Blood Glucose – Know Your Number!

Source: www.walgreens.com/library/contents.jsp?docid=...

(Healthy Back institute Newsletter) When it comes to blood sugar, the closer you can keep it in the normal range of 80 to 89 mg/dL, the better.

For years I’ve been warning that blood sugars even in the 90 to 100 range show that you are becoming insulin resistant and on your way to diabetes.

A recent study of 47,000 Kaiser Permanente patients validated this observation.

The study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, found that blood sugar, blood glucose (BG) levels in the 95-99 range, more than doubled a person’s risk of becoming diabetic.  In fact, for every point over 85 mg/dL the risk of becoming diabetic increased 6%, even when they controlled for other factors.1

Accordingly, the study noted that there was more incidence of cardiovascular disease and hypertension in those with higher BG.  Why is this research so important?  It flies in the face of currently accepted medical guidelines that for years have used 100 as the magic number for diagnosing “pre-diabetes.”

At LMI, I’ve been seeing red flags for years when patients come in with BG levels even in the 90s, because these levels are often accompanied by being somewhat overweight, having a thick waist, or the spare tire of dangerous belly fat. These are signs that the body can no longer efficiently process the sugars that come from complex carbohydrates in whole grains, starchy vegetables, fruits, and simple sugars.

In other words, they are signs of insulin resistance. Insulin is the “key” that unlocks the door to each cell in the body, letting glucose into the cell to be processed for energy.  If the insulin key is faulty, the glucose remains in circulation, raising triglycerides, lowering HDL, and usually ending up at the waistline.

Anytime you see your doctor for a routine physical, fasting blood glucose is tested along with other blood labs.  If your blood sugar comes in less than 100 mg/dL, you will likely get an “all clear,” when it comes to diabetes risk.  If you’re overweight, have elevated blood pressure and are sedentary – other risk factors for insulin resistance – your doctor may suggest you lose a few pounds and add a few days of walking to your weekly routine.

But typically that won’t happen unless your blood sugar levels come in greater than 100 mg/dL, but less than 126 mg/dL – the pre-diabetes range – then you will get a more stern warning regarding diet and exercise.  However, it’s not until your fasting blood sugar levels reach over 126 mg/dL that you are diagnosed with type II diabetes or non-insulin dependent diabetes.

By the time you get the “true diabetes” diagnosis – your body is so insulin resistant that it may need much more than the “diabetic diet” and a walking routine to get your blood sugar levels under control.  This is when you may need an oral hypoglycemic medicine, which comes with a nice little set of nutrient-depleting side effects.

Wouldn’t it be nice if your doctor had warned you of your increased risk way before you even reached the 100 mark for blood glucose?  For years, I have been warning my patients that blood sugar over 90 is a sign they are becoming insulin resistant.  But because medical guidelines give an “all clear” at anything under 100, too many patients don’t want to believe they could be at risk – even with fasting BGs of 98 and showing every sign of insulin resistance.

At LMI, we go to work on the insulin resistance by giving our patients blood sugar support nutrients like chromium and having our dietitians provide instruction on a lower carb diet.  Ironically, we sometimes receive calls from their primary care physicians questioning our course of action because they think these patients “are fine.” But our philosophy is, don’t wait to become diabetic – take action well ahead of time.

Hopefully, the medical community’s eyes will open after reading the newly published article in the American Journal of Medicine. This phenomenal research has hit the nail on the head and may finally spur new guidelines to be issued for the management of blood sugar. Medical news can take a while to trickle down into actual practice, so in the meantime, you may need to become more proactive on your own.

If your blood work reveals a high-normal fasting blood sugar level, cut down on carb-heavy sugars, starches, and fruits, up the organic vegetables and proteins, and get your body moving.  You may be saving yourself from becoming a diabetes statistic.

