High fructose corn syrup also speeds aging....

Today's post: Friday, 10-17-2008

We’ve already posted that drinking regular soft regular soft drinks makes you fat in part because it not only adds calories without making you less hungry—it also increases your craving for sweet foods and makes you extra hungry when your body recovers from the sugar rush you get. I’ve read that each of these effects are worse with today’s soft drinks because they are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. (These effects existed back when soft drinks contained sugar though they were not quite as bad. But back then, soft drinks were smaller and people drank many fewer bottles of them. They also got a lot more exercise and watched less TV. So, soft drinks looked safe to drink. That is no longer true.)

We posted an article that contains information suggesting that ingesting high fructose corn syrup is as bad for your heart and blood vessels as eating transfats. It seems ingesting high fructose corn syrup lowers HDL a bit and increases triglycerides. (The ratio between them reveals how much of the small particle LDL cholesterol that creates heart and cardiovascular disease is in your blood.) This means that if your HDL cholesterol is lowered and total LDL cholesterol and triglycerides are increased, you have more of the damaging small particle LDL cholesterol in your blood. Transfats or foods that contain them have been tested as doing this. That’s why they are gradually being banned. For this reason alone, high fructose corn syrup may be next on the banned food additives list.

These effects of high fructose corn syrup also tend to cause type II diabetes.

Surely the case is proved by these first three effects that high fructose corn syrup should not be consumed and FOR SURE should not be consumed several times a day. (Between soft drinks, jam, and the other foods now sold in most grocery stores many of which contain high fructose corn syrup, you really have to be careful and determined to avoid consuming high fructose corn syrup several times a day.)

It’s hard to imagine that there might be more reasons to avoid high fructose corn syrup.

But there is one. It’s a crusher too. Ouch!

I found this in my Early to Rise email yesterday.

Here’s that article.:

“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, an e-zine dedicated to making money, improving your health and quality of life. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.”


“Are You Drinking Wrinkle Fertilizer?

By Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison

Sugar isn't always what you think it is. These days, most of it has been replaced with an impostor.

Known as high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), this synthetic sweetener masquerades as being natural and healthy. But a chemical reaction discovered in 1914 by the French chemist Louis Camille Maillard proves otherwise. Every time you consume the corn syrup, it acts as wrinkle fertilizer, courtesy of "glycation" - the process by which sugars like HFCS bind to amino acids in the bloodstream and become Advanced Glycation End (AGE) products. This class of toxins has been linked to inflammation, insulin resistance, diabetes, vascular and kidney disease, and Alzheimer's.

Hardly natural, HFCS is made in a lab. Corn syrup is chemically altered in such a way that it becomes "high-fructose" corn syrup." This leads to a much higher rate of AGE production than occurs with plain old sugar. As sure as night follows day, AGE products bind to collagen, causing it to get twisted and tangled. This shows up as age spots, wrinkles, and everything else that makes skin look old and crumbly.

So steer clear of HFCS. Instead, opt for stevia or erythritol.

[Ed. Note: With tricky substances like HFCS lurking everywhere you turn, it can be hard to stay healthy. But if you take a few simple measures, you can protect your health and live a longer, more satisfying life.

Health expert Shane Ellison simplifies complex health issues while revealing the supplements and lifestyle habits that can help you beat today's pandemic
killers. ….]”

Shane Ellison writes often for Early to Rise. Early to Rise also publishes Total Health Breakthroughs which I also often find a good source for worthwhile health information.

X* X* X* X* X* X* X* X* X* X*

Here are my two comments.:

1. So, high fructose corn syrup is neither natural, despite using corn that is natural as a starting point, nor should anyone who wants to keep good health ever consume it.

2. Since even the natural sweeteners Shane Ellison speaks of may cause your body to crave more sweetened food, just like the several kinds of artificial sweeteners do, it may be better to use real sugar but just consume foods or drinks that contain sugar much less often than most people do now.

I also happen to really dislike the taste of stevia. To me it tastes something like marshmallow flavoring that something is slightly wrong with. And, it’s overpowering if added to a food.

I’ve not tried erythritol. But erythritol is a natural food and is said to have no added taste. One way to use it might be to use a bit less sweetening over all, 75 to 90 % as much; and then have the sweetening be half erythritol and half sugar. Perhaps that might allow you a sweet treat without causing you to crave extra sweets later. And the food would have less than half as much sugar.

Early warning from fasting glucose....

Today's post: Tuesday, 7-29-2008

As some of you know, when I got my cholesterol panel done once a few years ago, my doctor included fasting glucose. He knew, as I did not then, that high fasting glucose readings were as bad for my heart and health as super high LDL or super high triglycerides or super low HDL.

He also knew that the reading I got then, 115, despite being in the so called “normal, non-diabetic range” was way too high to be safe or desirable. (Just 11 points higher is now diagnosed as type II diabetes, 126 & up.)

When he told me that, I already exercised regularly including strength training and interval cardio; drank no soft drinks; & rarely ate refined grain foods. I also already took 200 mg a day of chromium polynicotinate.

But, I had recently begun to eat a lot of apple sauce that had sugar added. And, I still ate a good bit of brown sugar on my breakfast cereal.

I then did three things. I immediately went back to ONLY buying apple sauce with NO sugar added. I still love brown sugar; but I cut the amount I added to my breakfast cereal in half. And, I began taking 200 mg a day of alpha lipoic acid. (Alpha lipoic acid & chromium polynicotinate & exercise, particularly, strength training and interval cardio, all tend to improve your body’s ability to process sugar properly.)

The result on my next test was a fasting glucose reading of 87. And, I made those changes permanent.

Today, I got the news that fasting glucose readings of 90 and above, even 90 to 99 are also numbers you should act immediately to bring down. (As you can see, my previous 115 reading was even scarier than my doctor then knew.)

These numbers act as an early warning that you might be headed where I was at 115 or even higher. The wonderful thing is that they do it at a low enough level, your chances of bringing it down and preventing it from going up to dangerous levels are still quite good.

The article was one of the better articles from the Total Health Breakthroughs emails I get.

I post that article below & then will add my comments below that.

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Blood Glucose -- Know Your Number!

By James LaValle, RPh, ND, CCN

When it comes to blood sugar, the closer you can keep it to the normal range of 80 to 89 mg/dL the better. For years I have been warning that blood sugars even in the 90 to 100 range show that you are becoming insulin resistant and on your way to diabetes. A recent study done on 47,000 Kaiser Permanente patients validated this observation.

The study, published in the American Journal of Medicine found that blood sugar, blood glucose (BG) levels in the 95-99 range more than doubled a person's risk of becoming diabetic. In fact, for every point over 85 mg/dL the risk of becoming diabetic increased 6%, even when they controlled for other factors.1

Accordingly, the study noted that there was more incidence of cardiovascular disease and hypertension in those with higher BG. Why is this research so important? It flies in the face of currently accepted medical guidelines that for years have used 100 as the magic number for diagnosing "pre-diabetes."

