Showing posts with label Diabetes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diabetes. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Seed Oil Poison


Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Want to reverse diabetes? Go carnivore

 

Sunday, July 9, 2023

CONCLUSION: Marijuana use was independently associated with a lower prevalence of diabetes

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

SUPPLEMENTAL ZINC HELPS RESTORE HEALTHY HEART PUMPING AFTER A HEART ATTACK

Bill Sardi has a March 19, 2019 article on the value of zinc supplementation posted at Martie Whittekin's site, Healthy By Nature.  

Sardi alerts us to a serious health condition: zinc depletion or zinc deficiency.  It's not that we're all born deficient, but certain environmental exposures puts some of us at greater risk of becoming zinc deficient.  And given the importance of zinc in regulating our immunity, in development, and in its role in certain intellectual abilities, like reading, and composing one's emotions, zinc deficiency becomes quite a serious social health issue.  So how do we know if we're deficient in zinc?  If you've had a serious illness or if you're chronically ill, chances are you're zinc deficient.  There are, however, signs of zinc deficiency.  See the list of symptoms below.  There are so many things in our lives that can make us deficient in zinc.  Sardi points out a major culprit: arsenic.  So somehow too many of us are getting exposed to arsenic, but how?  Through our food.  More specifically, from Glyphosate: i.e., RoundUp.  
The first culprit that comes to mind is arsenic as blood concentrations of zinc and selenium, two essential trace minerals, drastically decline with exposure to arsenic.  The widespread use of glyphosate weedkillers [e.g. Roundup] in crops may be the hidden source of arsenic [or for some other reason glyphosate lowers zinc].
Dr. Derrick Lonsdale made a similar point, citing the pathology that arises from consuming non-organic foods that are sprayed with RoundUp.  He said if your food is not organic, then it has glyphosate in and on it.  Which means that we're all susceptible to zinc deficiency.  Sardi presents it thus:
Something has happened in America.  In retrospect, it appears zinc in the American diet has vanished or is not getting absorbed.  Either way, too many Americans exhibit overt symptoms of zinc deficiency.  A blood test is notoriously inaccurate as zinc may be locked up with a binding protein and be biologically unavailable.  Here are some signs and symptoms of zinc deficiency that may help you determine if you are zinc deficient [you don’t have all or even many of these]. 
Here are the symptoms.   
·         Are you losing your sense of smell?
·         Are you losing your sense of taste?
·         Do you crave salt and habitually to add salt to your foods?
·         Do you have adult-onset acne?
·         Is your hair prematurely turning grey?
·         Does your nail bed show white flecks?
·         Do you heal slowly from cuts?
·         Do you have a low sperm count?
·         Do you frequently experience cold sores on your lips?
·         Do you have an upset stomach, air, and gas, after meals?
·         Do you have skin problems like fungal infections (Athlete’s foot), yellow toenails?
·         Do you have chronic diarrhea?
·         Do you have thin or sparse hair, vanishing eyebrows?
·         Do you have moles on your skin?
·         Do you experience eczema (atopic dermatitis; red, itchy skin)?
·         Are you lethargic or irritable for no apparent reason?
·         Is your testosterone level low?
·         Do you experience a rash around your genitalia or mouth?
·         Do you regularly consume alcohol?
·         Do you take an ACE inhibitor blood pressure pill (lisinopril)?
·         Do you have stomach ulcers?
·         Do you or your children have difficulty reading due to dyslexia (letters are backwards)?
Who exactly is at greatest risk of zinc deficiency?  No one is immune.  

Food alone either takes too long to restore sufficiency or it lacks the ability altogether.  So supplements are required.  Sardi poses the questions, "How do we correct the shortage of zinc?"  Oysters is the food with the highest concentration of zinc.  You'll have to eat quite a bit.  Sardi explains, 
Aside from oysters, there is no single food that provides enough zinc to correct a deficiency.  Typical zinc intake levels are 10 milligrams/day but maybe only 1-2 milligrams are actually absorbed.  Older adults with low stomach acid levels typically have difficulty absorbing zinc.  And wouldn’t you know, zinc is an important co-factor in the internal synthesis of hydrochloric acid in the gastric tract. 
It was important for me to hear that "very high concentrations of zinc are found in the liver, muscle, brain, and testes."  Men, take heed.  "it is no wonder that zinc sufficiency has something to do with brain function, testosterone synthesis, and liver health."
Sardi explains that "There are ~2000 milligrams of zinc stored in body tissues."  Yes, but what happens if you get seriously ill, like say you contract measles or scarlet fever or chickenpox.  These drain your zinc stores.  For older folks, it's low stomach acid that keeps us from getting enough zinc.  So if it's not environmental issues, like Glyphosate, then it's low stomach acid due to age or some kind of illness, maybe diabetes, that depletes us of adequate zinc.  Sardi points out that "The trace mineral selenium helps to release zinc so it is biologically available."  What this means is that for zinc to be more absorbent, you'll need to take selenium with it.  
Zinc shortages cause loss of smell and taste, including mental decline.  
Zinc is responsible for a strong immune system.  It regulates the size of your master immune gland, called the Thymus gland.  Sardi says that "Zinc is required to activate T-cells, those memory white blood cells that confer life-long immunity via memory T-cells that produce antibodies against various pathogenic germs."