Reference

1.    Am J Med. 2008;121:519-524

[Ed. Note: James LaValle, R.Ph, ND, CCN, is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country.  He was named as one of the 50 most influential pharmacists in the US by American Druggist magazine.  Dr. LaValle is the author of more than a dozen books including the bestseller, Cracking the Metabolic Code: 9 Keys to Optimal Health.

[This is NOT an endorsement of any services or products of the LaVelle Metabolic Institute, of which I have no affiliation. It is merely an acknowledgement of the writer and the contents of his article.]

Can Exercise Reverse Pre-Diabetes?

A 2003 study in Diabetes Care (2003;26:557-562) shows that Inactive adults who add a few hours of exercise each week may cut their risk of developing a pre-diabetic condition known as insulin resistance syndrome – even if they don’t lose weight.

In fact, Investigators found that diet and exercise resulted in a 58% reduction in diabetes risk among people who are prime candidates for developing the condition, which is associated with obesity and sedentary lifestyle (The New England Journal of Medicine May 3, 2001; 344: 1343-1350, 1390-1392).

The general North American population is eating more and exercising less, and increasing numbers of adults and children are developing the syndrome, which results when a person loses the ability to use insulin effectively. This syndrome can develop into type 2 diabetes and increase the risk of heart disease if left untreated.

Exercise works by increasing the sensitivity of insulin receptors so the insulin that is present works much more effectively and your body doesn’t need to produce as much. Blood sugar is only the symptom in most diabetics; the real challenge is to control your insulin levels. Once the insulin levels are stabilized it is common for the blood sugar to come back to normal levels.

The orthodox medical community does not put enough emphasis on the powerful value of exercise. Optimum exercise levels in relation to diabetes are just not appreciated or understood enough.

There are three important variables with exercise:

• Length of time
• Frequency
• Intensity

I believe strongly in short and intense duration exercise sessions. Just make sure you have worked up gradually to these though, as you do not want to put undue stress on the body too early. However, researchers say even modest amounts of exercise, without weight loss or loss of abdominal fat, can improve indicators of glucose and fat metabolism among inactive, middle-aged adults, a group that is particularly at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes affects an estimated 18 million people in the US (90 percent to 95 percent have type 2 diabetes) – 13 million have been diagnosed, but 5.2 million are unaware they have the disease. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the American Diabetes Association, those affected include:

• 9.3 million US women (8.7 percent of all women)
• 8.7 million US men (8.7 percent of all men)
• 206,000 people under age 20
• 8.6 million adults over age 60
• 2.7 million African Americans (11.4 percent of all African Americans)
• 2 million Hispanic/Latino Americans (8.2 percent of all Hispanic/Latino Americans)
• 12.5 million Caucasian Americans (8.2 percent of all Caucasian Americans)

According to the most recent statistics, diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death, and the fifth leading cause of death from disease. Diabetes costs $90 billion annually in direct medical costs. Diabetes costs $40 billion annually in indirect costs (loss of work, disability, loss of life) [http://www.northshorelij.com/body.cfm?id=7767]

So get off your duff and get active. It may require some sweat and sacrifice, but the payoff is an increased life expectancy. It’s better than a pill and doesn’t cost you nearly as much.

How Your Body Works: Simple Overview Of Organ Systems

Editors Comment: The following is a fairly easy to digest article on the organ systems of the body, by Dr. Ben Kim. It provides an overview of the systems that keep you well, giving enough information about your health so that you don’t have to rely on others to make decisions for you. If you can teach the basics yourself, then you have enough knowledge to avoid disease.

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How Your Body Works: Overview Of The Body’s Organ Systems

By Dr. Ben Kim

August 19, 2008

Source: http://drbenkim.com/organ-systems.htm — Experiencing your best health as you age doesn’t have to be complicated. Actually, the secrets to staying healthy as you age are profoundly simple. But don’t expect the majority of licensed physicians to share this opinion.

