Avoid or reverse type 2 diabetes II ….Today's post:  Tuesday, 9-26-2017 

A week ago, 9-19, we posted on the upgrades to eating and exercise that tend to turn off type 2 diabetes & do turn type 2 diabetes way down at the very least when well done.

We posted on why taking statins causes diabetes and makes the exercises that turn it off best dangerous to do. 

And, we posted on the research showing that no diabetic should ever take statins because the mitochondrial damage statins cause is itself the cause of the more serious and deadly harms of severe diabetes.

We also posted on the evidence that fasting or ketogenic eating has actually turned off type 2 diabetes.

This post was triggered by some useful information on the subject that I realized I’d left out:

1.  What are the inexpensive blood tests for high blood sugar and heart disease risk and what levels are dangerous or undesirable and what levels are achievable and desirable?

2.  Why do more of the lifestyle upgrades to reduce high blood sugar or take Metformin only and NOT take the other drugs for diabetes.

Except for Metformin, the other drugs for type 2 diabetes tend to cause heart attacks and strokes and various cancers often enough to suggest NOT taking them even on a temporary basis.

Except for type 1 diabetics taking insulin tends to make diabetes worse and more damaging. (It was seeing this directly and even having a patient call it to his attention that caused Dr Jason Fong to work on a fasting protocol followed by low carb eating that indeed has turned off type 2 diabetes in his patients.)

3.  More ways to protect yourself from the harms of type 2 diabetes and high blood sugar.

Avoiding tobacco and its smoke and nicotine 100% is one. 

Surprisingly, eating one piece or serving of whole organic fruit a day or taking fruit extract supplements or both is the most effective way yet found to prevent BOTH kinds of stroke.

There is also a list of supplements that help avoid high blood sugar or all forms of heart disease that are documented to work.

1.  What are the inexpensive blood tests for high blood sugar and heart disease risk and what levels are dangerous or undesirable and what levels are achievable and desirable?

These 7 tests are:

Two are:

Fasting blood sugar and HBA1C for blood sugar levels directly.

In the lipid panel there are these four tests:

Total Cholesterol

HDL

LDL

Triglycerides

Total cholesterol is much less indicative than they once thought.  People with lower normal levels get heart attacks; and if other things are positive, such as exercising and NOT smoking, higher levels are less dangerous.

Small particle LDL and inflammation are the most potent of the causes of heart disease.

So levels of LDL much above 115 are undesirable and those 75 or under are best. 

Statins are harmful ways to reduce those two measures. 

But the lifestyle in the book Anticancer including curcumin and turmeric supplements do the same and have health BENEFITS instead of harms.

Instead of causing diabetes or making it dangerously worse as statins do,

 eating the vegetables and low glycemic fruit this book recommends --

AND stopping soft drinks and high fructose corn syrup and all hybrid wheat and baked goods and packaged foods and fast foods made with it -- tends strongly to turn OFF type two diabetes and has been shown to strongly prevent heart disease. 

Simply put, it’s beneficial instead of harmful to use these lifestyle upgrades NOT harmful as statins are.  Even better, these lifestyle upgrades are several times more protective against heart attacks and fatal heart attacks.

Then too, work at Harvard found that high HDL and low triglycerides means that the LDL has far less of the small particle LDL that causes heart disease. 

Triglycerides are mostly influenced by how much sugars and hybrid wheat you eat, just like blood sugar!  So to reduce them, stop eating those things!

HDL tends to be higher in people who stop eating those things as well.  Taking DHA and regular vigorous exercise also turn up HDL. The combination works quite well!

Eating ANY foods containing hydrogenated oils boosts triglycerides and lowers HDL.

In fact exercise has been directly tested to reduce small particle LDL; and hydrogenated oils have been directly tested to dramatically increase small particle LDL.

And, there is a measure of chronic inflammation as measured by a CRP or C-Reactive Protein – also listed as HSCRP which is a High Sensitivity version.

There are two things you  can do to get health benefits AND sharply lower this cause of heart disease.  Follow the lifestyle in the Anticancer book that is tested to lower inflammation.

The other is to eat no food that lists ANY hydrogenated oils and eat no food likely to contain MSG.  (Hint if a food or spice blend or condiment list “spices” as an ingredient, take a pass because it likely is hiding the MSG and related compounds they used.) 

MSG boosts inflammation by quite a lot and is directly fattening by actual test.  In fact because this looks likely to be caused by damage to the mitochondria, MSG looks likely to be a CAUSE of type 2 diabetes

*Simply put, if the two blood sugar readings consistently are at the lower end of the normal range this reflects a health protective state of affairs. 

But if they are at the middle to higher end of the normal range, they begin to be damaging.  Some studies have found that commonly found only somewhat high level begins to cause beta amyloid tangles and Alzheimer’s disease.

Levels just above that are in the diabetic range.

For fasting blood sugar 68 to 79 is desirable.  80 to 89 is less so but not too bad.  90 to 99 is high enough to flag you to eat better and exercise more.  100 to 115 or 119 is damaging enough to suggest eating a LOT better and exercising more!  And, 120 or over is defined as diabetes.

Fasting blood sugar is a snapshot of a specific time.  If you were moving the previous day and skipped meals and were too tired to eat much, it might read lower than you normally would. Or if you went to wedding and ate too much sugary and starchy food it might be higher than normal.

Isn’t there a way to see what your average is that smoothes out such things?  YES!

That is what the HBA1C is.  Sugar sticks onto red blood cells and they tend to live about 60 to 90 days.  So that measure shows you the average blood sugar for the last 60 to 90 days.

Web MD had this just now on Google:

“For people without diabetes, the normal range for the hemoglobin A1c level is between 4% and 5.6%.

Hemoglobin A1c levels between 5.7% and 6.4% mean you have a higher change of getting of diabetes.

Levels of 6.5% or higher mean you have diabetes. 

Oct 26, 2016  Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) Test for Diabetes: HbA1c Normal Levels ...

www.webmd.com/diabetes/guide/glycated-hemoglobin-test-hba1c “

This is a bit off in my view.

Desirable IS 5.6 or less just as they list it.

5.7 to 5.9 are not that bad but are less desirable.

6.0 or higher is damaging and in fact some medical groups list it as low level type 2 diabetes.

6.5 or higher is damaging enough to make action to reduce it desirable and everyone defines it as type 2 diabetes.

We will continue this next week covering the drugs not to take and the foods and supplements that are documented to help keep your blood sugar low.