What’s your blood sugar?
When I talk about controlling your blood sugar, I’m usually speaking to three groups of people. People who have what is termed “Metabolic Syndrome” or “Syndrome X”, those that are “pre-diabetic” and those that have been diagnosed with diabetes.
The majority of people with metabolic syndrome don’t even know they have it. There are some typical symptoms to look for though.
– Weight gain, especially in the abdomen (centripetal obesity – you know, the ol’ beer belly)
– High blood pressure
– High triglyceride levels
– Low HDL levels
This makes them an excellent candidate for Statin drugs and blood pressure medications (these also have a “side effect” of neuropathy by the way.)
Pre-diabetic is really just people with syndrome X that are getting worse. They are all just steps along the same road:
Syndrome X—>Pre Diabetic——> Type 2 Diabetes.
Diabetes comes in two diabolical forms.
Type 1 – Your body attacks it’s own beta cells in the pancreas, destroying your ability to make insulin. Without insulin, you can’t control your blood sugar (among other things). This means for the rest of your life you will be working to maintain your blood sugar in a fascinating dance with equilibrium. You will have high blood sugars, and low blood sugars, and hopefully plenty of “target” blood sugars.
Type 2 – Your body becomes less and less sensitive to insulin. This means that as you consume more and more sugars and carbohydrate-containing foods your pancreas has to crank out more and more insulin to get your cells to use the sugar. As time goes on, and your cells become more resistant to insulin, eventually it becomes too difficult to crank out all that insulin, and your beta cells don’t function properly. Then your blood sugars rise, and you become type 2 diabetic.
If you have type 1 diabetes (like my son does) then your biggest job is to maintain your blood sugar in the target zone. The better you do that, the less likely you are to have any of the problems that diabetes causes: Neuropathy, retinopathy, kidney damage… the list goes on. Work the numbers. Control the sugar. Work the numbers. Control the sugar. The more vigilant you are, the better your blood sugar is.
If you have type 2 diabetes there is even more that you can do to help yourself. Maybe you’ve heard this before – cut out the carbs. For type 2 diabetics simple carbohydrates are equivalent to poison. Want more disease? More foot pain and numbness? There is a simple recipe for that.
Recipe of DOOM:
Drink sodas, eat breads and pastas, load up on potatoes, chips, crackers, cookies, ice cream. Carb it up baby! Anything that you eat that is in the simple carbohydrate group converts to sugar. You might as well be scooping tablespoons of sugar onto your plate. Your blood sugar will rise rapidly, and your pancreas will be forced to crank out more insulin. Your body’s cells will become more and more resistant. It’s a slippery slope and you are on your way down.
Yes, you can take some drugs that will increase the sensitivity of your cells to insulin and this can work quite well, for a while. But unless your diet changes, the effect will wear off, and then there will be other drugs, and eventually insulin.
So how do I do this doc? I love to eat. Food is amazing.
Recipe of… un-doom?
The easy answer is that you need to eat more fat. A lot more fat. Fat from beef, chicken, pork, butter, nuts, seeds, olive oil, fish. With those foods eat plenty of veggies that grow above the ground. A good rule of thumb is to avoid white foods (flour, pasta, sugar, potatoes). Eat your eggs, meat, vegetables. Enjoy butter, olive oil, coconut oil.
“Yeah. Right.” I can hear you thinking. “Coconut alright. This guy is off his coconut.” “Fat is EVIL!” It raises cholesterol, clogs arteries, causes cancer, diabetes, acne, toenail fungus and hemorrhoids. My Doctor has me on Statins, and Blood pressure drugs, and a dry toast diet. No fat for me. I’m one cheeseburger away from a heart attack.”
I know, it sounds crazy, therefore I’m going to encourage you do do some reading and research.
Don’t take my word for it. Look at the research yourself. The low-fat diet is WRONG. It all started with one really crappy study that Ancel Keys published in 1978. It’s been downhill ever since. If you take the low-fat theory and look at it carefully, it’s mostly rubbish research. I could write a few chapters on this topic alone (who am I kidding, there are already tons of books published about this.)
Your homework is to find one of these books and read it. Probably the easiest one to read and absorb is this one:
Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes.
If you like more detail then buy Good calories bad calories.
Are you tired of suffering? Do you want to get your poor numb, tingly, burning feet healing again? You can do it! Register for the Neuropathy Solution free live training. Grab a copy of 3 neuropathy tips to learn the exact methods my patients use to feel better when their feet are at their worst. I’ll send you a note when the free live training goes, well, live!
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