Ask anyone what disease is the most concerning or the scariest and they will probably say heart disease or maybe Alzheimer’s disease. But what causes those two afflictions? Well… you might be surprised that many times, blood sugar control leading to obesity and inflammation is at the center of those and other serious health conditions. Diabetes (Type II) or the more recent term, Diabesity, is at the top of the list of serious metabolic conditions in the United States. The truth about diabetes is that most cases are fully preventable and, in large part, reversible. Therefore pharmaceutical approaches should be used sparingly. My goal is to help people naturally before the condition has progressed, causing damage to your blood vessels (heart attacks), kidneys (high blood pressure), eyesight (retinopathy), nerves of your feet (peripheral neuropathy), and brain (Alzheimer’s disease).
Briefly, diabetes can be described on a continuum or a line from low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) on one end, moving to diabetes on the other. In between, are increasingly higher surges of blood sugar with names like pre-diabetes, Syndrome X or Metabolic Syndrome, and insulin resistance.
One of the biggest problems with dealing with this condition are the “odd” suggestions provided by the American Diabetic Association that contradict the more recent scientific literature. The ADA has essentially written that high blood sugar levels are ok—just not REALLY high levels. Recent scientific literature shows that this is not true. It shows that even if your levels of fasting blood sugar are within normal range (95 to 99) your risk can double. This leads to two issues: What are the “ideal” levels of blood sugar, and what are the best things to do if your levels are not in this range?
There isn’t room here to thoroughly discuss all of the tests used to measure blood sugar and other related concerns, but I’ll mention a few of the 61 tests we use in my office. According to recent research, the actual ideal levels to prevent the problems caused by high blood sugar are the following;
Fasting blood glucose less than 86 (mg/dl)
Two hours after a meal less than 120
Hemoglobin A1c (%) less than 5.3
Fructosamine Less than 217
I frequently hear from patients that they have been told that as long as their fasting blood glucose is under 127 they are OK. Unfortunately, they are not OK because with levels between 90 and 127, substantial and permanent damage to organs can occur. Not only that, studies show that fasting blood sugar and A1c levels are not very accurate.
So, what can you do if your blood sugar is too high? If you want to be healthy (and I know that you do), then using natural, targeted, non-pharmaceutical approaches to keep your blood sugar controlled is the first thing. Next, it is very important that you understand that it’s not all about the sugar. Diabetes has many components and each need to be addressed for us to be successful. Those components are: autoimmunity, inflammation, genetics, obesity, leptin resistance, insulin resistance, and pancreas (beta-cell) destruction.
Recent research shows that diabetes begins with a low-grade inflammation that slowly ramps up the immune system causing further damage. This is caused by our own “western” lifestyle. That lifestyle involves deficiencies in Magnesium and Vitamin D, chronic stress, altered gut microbes (from antibiotics) and being sedentary. Knowing this is good because it is possible, with a change of diet, exercise and a few targeted supplements, to move into a more positive direction, steering you away from bad outcomes. But for more complex cases, a comprehensive evaluation and a complete metabolic exam and review are critical. If this makes sense to you, let’s take a look at your total profile to find out what your body can tell us about your health.
Dr. Don Davis, D.C., DACNB is a BOARD CERTIFIED CHIROPRACTIC NEUROLOGIST in Walnut Creek. He has been serving individuals with chronic pain for 30 years. For information about how you can get a free consultation with Dr. Davis, call (925) 279-4325 (HEAL). Visit us walnutcreekthyroidinstitute.com
Autoimmune diseases are characterized by tissue damage and loss of function due to an immune response that is directed against specific organs. This review is focused on celiac disease (CD), an autoimmune enteropathy, and type 1 diabetes (T1D), a hyperglycosaemia caused by a destructive autoimmune process targeting the insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells. Even if environmental factors and genetic susceptibility are clearly involved in the pathogenesis of autoimmunity, for most autoimmune disorders there is no or little knowledge about the causing agent or genetic makeup underlying the disease. In this respect, CD represents a unique autoimmune disorder because a close genetic association with HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 haplotypes and, more importantly, the environmental trigger (the gliadin fraction of gluten-containing grains wheat, barley, and rye) are known. Conversely, the trigger for autoimmune destruction of pancreatic ß cells in T1D is unclear. Interestingly, recent data suggest that gliadin is also involved in the pathogenesis of T1D. There is growing evidence that increased intestinal permeability plays a pathogenic role in various autoimmune diseases including CD and T1D. Therefore, we hypothesize that besides genetic and environmental factors, loss of intestinal barrier function is necessary to develop autoimmunity. In this review, each of these components will be briefly reviewed.
Keywords: tight junctions, intestinal permeability, zonulin
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