I wrote recently how OptiZinc reduces the incidence of acne by 50%.  There are different forms of zinc that seem to provide different kinds of protection.  Zinc Carnosine heals the lower intestine.  Sardi points out other parts of the body that are aided by supplementation of zinc carnosine.
Fortunately, there is a form of zinc that protects the nervous system, promotes the health of the digestive tract, aids in wound healing, normalizes gut bacteria, promotes liver health and helps restore the sense of smell and taste to individuals with these symptoms.  It is called zinc carnosine.
Zinc Carnosine is also important for the heart.
And no one would have guessed that supplemental zinc would help restore healthy heart pumping after a heart attack.  The amount of blood pumped (ejection fraction) after a heart attack improves with the provision of zinc carnosine.
Zinc is a great wound healer. And it helps diabetics.  I cannot get diabetics to listen to me.  
Zinc is known to promote wound healing.  And the preferred form of zinc to heal up gastric ulcers is zinc carnosine.   Zinc carnosine is the form of zinc commonly used to protect and heal tissues following cancer radiation treatment or to aid antibiotics in the kill off of H. pylori, the bacterium that causes gastric ulcers.  Zinc carnosine is the trace mineral of choice for nutritional support of hepatitis (liver inflammation). 
Helps fight aging. 
Zinc carnosine has also been demonstrated to stabilize genes that become fragile with advancing age. 
A typical two-week course of zinc carnosine, taken as directed on the label, may help you become zinc sufficient. 

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

SUPPLEMENTAL MAGNESIUM IS CRITICAL FOR DIABETICS

Here I review Bill Sardi's article, "On Controlling Diabetes Free of Prescription Drugs."

It is amazing to me how helpless those with diabetes talk about their condition.  It used to be called a disease.  Now it's just a metabolic condition. 
Herbal supplements, like cinnamon, are touted for their ability to control
blood sugar levels.
It can certainly become a disease.  But without a glitch each person I know who has it treats it as though it is a life sentence handed down to them from their genetic make-up by claiming that "My mother had it, my father had it, and my grandmother had it."  No doubt.  



