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Comment by Kaline on March 3, 2010 at 5:48am

How Diabetes Affects You





Dr. Oz narrates an animation showing how diabetes affects your body on the cellular level. Learn how types 1 and 2 affect your blood and sugar levels differently.



Sponsored by Abbott Diabetes Care – for more information click here. Animation produced by Visible Productions Inc.

Comment by Kaline on March 2, 2010 at 4:50pm

Fighting Juvenile Diabetes With Vitamin D: http://www.smdp.com/Articles-c-2010-03-01-69169.113116_Fighting_juv...

The latest to date which has had its share of the spotlight on the issue of Juvenile Diabetes is all on the AB1802 Bill (co-authored by Senator Cox) which is generally garnered towards availing and accessing select 'trained' members of the school faculty and the school administration to administer insulin to their students within the campus.

Parents if at all curious, may read the Bill via this link: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_1801-1850/ab_1802_b...

What's also rivetingly exciting on topic as of late are the much anticipated stem cell based therapies: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/33be4d/cell_and_stem_cell

Comment by Kahili on January 21, 2010 at 9:48am

The Many Meanings of High Cholesterol.......Statins Not Included.
{Dr.Mark Stengler, ND
National College of Natural Medicine.Oregon,USA.}
'It is not unusual in medical practices today to treat symptoms rather than searching for and correcting the root cause of a problem.
Consequently, some patients end up taking medication, maybe for life, to control a symptom rather than digging a little deeper to cure the underlying problem.'
Mark Stengler, ND, sees this happen often.

Patients share with him the symptoms they are suffering and the treatment protocol recommended by their MD.
Meanwhile, by taking a slight step back, Dr. Stengler 'sees the forest through the trees' when looking at symptoms and helps cure the underlying problems
. I talked with him recently about one such patient, a 45-year-old woman who had been told that because of high lipid levels (LDL cholesterol and triglycerides), she should take statins for life.

PATIENT'S HISTORY

Dr. Stengler says that when the woman came to his office, her lipid levels were unquestionably high -- her total cholesterol was 287 with LDL at a troubling 184 and triglycerides at 268.
Her blood sugar, ranging from 93 to 99, was at the high end of normal and she was mildly overweight. She complained about a moderate degree of fatigue, especially in the early afternoon, and occasional shortness of breath.
Curiously, she had no strong family history of high lipid levels, which is unusual in a case like this. Although the woman's blood sugar didn't show pre-diabetes, it was certainly not optimal -- he likes fasting glucose levels to be between 65 and 86. Looking over this constellation, Dr. Stengler decided to take a different tack. Knowing that insulin resistance activates insulin receptors in the liver, which in turn activates cholesterol and triglyceride production, he concluded that this was likely a problem of insulin resistance -- and that the high lipid levels were symptoms.

TREATMENT

Dr. Stengler first reviewed an appropriate diet and eating schedule with the patient.
He told her she must start eating breakfast, which would immediately help prevent blood sugar swings, and he put her on a diet designed specifically to correct insulin resistance.

The diet includes...

* High fiber to help balance blood sugar -- vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains, including heart-protecting soluble fiber found in oat bran, beans, nuts, seeds and apples.
For example, have one tablespoon of ground flaxseeds at each meal (or close to one quarter cup daily), and drink at least 10 ounces of water per tablespoon of flaxseeds.
Aim for a daily fiber total of 35 g to 50 g.

* Protein with each meal and at most snacks -- consume protein in the form of legumes, nuts, seeds and peas and lean animal protein including skinless turkey, skinless chicken and fish
. Protein drinks with low sugar levels are acceptable.
Protein helps even out blood sugar levels... in fact, many people who have diabetes find that increasing protein in their diet is beneficial.

* Quality fats -- fish (including salmon), nuts and seeds.
Use olive and flax seed oils for salads and other oil needs.