At LMI, I've been seeing red flags for years when patients come in with BG levels even in the 90's, because these levels are often accompanied by being somewhat overweight or over fat, having a thick waist, or the spare tire of dangerous belly fat. These are signs that the body can no longer efficiently process the sugars that come from complex carbohydrates in whole grains, starchy vegetables, fruits, and simple sugars.

In other words, they are signs of insulin resistance. Insulin is the "key" that unlocks the door to each cell in the body, letting glucose into the cell to be processed for energy. If the insulin key is faulty, the glucose remains in circulation, raising triglycerides, lowering HDL, and usually ending up at the waistline.

Anytime you see your doctor for a routine physical, fasting blood glucose is tested along with other blood labs. If your blood sugar comes in less than 100 mg/dL, you will likely get an "all clear," when it comes to diabetes risk. If you're overweight, have elevated blood pressure and are sedentary -- other risk factors for insulin resistance -- your doctor may suggest you lose a few pounds and add a few days of walking to your weekly routine.

But typically that won't happen unless your blood sugar levels come in greater than 100 mg/dL, but less than 126 mg/dL -- the pre-diabetes range -- then you will get a more stern warning regarding diet and exercise. However, it's not until your fasting blood sugar levels reach over 126 mg/dL that you are diagnosed with type II diabetes or non-insulin dependent diabetes.

By the time you get the "true diabetes" diagnosis -- your body is so insulin resistant that it may need much more than the "diabetic diet" and a walking routine to get your blood sugar levels under control. This is when you may need an oral hypoglycemic medicine, which comes with a nice little set of nutrient-depleting side effects.

Wouldn't it be nice if your doctor had warned you of your increased risk way before you even reached the 100 mark for blood glucose? For years, I have been warning my patients that a blood sugar of over 90 is a sign they are becoming insulin resistant. But because medical guidelines give an "all clear" at anything under 100, too many patients don't want to believe they could be at risk -- even with fasting BG's of 98 and showing every sign of insulin resistance.

At LMI, we go to work on the insulin resistance by giving our patients blood sugar support nutrients like chromium and having our dietitians provide instruction on a lower carb diet. Ironically, we sometimes receive calls from their primary care physicians questioning our course of action because they think these patients "are fine." But our philosophy is, don't wait to become diabetic -- take action well ahead of time.

Hopefully, the medical community's eyes will be opened with the newly published article in the American Journal of Medicine. This phenomenal research has hit the nail on the head and may finally spur new guidelines to be issued for the management of blood sugar.

Medical news can take a while to trickle down into actual practice, so in the meantime, you may need to become more proactive on your own. If your blood work reveals a high-normal fasting blood sugar level, cut down on carb-heavy sugars, starches, and fruits, up the organic vegetables and proteins, and get your body moving. You may be saving yourself from becoming a diabetes statistic.

Reference Am J Med. 2008;121:519-524

[Ed. Note: James LaValle, R.Ph, ND, CCN, is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country. He was named as one of the 50 most influential pharmacists in the US by American Druggist magazine. Dr. LaValle is the author of more than a dozen books including the bestseller, Cracking the Metabolic Code: 9 Keys to Optimal Health…...]

X* X* X* X* X* X* My added comments:

What if you get a reading well over 90 for your fasting glucose when you get tested, perhaps in the 96 to 115 range?

1. If you don’t already do it, be sure to begin both strength training and interval cardio. Three days a week of each is ideal. If you can, it also helps to add small exercise breaks throughout your day of less programmed exercise. Play a game of Ping Pong with your kids. Take a 10 minute walk if you arrive 15 minutes early for an appointment if the location permits. Sweep your front walk with a broom instead of a leaf blower. Do as many of these each week as you can.

People who already have type II diabetes and have to measure their blood sugars several times a day will tell you this is the most effective way to get to desirable readings.

2. Almost as important is to eliminate the worst foods and drinks. This includes all regular soft drinks or even fruit juices that have extra sugar added. It specifically includes ANY food with high fructose corn syrup in it. It includes eliminating refined grain foods. And, as you can see from my case, it includes being very sparing about eating foods with sugar added.

(Note: A huge number of foods common in grocery stores still are loaded with this stuff. Almost the entire cereal aisle except for Old Fashioned Quaker oatmeal is made of refined grain and sugar and very little else. Virtually all jams and jellies still have ONLY high fructose corn syrup and no sugar. Almost all packaged snack foods & commercial baked goods and breads are based almost entirely on refined grains with mostly unhealthy flavoring agents like sugar, high fructose corn syrup and excessive amounts of salt. Many still have trans fats and partially hydrogenated oils too.)

Though diet soft drinks seem intuitively to be a good choice to replace regular soft drinks, research shows that even if they don’t boost your blood glucose readings as much as regular soft drinks, they are just as effective at making you fat and harming your health.

3. Eat and drink more health OK choices instead.:

Club soda (water with carbonation only); tea; green tea; clean water; unsweetened cocoa; coffee with no sugar or nondairy creamer added; and small amounts of real juice with no sugar added, particularly if you also eat food at the same time; are much better choices than sugar added “drinks” and soft drinks.

Eat more health OK protein foods, such as beef fed only grass, wild caught fish, eggs; beans, and nuts -- and health OK fats like nuts, avocados, and extra virgin olive oil; LOTS of non starchy vegetables; & whole fruit in moderation.

4. It will also help to take 200 mg a day of the supplements chromium polynicotinate and 200 mg a day of alpha lipoic acid.

5. If your fasting glucose is well above 90, it’s even worse for you if your HDL is low (Readings of 50 and above are much better than readings of 40 & less) or your triglycerides are above 100 or so.

Mercifully, many of the things that bring down high glucose move those measures in the desirable direction.

But you can also take specific supplements we have covered in earlier posts to increase your HDL levels even more. And, moderate drinking raises HDL levels. (But more than one or two drinks a day can increase blood glucose and make you fat – plus other problems.)

And, eating onions and garlic and eating wild caught fish and taking DHA & omega 3 supplements from refined and purified fish oil will lower triglyceride levels.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is a heart disease starter....

Today's post: Friday, 3-7-2008

I get an email called the HSI e-Alert. I don’t agree with everything it says; but it does have some very useful information from time to time.

Last Monday, 3-3-2008, the HSI e-Alert email compared a self-described “healthy” breakfast cereal to a standard highly sugared, “children’s” cereal.

The sugared cereal for kids (or at least for the kids who don’t have parents who know better) had less grams of total sugar than the self-described “healthy” cereal.

Even worse, while the cereal marketed to kids had real sugar (which people, particularly kid, can safely use if they don’t eat too much & do get enough exercise), the self-described “healthy” cereal used high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, instead.

Then to show how bad for you high fructose corn syrup really is, the email had this gem.:

“Steady HFCS intake has been linked to weight gain, higher triglyceride levels, higher LDL cholesterol, and a decrease in insulin sensitivity - not really what you're looking for when you want to help your heart.”