So what I hear is a surrender to a condition that they believe the primary cause is genetic and not food or diet related.  And it certainly is difficult to see the faults in eating habits when you've lived those habits your whole life.  I should know . . . though thankfully I've not yet been diagnosed with diabetes.  By the time we're adults, I would think that most people should the know the error of their ways and jettison breakfast cereals and soda pop.  Many adults who survived the onslaught of a sugary diet from childhood celebrate the survival of childhood excesses by announcing "Oh, I ate four bowls of Captain Crunch" or "I downed 5 bowls of Coco Puffs before I drank a 6 pack of Cherry Cola.  Just the thought now of those soda binges wears me out.  Two, high-energy adults I've worked with have both been addicted to Diet-Pepsi.  I mean a 6-pack a day.  I could only shake my head at what that HFCS was doing to their hormones.  iSe la vie! 
But here again, it's Bill Sardi who lays out a new way of seeing old problems.  He's not simply pulling these assessments out of a hat but he cites research after research, collating data to demonstrate that a lot of the medical assumptions that have reached the popular culture are just wrong.  With regards to diabetes, not completely wrong, but wrong as to the causes.  The cause is the overconsumption of sugar in all of its forms.  Bill Sardi takes it apart, starting with almost a comical scene--a meeting in which the nation's largest food companies were asked to "share" some of the responsibility.  I laugh because when I emailed Pederson's bacon about their use of soy as feed for the pigs, I got a reply that went like this "If we told you, we'd have to kill you."  That was their attempt at a joke, of course, a Customer Service joke.  Ha, ha.  But one has to ask--Should customer service be joking like that?  So, I turn to honest, direct and ethical men like Bill Sardi.  He starts
At a 1999 conclave, executives of the nation’s biggest food companies walked out on a meeting that attempted to get them to share some of the responsibility for the then growing diabesity epidemic.  [New York Times Feb 20, 2013]  With sugarized bacon, ketchup, peanut butter, wrapped meats, salad dressings and processed foods dominating grocery store shelves, shockingly half the nation now is diabetic or pre-diabetic.  [LA Times Sept 8, 2015; Journal American Medical Assn. Sept 8, 2015] 
That's about right.  I couldn't imagine anything good coming from this meeting either.  Absolutely--high blood sugar levels are the causes of diabetes.  The answer then is to bring down the high blood sugar levels by removing from one's diet those foods that cause it to soar, regardless if they are traditional foods of your culture.  
Pre-diabetes means that your blood sugar level is higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as adult-onset (type II) diabetes and you have not developed symptoms yet (eyes, kidneys, heart, pancreas).  You are more likely to develop full-blown diabetes within 2 to 10 years. [Mayo Clinic] 
What I find interesting is that the theory of a disease is driven in part, perhaps in large part, by a pharmaceutical monopoly on the medicines that treat specific diseases put forth by institutions funded by the companies providing the antidote.  Wow!  Does that ever sound conspiratorial.  But it is mainly just folks jimmying with the free market.  Instead of allowing the customer or patient to find his own cure, conglommerants put enough safeguards in place so as to ensure a higher percentage of patients purchasing their prescription.  And so the narrative that folks walk around with in their heads about a condition is an old one.  Hell, it's antique.  So as the profession has a lock on the narratives that filter down to us folks, we are left with antiquated knowledge that serves as a terrible guide for greater health.  

On the diabetic front, Sardi points out important feature of diabetic drugs--
It is common for diabetics to experience frequent urination.  Elevated blood sugar has diuretic action induces frequent urination which results in loss of nutrients.  Yet replacement of lost nutrients is not the mainstay of diabetic therapy.
I wonder how many diabetics know this.  What is astounding is that physicians are phyto-phobic and mineral phobic when it comes to diabetes.  Sardi explains that supplemental magnesium is critical for diabetics.  
More than 50% of diabetics take dietary supplements, but most are unguided.  [Diabetic Educator 2011]  Even dietitians look at dietary supplements with disdain when it comes to diabetes.  One prominent dietitian says she doesn’t recommend over-the-counter supplements for fear of possible drug contraindications. 
She says: “I’d never advise anyone to take extra magnesium or to use a supplement-level doses of herbal remedies that claim to lower blood sugar.”  [Todays Dietitian Nov 2011]  Yet, as you will learn below, supplemental magnesium is critical for diabetics. 
Phyto-phobic physicians themselves issue caution over dietary supplements interfering with anti-diabetic drugs even though vitamins and minerals are essential for life.  It may be the drugs that are interfering with nutrients. [Advances Clinical Experimental Medicine Nov 2014]
And people wonder why doctors are held in such contempt.  Perhaps they hold your health in contempt.  More importantly, it is vitamins and minerals that are the first line of defense.  This goes for any non-diabetic individuals as well. 
 In development of a list of supplemental nutrients for diabetics, essential vitamins and minerals such as vitamins C and D should be given priority over herbal or other supplements.  While there are many herbal supplements that are touted for sugar control (among them cinnamon, Gymnema sylvestre, and many others), it is important to first utilize essential nutrients (vitamins and minerals) in a daily dietary supplement regimen for diabetics. 
Could it be clearer?  If someone has diabetes, your first line of attack is a daily vitamin C and D supplement.  Commit to this regime for a few weeks first before you look for the long-term benefits from herbs, like cinnamon, to bring under control other symptoms associated with diabetes.  

