Avoid or reverse type 2 diabetes III ….Today's post:  Tuesday, 10-3-2017 

Two weeks 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 and the one last week 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?

(Last week, 9-26, we posted on these inexpensive 7 blood tests, the four in the lipid panel; and the two relating directly to blood sugar, fasting glucose & HBA1C and what it is; and the diagnostic measure of chronic inflammation.  We covered how to read the numbers to see if they are danger indicators or are desirable.  And, we covered what foods to avoid to improve the readings.)

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? 

(Note that taking Metformin tends to deplete vitamin B12 which can cause nerve and brain problems some of which mimic Alzheimer’s disease.  The good news is that using 1,000 mcg lozenges of methyl B12 once a day can prevent this.)

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.

There are several reasons to avoid these drugs:

One of the most important is to stop eating the foods and drinking the drinks that cause high blood sugar.  Even if the drugs were more effective and much safer with fewer side effects, this is horrible strategically.

Taking the drugs covers up the fact that the causes that people can stop are still in place!

This is very much like starting fires all over your house and calling the fire department-- AND, then continuing to light more fires after they are on their way. 

Simply put, with type 2 diabetes,  if you completely stop drinking soft drinks and eating foods containing hybrid wheat and rice and high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils and using several times too much sugar, you’ll not only lower your blood sugar you’ll ALSO improve your protection from heart disease and strokes and blindness too.  You turn off most of the causes when you do these things!

The same is true for eating MORE of what causes these risks to improve: organic vegetables, wild caught fish, extra virgin olive oil, and some organic fresh fruit at least once a day.

What are the side effects of these other drugs for high blood sugar? 

Some of them are known to cause heart attacks.  Preventing those is supposed to be the justification for making an effort to lower high blood sugar. That makes no kind of sense to me!

Some of them cause cancers and even fatal cancers.  So if you want to avoid cancer, why not strike those from consideration?

Recently it was found that type 2 diabetics often are more likely to get fragile bones.  The research is now finding that NOT getting regular exercise, particularly weight bearing exercise like walking &/or strength training does that. 

Since NOT exercising also tends to cause type 2 diabetes, why not solve this problem by carefully beginning such exercise and keeping it up?

The FDA apparently knows that some of these second line diabetes drugs weaken bones considerably in as little as 3 months! 

Taking those makes no sense to me either.  Stopping soft drinks which also weaken bones and worsen type 2 diabetes makes much better sense!  So does beginning to exercise!

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 Fung to work on a fasting protocol followed by low carb eating that indeed has turned off type 2 diabetes in his patients.)

So, if you want to avoid paying to make your diabetes worse, consider seriously NOT taking insulin if you are not a type 1 diabetic!

(The book describing this is:  The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting   published Oct 18, 2016

by Jimmy Moore and Dr. Jason Fung)

Lastly, type 2 diabetics DO need to do more to prevent heart attacks. 

But the severe harm of very high blood sugar research found is caused by the mitochondrial damage it causes.  Since taking statins CAUSES mitochondrial damage and statins are not very effective heart attack preventers, statins are totally contraindicated for people with diabetes!

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. 

Eating 5 or 6 servings of organic vegetables a day NOT including potatoes is one of the most effective ways known to prevent heart attacks AND death from any cause.  (Other research recently found it slows aging.)

Other research found that eating 3 servings of organic vegetables a day NOT including potatoes works as well for people who also do regular exercise.

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?

We covered those last week, 9-26. We also added some things to eat or do and some things like MSG NOT to eat to improve the readings.

2.  What supplements help?

There are several that slash heart attack risk that I’ve covered before and will likely cover again.  I was able to boost my HDL from 50 to 100 and cut my LDL from 130 to as little as less than 70 AND lower my triglycerides to well below 40 from about 150.  (That means my risk of heart attack has gone down by over seven fold!)

If you eat a dish of oatmeal with maple syrup added and do a before and after test for blood sugar you will see a considerable jump after your body starts to digest the food.’

By actual test, if you add cinnamon to the dish to taste or take a cinnamon capsule -- and take 250 mg of alpha lipoic acid, the increase will be something like a third as much.

So, if you take a capsule of cinnamon and one of 250 mg of alpha lipoic acid once a day you will tend to have lower blood sugar.

To keep my own blood sugar down, my fasting level measures between 70 & 83, I take those and one capsule a day of fenugreek which is thought to help control blood sugar also.

(I’ve read that in men at least, it also boosts testosterone.  Since I’m a man and want enough testosterone to help build muscle, that’s an extra benefit I like.)

Ginger and turmeric (or curcumin supplements from turmeric) are related botanically.

They both lower LDL cholesterol and tend to lower or prevent high blood sugar AND by reducing inflammation, they protect people who take them from heart disease AND Alzheimer’s disease. 

There is even some research evidence that they prevent cancer and prevent cancers from metastasizing.

There are other supplements that are known to work.

But those 5 are safest and most available and have very beneficial other health benefits!