Translated into plain English that says that if you eat high fructose corn syrup most days of the week, you WILL be fat; you will likely get type II diabetes; & you’ll very probably get heart disease.

And as our regular readers know, if you also don’t get regular exercise, you put all these bad things on steroids so they happen faster & to a larger degree.

Every single one of those effects sharply increases your risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, other circulation problems, & early death or disability.

So, that means, in a very real sense, eating high fructose corn syrup is very much like adding lighter fluid or fire starter & fire to accelerate a fire quickly -- only high fructose corn syrup does this for getting fat & getting heart disease -- & related diseases.

If you value your health, how often should you eat or drink foods or drinks with high fructose corn syrup?

It’s very clear the answer to that is as close to never as you can manage.

The problem is that perhaps half the packaged foods in most grocery stores, many commercially baked goods, possibly packaged candy that has no labels & some that does, maybe some restaurant & fast food, & the vast majority of regular soft drinks all have high fructose corn syrup today.

At this time, virtually all pancake syrup sold in stores, except real maple syrup, has high fructose corn syrup in it.

Almost all jams & jellies contain high fructose corn syrup. I’ve even read that “energy bars” sold to people who want to be healthy often contain high fructose corn syrup.

Ice cream & snack foods often have high fructose corn syrup also.

In order to not eat this stuff you have to read EVERY label on the packaged foods you buy.

Unfortunately, since high fructose corn syrup is a bit sweeter tasting than real sugar & costs less, until almost everyone learns not to eat this junk & stops buying the food that contain it, or unless it’s made illegal, this will likely continue.

Now you know what eating it does to you, you can escape it now without having to wait.

Eat more real foods: vegetables, fresh fruit, nuts & other health OK protein foods & fats. Eat way less packaged treat & snack foods. ALWAYS read labels & simply don’t buy or eat the food if it has high fructose corn syrup in it.

Your health depends on your blood sugar levels...

Today's post: Monday, 3-3-2008

Every part of your body depends on proper blood flow to operate well. And, some parts can be harmed if your tiniest blood vessels, your capillaries, rupture or swell up too much.

Excessive blood sugar levels in your blood both cause that kind of capillary damage & can shut off blood circulation to key body parts.

Excessive blood sugar levels in your blood also tend to build up unstable plaque on your blood vessel walls. So, in addition to slowing blood flow & often causing high blood pressure, sometimes the plaque breaks loose. That causes heart attacks, strokes, & other life threatening & life taking events. People with high blood sugar levels get two to four times as many of such events than people with Ok levels.

The bad news is that your blood sugar levels may be too high right now as you read this.

The good news is that you can get your blood tested to find out if that’s the case. And, if it hasn’t gone too far, you can reverse the problem.

So, the most important thing is to get your blood glucose levels checked every 6 months or a year.

The other key thing is to follow the practices that keep your blood levels where they should be all the time.

Why be forced to reverse something after it’s started to harm you or be forced to take expensive drugs that only partly solve the problem & have side effects when you can prevent the problem in the first place?

Chances are many of you reading this haven’t gotten your blood sugar levels tested at all or within the past year.

So, make a strong effort to work with your doctor to have your fasting blood glucose & HBA1C levels checked soon -- & then at least once a year.

(Soon you will be able to test the more important of these two, your HBA1C levels, yourself. Bayer bought Metrika that was selling a self test HBA1C device to doctors to send home with their patients. Sometime in 2008 --- this year, they expect to release an Over the Counter Version.)

So you know how to read the results, your fasting glucose ideally should be 89 or a bit less. Between 90 & 100 suggests you probably need to exercise more & eat better. Between 101 & 119 means that it is imperative that you do so. And, over 120 means your doctor may well be advised to also put you on medication & most will do so.

HBA1C is even more important. Since it measures the sugar on your red blood cells which tend to die off & get replaced every two or three months, it is a superb & extremely accurate reading of your average blood sugar over the past two or three months.

This reading should be 5.7 or a bit lower. 5.8 or 5.9 suggests you probably need to exercise more & eat better.

6.0 to 6.2 is borderline type II diabetes which means that it is imperative that you do so. Some doctors will also prescribe a drug & classify you as diabetic at that level. So, if you take prompt action at lower levels, you can avoid this level of reading. And, if you get a reading of 6.0 to 6.2, & take massive action immediately, you can stay off drugs.

At 6.3 to much higher, you are in serious trouble; & your doctor will be well be advised to also put you on medication & almost all of them will do so.

To repeat, high blood sugar levels will do you serious harm from putting you on kidney dialysis to blindness to impotence to amputation of your feet to death by heart attack or stroke.

You can’t be safe if you don’t know what your levels are by getting them tested.

And, you can’t keep the levels in the safe zone unless you do regular exercise each week, ideally including strength training & eating right.

Eating right means eating much less sugar than the average person now does; never drinking soft drinks; never or almost never eating foods containing high fructose corn syrup; eating almost no refined grain foods at all; & eating lots of low starch vegetables; health OK protein; & some health OK fats each day.

This style of eating has a very low glycemic index & glycemic load. It tends to give you a smooth un-spiky flow of blood sugar & keep your body able to regulate itself with small amounts of insulin.

That lifestyle results in optimal to pretty safe levels of blood sugar.

And, if you have been eating the other way & not exercising, switching permanently to this life style will slash most of your excess fat off your body with it never to return.

You can also move your blood sugar a bit lower with 200 mg a day or a bit more of alpha lipoic acid.

You can also eat a teaspoon a day or so of cinnamon as a spice &/or almost every time you do allow yourself sugar. Another way to get cinnamon is to take the CinnamonForce supplement from a company called New Chapter.

But suppose you already eat better than most people & get regular exercise already. Is it still important to get your blood sugar readings regularly?

I can tell you YES, definitely !! from personal experience.

Before I learned this info, I was in that category. Mercifully when I got my cholesterol levels checked that I knew then to do, my doctor included fasting glucose. Mine was 115. Given my lifestyle, that was dangerously high.

I immediately switched back to no sugar added applesauce from the sugared applesauce I was eating; cut the amount of added sugar I was eating by about 60 percent; & began taking 200 mg a day of alpha lipoic acid. I also continued eating right otherwise & exercising. I was lucky. My readings since have been lower than 89.

I’ve also added more raw broccoli & cauliflower to my weekday lunches since then to help me lose some fat I wanted to get rid of. (These foods also prevent cancer about 10 times better than the cooked kind.)

My point is that no matter what, you do need to get your blood sugar levels tested regularly.

If you don’t, it’s about as safe as driving at normal speed on the freeway without being able to see where you are going.

To put it mildly, this is NOT a good idea.

New type II diabetes cause found...

Today's post: Friday, 2-1-2008

Type II diabetes has plentiful causes in the modern economies many people now live in.

More & more people have sedentary jobs & do little walking. And, unfortunately, some do no regular exercise to help compensate for this. Further, the amount of time many people have spent away from work watching TV has been going up.