Some health practitioners understand that using complicated medical jargon tends to establish themselves as authority figures who should be respected and obeyed. Explaining simple truths on how to stay healthy isn’t a good technique for building a reputation as a brilliant physician.

If you want to be relatively free of the fear of not knowing enough about your health that you have to rely on others to make big decisions for you, it’s critical that you take some time to learn about how your body works.

The goal of this series of articles is to give you a broad look at the major organ systems in your body and how they work together to keep you well. As you read this series, I encourage you to adopt the mindset of having to learn this material well enough to teach it to a group of junior high school students – this mindset should lead to an excellent understanding of how to care for your health.

Before we look at the major organ systems that work to keep you well, let’s first review some basic definitions.

You’re likely familiar with most or all of the major organs in your body. Your brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach, liver, gall bladder, spleen, and pancreas are well known examples of organs. Less well known as organs are your bones and skin.

Your organs are collections of specialized tissues, and your tissues are collections of groups of cells. So in reverse order, a simple, big picture look at your anatomical make-up looks like this:

Your cells are the basic living units that make up your body.

Groups of cells come together to form specialized tissues.

Groups of tissues come together to form your organs.

This bird’s eye view of your physical make-up is important because it highlights the following point:

The health of every organ in your body is determined by the health of the cells that make up your organs. When the majority of cells that make up any organ in your body are healthy, that organ is likely to be healthy; the converse is true as well – when most of the cells that make up one of your organs are dysfunctional or diseased, that organ is likely to be dysfunctional.

Given all of the above, it makes sense, then, that taking care of your organs requires that you take care of your cells.

The most important determinant of the health of every cell in your body is the quality of blood that is supplied for ongoing nourishment and removal of waste products. The blood that your heart pumps to all of your cells delivers nutrients and oxygen to fuel ongoing energy production within your cells. Steady blood flow also ensures regular removal of waste materials from your cells, which keeps your cells uncluttered and free to function properly.

The cells that make up your heart no different than the rest of the cells in your body – your cardiac cells also require a steady supply blood, nutrients, and oxygen, and your cardiac cells receive these things via your coronary arteries. So just as your heart delivers nutrients and oxygen to the cells of your kidneys, stomach, and liver, your heart also delivers nutrients and oxygen to its own cells.

If, over time, your coronary arteries become damaged and less capable of delivering a steady supply of blood to the cells of your heart, you may experience chest pain, shortness of breath, and other symptoms that are typical of a heart attack. Heart attacks are usually caused by some degree of blockage in the coronary arteries. If the cells of your heart don’t receive steady, quality blood flow, your heart will eventually lose its capacity to pump blood, nutrients, and oxygen to the rest of your body.

The main point here is this: all of the cells that make up the many organs in your body have the same basic requirements to stay healthy, with the first and most important requirement being steady blood flow. Clearly, the healthier your diet and lifestyle are, the healthier your blood will be. And the healthier your blood is, the healthier your cells will be.

It’s true that certain foods and substances are known to have specific effects on specific organs. For example, we know that eating foods that are rich in the omega-3 fatty acid, DHA, is good for promoting optimal brain function. We also know that eating foods that are rich in vitamin D can help promote healthy bones and teeth. But it’s incorrect to think that these nutrients produce only these specific results. When you eat foods that are rich in DHA and vitamin D, these nutrients touch all of your cells, not just the cells that make up your brain, bones, and teeth.

In the same vein, when you expose yourself to prescription drugs, recreational drugs, and other environmental pollutants, all of your cells are touched – there is no such thing as a “side” effect.

So now that we’ve hammered home the principle that the health of your organs is determined by the health of your cells, and that the health of your cells is determined by all of your daily food and lifestyle choices, let’s move on to an overview of your organ systems.

