In the picture to the right you can see the lunch that I was unbelievably served at the 11th International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm 2010. This is a major international conference for obesity doctors and scientists. The food contains almost exclusively energy from sugar and starches, things that are broken down to simple sugars in the stomach.
Henry Cole, 67, from New Jersey, USA, did likewise. He saw a 20-second news clip on TV and took up the diet days later. He stuck rigidly to 600 calories daily from just protein (steak, chicken, turkey or fish) plus green veg, eating his one meal at 6pm most days, with coffee and calorie-counted cream for breakfast and 1.5 litres of water. His weight went down from 81kg to a stable 70kg on a now daily 1,500 cal diet, with his HbA1c level down to 5.6% from 6.9%.
As of 2010, an estimated of 285 million people have type 2 diabetes globally, making up about 90% of all the diabetes cases. There is an alarming rise in the prevalence of diabetes in every part of the world, thanks to the eating habits and sedentary lifestyle. And, as opposed to the misconception that eating sweets can result in diabetes, stress and genes can also play a major role in this. As of today, number of diabetics is far more than anytime in the past. Now, even younger generation is not spared by this disease. Generally, diabetes is more common in people who are overweight or obese. Generally, fasting blood sugar levels per 100 ml of blood should be between 80 to 120 mg, which can go up to 160 mg/100 ml of blood after meals. Anything that is constantly above 160 mg/100 ml indicates diabetes. Usually, older and obese people are at increased risk of diabetes because of their inability to produce insulin and lifestyle.
Treating and managing diabetes can seem overwhelming at times. But the diabetes health care team is there for you. Your child's diabetes management plan should be easy to understand, detailed, and written down for easy reference. You also should have the names and phone numbers of the health care team members in case of emergencies or if you have questions.
Online diabetes prevention programs: The CDC has now given pending recognition status to three digital prevention programs: DPS Health, Noom Health, and Omada Health. These offer the same one year long educational curriculum as the DPP study, but in an online format. Some insurance companies and employers cover these programs, and you can find more information at the links above. These digital versions are excellent options for those who live far away from NDPP locations or who prefer the anonymity and convenience of doing the program online.
People with diabetes are unable to control the level of sugar in their blood, usually due to a breakdown in how their bodies use the hormone insulin. It’s not completely clear how obesity can contribute to diabetes, but it is known that excess weight is associated with chronic inflammation and a dysfunctional metabolism. And these factors in turn make it easier for someone to stop responding to the presence of insulin as easily as they once did. So by using surgery to help very obese people with diabetes lose weight, the logic goes, you can indirectly treat or prevent the condition. But doctors such as David Cummings, a senior investigator at the University of Washington’s Diabetes & Obesity Center of Excellence, are pushing back against this way of thinking.
Khodneva, Y., Shalev, A., Frank, S. J., Carson, A. P., & Safford, M. M. (2016, May). Calcium channel blocker use is associated with lower fasting serum glucose among adults with diabetes from the REGARDS study. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 115, 115-121. Retrieved from http://www.diabetesresearchclinicalpractice.com/article/S0168-8227(16)00070-X/abstract
The review affirmed how effective surgery is at treating diabetes (possibly even type 1 diabetes). Around two-thirds of patients with diabetes experience a full remission soon after surgery, while the rest are often better able to control their blood sugar through diet, exercise and medication. Other studies have shown that diabetics who have surgery outlive those who haven’t. Some longer-term research has suggested that one-third of these successes slide back into having active diabetes after five years, but to a lesser degree than they might have without surgery. By contrast, a 2014 study found that fewer than 2 percent of diabetes patients given standard care experienced any remission within a seven-year span.
"Yes, it's a frustrating case," Darkes told Live Science in an email. "But the doctors have to be as accurate as they can be with what's happened, so they've given a 2-year time scale for completed type 1 reversal." Darkes explained that if he can go without insulin injections for two years, his doctors will be 100 percent sure his diabetes is gone.
The most commonly prescribed oral medication for type 2 diabetes is metformin. “Usually it’s the first line of treatment for all people with type 2 diabetes if their kidney function is normal,” Dr. Gupta says. In fact, a survey published in November 2015 in the journal JAMA found that metformin was one of the most commonly used drugs in the United States.
Several types of plants are referred to as ginseng, but most studies have used American ginseng. They've shown some sugar-lowering effects in fasting and after-meal blood sugar levels, as well as in A1c results (average blood sugar levels over a 3-month period). But we need larger and more long-term studies. Researchers also found that the amount of sugar-lowering compound in ginseng plants varies widely.
Mechanism of interaction between excess amounts of fatty acids, diacylglycerol, and ceramide and insulin action within the hepatocyte. Diacylglycerol activates PKCε and inhibits activation of IRS-1 by the insulin receptor. Ceramides cause sequestration of Akt2 by PKCζ and inhibit insulin control of gluconeogenesis. These mechanisms have recently been reviewed (99). FFA, free-fatty acid; TG, triacylglycerol.