* Plenty of chromium -- a chromium deficiency contributes to blood sugar problems. You can find chromium in brewer's yeast, wheat germ, whole grains, cheese and garlic.

* Do not go longer than three hours without eating! This will help stabilize blood sugar levels.
Focus on foods with a low glycemic index.

Foods to avoid include the following, all of which spike blood sugar levels...

* Simple sugars -- such as candy, cookies and soda.

* White refined bread.

* Alcohol and caffeine (in some people, they also spike blood sugar).

* Artificial sweeteners. Choose healthier sweeteners such as stevia or xylitol in moderation.

* Reduce the amount of saturated fat as found in red meat and dairy products and eliminate trans fats completely from your diet.

In addition, Dr. Stengler started his patient on several supplements to balance her blood sugar and insulin.
These included cinnamon extract (500 mg), chromium (500 mcg), vanadium (50 mcg), alpha lipoic acid (300 mg), l-carnosine (500 mg) and red yeast rice (1,200 mg twice a day) to help bring down her cholesterol.

THE AFTERMATH

Two-and-a-half months after she started treatment, this patient had a very different physical profile, says Dr. Stengler.
Not only was her energy level much better with no afternoon slumps, her shortness of breath was gone and her lab results were vastly improved.
Her cholesterol had dropped from 287 to 185 with her LDL dropping from its original 184 to 113... her triglycerides sank from 268 to 131.

Finally, her fasting glucose level dropped a full 10 points
. She continues to do well and Dr. Stengler will likely reduce her supplements to see if the benefits hold. There is no reason to think this patient will ever need statin drugs, and the healthy base she now has will help her prevent further insulin resistance and eventual diabetes, perhaps high blood pressure as well.
Dr. Stengler points out that these changes in laboratory values are actually better than what one could have expected from statin or other medications.

TAKE-HOME MESSAGE

The coming together of high triglyceride levels, low "good" or HDL cholesterol, high LDL cholesterol and insulin resistance can be part of a common health problem called syndrome X (or metabolic syndrome).
This is an umbrella term for having several health problems within a particular cluster that includes high blood pressure and obesity, especially fat around the abdomen.

However, one problem that is always a symptom of syndrome X is insulin resistance, a metabolic disorder. Insulin resistance happens when the cells begin to resist this hormone that transports blood sugar throughout the body for its use.
Eventually the body tries to compensate for the cells' inability to use insulin by overproducing it. The excess insulin, however, is not helpful and ends up as a contributor toward obesity, high blood pressure and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

Given that elevated triglyceride and LDL cholesterol levels are such a common symptom of syndrome X, before starting on statin medications, which are powerful drugs with frequent side effects, patients should at least consider the possibility of insulin resistance and syndrome X. Among the root causes of this, only one -- family history -- is something people can't change.

The others are unhealthy diet, chronic stress, nutritional deficiencies (especially chromium, B vitamins, zinc and vanadium), obesity and lack of exercise. A determined patient can correct every single one of those and there is a good chance he/she can improve lipid levels as well. Work with a licensed practitioner who can create the right plan, including proper supplement levels and the proper combination of supplements.



Source
* Mark Stengler, ND, associate clinical professor, National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, Oregon. He practices naturopathic medicine at the La Jolla Whole Health Clinic, La Jolla, California.USA.

Comment by Kahili on January 21, 2010 at 8:43am

Type 2 Diabetes CURED In As Little As 90 Minutes...

* Breakthrough proven in new university study...
* Could make dangerous diabetes drugs obsolete...
* BONUS: You could also lose two-thirds of your unwanted body fat!

Pittsburgh, PA—An amazing new alternative code-named "LGB" is truly curing people of type 2 diabetes without drugs, a new study confirms. In as little as 90 minutes, LGB dramatically corrects the way your body metabolizes food. And its astonishing effect is permanent, so you won't have to keep popping pills for the rest of your life.

