Fasting Blood Sugar Can Be Too Low
A low fasting blood sugar or an abnormally low HbA1C (a test of the amount of sugar stuck on cells) may increase risk for heart attacks. Researchers followed almost 5000 people for 13 years and found that having a very low fasting blood sugar (<80 mg/dL) and very low HbA1c (<5.0 percent) is strongly associated with increased risk for heart attacks and premature death.
More Vegetables, Less Diabetes
Data from nine studies of 307,099 middle-aged people followed for up to 28 years shows that those who ate lots of plant-based foods and...
New Studies on Fatty Liver
A liver full of fat can be caused by anything that damages the liver. Doctors used to separate liver damage into that caused by...
Best Diet to Prevent and Treat Diabetes
More than 30 million adults in North America suffer from diabetes and another 85 million have pre-diabetes that is likely to become full-blown diabetes within five years. Research papers published this month suggest that people who are diabetic or likely to become diabetic should eat a very large amount of plant fiber and restrict animal products, particularly red meat and processed meats.
Most Type II Diabetics Could Be Cured with Lifestyle Changes
Today, more than 29 million people in North America are diagnosed as being diabetic, another 86 million have pre-diabetes, and most diabetics have not even been diagnosed. More than 88 percent of North American adults have their blood sugar levels rise too high after they eat.
Replacing Meat with Poultry or Fish Reduces Diabetes Risk
Most people know that eating a diet that includes a lot of added sugar markedly increases risk for diabetes, but a diet that includes regular portions of red meat also increases risk for diabetes, and if you already have diabetes, it can drive blood sugar levels even higher. Insulin drives sugar into cells, and it also drives the building blocks of protein (amino acids) into cells.
Fatty Liver Disease and Diabetes
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease occurs when excess fat is stored in your liver. The most common cause of liver disease used to be alcohol, but now it is far more likely to be caused by eating sugar-added foods and drinking anything with sugar in it. Up to 12 percent of people with fatty livers keep on adding fat to their livers to develop Non-Alcoholic Steato Hepatitis (NASH), which is liver inflammation and permanent liver damage called cirrhosis and can cause liver cancer .
Inactivity Increases Risk for Diabetes
Being inactive for as little as a few days makes muscles weaker and smaller, but that is not all you lose. Two new studies show that just two weeks of decreased physical activity brings you closer to becoming diabetic by decreasing your body's response to insulin, raising blood sugar levels after meals and making you fatter.
Vegetarian Diet Helps to Control Diabetes
A review of nine separate trials showed that diabetics who switched to vegetarian diets had significantly lower HbA1c (a measure of cell damage from high blood sugar levels), fasting blood sugar, LDL (bad) cholesterol, body weight and waist circumference. The studies included 664 diabetics who were taking oral sugar-lowering drugs, insulin, cholesterol-lowering drugs and/or blood pressure medications.
Meats Linked to Fatty Liver and Diabetes
Eating mammal meat or processed meats is associated with increased risk for diabetes, particularly if the meat is cooked at high temperatures. The authors showed that eating red or processed meat is associated with excess fat in the liver that can cause high blood sugar levels.
How Eating and Drinking Sugar Can Cause Diabetes
Very exciting research from Princeton University explains how taking in sugared drinks and any sugar added to foods (not in whole fruits and vegetables) can cause diabetes. The authors of this study show that fructose is converted to glucose primarily in the intestines, and not in the liver as scientists thought previously.
Normal Fasting Blood Sugar Does Not Rule Out Diabetes
Many doctors are missing a chance to save the lives of their patients by not ordering a blood sugar level one hour after eating a meal. Having a normal fasting blood sugar (<100 mg/dl) does not rule out diabetes.
Sugared Drinks and Diabetes
This year there is virtually complete agreement among doctors that sugared drinks cause the highest rises in blood sugar that cause a fatty liver that leads to diabetes.
How Sugar Can Fill Your Liver with Fat
A study this month shows how people who eat a lot of sugar can develop a liver full of fat that can lead to diabetes. When your blood sugar rises too high, the insulin released by your pancreas converts the sugar to a type of fat called triglycerides. HDL (good) cholesterol then carries the triglycerides to your liver where they are stored to cause a fatty liver.
Why Meat May Increase Risk for Diabetes
Researchers followed 63,257 Chinese adults aged 45–74 for an average of 10.9 years and found that eating red meat was associated with increased risk for developing diabetes. The authors suggest that it may be the iron in meat that could cause diabetes.