Also, until recently, fewer people have been eating an amount & variety of vegetables necessary to sustain optimal or even good health. Further, more & more people have been consuming the health NOT OK snacks like transfat & refined grain snack foods & the soft drinks that we did a post about yesterday. Even worse, until recently this trend was increasing.

Combined, these two factors almost always make people fat & tend to cause type II diabetes over time.

But, it seems that there is a third major cause that has also been increasing in our culture that may be responsible as well for the sharp rise in type II diabetes, now found even among children, that we have been seeing.

I found part of the clues to this cause in the health article I read in the health article in the Early To Rise email I get. (This was in last Monday’s, 1-28-2008 issue.)

Since it’s so convincing, I’ve reprinted it here.:

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com

“One Damn Good Reason to Eat Organic

By Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison

"Eating organic" isn't just a good way to support your local farmers. It can also help you avoid Type II diabetes.

In a study released by the American Diabetes Association, scientists discovered that herbicide exposure poses a real threat to our health. It can cause high levels of blood sugar and insulin, for example, both of which can lead to Type II diabetes and drastically decrease lifespan.

The biggest culprits are classes of compounds known as organochlorines. Excess exposure among pregnant women leads to a 2.2-fold higher risk of developing gestational diabetes.

Men showed a 47 percent increased risk.

The most commonly used organochlorine in the U.S. is atrazine. Banned in Europe, 76 million pounds of it are dumped on U.S. foods each year. Non-organic corn and coffee can have particularly high levels of atrazine.

To limit the health risks of herbicides, buy organic foods whenever you can. Choosing organic versions of corn and coffee in particular would be damn smart.

[Ed. Note: Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison is an internationally recognized authority on therapeutic nutrition. ….”

Coffee is a tough one to deal with as many people do rely on it. And, organic coffee so far is quite expensive. Also, I’m not sure that this source is behind the surge in type II diabetes because people have been drinking a lot of coffee for a LONG time.

(Two ways to drink less non-organic coffee that can work are:

1. Drink organic green tea since you can buy it at reasonable cost at Whole Foods Market stores & likely elsewhere. And two or more cups a day of green tea also have separate health benefits.

2. Buy organic coffee & instant coffee for part of your caffeine intake. I saw a really good looking organic instant at my local Whole Foods Market. And, there may be other sources.

That way, you can drink a lot less non-organic coffee & keep up enough caffeine intake even if you still drink some non-organic coffee.)

Unfortunately, corn is a different matter entirely. THAT is the likely smoking gun in the surge in type II diabetes besides the first two factors.

Here’s why.:

John Robbins, a vegetarian health expert, explained in his book, Diet for a New America, that most people ingest far more pesticides & herbicides from the animal fat they eat than they do from the produce they eat. It seems when those animals ingest food that has even low levels of pesticides & herbicides, they bioconcentrate it in the fat in their bodies.

Secondly, our beef cattle, dairy cattle, & poultry have been overfed corn instead of allowed to graze naturally & eat grass and the other foods they are evolved to eat.

(I’m indebted to health expert & author Dr Al Sears & to reporter and book author Michael Pollan for educating me as to the extent of this practice and its other health damaging effects.)

Since people in the United States have been eating these foods in abundance; & they clearly contain these herbicides, that is really scary. According to John Robbins, that virtually guarantees you a high intake of these herbicides from the bioconcentration effect.

Further, this may even mean that people who do not eat corn directly or who do avoid excess sugars & junk food and who exercise may be affected as well.

This one is important to work on.

This means that it is important to minimize the amount of animal fats from corn fed animals you take in to successfully prevent type II diabetes.

Since doing so also reduces your intake of saturated fat which protects your heart and it helps avoid or lower high blood pressure, it’s an extremely good idea.

What are OK substitutes?

Beef fed only grass. (That’s, mercifully, becoming gradually more available.)

Wild caught fish other than those high in mercury.

Nuts, beans, & lentils. And poultry that has only been pasture fed or only fed organic feed.

Protein supplements made from whey may be OK. And those made from egg whites clearly are. I’m much less familiar with them; but hemp based protein supplements may be OK also.

It also likely helps to trim off all visible fat from any corn fed beef or pork that you eat.

Not eating any hamburger that comes from corn fed cattle also is likely to be wise. (Ground beef using only grass fed beef is probably OK.)

This is also another reason to have most of your dairy intake be of nonfat & very lowfat versions only.

Please consider eating this way. You will definitely protect your health that way.

And, if enough people do that, more of these health OK choices will become available.

Even better, it will help stop the over-feeding of animals with corn & corn that has herbicide residues in it.

New info on fighting type II diabetes…..

Today's post: Thursday, 1-17-2008

(We start with the most important info. But to many of you, it’s old news. The new info is in the article I include at the end of this post.)

Many people today get no exercise. Even more unfortunately, many still drink soft drinks even though there is solid evidence that doing so helps make you fat & sick. Add sedentary jobs &, for most people, getting to & from work with no walking needed.

What does that give you?

This recipe is perfect for creating what is called insulin resistance & unhealthily high levels of blood sugar. So, it’s no surprise that many people are arriving there. And, for most people, as they get older, if that process once starts & gets through the undesirable level to the early stages of type II diabetes, they will often damage their health before they find out what the cause is.

(Since diabetes harms the capillaries that are the part of the blood delivery system where the blood actually delivers food & oxygen to your cells & removes CO2 & wastes, it causes serious harm. Diabetes also apparently makes cardiovascular disease develop faster & become more deadly.

If left undetected &/or if left untreated, it produces effects like fatal heart attacks, blindness, & cuts off circulation to your feet enough to cause the need for amputation. It also ruins your kidneys forcing you to be on dialysis or die.)

The best news is that all this is quite preventable.

The first line of defense is to get your blood sugar levels tested every year or two or twice that often if you are more than a bit too fat.

There are two tests to get each time, which are your fasting glucose level & your HBA1C.

Ideally, you want your fasting glucose level to be 99 or less.

Levels between about 100 & 119 are a warning light & suggest you take action to bring the level down. And, the higher the number in that range, the more undesirable it is. 120 & over may be type II diabetes. Somewhere slightly above that over 126 or so, most doctors will diagnose you as having type II diabetes.

However, since the fasting glucose is a snapshot of a particular time, it may read as much as 10 or 15 points above what is typical for you, so unless you are well over 126, most of the better doctors will look at your HBA1C reading before deciding.

The HBA1C reading is so valuable precisely because it DOES reveal what your typical blood sugar readings have been over the last 60 to 90 days.

If it’s 6.0 or higher (about 5.0 to 5.8 is desirable), your blood sugar level has been too high, & most doctors will diagnose you as having type II diabetes.

(HBA1C measures the blood that is stuck on the surface of your red blood cells. The reason it gives you the moving average of the last 60 to 90 days, is that’s because that’s about how long your red blood cells live.)

In today’s world NOT getting these two tests with reasonable frequency is about as safe as driving on the freeway without being able to see out of your windshield.

It tends to result in avoidable injury or death.

So the first way to fight back is to get both of these tests at least every two years.

