In addition to being the driving force behind type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance is also part and parcel of a condition called metabolic syndrome (formerly syndrome X).
Identified in the mid-1980s by Stanford University researcher Gerald Reaven, MD, metabolic syndrome is a cluster of disorders that includes obesity (particularly abdominal obesity), high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels, low HDL cholesterol (often referred to as “good” cholesterol, since it ushers excess cholesterol out of the body), and increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Reaven, observing that these seemingly unrelated disorders cropped up so often in the same individuals, determined that the one underlying constant was insulin resistance.
Though the natural treatments for diabetes that I often write about are geared toward people who are already managing diabetes, it is good to know that your efforts at beating diabetes can also help protect against hypertension, heart disease, and obesity.
For more information about metabolic syndrome (syndrome X), insulin resistance, and how to manage diabetes, visit www.drwhitaker.com.
Contrary to popular belief, the leading liver problem in the United States is not alcoholic cirrhosis or hepatitis, but nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
Afflicting roughly one in four Americans, it is not caused by alcohol or a virus but by obesity and insulin resistance. Hence, many people living with diabetes are affected by it.
In fact, at least half of all people with type 2 diabetes have it, as do up to three-quarters of obese people and 90 percent of the morbidly obese. Although nonalcoholic fatty liver disease usually develops in people over age 50, it is becoming increasingly common in children as obesity rates skyrocket in our younger age groups.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is a progressive disease with three distinct stages. Simple fatty liver, or steatosis, is characterized by elevations in liver enzymes and fatty deposits in the liver (at least 10 percent of the liver cells are replaced by fat). If the disease is arrested in this stage, it remains relatively benign. Unfortunately, for one in five patients, it progresses to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, involving inflammation of the liver. From there, half develop cirrhosis, marked by advanced and irreversible scarring, fibrosis, and loss of liver function.
The most significant risk factors for progression include type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome (formerly called syndrome X). The unifying link in both of these disorders is insulin resistance.
When the cells resist insulin’s signals to let glucose in, the pancreas secretes higher and higher levels of insulin to get the job done. Elevated concentrations of insulin in the blood create metabolic imbalances that drive up blood levels of free fatty acids. This influx of fatty acids overwhelms the liver’s ability to handle them, and they are converted into triglycerides and stored in the organ, setting up a vicious cycle of lipid peroxidation (free-radical damage), inflammation, and liver cell injury.
But don’t despair! This blog includes many natural diabetes treatments that can help you avoid this, as well as other diabetes complications.
In addition to being the driving force behind type-2 diabetes, insulin resistance is also part and parcel of a condition known as metabolic syndrome.
Identified in the mid-1980s by Stanford University researcher Gerald Reaven, MD, metabolic syndrome, initially called syndrome X, is a cluster of disorders that includes obesity, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol (often referred to as “good” cholesterol since it ushers excess cholesterol out of the body), and increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Reaven, observing that these seemingly unrelated disorders cropped up so often in the same individuals, determined that the one underlying constant was insulin resistance. In addition to insulin resistance, here are some of the other risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome:
Abdominal obesity: an accumulation of excess fat around the waist
Age: the older you are, the higher your risk
Sedentary lifestyle
Hormone imbalances
Poor diet: a diet high in saturated and trans fats and sugar
Fortunately, by following the alternative treatments for diabetes that we’ll be sharing here, you will not only protect yourself from diabetes, but also lower your risk of metabolic syndrome.
As I’ve said many times (and conventional medicine continues to ignore) diabetes is a nutritional wasting disease. As a result of the continual nutritional losses that occur in people with diabetes, body parts simply fall off.
Diabetes is our number-one cause of blindness, amputation, and kidney failure. It dramatically increases the risk of both heart attack and stroke. And if you have pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome (also called syndrome X), you’re on the road to significant complications if you don’t address these nutrient losses with high-dose, targeted supplements for diabetes.
Folks, it’s not complicated. If you were to give a healthy person an osmotic diuretic every day and did not replace nutrients, you would produce the same complications suffered by those living with diabetes and related conditions.
Let’s examine some of these losses and what they mean for you.
Magnesium. Excessive urination washes out magnesium. Low magnesium levels are present in 25 percent of those with diabetes, and even those with levels considered to be “high” don’t reach the average levels of those without blood sugar concerns.
Magnesium is involved in glucose transfer across cell membranes and improves insulin sensitivity and glucose control. When magnesium goes down, glucose control deteriorates. That’s because magnesium is essential to normal carbohydrate metabolism.
Low magnesium levels are associated with the diabetic retinopathy. Said another way, if you have diabetes and you have very low magnesium, you are at the greatest risk of going blind. Low magnesium levels are also connected to high blood pressure and heart disease. Now, shouldn’t everyone living with diabetes be taking magnesium supplements to reduce or completely avoid such devastating complications?