Proven to work, even for morbidly obese patients. Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have established that 83% of obese patients who try LGB see dramatic improvement in their diabetes. Many see total reversal of the disease. They're cured forever! Dr. Philip Schauer, who led the study, also comments,

"Most patients in the study with type 2 diabetes... achieved excellent biochemical [blood sugar] control and were able to reap the clinical benefits of withdrawing from most, if not all, antidiabetes medications, including insulin."

Translation:
Diabetes drug sales could plummet if this news gets out..... Which is why your loved ones are probably doomed to stay in the dark about this lifesaving breakthrough—

P.S. Patients tracked in the same study also lost up to two-thirds of their unwanted body fat.
Intrigued?

* "Bulletproof" your kidneys with this new diabetes discovery, confirmed in a study of 11,000 patients.
* OUTRAGE! Blood sugar drugs that double your risk for hip fracture!
* What to take instead.
Astonishing herb discovery from India, shown in new clinical trials to lower blood sugar as much as 22%. NOTE FROM PUBLISHER: Everyone with diabetes should at least take a look at this lifesaving new information.

Comment by Kahili on January 21, 2010 at 8:36am

Ineffective Heart Surgery Performed on Diabetics.

If you have diabetes and heart disease -- and many Americans do, or will, since the two tend to go hand in hand -- it is important to be aware of special considerations regarding your treatment, especially when it comes to invasive heart procedures.

A Landmark Study

Surprisingly, there is no clear consensus on how to treat diabetic patients with heart disease. That, coupled with concern about the exorbitant cost of treating diabetes (it now accounts for one out of every five federal health-care dollars spent), led researchers to undertake the Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation (BARI 2D) trial, which is a comparative effectiveness study of two different treatments for diabetic patients with heart disease.

In the five-year randomized, clinical trial of 2,368 diabetics with heart disease at 49 sites in six countries, researchers compared optimal medical therapy (medications and lifestyle counseling) with the same plus surgery to see which worked best in preventing a cardiovascular event and/or early death. These patients were generally considered to be at low risk for heart attack and stroke based on the extent of their coronary artery disease and symptoms, such as their degree of angina (chest pain), when the study began. The "optimal medical therapy" (e.g., medications such as beta-blockers and statins) was given to all participants to control blood pressure and cholesterol, and participants were also counseled, as appropriate, to quit smoking and/or lose weight, notes William E. Boden, MD, FACC, clinical chief of the division of cardiovascular medicine and professor of medicine and preventive medicine at the University at Buffalo Schools of Medicine & Public Health.

For the group that received medical therapy plus surgery, half the participants were randomly assigned to either undergo stent angioplasty or coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG).

Over the five-year period following the intervention, Dr. Boden and his colleagues found that...

* There was little or no difference in outcome between those who underwent angioplasty versus only optimal medical therapy -- angioplasty patients had a 10.8% death rate, compared with a 10.2% death rate among those on optimal medical therapy.

* In the bypass group -- which included individuals with more severe heart disease -- surgery was more effective than optimal medical therapy. Bypass recipients had a 22.4% chance of having a heart attack or stroke or dying in the next five years, compared with 30.5% of participants who only took medications.

These results were published in the June 2009 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

High Tech Is Not Always the Answer

We’re often inclined to believe that high-tech devices and interventions are superior, Dr. Boden observes. This is not always the case -- sometimes conservative medical therapy is more effective, since it is less invasive and therefore less dangerous, and it costs less, too. The BARI 2D results confirm that intensive medical (non-surgical) therapy can be an effective first line of treatment for diabetics with heart disease, particularly for those with less severe disease.

Source(s):
Source:
William E. Boden, MD, FACC, clinical chief, division of cardiovascular medicine, professor of medicine and preventive medicine, University at Buffalo Schools of Medicine & Public Health, medical director, cardiovascular services, Kaleida Health chief of cardiology, Buffalo General and Millard Fillmore Hospitals, Buffalo, New York.