You have eleven organ systems that govern all of your physiological activities. They are as follows:

1. Nervous System
2. Endocrine System
3. Cardiovascular System
4. Respiratory System
5. Digestive System
6. Urinary System
7. Muscular System
8. Skeletal System
9. Integumentary (Skin) System
10. Immune System (includes Lymphatic System)
11. Reproductive System

Aside: Not included in any of the organ systems listed above are “special sense” organs that you need to see, hear, smell, taste, and maintain your balance.

Each of your organ systems are groups of organs that work together to carry out specific duties in your body. For example, your digestive system is an organ system that requires contributions from a number of organs, including your stomach, small intestine, large intestine, liver, pancreas, and gall bladder; all of these organs work together to digest the foods that you eat, and transfer the nutrients in the foods that you eat from your small intestine to your cells.

Some organs contribute essential work to more than one organ system. For example, your pancreas plays an important role within your digestive system by secreting digestive enzymes into your small intestine, but your pancreas is also an irreplaceable component of your endocrine system, as it produces three important hormones that are secreted into your bloodstream and have system-wide effects.

Finally, it’s important to point out that all of your organ systems affect one another. We’ve already looked at one example of this: Your cardiovascular system keeps all of your other organ systems going by supplying blood, nutrients, and oxygen to all of your cells.

Here are more examples that illustrate the interdependence of your organ systems:

• All of your organ systems are regulated by your nervous and endocrine systems – these two systems are co-directors of all of your body’s moment-to-moment activities.
• Your urinary system is essential to maintaining fluid and pH balance within all of your organ systems.
• Your respiratory system brings in the oxygen that your cardiovascular system delivers to all of your cells. Your respiratory system also plays a vital role in maintaining your blood pH.
• Your integumentary (skin) and immune systems play critical roles in preventing life-threatening infections of all of your other organ systems.
• Your muscular system allows you to move (making the rest of your organ systems relevant to your existence). Your muscular system also serves as an important reservoir for your endocrine system.
• Your skeletal system provides physical protection and structural support for your other organ systems.
• And perhaps the most obvious example: Your digestive system provides fuel for all of your other organ systems to use to produce energy.

We’ll look at each of your organ systems in more detail in future articles in this series on how your body works.

Here are the main points to take away from this article:

1. All of your organs are influenced by all of your food and lifestyle choices. There’s virtually no way to affect just one organ system via a specific diet or therapy. Whenever one of your organ systems improves or declines in health, the rest of your organ systems follow suit to some degree.
2. The health of each of your organs is determined by the health of the cells that make up your organs. And all of your cells have the same basic requirements to stay healthy.

Deadly Fats: Why Are We Still Eating Them?

Hydrogenated vegetable oil has been banned in two European countries but not ours.

They are the cosy, friendly foods that present us with a rosy image of our childhoods: Quality Street chocolates and Angel Delight dessert; Horlicks instant night-time drink and Knorr stock cubes.

As brands, they endure. Not quite as cutting edge as their more sophisticated and modern supermarket-shelf counterparts, perhaps. And certainly not as healthy. Because the truth is that some of the leading comfort foods we remember from our youth are doing their very best to kill us.

The culprit is one item, usually tucked away in tiny lettering on the ingredients label. It’s called hydrogenated vegetable oil. It sounds harmless enough, but it is one of the most dangerous products ever to be mashed into the food we eat.

Food scares are, of course, nothing new, but hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) elevates health risk to a whole new level. Recent scientific research suggests that it may be responsible for an unknown, but certainly very large, number of heart attacks.

Clinical researchers have discovered that ingesting just two grams a day of HVO – the amount contained in just one doughnut fried in this type of fat – increases an individual’s risk of heart disease by 23 per cent. This makes HVO much more dangerous to health than the saturated fats such as butter it often replaces. It distorts cholesterol levels, encourages obesity, causes inflammatory conditions, and can even be a cause of infertility.

Yet, despite the dangers, many major UK food producers continue to use it in everyday products. Brands that include it in their manufacture include Cadbury Heroes, some Nestlé and Mars confectionery, Batchelors Cup a Soups and even Haliborange Omega-3 Fish Oil capsules for children.