Zinc is another water-soluble nutrient that is flushed from the body, and as a result, diabetes produces low zinc levels. This complication can impair the immune system, particularly T-cell function, which could lead to more infections and non-healing ulcers. Zinc deficiency also can cause hair loss as well as diarrhea, which triggers further nutrient losses still. All together now, shouldn’t everyone with diabetes be taking zinc supplements?
B-complex vitamins. B6, B12, and folic acid are also water-soluble and vulnerable to loss via excessive urination from diabetes. This leads to increased homocysteine levels and dramatically increased risk of heart disease.
Low levels of B6 can cause glucose intolerance, depression, cracked lips, and dry skin. A B12 deficiency may exhibit no obvious symptoms at first, but over time can produce mental disturbances, anemia, and impaired nerve function. A lack of folic acid may bring on depression, forgetfulness, insomnia, irritability, and fatigue. Repeat after me. Shouldn’t everyone living with diabetes be taking supplemental B vitamins?
Diabetes complications are as frightening as the disease itself--which is growing exponentially in this country. Given these facts, you’d think the most basic aspects of this illness would at least be understood, if not one of the primary focuses of treatment. Sadly, this isn’t happening.
It’s up to us. I’ll keep spreading the word. And if you have diabetes, you owe it to yourself to get on a high-dose supplement program as soon as possible, with a particular emphasis on these water soluble nutrients.
You could fill a book with Dr. Whitaker's diabetes success stories--and, in fact, Dr. Whitaker's Reversing Diabetes is being re-released in paperback on November 1.
Since this groundbreaking book was first published, your supplement arsenal for controlling blood sugar--and beating syndrome X, pre-diabetes and even type 2 diabetes--continues to grow, as more research emerges that shows drugs and insulin aren't the only answers anymore.
One of the more exciting herbal blood sugar supplements is Gymnema sylvestre. This climbing plant native to India has been used since the sixth century B.C. to lower blood sugar, and may actually help repair damage to cells in the pancreas in the process.
Animal studies on diabetic rats showed fasting blood glucose levels returning to normal after 20 to 60 days of treatment, with a rise toward normal in serum insulin. An examination of the rats' pancreatic islet and beta cells, which produce insulin, showed the number of cells had doubledcompared to those of the placebo group. As Dr. Whitaker points out, this flies in the face of everything we believed possible. Once beta cells are gone, they're gone...or so we thought.
Human studies have shown similar results: Five of 22 patients taking 400 mg per day for 18 to 20 months as a supplement to oral drugs could discontinue the drugs, and the rest reduced their dosages. There was a significant reduction in blood glucose and other parameters of insulin efficiency. Researchers concluded, "the beta cells may be regenerated in type II diabetic patients on (Gymnema sylvestre) supplementation."
Dr. Whitaker recommends that anyone with diabetes try 400 mg daily of Gymnema sylvestre. Or, if you are at high risk for developing diabetes, he recommends a maintenance dose of 200 mg daily.
Here's a simple recipe for preventing Type 2 diabetes and heart disease: pour glass of tomato juice. Drink. Repeat.
Metabolic Syndrome -- which for many is the first step towards obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease -- may be prevented by upping your antioxidant carotenoid levels, according to a recent study from the University Medical Center Ulrecht in The Netherlands.
In the study published in the Journal of Nutrition, Dutch scientists report that those with the highest carotenoid levels had a 58 percent decreased incidence of Metabolic Syndrome, drastically reducing their future risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Higher levels of carotenoids, including beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthin, were associated with smaller waist size and less body fat, as well as lower triglyceride levels. Waist size above 40" in men (35" in women) and increased triglyceride levels are two major signs and symptoms of Metabolic Syndrome.
The highest levels of protection seem to come from lycopene and beta-carotene, with lycopene in particular associated with a 45 percent lower incidence of the syndrome.
Clearly if you're looking for a new diabetes treatment or a simple lifestyle change for better health, getting more lycopene in your diet is a healthy place to start. Lycopene, which is abundant in tomato juice and widely available in supplement form, not only lowers your risk of diabetes, heart attack and diseases of the prostate, lung, colon, stomach, and pancreas, but studies have also found it can significantly decrease exercise-induced asthma too.
Metabolic Syndrome is particularly dangerous because so many have it and don't even realize it. As many as 75 million Americans have the risk factors associated with Metabolic Syndrome (also known as "Syndrome X") which include low HDL cholesterol, high fasting blood glucose levels and blood pressure above 135/85.
Taking steps to manage blood sugar and reduce weight can not only prevent Metabolic Syndrome, but the more serious Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems that so often follow behind it.
Who knew that an alternative treatment for diabetes could be as close as your next V-8? Just make it the low sodium variety, please.
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