How To Treat The Root Cause Of Diabetes

How to Treat the Root Cause of Diabetes

After about age 20, we may have all the insulin-producing beta cells we’re ever going to get. So, if we lose them, we may lose them for good. Autopsy studies show that by the time type 2 diabetes is diagnosed, we may have already killed off half of our beta cells.
You can kill pancreatic cells right in a petri dish. If you expose the insulin-producing beta cells in our pancreas to fat, they suck it up and then start dying off. Fat breakdown products can interfere with the function of these cells and ultimately lead to their death. A chronic increase in blood fat levels can be harmful to our pancreas.
It’s not just any fat; it’s saturated fat. As you can see in my video, What Causes Diabetes?, predominant fat in olives, nuts, and avocados gives a tiny bump in death protein 5, but saturated fat really elevates this contributor to beta cell death. Therefore, saturated fats are harmful to beta cells. Cholesterol is, too. The uptake of bad cholesterol (LDL) can cause beta cell death as a result of free radical formation.
Diets rich in saturated fats not only cause obesity and insulin resistance, but the increased levels of circulating free fats in the blood (non-esterified fatty acids, or NEFAs) may also cause beta cell death and may thus contribute to the progressive beta cell loss we see in type 2 diabetes. These findings aren’t just based on test tube studies. When researchers have infused fat directly into people’s bloodstreams, they can show it directly impairing pancreatic beta cell function. The same occurs when we ingest it.
Type 2 diabetes is characterized by Continue reading

Rate this article

Total 1 ratings

UCSD Study Finds Root Cause of Type 2 Diabetes

NBC 7 San Diego
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, believe they have discovered the "root cause" of Type 2 diabetes — a molecular link between obesity and diabetes that may lead to new treatment.
Inflammation that results from obesity leads to insulin resistance, the first step in developing Type 2 diabetes, the study found.
One inflammatory molecule in particular, LTB4, is released by immune cells living in extra fat, called macrophages. Positive feedback then signals for the body to release more macrophages, which then release more LTB4 into the fatty cells in the liver, researchers found.
"This study is important because it reveals a root cause of type 2 diabetes," the study's senior author Dr. Jerrold M. Olefsky, professor of medicine and associate dean for scientific affairs, said in a statement. "And now that we understand that LTB4 is the inflammatory factor causing insulin resistance, we can inhibit it to break the link between obesity and diabetes."
Those LTB4 then bind to nearby cell surfaces, the researchers found. In people who are obese, those cells become inflamed and the body becomes resistant to insulin.
In the UC San Diego study, Olefsky and his team of researchers used genetically engineered mice to look for ways to reverse insulin resistance.
The team created genetically engineered mice that did not have the LTB4 receptor. Without the receptor, the health of obese mice “dramatically improved.”
The study was authored by Pingping Li, Da Young Oh, Gautam Bandyopadhyay, William S. Lagakos, Saswata Talukdar, Olivia Osborn, Andrew Joh Continue reading

Dressing Diabetes

You’ve probably seen an insulin pump, even if you didn’t realize it. Most of them look like clunky pagers connected by medical tubing to an injection where the insulin is delivered. Another kind is “wireless“ and looks like a little pod, which is controlled by a separate remote. With the first, the wearer is dealing with a Game Boy-like device strapped onto some part of her clothing or tucked away in a pocket. With the second comes an ovular bulge protruding from her arm or stomach.
Neither option is particularly subtle, and newly diagnosed 17-year-old me was repulsed by both.
Like most high school juniors, I was full of insecurities about literally everything from my shoe size to my handwriting.
Like most high school juniors, I was full of insecurities about literally everything from my shoe size to my handwriting, but mostly about my skin — I also have a genetic condition called keratosis pilaris, which causes my skin to be dry, bumpy, and often reddish. My body and the way clothes fit on it was one thing I was confident about, so wearing a bulky insulin pump (all the time, forever) was highly unappealing.
“What if I want to wear a dress that doesn’t have pockets? What about prom? What about dance competitions? What about the beach?” I was a busy high schooler and I didn’t want to take the time to think about these things while I got dressed every day. I certainly didn’t want to draw negative attention to myself. I didn’t want to answer questions from rude mean high schoolers about my disease. I didn’t want people to treat me like a sick person. Mo Continue reading

Does Bovine Insulin in Milk Trigger Type 1 Diabetes?

EquaYona: You raise a point that is often raised. Some thoughts for you: I think the RDA for calcium is based on how much you eat, not how much you absorb. Yes? So, I’m not sure that the comparison here makes sense?
.
Another thought is that the RDA for calcium is way higher than it needs to be based on the available evidence, especially for people who are on a plant based diet. Dr. Greger recommends about 600 mg : http://nutritionfacts.org/2011/09/12/dr-gregers-2011-optimum-nutrition-recommendations/ From what I have seen, that recommendation might even be higher than necessary. “…total calcium consumption among women in China, Peru, Sri Lanka, and many other non-Western countries is only about 500 milligrams a day, yet fracture rates are very low.” (from page 9 of Building Bone Vitality) And while the authors of Becoming Vegan, Express Edition recommend the RDA, they do acknowledge, “A somewhat ambiguous and predictable relationship exists between calcium and bone health. While the evidence generally supports a positive association between calcium intake and bone health, some populations who eat less than 400 mg of calcium per day have lower rates of osteoporosis than populations who consume more than 1,00 mg per day. This is because calcium *balance* is more critical than calcium intake.” (from page 41) That point about balance is key. There are a variety of factors in play, so requirements would be different for people depending on their diet and exercise.
.
Another thought is that people really do eat 12 oz or more of greens a day. For example, people who f Continue reading

Towards a Cure for Type 2 Diabetes

Over 50% of American adults are estimated to have prediabetes or diabetes. The twin cycles (hepatic and pancreatic) are not simply rare metabolic mistakes leading to disease. These responses are almost universal because they serve as protective mechanisms.
Protective? I can almost hear you gasp. Insulin resistance and beta cell dysfunction are protective? Yes. Absolutely. What do they protect us from? The very name gives us the vital clue. Insulin resistance protects the liver from too much insulin. Our body is resisting the excessive insulin, which is harmful.
Imagine the liver as a balloon that can be filled with sugar and fat, the two storage forms of food energy. Normally when we eat, insulin goes up, storing some of this food energy. When we stop eating, during fasting, insulin levels fall, releasing some of the stored energy for the rest of the body.
When insulin levels stay elevated for a prolonged period, the liver fills up with sugar and fat, like an over-inflated balloon. The pressure inside the liver goes up and up, making it increasingly difficult to move sugar into this overfilled liver. This is insulin resistance. The liver simply cannot store any, so rejects the incoming sugars, becoming resistant to insulin’s normal signal. Glucose piles up outside the cell in the blood.
This provokes a compensatory hyperinsulinemia. Like trying to inflate the over-inflated balloon, it works for a time. However, it becomes more and more difficult.
Ultimately, the liver was only trying to protect itself from the damaging effects of the high insulin. The problem is not the i Continue reading