And, if you are fat, don’t exercise yet, &/or drink soft drinks more often than two or three times a week, every 6 months to a year is safer.

The second line of defense is even more important as it prevents the problem to begin with.

The bad news is given our current economy & lifestyles, it’s a bit more of a challenge to do.

At least it has extra benefits such as becoming much less fat; having more energy, & improving your sex life.

The two biggest parts of it are to:

1. Get a minimum of regular exercise each week.:

a. Do progressive strength training at least two days a week with at least one day off in between for at least 20 minutes. More is better; but you may find that level a lot easier to fit into your life, particularly at first.

b. Do some aerobic exercise at least three days a week. Vigorous interval training seems to work the best; but even walking for 20 minutes each time is enormously better than no exercise at all.

c. Limiting watching TV also helps as you burn less energy watching TV than you do sleeping !! And, it’s a great way to find the time to exercise if you watch a lot of TV now.

2. Cut out & sharply reduce eating sugars that come with no nutrition & fiber in the same food.

Doing otherwise not only produces type II diabetes, it makes you fat & has been implicated as a likely cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

a. Soft drinks are so bad in this regard, the most it’s likely safe to drink is two or three a week. None ever is far safer. Oddly, the evidence of the studies is that diet soft drinks have the same effect. Water, tea, & coffee without sugar are far better substitutes,

b. Candy & desserts do taste really good. But eating two or three a week or less is far safer than eating two or three a day as many Americans do now.

c. People did NOT evolve eating grains. Early on when most people ate food made from whole grains & everyone got LOTS of exercise, grains seemed an OK food to eat.

Eating refined grain foods with little or no exercise in your life, however, is NOT safe.

The safest strategy is to eat very little in the way of grain foods; &, except for quite rare treats, NEVER eat refined grain foods.

(Since, so far, well over 90 percent of fast food & restaurant sandwiches are made with refined grain bread, this means ordering your sandwiches “Atkins style” with no bread. This saves the food place money, so only the stupidest with give you a hard time about serving you that way. You may need to be careful they really believe you & serve you as requested though as many are not used to the request as yet.)

c. Eat a LOT more vegetables. Many people eat none if you don’t count potatoes & potato based French fries. Eat at least two servings a day; & 5 or more is better.

d. Eat well from health OK protein foods & moderately from health OK fats & oils.

Wild caught fish high in omega 3 oils has both. So do nuts, which have strong health benefits if you aren’t allergic. Grass fed only beef has both. Beans & lentils are excellent as they have both protein & fiber. Avocados & extra virgin olive oil are excellent. Some lean poultry & eggs are good in moderation.

The bad news is that you may like to eat the kind of “semi-foods” that were popular & which you may be used to & feel deprived that the blood tests show you should stop eating them.

The best way to look at it is that these foods never were safe for people who get little or no exercise to eat. The good news is that you now know this is so; & the tests prove it’s happening to you. This actually gives you a considerable advantage over the unfortunates who don’t yet know any better.

What about drugs & supplements?

There is a safe diabetes drug when taken in small doses called Metformin. But many people cannot abide the side effects of large doses. And, some of other drugs have worse side effects. To be fair, the damage of really high levels of blood sugar is even worse.

Cinnamon spice & the supplements alpha lipoic acid & chromium polynicotinate do seem to help.

For some new info on two drugs it may be best to avoid & an even more powerful supplement, check out this article that came out last Friday.

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"

“Friday, January 11, 2008

Diabetes and the Drugs to Control It Could Shorten Your Life

By Shane Ellison

I'm often asked, "How can I live to be 100 years old?" My answer is simple, "Just say no to prescription drugs and learn how to control insulin and blood sugar."

Why? Because the populations that live the longest are naturally highly sensitive to insulin.

Conversely, those who die the youngest from conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer are grossly insensitive to insulin or are taking a prescription drug.

In the US, the biggest threat to longevity is type II diabetes caused by high levels of blood sugar and insulin resistance. It has become a nationwide epidemic that can steal 11 to 20 years from a person's lifespan.

To curb the threat, physicians are madly prescribing anti-diabetic drugs like Avandia and Actos. With so many people using them, scientists have learned two valuable lessons about longevity.

First lesson: You cannot use these drugs to increase lifespan.

In addition to eliciting a moderate drop in blood sugar, anti-diabetic meds damage the cardiovascular system.

According to a recent study, Avandia users had a whopping 30-40% increased risk of heart attack and other heart-related adverse events (heart failure) compared to patients treated with placebo.(1) This risk is due to the drug's effect of lowering vital hemoglobin levels.
Hemoglobin is used by the body to transport oxygen throughout the entire 100,000 miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries in the adult body. Without hemoglobin, a condition known as ischemia sets in. This is a fancy term for "suffocation." Clinically, heart attack or heart failure can be the result.

The prescription drug Actos has the same mechanism of action as Avandia -- they both work to reduce insulin resistance. Not surprisingly, it also carries the same risks. Health Canada sounded the alarm about this class of drugs as early as 2001! But unfortunately, the warning has not yet reached the American public.

Commenting on this unannounced danger, the U.S. Congress stated that, "the FDA's apparently callous disregard for the safety of diabetics taking Avandia is very reminiscent of the Agency's failure to move on Vioxx when substantial safety signals first became known. Like Vioxx, Avandia may have unnecessarily risked the lives of tens of thousands of Americans."(2)

Second lesson: You can fix insulin receptors naturally to increase lifespan.
This simply means that insulin receptors found on individual cells have the ability to be "re-tuned" to the insulin message. We learned this from anti-diabetic drugs that can increase insulin sensitivity by jump starting inactive or dying cells. But this benefit from drugs doesn't outweigh the risk of heart attack. Fortunately, if a drug can do it, so can Mother Nature. This is a little-known fact in medicinal chemistry.

Mother Nature always provides the "lead" in the meticulous process of drug discovery. Meaning, before there is a man-made drug for a given ailment, there is a natural substance that will do the same thing.

In the process of designing anti-diabetic drugs, Big Pharma surveyed a myriad of natural products to find a lead compound that re-tuned the insulin receptor. Among them was a substance called corosolic acid, derived from the banaba plant(3) grown in Southeast Asia.

Corosolic acid has proven safe and effective for increasing insulin sensitivity. Remarkably, users have been shown to not only lower blood sugar and insulin levels but also melt fat and build muscle in the process.

But what's really important is that by taking corosolic acid instead of anti-diabetic drugs you will lower the risk of heart attack and naturally improve insulin sensitivity. That means years may be added to your life!

Of course, lifestyle habits such as regular exercise and minimizing sugar intake are pre-requisites to the success of increasing insulin sensitivity and significantly extending your lifespan.

(You can find corosolic acid as an ingredient in several natural products sold in health food stores for glucose control and weight management.)

1. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01636.html
2. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/05/21/congress-steps-up-scrutiny-of-fda/
3. Katsuji H, et al. Journal of Pharmacological Sciences Vol. 93 (2003), No.1, pp. 69-73.
[Ed. Note: Shane Ellison is known as "The People's Chemist." He holds a Master's degree in organic chemistry and has first-hand industry experience with drug research, design and synthesis. He is the author of Health Myths Exposed and The Hidden Truth about Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs.”

X * X* X*

Note that most of the supplements at the health food store are NOT labeled as “corosolic acid” but as banaba extract or banaba leaf extract.

The info I found suggests that it is so effective, you may be wise to start with a minimum amount unless your blood sugar readings are dangerously high.

Here’s why. If in your body it cuts your blood sugar level by 20 percent, that’s good if you were at 120 fasting glucose since you will now be at about 96 which is far safer.

However, if you were at 104 &, in your body, it cuts your blood sugar level by 25 percent, you would be at 78 & possibly feel dizzy and spacey from too low blood sugar.

So, try a little to see how you do before you try larger amounts unless your levels are really high.

And, be sure to follow the steps in the most important section anyway as they both give you the most effective health protection & have other health benefits besides – even if the banaba extract is effective for you.

What kind of exercise fights type II diabetes best? ….

Today's post: Tuesday, 10-9-2007

Is aerobic or cardio best to control blood sugar levels or is strength training best?

The HSI e-newsletter for Monday, 10-8 had a neat story that had part of the answer. And it was good news. (Their sneak attack title was “Donut Therapy.”)

Researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada studied 251 type II diabetics who were between 39 to 70. The researchers split them up & then studied four groups:

The Aerobic Group worked out for 45 minutes 3 days a week on exercise bikes &/or treadmills.

The Strength Training or “Resistance Training” Group worked out for 45 minutes 3 days a week with weights.

The Combined Group apparently did both. (The article didn’t say whether that was some of each for 45 minutes 3 days a week or an hour & half with 45 minutes of each 3 days a week or if it was something like Mon Weds Fri for 45 minutes of strength training & Tues Thurs Sat for Aerobic for a total of 6 days a week. I suspect it was the last one where they exercised 45 minutes for 6 days a week.)

The Control group did no exercise at all.

The researchers did a before and after test of the HBA1C levels which is the most accurate way to check average blood sugar levels on each of the four groups.

After six months, the Aerobic Group had improved their blood sugar readings; the Resistance Training Group improved quite a bit more; & the unfortunate Control Group did NOT change or improve.

The Combined Group got by far the best results. In fact, some people in that group did well enough to get back into the normal range.

It would have been nice had the article given more specifics.

But the clear conclusion is there. The best kind of exercise to control & bring down high blood sugar readings, if you only do one, is strength training.

And, doing some of each -- plus exercising five to seven days a week for at least some time each of those days is apparently the best.

Even twenty minutes of aerobic exercise on alternate days for 3 days a week plus doing twenty minutes a day of strength training on the two days in between will help.

Plus that kind of regular exercise reliably makes you less fat; improves or prevents depression; & improves your sex life for both men & women. It even grows new brain cells for you & increases the level of the protective HDL that helps you avoid heart attack, stroke, & other problems.

Truly, if people really knew what regular exercise did FOR them & NOT doing regular exercise did TO them, almost everyone would exercise.

What about you?

If you aren’t exercising now, even a 10 minute walk three days a week or working out with weights for 20 minutes two days a week on days with at least a day off in between is a start you can build on.

And, if you are doing regular exercise now, this is yet another reason to be glad of it & to keep doing it !!

Glycemic load can help you eat right & lose fat….

Today's post: Tuesday, 8-28-2007

(This post is a very good short-summary of how to eat right.)

Foods that cause very rapid rises in your blood sugar tend to cause you to put on fat you don’t need. They can cause mood problems. And, if you eat a lot of them & eat them often, you tend to be fat & are at very high risk of type II diabetes & cardiovascular disease if you don’t have them already.

One way to measure this is with the glycemic index. It measures how much an equal weight of food tends to increase the blood sugar of the person eating it.

The bad news is that it can be misleading since a typical serving of some foods is large & for others it’s quite a bit smaller.

Why not have a measure of the blood sugar increase of typical servings of food?

There is one. A measure of this more accurate & useful number was created & is called the Glycemic Load.

Last week on Thursday, 8-23-2007 in the Early to Rise email there was an excellent article on this which I include today.:

(This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.)

Glycemic Index? Not So Fast

By Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., CNS

If you’re a regular ETR reader, you already know how important the glycemic index is to make sure you’re eating well. But there’s a big problem with using the glycemic index as a guide to eating: It doesn’t take into account portion size. Glycemic load - a far more useful number - does.

The glycemic index measures your blood sugar response to a "standard" serving of 50 grams of digestible (non-fiber) carbohydrate. Great. But the real world of actual portions presents a much different picture. Some carbohydrate foods have way less than 50 grams in a serving, while many typically have a lot more.

Enter the glycemic load, a formula that multiplies the glycemic index by the number of grams of carbs in a typical portion (and then divides the result by 100, in case you’d like to do the actual math). Because the formula for glycemic load takes into account real-life portion sizes, it gives you a much better idea of what a food is doing to your blood sugar.

Take spaghetti and carrots, for example. The glycemic index of 50 grams of spaghetti is only "moderate," but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who eats just 50 grams of spaghetti. The glycemic load of spaghetti is humongous. And while the glycemic index of 50 grams of carrots is "high," you probably wouldn’t eat 50 grams of carrots. (There are only three grams of carbohydrate in a single carrot.) Carrots have a high glycemic index- but a very low glycemic load.

Using the glycemic index is a great start in learning about the impact of food on your blood sugar. But glycemic load is even better, because it takes into account what you’re actually likely to eat.

It’s easier to find the glycemic index of a food than the glycemic load, but you can find both at mendosa.com/gilists.htm.

Alternately, you could ignore the entire glycemic numbers game and just follow this simple rule: When it comes to sugar, less is more, zero is better.

[Ed. Note: Dr. Jonny Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition, and health. He’s a board certified nutritionist with a master’s degree in psychology, and the author of the best-selling book, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. For more information, go to www.jonnybowden.com.”
********
More info I got from www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm : (It’s listed in his article above.)

Many foods that enhance your health are very low in glycemic load.

Though they are not listed in that reference source, health enhancing or health OK protein & fats like extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts, wild caught salmon, beef fed only grass, poultry only pasture fed, & some other wild caught fish & seafoods are all very low or zero in glycemic load.

Almost all green nonstarchy vegetables are very low in glycemic load & very nutritious.

Strawberries & lentils are very low.

Many fruits are low: apples, whole grapes, kiwi fruit, whole oranges, peaches, plums, & nectarines, prunes, & other berries are all low.

Nonfat yogurt is low.

Bananas, real fruit juices, oatmeal, & barley are moderately low.

Sweet potatoes are medium but very nutritious.

If almost all of what you eat is on this list as listed as low, you’ll find it much easier to stay healthy, stay trim, &/or to lose excess fat if you have it now. That’s particularly true if you also do NOT eat foods that are high.

