Doctor Doesn’t Know About Leptin, Find a New Doctor Fast
Recent compelling research reveals that the two most important organs that will determine whether you develop type 2 diabetes or not are your liver and your brain — and it is their ability to listen to leptin that will determine this.
Leptin is produced by fat and largely influences, if not controls, the manifest functions of the hypothalamus in your brain, including:
- Reproduction
- Thyroid function
- Adrenal function
- Sympathetic nervous system
Leptin also tells your body:
• How much energy it has, and whether it needs more (signaling you to “be hungry”)
• Whether it should get rid of some energy (saying “stop being hungry”)
• Most importantly, what to do with the energy already there (reproduce cells or focus on cellular repair)
Your brain and liver need to be able to hear these signals coming from leptin, and hear them correctly, in order to keep things in your body functioning smoothly. However, if you become leptin resistant, the part of leptin’s message that would normally reduce hunger and fat stores, and increase fat burning, does not get through to your brain — so you stay hungry and store more fat, rather than burning it.
Meanwhile, leptin’s message to increase sympathetic nervous system activity gets through all too loudly and clearly, so you stay hungry, continue to get fat, and get not only elevated sugar, insulin resistance and diabetes, but also high blood pressure, heart disease and accelerated aging.
If You Want to Prevent or Reverse Diabetes, IGNORE the Following “Health” Agencies
- American Dietetic Association
- American Heart Association
- American Diabetes Association
For the last 50 years, many people have been following the nutritional recommendations from these agencies, which advise a high complex carbohydrate, low saturated fat diet. Well, by some estimates diabetes has increased more than 700 percent over this same time span, and you would have to have blinders on to not notice the connection.
The problem is that they are continuing to spread the damaging myth that saturated fats must be avoided, while grains and vegetable oils should be emphasized. This is a whole topic in and of itself, but at the most basic level eating a high “complex” carbohydrate, low saturated fat diet for health and longevity has been shown to be wrong. And if you have diabetes, you need to avoid grains, even whole grains and things like rice, potatoes and cereal, to get healthy.
Getting Over Diabetes Once and For All
There are two things that everyone should be doing to avoid becoming a diabetes statistic:
- Exercising frequently
- Adopting an eating plan that emphasizes good fats, protein and non-grain carbohydrates (vegetables)
Folks, diabetes is expanding at alarming rates. Now is the time for you to take control of your health and start a new lifestyle that will make you virtually immune to not only diabetes, but also heart disease, hypertension, and many other chronic diseases — and all without the use of potentially dangerous drugs.
You can read the whole article here.
May 2011 update: If you don’t want to go to the extrem of not eating any grains, I suggest you to read the book The 30 Day Diabetes Cure, reviewed here, which is a step-by step guide to reversing your diabetes in 30 days. Amazing information in that book!
Sigue leyendo If you have type 2 diabetes, you need to know this
It seems that finally we can buy and take stevia as it is: a natural sweetener with beneficial properties, not something labeled as a dietary supplement or an additive for the bath (which was required by producers or distributors of stevia so far, since authorities did not allow it to be sold as a sweetener).
I just read a story in an spanish online newspaper entitled “The ka’a he’ê is a drug that can fight diabetes and hypertension,” which in fact is an interview with medical researcher Dr. Luis A. Barriocanal Perasso.
To date, stevia or ka’a he’ê (its original name) was only allowed for sale as a sweetener in a few countries, while in others like the U.S. and Europe could only be sold as a dietary supplement (many believe that this was due to multinational companies’ that produce artificial sweeteners, who feared for their business). Some institutions allowed using it in moderation because they were not sure of stevia’s long-term effects.
Now the JECFA (its acronym in English, the Joined Experts Committee on Food Additives) of the USFO and WHO (United States Food Organization and the World Health Organization, respectively), which are global entities that regulate substances to make sure they are safe for human consumption, have approved stevia for consumption in the world.
All is left is for the U.S. FDA and the European EFSA to comply with the administrative formalities required and remove those barriers that were raised against stevia. Understanding how these institutions work, I would not be surprised if some time still needs to go by to do the paperwork necessary for change.
I recommend reading the interview (that is, if you can read spanish), which talks about:
• Findings after the first global long-term study on stevia.
• Use of stevia to replace other oral hypoglycemic agents, i.e. other tablets to treat diabetes, but naturally.
• Pressures and conspiracy against stevia.
• Safety of this herb for human use.
• Benefits of stevia for your health: lowers blood sugar, and blood pressure when it is high.
• Future demand for stevia from food and beverage companies.
• Its use to prevent diabetes.
