Why GPs Should Prescribe A Low-carb Diet For Type 2 Diabetes

Why GPs should prescribe a low-carb diet for type 2 diabetes

It seems every week brings a new headline about the catastrophic epidemic of type 2 diabetes that is threatening to overwhelm our health service. But in my view we are largely ignoring the root cause of the problem and taking completely the wrong approach to tackling it – failing our patients and costing the NHS a fortune in the process.
Instead of giving patients unhelpful instructions to eat less – on a diet based on starchy carbohydrate – and exercise more, and then putting them on to more and more drugs, we should be listening to their experience and observing the growing body of evidence that cutting down on carbohydrate intake is the key.
I am seeing astonishing results in patients with type 2 diabetes who themselves chose to reduce their dietary carbohydrate intakes. Having seen the results, and after many hours of research to understand the physiology better, I believe it would be unacceptable for me not to offer advice on using a ‘low-carb’ diet to patients with type 2 diabetes.
At medical school 20 years ago I was taught that type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease. This is not true – turn off the ‘sugar tap’ and the disease begins to reverse. Type 2 diabetes is a problem of homeostasis. Our body uses its various hormones, including insulin, to maintain blood glucose homeostasis of 4–6 mmol/L, which is about 5g in an average adult. But when we constantly consume food that challenges our blood glucose level, the body takes the hit and shifts the excess glucose to fat storage. Eventually, probably as a homeostatic mechanism to prevent ever-increas Continue reading

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13 Foods to Balance Blood Sugar & Help Prevent Diabetes

Good-For-You Ingredients
Kale, spinach, chard and other leafy greens are high in antioxidants and magnesium, and eating one-and-a-half extra servings a day can reduce the risk of diabetes by 14%.
Try this: Sauté chard and spinach with garlic and olive oil then purée with coconut milk for a creamy soup; finely chop kale, olives and tomatoes and use as an omelette filling; shred collards into long, thin strips, sauté until tender then toss with cooked pasta and cheese.
Garlic & onions contain sulfur compounds that lower blood sugar and reduce the risk of diabetes; garlic can also lower blood pressure and triglycerides in people with diabetes.
Try this: Cut the top off whole heads of garlic, drizzle with oil and roast until soft; mash minced garlic, minced parsley and coarse salt into a paste and use as a pungent condiment for bread or vegetables.
Lentils are loaded with fiber and protein, which digest slowly and help balance blood sugar, and frequent consumption of lentils protects against diabetes. Other legumes have also been shown to improve glycemic control and reduce heart disease risk in people with diabetes.
Try this: Cook red lentils and onions in coconut milk and red curry paste then stir in frozen peas; toss chickpeas, shredded spinach, cherry tomatoes, Kalamata olives and feta cheese with olive oil.
Cinnamon contains compounds that reduce blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity, and cinnamon may also lower triglyceride levels – a risk factor in diabetes. But don’t overdo it: Cinnamon contains coumarin, which may cause problems at high doses. Studies have Continue reading

Could the TB vaccine cure type 1 diabetes? Scientists ‘discover BCG jab can reverse the disease’

REPEAT doses of the TB vaccine could reverse type 1 diabetes, scientists believe - raising hopes of a potential cure.
The BCG jab could reset the immune system, to stop the underlying cause of the disease, new findings suggest.
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Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, that prevents the body from producing insulin.
Insulin is a hormone that helps the body break down glucose in the blood, to give you energy.
It's often described as the key that unlocks the door to the body's cells.
Once that door is unlocked and glucose can enter, the body's cells can use it as fuel.
Without insulin there's no key to unlock the door, and glucose builds up in the blood.
Type 1 diabetes develops when the insulin-producing cells in the body have been destroyed, when the immune system mistakes those cells as an infection and destroys them.
Now, a team of experts at Massachusetts General Hospital, believe the BCG jab could reverse that damage caused to the insulin-producing cells.
In a study carried out in mice, scientists were able to successfully reverse the condition in rodents who had advanced type 1 diabetes.
The jab is currently given to children aged 13 at school as part of the NHS immunisation programme.
But, scientists now believe repeat doses could be the key to curing type 1 diabetes.
Dr Denise Faustman, who led the trial, said the vaccine could trigger a permanent change to the genes in the body that restores immune cells, called Tregs.
Tregs are known as the immune system's "brakes", and normally work to stop the body mistakenly attacking itself.
By "turning on" the brak Continue reading

Thin Women and Diabetes Risk

E ven if you’re not overweight, you could be at risk for diabetes – and it can be even more dangerous for thin women. Do you face a type 2 diabetes risk? Here’s what lower-weight women need to know about the disease...
Donna Tucker, a real estate broker in Raleigh, N.C., thought she didn’t need to worry about getting diabetes because she maintained a healthy weight.
“I knew diabetes ran on my mother’s side, but I thought I would be OK because I wasn’t heavy [like] my mother and grandmother,” she says.
That’s why she was shocked when diagnosed with type 2 diabetes more than a decade ago, at age 34.
Type 2 diabetes develops when the body doesn’t properly produce or process insulin, a hormone that regulates glucose in the bloodstream. When too much sugar builds up in the blood, it can eventually harm the heart, kidneys, eyes, nerves and other organs.
Being overweight increases type 2 diabetes risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An 18-year-old woman with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 18.5-24.9 – classified as “normal weight” – has a 17% chance of developing diabetes in her lifetime, while a BMI of 25-29.9 (“overweight”) raises the risk to 35%. Being heavier increases it even more.
But for normal-weight women, that smaller risk is still significant. And like Tucker, many of them may feel a false sense of security, says Betul Hatipoglu, MD, an endocrinologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
“[They] may think they don’t need to have their blood sugar checked for diabetes,” she says.
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Type 2 diabetes increasingly affects the young and slim; here’s what we should do about it

Type 2 diabetes increasingly affects the young and slim; here’s what we should do about it
August 15, 2016 4.07pm EDT
It is well recognised that increasing rates of type 2 diabetes are mainly driven by obesity and lifestyle factors. But that’s not the whole story. Genetics and epigenetics – changes in gene expression – also play an important role.
We are starting to see an increase in type 2 diabetes in leaner people at a much younger age than usually associated with the disease. This means in addition to focusing on good diet and exercise, we need better awareness of groups most at risk of type 2 diabetes.
These include many ethnic groups, women with a history of gestational diabetes and people with a family history of diabetes. In my clinical practice, I have seen teenagers and even children as young as seven, as well as younger patients of Asian, African and Middle Eastern origin with type 2 diabetes.
Among Indigenous people in Central Australia, rates of diabetes are some of the worst in the world, at around three times that of non-Indigenous people. Studies in some remote communities suggest a prevalence of type 2 diabetes of up to 30%, compared to a rate of around 5% in the non-Indigenous population.
All this indicates lifestyle decisions alone can’t be responsible. We need to stop the blame and shame for a condition that has an association with lifestyle, but for many is a consequence of the toxic mix of genetics and modern life.
More than just lifestyle changes
Type 2 diabetes accounts for more than 90% of all diabetes cases and affects mainly middle-aged Continue reading