What foods are high & so are better NOT eaten or eaten only VERY rarely?

Much to my surprise almost all kinds of rice are high. Pasta is high. I already knew potatoes & French fries are high. (Raisins are high but can be eaten occasionally along with low or very low glycemic load foods to compensate.) The other foods that are listed here as high simply are eaten too often & in such large servings that they are NOT good food choices. (Very small servings eaten with low glycemic foods or small servings once a week or less may be OK for some people.)

Also, any food made with refined grains is either high or tends to impact most people as high. And, unlike most of the foods listed above as low, they have little fiber to help make you feel full. They also don’t give you as much nutrition as the low glycemic load foods do.

Lastly, foods & drinks made with high fructose corn syrup tend to boost your blood sugar, to NOT make you feel less hungry, & even to make you MORE hungry sometimes.

And, food & drinks made with artificial sweeteners tend to be eaten along with high glycemic load foods, make you MORE hungry for real sugar, & to cause problems with metabolizing sugars & fats from other sources I’ve read. A recent study found that in addition to the studies showing they don’t work to help with fat loss, diet soft drinks made with artificial sweeteners produce as many health problems as regular soft drinks do.

Resveratrol can help you lose fat & fight type II diabetes….

Today's post: Thursday, 8-2-2007

Taking resveratrol also slows aging & may partially reverse aging in some cases. And, it might increase your physical endurance while exercising.

Today, August 2, 2007, the health news email, “ Bottom Line's Daily Health News “, that I subscribe to had an article with some key points that I thought worth summarizing & posting here.

(I don’t agree with everything they publish. But they do have some excellent info often.

To get: Bottom Line's Daily Health News, go to:
www.bottomlinesecrets.com/e2/e2_signup.html

“Four times each week Bottom Line's editorial team will e-mail you ... We'll bring you the latest news from the world's best….” )

Here’s my summary of their article & my comments.:

Resveratrol is found in the skin of purple & red grapes & in the red wines that are made from them.

In a Harvard Medical School study, researchers fed overfed aging mice, simulating the way many people in the United States & elsewhere now eat.

Some of the mice were just overfed & fed food that was 60% fat. And, some were also given resveratrol in addition to being overfed the same diet.

The mice that were also given resveratrol:

1. Had lower levels of blood glucose & insulin, healthier livers, & lived longer by enough to suggest humans given that much resveratrol per pound of bodyweight would live several years longer.

2. Had better insulin sensitivity & blood sugar control.

3. Had more of the mitochondria that produce energy within cells & their mitochondria also worked better. So they were quicker & better coordinated than the mice that got no resveratrol.

4. In another study, mice that were given high levels of resveratrol doubled their exercise endurance compared with those that were not.

These findings strongly suggest that people who eat right & exercise regularly would find it much easier to lose fat & do well with their exercise programs if they also took resveratrol.

And, it suggests that people who do these all things, including taking resveratrol, would be dramatically less likely to get type II diabetes or, if they already have it, to be much more successful managing it & with fewer drugs than would otherwise be the case.

The editor of Bottom Line's Daily Health News interviewed Mark Hyman, MD author of UltraMetabolism, & one of the world’s most thoughtfully & intelligently innovative doctors.

His first comment is that drinking red wine won’t give you the amount of resveratrol the mice were given. The mice were given more resveratrol for their bodyweight than a human would get from drinking “hundreds of bottles” of red wine a day.

He also made a point that in people no supplement you can take – including resveratrol -- can over-ride horribly bad health habits.

He also pointed out that this research confirms what he has found separately, “that glucose control, insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial function are key factors in aging. And, that when these things are in poor shape, people get many diseases & disabilities.

Dr. Hyman then recommended NOT eating junk food & processed foods, (which contain sugar & refined grains, to which I’d add also have too much salt & often have unhealthy fats.)

He recommended eating lots of vegetables, nuts, beans, fruit, & eating other health OK protein foods & fats. He recommended wild caught fish that are high in omega 3 oils in particular.

He points out that eating right & stopping eating junk foods has similar effects as the researchers found by giving their mice resveratrol.

He also points out, as I did in an earlier post that many other supplements do some of the things the researchers found that resveratrol did.

He points out that:

CoQ10 improves mitochondrial function. Chromium supplements help control blood sugar levels.

acetyl-l-carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, magnesium & purified fish oil all tend to improve both mitochondrial function & help control blood sugar levels.

He then adds that regular exercise tends to keep your mitochondria healthy. His specific advice is so good I quote it here.:

“ Each week, make it a point to schedule two to three 20-minute strength-training sessions, and at least three 30-minute periods of aerobic conditioning.” (You also have to almost always DO the exercises you’ve scheduled.)

He also recommends alternating intense or fast exercise with easier or slower exercise or “interval training.”

Strength training tends to produce this alternating of intensity by making you work hard on each set & then you rest briefly in between sets. But, in cardio or aerobic exercise, you need to produce this alternation yourself.

Many health experts, including Dr Al Sears who write for Early to Rise are now advocating that kind of aerobic exercise.

It does seem to be much more effective in helping you lose fat & in improving insulin resistance & blood sugar control. It’s also been found to get you in good shape faster than exercising at a single speed in your cardio workout.

Dr Hyman then suggests to “*Practice effective stress management & “Reduce your exposure to toxins.”

I agree with him that following his advice & taking the other supplements he recommends will give you very similar if not better results than the mice that were fed resveratrol. I said as much in an earlier post myself.

But this article has motivated me to also take resveratrol in addition. It sounds like my efforts to tame & reduce my “fluffy tummy” will work better & I’ll do better in my cardio exercises.
It may also help me live longer & in better health.

I don’t agree with everything Dr Hyman says & I find some of his advice undoable for me. But the quality of what he says that I do agree with & his advice I can follow is unbelievably good. And, some of his work on a new paradigm in medicine is so good he could one day win the Nobel Prize in medicine.

Here’s more information on Dr Hyman from the “Bottom Line's Daily Health News” article.”

“Mark Hyman, MD, founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, author of UltraMetabolism (Scribner) and The UltraSimple Diet (Pocket).

Dr. Hyman is the former co-medical director of Canyon Ranch, and editor-in-chief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal in alternative medicine.”

Strength training also improves insulin response & levels ….

Today's post: Tuesday, 7-24-2007

Last Thursday, this was in the online news:

“Key to a long life -- less insulin in the brain

Reuters 19 Jul 2007 18:00:33 GMT
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuters) - Good, old-fashioned diet and exercise might keep you young by reducing the action of insulin in the brain, researchers reported on Thursday.

They created mutant mice that over-ate, got fat and even had symptoms of diabetes, and yet lived 18 percent longer than normal lab mice. The secret: they lacked a certain key gene that affects insulin, the hormone that regulates glucose.

The genetic engineering mimicked the effects of eating less and exercising, the researchers report in the journal Science.

"This study provides a new explanation of why it's good to exercise and not eat too much," said Dr. Morris White, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Children's Hospital in Boston who led the study.

