Dr. Gabe Mirkin on Fitness, Health and Nutrition

Chat with Dr. Mirkin’s AI research assistant about health issues that are discussed on the site

Fructose is the Worst Sugar

Fructose is the Worst Sugar

Fructose causes more damage than glucose because it is far more likely to deposit fat in your belly, which causes higher blood sugar levels and increases risk for diabetes, heart attacks and death. Glucose is processed by every cell in your body, but almost all fructose is processed only by your liver where most is converted to fatty triglycerides.

Intense Exercise Prevents and Treats Diabetes

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.

Making Muscles Stronger

Making Muscles Stronger

If you want to make a muscle stronger, you have to exercise it intensely enough to damage the muscle fibers and when they heal, they will be stronger than they were. You can tell you are causing muscle damage because of the burning you will feel during exercise and the soreness in that muscle you feel four to eight hours later.

Intense Exercise Prevents and Treats Diabetes

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.

Exercise Reduces Risk for 13 Types of Cancer

Exercise Reduces Risk for 13 Types of Cancer

Leisure-time physical activity is associated with a lower risk of cancers of the colon, breast, endometrium, esophagus, adenocarcinoma, liver, stomach, kidney, head, neck, rectum, bladder and lung, and myeloid leukemia and myeloma

Exercise Reduces Risk for 13 Types of Cancer

Can Cancer Cells be Starved to Death?

The New York Times published a major article on the possibility of curing cancer by starving cancer cells to death (NYT, May 12, 2016), a theory first proposed almost 100 years ago by Otto Warburg, arguably the world’s greatest chemist ever. With the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick more than 50 years ago, scientists diverted their attention to a genetic basis for cancer research. However, it now appears that most cancers are influenced by environmental factors.

Fructose is the Worst Sugar

Add Fiber to Fruit Juice?

A study sponsored by PepsiCo showed that adding extra fiber to regular orange juice markedly reduced the usual high rise in peak blood sugar and insulin concentrations in men who were at high risk for diabetes and heart attacks.

Fructose is the Worst Sugar

Gluten-Free Diets Can Harm

Two studies in prestigious medical journals show that gluten-free diets can cause nutritional deficiencies in all age groups (Clinical Nutrition, published online May 7, 2016) and interfere with growth and development in children.

Otto Warburg, Cancer Pioneer

Otto Warburg, Cancer Pioneer

83 years after Otto Warburg published his landmark paper on cancer, the New York Times has a major article on the revival of his idea that cancer cells can be starved to death (NYT, May 12, 2016). Otto Warburg (1883 – 1970) was arguably the most brilliant and productive chemist of all time. Throughout his 50 years of research, he made major breakthroughs in intracellular respiration, photosynthesis and cancer.

Fructose is the Worst Sugar

Don’t Count Calories

Contestants on the television program The Biggest Loser dropped an average of 129 pounds, yet six years later, most have regained more than 70 percent of their lost weight, largely because dieting decreased their ability to burn calories. They now burn about 500 fewer calories each day than would be expected for a person of the same age and weight.