Nor is its use confined to retail food goods. Hydrogenated vegetable oil, or trans-fat, as it is sometimes called, is also widely used in bakery products, and by restaurants and takeaways, where it usually does not have to be labelled and declared as being present.

Given the risks, why do some of the country’s leading food companies continue to lace their brands with this deadly ingredient? The answer is predictably simple: cost and convenience. Trans-fats were discovered back in 1903, when oil was boiled to more than 260C in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel. The result was that its molecular structure mutated, turning the oil into a hard, greasy, grey lard-like substance looking, as one observer described it, like “the skin of a corpse”. The original purpose in making it was to create a cheap form of candle wax as an alternative to the more expensive tallow. That this wax could also be used in mass food production was a commercially sensational secondary discovery.

“Hydrogenated vegetable oil may look and sound disgusting, but in many ways, it’s a food scientist’s holy grail,” explains the health writer and author Maggie Stanfield, whose recently published book, Trans-Fat: The Time Bomb in Your Food tells the full story of its acceptance by the food industry.

“It can be used as an alternative to butter – it’s a lot cheaper, is taste-free, gives what the industry calls ‘good consumer mouth feel’, and lasts a long time. A very long time. An American TV programme recently featured a fairy cake made more than 25 years ago. It still looks perfect.”

These days, far less harmful substitutes are readily available, and some UK food producers now take advantage of them. Others, though, persist in their use. And why shouldn’t they? Trans-fats keep production costs down, and most consumers remain unaware of their dangers, believing, wrongly, that the real peril to their health lies in saturated fats such as palm oil and butter, which are actually far less harmful.

Given the weight of scientific evidence that has now built up against trans-fats, there is an overwhelming case for the Government to ban their use. This has already happened in Denmark, where legislation removing HVO from the food chain was introduced five years ago. Since then, the rate of heart disease among Danes has dropped by a staggering 40 per cent. The only European country to follow suit since then is Switzerland, which introduced a ban this April. Britain has no plans to take action, instead being content to leave the industry to get its own house in order.

Will it do so? There is little evidence of any enthusiasm for change. Legally in the UK, HVOs must be identified on ingredients labels, but to most shoppers it is just another meaningless name. There is nothing to indicate that it is hazardous to health. A voluntary deal was forged last year by major food retailers, but it only commits them to removing HVOs from own-label products. There is evidence that the deal is already being broken.

Professor Steen Stender, the Danish cardiologist who led the drive to ban trans-fats, says that voluntary codes never work. “Why should people need to know terms such as ‘hydrogenated vegetable oil’? The EU must ban their use.”

Having researched the topic thoroughly, Maggie Stanfield is convinced that the only safe amount of HVO we should be eating is no HVO at all. “When we eat trans-fats, our cells get confused. They identify the fat as unsaturated – it comes from vegetable oil, after all – but because of the industrial process involved, they can’t handle the fat as they would a truly unsaturated one.

“Instead, HVO actually changes the cell structure, making the wall soft, and acts like a pincer, raising bad cholesterol on the one hand, lowering good on the other. So the gap is widened, making us more vulnerable to heart disease.”

Stanfield believes that it suits the food industry to keep trans-fats a trade secret, doing little or nothing to flag them up. “They’re hugely useful to the industry as they have a shelf-life of years, don’t add unwanted flavour, don’t need to be chilled, and are very cheap, unlike the natural alternative. A chip shop can deep fry in HVO for a month, for example, where vegetable oil must be changed every few days.”

Given that there is conclusive evidence of the damage HVO does, Stanfield adds, an EU-wide ban is imperative. “What are we waiting for? Denmark has led the way, and the rest of Europe needs to get rid of these killer fats now.”

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/healthy-living/deadly-fats-why-are-we-still-eating-them-843400.html