Hi, everyone. Due to other personal projects I have been neglecting this blog a little. I will take today, World Health Day, to write a few lines. Just today I read some news that comes in handy to reflect on the current status of the health care system. The news can be summarized as follows: “The costs of care for this disease (diabetes), should appropriate interventions not be established, could bankrupt the health system of the country in the next decade.” The article refers to Mexico, but I think it is a situation that is affecting most countries and cities around the world, especially the “developed” world. It seems unbelievable, but the more money governments spend on treating some disease, the more cases of the disease (like diabetes) appear. According to the news I read, “In the last three years about 17 billion pesos have been invested in the construction [...]
A few weeks ago I read an interesting story that was again hopeful for many diabetics who are waiting for a scientific cure for type 1 diabetes. The journal Cell published a new Canadian study with animals, where mice were injected with capsaicin, the substance that makes chili peppers spicy, and they were quickly cured of type 1 diabetes. Researchers from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto believe that Type 1 diabetes — the most serious form of the disease that usually appears in childhood — is caused by malfunctioning pain nerves that surround cells in the pancreas. In patients suffering from Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas fails to produce sufficient levels of insulin, causing inflammation and death of insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas. Experts have long believed that the condition was caused by the body’s immune system turning against itself, but the Toronto researchers — immunologist Dr. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Tomorrow, November 14, 2008, we will “celebrate” World Diabetes Day. For another year the opportunity has come to announce with fanfare that it’s a special day, dedicated to diabetes. I wrote “celebrate” in quotes because I do not think it is an occasion to celebrate. It is a very sad thing that there are more and more people with diabetes, and especially that the number of cases of children with diabetes is dramatically increasing. For me, personally, and with all due respect to those who strive to change things, this seems like a failure on the parts of our health system and government. Why else, since we have a technology thousands of times more advanced than 50 years ago, would the number of people suffering from diabetes increase exponentially? Isn’t it supposed to be the opposite: improving technology and science = improving health? Apparently not. In this case the technology [...]
Who knew that microbes can protect us from disease? This is the conclusion reached after a group of scientists experimented with mice by exposing to common stomach bacteria. The result was that these mice were protected against the development of type 1 diabetes. These findings support the “hygiene hypothesis,” which refers to the lack of exposure to parasites, bacteria and viruses in developed countries leading to an increased risk of diseases like allergies, asthma and other immune system problems. Many people don’t know that type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that occurs because the immune system cells mistakenly attack the pancreas that produces insulin. In type 1 diabetes the pancreas does not fail, but the immune system does. One wouldn’t think that symptoms such as allergies or asthma have anything to do with diabetes. In fact, all are linked with immune system problems (I myself have both diabetes and [...]
Today I’ll touch on something that everyone knows should do, but few put into practice: exercise. In particular, this time I write for type 2 diabetics, who are increasingly suffering the consequences of this disease, knowing that the cure for diabetes is in their hands, or rather, in their mouths and their legs. Anyone who has doubts about the judgments of “incurable” and “life-long disease” offered by insensitive doctors when they tell us that we have diabetes, may have noticed that type 2 diabetes cure is possible. And the two pillars to sustain the cure naturally are starting a healthy diet (to cure the disease, instead of keeping it) and physical exercise / sport. It is crystal clear: allopathic doctors are telling us, natural therapists recommend it to us, and any blog or website related to diabetes also suggests it. For a diabetic, exercising or practicing sports should be as [...]
I just read some news today that left me puzzled. It turns out that these days the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD, its acronym in English) is being held in Rome. In this event the results of the study “Instigate,” a study that collects data from 1,153 patients with type 2 diabetes from five European countries (UK, France, Germany, Greece and Spain), were presented. The goal of this study was to analyze the monthly cost of care for diabetes before and after six months of starting treatment with insulin. Check this out: in Spain, the average monthly cost is 515 Euros per patient using pills as the only drug, and 699 Euros per month for each patient after 6 months of treatment with insulin. Incredible, right? Apparently, the monthly cost increase after starting treatment with insulin was due to more consultations with specialists, [...]
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 [...]
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%. People with diabetes are up to five times more likely to develop cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes, both of which are linked to damaged blood vessels. 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 [...]
Beating type 1 diabetes is a tough thing (specially after almost 10 years taking shots of insulin), but not impossible. As I already said in different points of this blog, I am healing diabetes myself through natural means, specially foods. After 7 months eating a 100% vegan raw food diet I’ve been able to reduce the insulin intake 60-70%. These last months my blood sugar has stabilized with 2 or 3 units of insulin per meal and 11 units at night. Not happy enough with that, since my goal is to be healed before June 20th 2008, yesterday I began a Juice Feasting period. That means that all that I take during the day are about 4 litres of vegetable juices. The difference between Juice Fasting and Juice Feasting is that with the second one, the body still gets the calories and nutrients needed to keep a normal energy level, [...]
This time I have a recommendation for everyone! I’m talking about the Raw For Life DVDs. If you have heard about the Raw For 30 Days film documentary that is comming up in Spring 2008, you probably know that these guys have just (in November) lounched a 2 DVD pack where they gather lots of information about the Raw Food. I bought the DVDs from their website, I received it three days ago, and I watched them all in once one night. Wow, they have done a great job! In the DVDs they present the raw food diet as the healthiest of choices if you have consideration about your body and your health. Since I have been on a raw food diet for 5 months now, I can tell you that it has helped a lot reducing the amount of insulin needed due to my diabetes type I. As I [...]
The other day I read an interesting article where the authors (medical professionals) explained the benefits of black tea. It seems that drinking black tea may be beneficial for people with diabetes because it stimulates the response to insulin and reduces blood sugar levels, according to researchers from King’s College London. According to these researchers, black tea components stimulate pancreatic cells (responsible for insulin production). Other studies suggest that tea polyphenols may lower cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure and even protect your bones. So, here we have another ally that can help lower blood sugar levels and improve our overall health (although we shouldn’t forget that water is the best fluid for the body). And of course, when drinking tea, we shouldn’t add sugar or artificial sweeteners. If you don’t like the taste of the tea without sugar or milk, you can always add a little yacon or stevia (natural [...]
It’s clear that the only ones who really care about our health, are ourselves (well, and family & friends). That’s why it’s up to us to enjoy good health or not. We can not leave it to others, at least not completely. That’s the conclusion I came up with today when I saw (consciously) the food and drink vending machine at my work. There’s not even one thing that is not harmful to the body in one way or another! Do companies not care about the health of their employees? They should, since every time one employee is ill and doesn’t go to work, it costs money to them (that’s if they just look for the profits and don’t care about their people) From beverages with lots of calories to “light” drinks sweetened with aspartame (I explained the dangers of aspartame in this previous article), from all kinds of chocolate [...]
After spending a few days in Germany seen the family of my wife, I came home and found in my inbox an e-mail with a very interesting interview with a Nobel prize for medicine on the pharmaceutical industry and its power to cure (or not cure). For those who thought or think I am making unfounded accusations in my blog on the pharmaceutical industry and politicians, this interview might open your eyes a little bit (I was the first surprised to read these words directly from a Nobel Prize for Medicine) Subject: “The drug that completely cures is not profitable” (Interview with the Nobel Prize for Medicine Richard J. Roberts). Lluís Amiguet – La Vanguardia. I’m 63 years old: the worst about getting older is that you consider many “truths” as holy: that’s when you need new questions. I was born in Derby, my mechanic father gave me a chemistry [...]
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