In another study, albeit including only 30 people, those who were recently diagnosed and went on a very low-calorie diet for eight weeks experienced remission. That remission continued more than six months after their low-calorie diet ended. In people who have had type 2 diabetes for a long time, unfortunately, weight loss has a much more limited impact.
"You only need 10 percent of your beta cells to supply sufficient insulin," Roep said. He said there have been a couple of rare cases where a patient had typical type 1 diabetes but could go through long periods without insulin injections. "Insulin needs can be a moving target, and if you have a lifestyle change it's very plausible that you have a lesser need for insulin, and you can deal with [diabetes] with the beta cells you have," Roep said.
How much the blood sugar level goes up after eating depends on the type of nutrients the food has. The three main types of nutrients found in foods are carbohydrates (carbs), proteins, and fats, which provide energy in the form of calories. Foods containing carbs cause blood sugar levels to go up the most. Foods that are mostly protein and/or fat don't affect blood sugar levels nearly as much.
Herbal products are not well controlled by government. They may not be what the bottle says they are. According to Rodale Press, research by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Canadian government both found that many combination herbal capsules contained NONE of the herbs listed on the label. That’s why I mainly recommend plants you can buy and use in their whole form, such as ginger, cinnamon, bitter melon, and okra.
What is prediabetes? Prediabetes is a condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. This occurs when the body has problems in processing glucose properly, and sugar starts to build up in the bloodstream instead of fueling cells in muscles and tissues. Insulin is the hormone that tells cells to take up glucose, and in prediabetes, people typically initially develop insulin resistance (where the body’s cells can’t respond to insulin as well), and over time (if no actions are taken to reverse the situation) the ability to produce sufficient insulin is reduced. People with prediabetes also commonly have high blood pressure as well as abnormal blood lipids (e.g. cholesterol). These often occur prior to the rise of blood glucose levels.
There was a clinical trial conducted at Department of Biochemistry, Postgraduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences Madras, India that studied 22 patients with type 2 diabetes. It reported that supplementing the body with 400 mg of Gymnema Sylvestre extract daily resulted in remarkable reductions in blood glucose levels, hemoglobin A1c and glycosylated plasma protein levels. What’s even more remarkable is that by the end of this 18 month study, participants were able to reduce the dosage of their prescription diabetes medication. Five were even completely off medication and attaining stable blood sugar levels with Gymnema Sylvestre supplementation alone.
These findings present a hopeful option not just for improved management of the condition, but a potential cure. One that doesn’t rely on expensive medications or invasive surgery, but instead, on improved diet and lifestyle — which could also be beneficial in managing and preventing a number of other chronic conditions which are affected by weight. As Taylor told The Guardian, “The weight loss goals provided by this programme [sic] are achievable for many people. The big challenge is long-term avoidance of weight re-gain.”
However, the observation that normalization of glucose in type 2 diabetes occurred within days after bariatric surgery, before substantial weight loss (15), led to the widespread belief that surgery itself brought about specific changes mediated through incretin hormone secretion (16,17). This reasoning overlooked the major change that follows bariatric surgery: an acute, profound decrease in calorie intake. Typically, those undergoing bariatric surgery have a mean body weight of ∼150 kg (15) and would therefore require a daily calorie intake of ∼13.4 MJ/day (3,200 kcal/day) for weight maintenance (18). This intake decreases precipitously at the time of surgery. The sudden reversal of traffic into fat stores brings about a profound change in intracellular concentration of fat metabolites. It is known that under hypocaloric conditions, fat is mobilized first from the liver and other ectopic sites rather than from visceral or subcutaneous fat stores (19). This process has been studied in detail during more moderate calorie restriction in type 2 diabetes over 8 weeks (20). Fasting plasma glucose was shown to be improved because of an 81% decrease in liver fat content and normalization of hepatic insulin sensitivity with no change in the insulin resistance of muscle.
Because the drugs listed above act in different ways to lower blood glucose levels, they may be used together. For example, a biguanide and a sulfonylurea may be used together. Many combinations can be used. Though taking more than one drug can be more costly and can increase the risk of side effects, combining oral medications can improve blood glucose control when taking only a single pill does not have the desired effects. Switching from one single pill to another is not as effective as adding another type of diabetes medicine.
Greek clover is an annual herb with aromatic seeds having medicinal properties. It is also known as fenugreek, and is largely used in curry. Greek clover has properties to lower down the levels of glucose in the body, which, in turn, controls diabetes. Also, when given in changeable doses of 25 gm to 100 gm on a daily basis, it was found to diminish reactive hyperglycemia in diabetic patients. Furthermore, levels of glucose, serum cholesterol, and triglycerides were also appreciably reduced. Alternatively, one can just stir two teaspoons of Greek clover seeds in powder form in warm milk and consume on a regular basis; it will control the levels of blood sugar and keep diabetes at bay. In case one does not want to have the powder in milk, seeds can be eaten wholly, too.
One of the most advanced alternatives comes from the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) in the US, which is developing a bioengineered mini-organ where insulin-producing cells are encapsulated within a protective barrier. Two years ago, the DRI announced that the first patient treated in an ongoing Phase I/II trial no longer requires insulin therapy.