READERS SUMMARY:
1. Why you should be disgusted with our policy on diabetes.
2. How is one to survive the situation.
3. What can you do to avoid this situation and to thrive?
I read an article this morning in my local Sunday paper that stopped me dead in my tracks and caused me to write this. Majid Ezzati is the chairman of global health at Imperial College of London and his study was just published in The Lancet just last night. The study was based using data from 150 published national studies that followed adults over 25 years in 199 countries. The study used modeling to estimate the numbers for 92 other countries. I am not a fan of this type of science but I have to say, I believe they under-called the problem in a big way. The modeling did not take into account the three youngest generations world wide. More importantly, It failed to include the youngest three generations obesity crisis in the biggest problem country. That country is the USA.
When I was on Jimmy Moore’s podcast this May, I estimated that the numbers in the USA for type two diabetes were north of 150 million people. The reason behind my beliefs is that the way in which we diagnose type two diabetes is outdated. By the time a patient is diagnosed via our current clinical methods they have already destroyed 50% of their beta cells that make insulin. We know that we have close to 45 million people with diabetes based upon CMS billing data today. I believe there are three times that many who have the disease but are currently not diagnosed because our screening is not sensitive to their plight. The interesting thing is that the cause of the disease, however, is obvious: it is the Standard American Diet and the USDA pyramid and the USA ability to sell these products all over the world at great profitability. If there is money involved, the trend is not going to stop anytime soon. Hence the reason my estimates are way higher than this data. Moreover, it is why I am not arguing against this studies proposed numbers based upon modeling statistics. In fact, I think their numbers are way too conservative. I bet its closer to 700 million people worldwide in 2011.
The most shocking statistic in the article was that the number of diabetics in the world has doubled in the last three decades! That is astounding! We have been around as a species for close to two million years but in thirty years we have radically changed our environment and caused a massive change in our metabolism. I don’t think a better argument can be made for the real cause than our diet. We don’t need a study to tell us why this happened because it is as obvious as the nose on our faces. The dietary changes that were mandated by our government in the 70s and promulgated by the business practices of the food agriculture business are to blame. High fructose corn syrup was loaded into our food supply in large quantities in 1977. Kinda of funny how that was around thirty years ago and coincides with this current data huh? Go back and Google search the USDA guidelines for “healthy food” choices for Americans and see when they began to appear. Those guidelines are loaded with refined carbohydrates and grains. Do you still believe in coincidence?
The most disappointing statements made in the article were those on heart disease, cholesterol and diabetes care. It appears they believe that we have made huge impacts on heart disease and high cholesterol because we have treatments for those chronic diseases. Cough! Nothing could be further from the truth. But to add insult to injury they now say diabetes poses a greater risk that the other two because we have no “good” treatments for diabetes! I strongly disagree with that statement. If you eat an evolutionary diet, such as the paleolithic diet, you can reverse the metabolic changes within two weeks. This was just shown in 2010 studies by Dr Alessio Fasano at the University of Maryland. These are the type of statements which make me pessimistic that American medicine will lead our population out of the darkness of disease and into health. They actually still believe lipids cause heart disease and taking a statin “cures” that problem while we can do little to change a diabetic. The complete opposite situation is the reality. Patients need to understand that they need to break free of thoughts that are going to kill them slowly over time. We know that people in emergency situations survive when they make a very early choice that happens to be correct. I think if we are going to impact diabetic care in this country we are going to have to have patients make the correct choice because the so-called experts are advocating lifestyle choices that will institutionalize patients to the healthcare industry and make them an annuity for my industry. To make matters worse, the article in today’s Nashville newspaper quotes Dr. Aaron Cypess from the Joslin Diabetes Center as having hope for America. He is optimistic because of Michelle Obama’s current healthcare initiative in the USA to fight childhood obesity. Her plan is get kids to move more and eat more USDA pyramid foods! If kids follow this plan they will do nothing but become the newest minted type two diabetics. The problem is diabetes is a disease of excessive blue light and circadian mismatches. The more mismatched you are the less you can tolerate carbohydrates because your mitochondria can’t sense the environment properly
My advice to you is this, if you are an adult male with a waist north of 34 inches you need to pay attention to this. If you are a female with a waist above 29 you need to pay attention. These numbers are much more likely to put you at risk for diabetes than the one’s you hear about today for Metabolic syndrome. Your goal should be never to get this disease. If you want to avoid it eat a paleolithic diet and lift heavy weight 3-4 times a week. That is all one needs to do. One more thing as well…….diabetes is easily reversible if you change the way you think and adapt your behavior right now to the same prevention steps. I completely disagree with the authors of this study. We have the data and the tools to eradicate type two diabetes today if we just tell people what works and what does not. Your survival might depend upon it.
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