• Insufficient current production of stevia.
In short, we’re in luck, because this decision to declare stevia as totally safe for human consumption will benefit many people.
Have you already tried stevia? What effects have you experienced in your body using it?
That’s the question many people have been asking for quite some time, including myself. For those who do not know what stevia is, here’s a link to an article I wrote about this natural sweetener.
Besides being totally natural (unlike the sweeteners we buy in grocery stores which are loaded with chemicals), stevia has a feature that makes it very desirable for diabetics: it sweetens in a higher proportion than sugar but contains no calories, and, as a matter of fact, some studies show that it lowers blood sugar levels.
With these qualities you would think that stevia is a very appropriate way to sweeten desserts, yogurts, teas and coffees (whoever likes them).
Maybe because of these qualities, it has become a threat to the sugar and artificial sweeteners industry, and without further notice, has vanished from the market.
At least in the area where I live, it has been impossible for months to find stevia in stores where before, if you had it ordered in advance, they used to get it for you (herbalists, biological shops). It’s not that these stores ran out of it or stopped selling it, but they can’t find a distributor or producer to provide them with stevia. Not even the store managers have any information on why it is not available or when it will be.
One day I asked again for stevia and the salesperson told me something that I think it is not too far from reality (in fact I totally believed her). She told me that someone said to her that a big sugar manufacturing company bought up the entire stock of stevia from producers/distributors and got this valuable solution for diabetics off the market.
Surely something similar happened when a car manufacturer like Toyota built an electric car to offer an alternative to gasoline and oil-based products, while being less aggressive with the environment. A few months later, and despite users’ satisfaction with the car, they decided to stop manufacturing it or leasing it (a very ordinary hire-purchase system in the U.S.).
Here we have it again: just like the gigantic oil companies, who were anything but happy about electric cars starting to run down the streets. I guess only company executives know what happened (and if maybe there was suitcases filled up with bank notes in exchange for clearing off the item) as is happening now with the stevia.
It is disappointing to see how small efforts to improve our world or our lives will remain unmade because of a few colored paper notes’ getting more importance that they actually have.
But instead of stopping and feeling discouraged, these events should ignite the spark needed to rise all involved and interested people, and make clear what we want. After all, companies and governments work for our own good, don’t they?
And finally, a few questions for those who want to participate in the conversation and leave a comment:
- Do you have access in your area to stevia? Is it easy to find?
- Since when has stevia been no longer available in your area? Have you been told why they no longer sell it?
- Do you have your own opinion about why stevia is no longer available?
- How could we make these things not happen anymore?
This time I am going to talk about broccoli as an ally against the consequences of diabetes.
Eating broccoli could reverse the damage that diabetes inflicts on heart blood vessels. The key is most likely a compound in the vegetable called sulforaphane.
Sulforaphane encourages production of enzymes that protect the blood vessels, and reduces the number of molecules that cause cell damage by up to 73%.
broccoli & diabetes
Keeping your heart healthy is extremely important if you have diabetes. Heart disease is actually the most common side effect of the condition, and 65 percent of people with diabetes die from heart attack or stroke.
If diabetes is not controlled, it can damage blood vessels, including those leading to the brain and heart. This encourages the formation of plaques (also known as atherosclerosis), which can ultimately make it difficult for blood to flow through the vessels and causing your blood pressure to rise.
How might broccoli help?
One of broccoli’s most powerful compounds is the phytochemical sulforaphane. This compound has been found to restore your immune system as you age and increase your liver’s ability to detoxify carcinogenic compounds and free radicals. This in turn protects against cell mutations, cancer and other harmful effects.
It turns out sulforaphane protects your heart via two routes:
- It reduces levels of harmful molecules called Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS).
- It activates a protein called nrf2, which triggers protective antioxidant and detoxifying enzymes that protect your cells and tissues.
Broccoli is not the only vegetable that contains sulforaphane, though. Most of the veggies in the cruciferous family also contain it, and this includes vegetables such as turnips, cabbage, bok choy, rutabaga, mustard greens, cauliflower, radishes and many others.
To really get the most benefit, it helps to find out your nutritional type, as some people actually do not well with broccoli.
What is the best way to eat broccoli?
The three best options are: eating broccoli sprouts (before they fully develop as a vegetable), or eat the vegetable raw or steamed.
And remember that the key to preventing diseases like diabetes and their consequent related issues (heart attacks) is to keep a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and to eliminate stress in our lives.
This is the original article in case you want to read it: “Broccoli Reverses Diabetes Damage.”
Sigue leyendo Broccoli protects against damage caused by diabetes
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