Sweet Drinks Raise Risk for Diabetes
A just-published study shows that drinking either sugared or artificially-sweetened drinks is associated with increased risk for diabetes (Am J Clin Nutr, Jun 28, 2017). Of 64,850 post-menopausal women followed for 8.4 years, 4675 developed diabetes.
Gut Bacteria Linked to Diabetes
Type II diabetes means that a person is diabetic because his cells do not respond to insulin. Recent research shows type II diabetes is linked to gut bacteria that invade the inner lining of the colon, while the dominant bacteria of most non-diabetics do not try to invade the inner lining of their colon.
Treat Diabetes with Diet and Exercise
Diabetes can be treated and often cured with exercise that removes fat from muscles and diets that remove fat from the liver and other organs.
The Hidden Epidemic of Early Diabetes
Many people with high blood sugar levels are told by their doctors that they do not have diabetes because their fasting blood sugar levels are below 100 mg/dl, which is considered normal. Early in the disease, diabetics often have a "normal" fasting blood sugar, but one hour after they eat, their blood sugar levels rise above 140, which signals that they are at increased risk for heart attacks, strokes, cancers, nerve damage and premature death.
Diabetes: A New Explanation
No matter how much insulin the pancreas makes, eating sugar causes the liver to make excess ChREBP that prevents the liver from responding to insulin and the liver then converts extra calories to sugar as well as the fat that it normally produces.
Genes and Belly Fat
If you store the extra fat in your buttocks and thighs, you are at low risk for being harmed by that extra fat. However, if you store the extra fat primarily in your belly, you are at high risk for becoming diabetic.
Storing Fat in Your Liver Can Kill You
North America's epidemic of obesity, diabetes and heart attacks appears to be fueled by storing fat in the liver, muscles and around organs, rather than just in fat cells, excess calories, sugar added to foods and drinks and lack of exercise.
Get Rid of Fat in Liver to Cure Type II Diabetes
A breakthrough article from Johns Hopkins implies that most cases of type II diabetes could be cured by reducing the amount of fat in the liver and that some diabetics may have to rid themselves of most of the fat from the rest of their bodies before they will get enough fat out of their liver.
Intense Exercise Prevents and Treats Diabetes
A review of the world's literature shows that high-intensity exercise, particularly interval training, causes greater reduction in HbA1c in diabetics than less intense exercise. HbA1c measures cell damage from high blood sugar levels. Many studies show that increasing exercise intensity controls blood sugar in diabetics more effectively than just increasing the duration of exercise.
Vinegar to Lower Blood Sugar?
In small studies in animals and humans, vinegar has been shown to reduce the rise in blood sugar and insulin that normally occurs after a meal. However, I cannot find any large studies to show that vinegar is an effective treatment for diabetes.
Eat Before or After Exercising to Prevent a High Rise in Blood Sugar
Exercising before or after eating helps to protect you from having a high rise in blood sugar after meals. Even light exercise before or after you eat can prevent a high rise in blood sugar and the damage it can cause.
Who Gets High Blood Sugar After Meals?
Some foods raise blood sugar far more than others, and a high rise in blood sugar after meals can increase risk for diabetes, heart attacks and premature death. A study from Israel shows that some people develop surprisingly high blood sugar levels after eating foods such as bread, pizza, potato, tomatoes or bananas, while others do not develop the expected rise in blood sugar even after drinking a sugared soft drink or eating a cookie.
Sugared Drinks Cause Fatty Liver
Sugared drinks are the primary cause of fatty liver disease, according to a report in the Journal of Hepatology (May 29, 2015). A fatty liver can lead to diabetes, which can cause heart attacks and premature death.
Brain Tissue Loss Linked to Diabetes
Research shows that the longer a patient has diabetes, the smaller his brain, particularly in the gray matter that interprets and directs muscle control, seeing and hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision-making and self-control. Diabetics lose brain size more than twice as rapidly as non-diabetics. The longer a person has diabetes, the more likely he is to suffer dementia.
Treatment of Insulin Resistance
Most people who develop diabetes in later life can be controlled so that they are not at increased risk for the many complications of diabetes such as heart attacks, strokes, blindness, deafness, amputations, kidney failure, burning foot syndrome, venous insufficiency with ulceration and stasis dermatitis.