MAGNESIUM for DIABETIC CONDITIONS
Low magnesium blood levels are common among adults with diabetes. [Journal College Physicians Surgery Pakistan Nov 2014]
Low dietary intake of magnesium or increased excretion of magnesium due to diuretic use, are the most common causes of magnesium deficiency.  [World Journal Diabetes Aug 2015; Journal Renal Injury Prevention 2014]
Blood serum magnesium levels decline as blood sugar levels rise.  The hemoglobin A1c blood test, a measure of long-term blood sugar status, rises as serum magnesium levels decline.  [Diabetes Metabolism Syndrome Jan 2015]
In another study, 382 mg of supplemental magnesium taken over a 4-month period resulted in 50.8% of supplemented patients improving their blood glucose levels compared to just 7.0% taking an inactive placebo.  [Diabetic Metabolism June 2015]
One of the biological actions of metformin, a commonly prescribed anti-diabetic drug, is it raises magnesium levels. [Biology Trace Element Research July 2011]
Magnesium has been proposed as a public health strategy against diabetes.  Diabetics are commonly deficient in magnesium.  Insulin and glucose regulate magnesium and visa versa. 
There is considerable evidence that diligent magnesium supplementation may delay the progression from impaired blood sugar (glucose) regulation to adult-onset diabetes.  [Diabetes Obesity Metabolism Sept 2015]
In one study, just 100 mg increase of supplemental or dietary magnesium was associated with a 16% risk reduction for diabetes.  [Biomedical Environmental Science July 2015]
In one study of 54 diabetic patients, 300 milligrams of supplemental daily magnesium improved blood sugar (glucose) levels. [Medical Journal Islam Republic Iran July 2014]

How many diabetics have ever heard of an iron overload as one of the causes for insulin resistance?  That's what I thought.
An overlooked fact is that iron overload induces insulin resistance, that is, the inability of insulin to get into cells and generate energy. 
So how do you know if you have too much iron?  Get a blood test.  Sardi identifies that test.  It's called a ferritin test.  
There is a blood test that is not part of a regular blood panel that measures iron load in the body.  It is called a ferritin test.  Transferrin is another test that measures iron transport.  Elevated transferrin and ferritin are believed to be underlying causes of high blood sugar (glucose) and insulin resistance. [European Journal Endocrinology Aug 20, 2015]
Very few diabetics are aware of the need to measure iron storage in the body.  Men begin to accumulate iron in their body earlier than females who control iron load by monthly menstruation. 
I wonder if this is why men tend to get Diabetes II at a later age than women do.  
Men tend to have a greater risk to develop diabetes as indicated by a high ferritin level.  [British Journal Nutrition Dec 14, 2014]
Males accumulate 1 milligram of excess iron per day of life after they are fully grown.  By middle age, around age 40 years, males will have double the iron load of an equally-aged female and experience double the risk for diabetes. 
I thought that this was the most interesting point about iron accumulattion.  "Iron from plant foods is absorbed on an as needed basis.  Iron from meat is absorbed whether it is needed or not."  Ouch!
Iron from plant foods is absorbed on an as needed basis.  Iron from meat is absorbed whether it is needed or not.  The consumption of red meat, which provides the most easily absorbed iron of any food source, is associated with adult-onset diabetes. [American Journal Clinical Nutrition June 2015]  High ferritin levels, as determined by a blood test for the amount of iron stored in the body, correlates with the onset of diabetes.  [Advances Biomedical Research March 2015]  Insulin resistance occurs when ferritin (iron storage) levels rise. [Journal Pakistan Medical Assn. Dec 2014; Diabetologia March 2015]  In fact, elevated ferritin levels predict future onset of insulin resistance. [Diabetes Research Clinical Practice Jan 2015; Acta Diabetology April 2015] 
Note that the quotation above says "Iron from meat . . . ," and not "iron from red meat."  So any meat--chicken, beef, pork, etc.

FOOD SOURCES of MAGNESIUM
from Healthline

Cooked spinach, one cup, 157 mgs of magnesium.
Pumpkin seeds, 150 mgs of magnesium in a one-ounce serving.
Cooked black beans, a one-cup serving, contain 120 mgs of magnesium.
Cashews, a one-ounce serving, contain 82 mgs of magnesium.
Buckwheat, one-ounce serving, contains 65 mgs of magnesium.
Dark chocolate, a one-ounce bar, contains 64 mgs of magnesium.
Avocado, one medium avocado, contains 58 mgs of magnesium.
Tofu, 53 mgs of magnesium in a 3.5 ounce serving.
Salmon, half of fillet, contains 53 mgs of magnesium.
Bananas, 37 mgs of magnesium.  
In addition to the benefits for diabetics, magnesium is also an important bone mineral.  From Bill Sardi's book, The New Truth About Vitamins and Minerals, he writes comparing the virtues of calcium to magnesium  
Magnesium interferes with crystalization and produces flexible bones that can withstand physical stress.  Boron, a trace mineral, enhances bone hardness.  
So there's that.