The findings also raise questions about how desirable it is to use insulin to treat type 2 diabetes, said the researchers.

Doctors know that people who exercise regularly live longer on average. Researchers have also learned that putting animals on a strict diet makes them live longer, although this has not yet been shown to work in people.

So White's team sought to see if the two effects were linked. They looked at insulin, because both fasting and exercise make cells more insulin-sensitive, meaning they respond more efficiently to the effects of insulin.

They looked at the entire insulin pathway -- a series of actions in the cell that control the body's use of insulin.

White's team engineered mice that had no working copies of one of the genes involved in this pathway, called insulin receptor substrate 2, or Irs2.

BEST USE OF INSULIN

Mice with no copies of Irs2 had defective brains and diabetes. But mice with one working copy lived 18 percent longer than normal mice.

"What's more, the animals lived longer even though they had characteristics that should shorten their lives such as being overweight….," White said in a statement.

They were also more active than normal mice, and after eating, their brains had higher levels of a compound called superoxide dismutase, an antioxidant that protects cells from damage.

"Diet, exercise and lower weight keep your peripheral tissues sensitive to insulin," White said. That means the body needs to make less insulin.

"Since insulin turns on Irs2 in the brain, that means lower Irs2 activity, which we've linked to longer life span in the mouse," he said.

One obvious question is whether drugs can mimic the effects of having less Irs2, perhaps by interfering with its action.

The researchers note that people who live to be 100 or more often have reduced insulin levels and their cells show better insulin sensitivity.’”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

My comment:

In the same way that strength training works best to increase growth hormone release, it seems to also boost your body’s ability to respond to insulin so your body makes less & your blood sugars stay in the normal range better.

(See yesterday’s post about strength training & its other effects in slowing or reversing aging.)

Also, eliminating junk food, soft drinks, & most sugar & almost all refined grains from your diet & adding plenty of vegetables & some whole fruit & eating good amounts of health OK protein foods & fats seems to have this effect.

Eating right sharply lowers the glycemic index & load of the food you eat & makes the blood sugar uptake from your food slow & gradual enough that your body needs to use less insulin.

This seems as effective for insulin control & preventing insulin resistance as eating less food overall. And, the really great news is that it’s doable without making you feel hungry all the time or slowing your metabolism. That makes it doable & sustainable.

It may not be easy at first to switch to eating better if you are mostly eating bad foods now. But eating right will get the job done without making you feel hungry all the time.

And, to get started, even eliminating a few of the worst foods & adding some of the good foods you actually like will help.

If you do both these two steps—strength training & eating right, you will be less fat. You’ll have much better health. And this research suggests you’ll live a LOT longer.

Lose fat & type II diabetes with 3 kinds of exercise

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective. We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Tuesday, 6-19-2007

Lose fat & type II diabetes with 3 kinds of exercise….

1. Do the kind of exercise that boosts your metabolism, burns fat, & slashes insulin resistance & keeps doing it up to 39 hours AFTER you do it.

2. Do a little bit of exercise several times a day. That not only makes it easier to fit in exercise into your day, it too helps keep up your metabolism for more hours each day than just doing your exercise in one session. Even a few extra sessions of 5 to 10 minutes each week will help.

3. Do moderate & lower intensity exercise for bigger chunks of time if you possibly can.

1. Do the kind of exercise that boosts your metabolism, burns fat, & slashes insulin resistance & keeps doing it up to 39 hours AFTER you do it.

Here’s an excerpt from an email from Jon Benson, author of Fit Over 40.

The summary is that research shows that the right kind of strength training increases your metabolism & calories burned for up to 39 hours after you stop exercising.

(Disclosure: I am currently an affiliate for the Fit Over 40 book as I think it helps people who read it. But I would have included this info even if I wasn’t.)

"Burn Bodyfat While You Snore?"
Date: 6/12/2007 7:11:19 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: newsletter@fitover40.com

This is a longer article than usual. Read it if you want to find out how you literally can
burn bodyfat while you snore... ...even if you do not snore at night!

Your Freee Weekly Newsletter from Jon Benson and Fit Over 40

Sent by permission only For more info-- http://www.fitover40.com/aff/iehealth
----------------------------------------------

“A recent study presents us with some great news when it comes to burning bodyfat.

Ready for the conclusion?

> Weight training is far superior for burning body fat and elevating metabolic rate post-exercise than any other exercise.

If ever you wanted to start training with weights, or if you have been doing endless cardio with no results, this article is for you.

Note: I cover exactly how to make weight training simple and time-efficient in
Fit Over 40.

Read more here -- http://www.fitover40.com/aff/iehealth
------------------------------------------------
The Study
------------------------------------------------

A body mass study conducted by The Human Performance Laboratory at The University of Wisconsin demonstrated that weight training of a specific variety and rep scheme elevated metabolic rates (measured though VO2 max)
for thirty-nine hours.

That means you would be burning more bodyfat even when you are asleep at night. Pretty cool,isn't it?

In comparison, the average forty-minute cardio session elevates the metabolism for only a few hours post-exercise.

That is thirty-nine full hours of being able to consume more food without gaining bodyfat, all things being equal.

For the record, no other form of exercise comes close to doing that in as short a period of time as targeted weight and/or resistance training.

This degree of post-exercise calorie burn is close to the levels seen in marathoners.

This is nothing new to avid weight-trainers, but it may be news to a lot of you. This is
especially enlightening if you have a fear becoming muscle-bound if you venture into
the weight-room area of your gym.

------------------------------------------------
The Specifics
------------------------------------------------

The study focused on repetitions and exercises. Certain protocols delivered the greatest results when it came to post-exercise calorie burn.

True elevation of metabolic rate did not occur if weights were too heavy, involving exercises that were done for less than six repetitions.

Even more illuminating is the fact that metabolic elevation was not significant if the weights were too light. This was defined as any exercise that took over twelve repetitions to complete.

The thirty-nine hour elevation in metabolic response was caused by a workout which
stimulated the larger muscles. This involved compound weight-training movements such as squats, rows, bench presses, and curls.

The ideal way to do this is not with machines, Pilates, or baby dumbbells, but with free weights. Exercises should be targeted in the eight to twelve repetition range for maximum fat-burning metabolic effect…..”


“The nutrient calculation for post-workout recovery was determined to be significant, especially in comparison with more moderate forms of exercise.

This means more food is required to repair the body, and the metabolism once again is elevated.

The body mass study did not address the metabolic spike with proper post-workout nutrition, however frequent feedings that are sufficient in protein and moderate in carbs have clearly demonstrated a significant metabolic increase.

------------------------------------------------
The Application
------------------------------------------------

Heavy weights for lower repetitions is not an ideal strategy for post-exercise caloric burn. This would factor into the reasons why powerlifters develop strength but very little definition.

The "lighter weights, higher repetition" strategy, and its failure to produce results, is probably more important to most of us who want to use weights to
sculpt our physique.

Lighter weights for higher reps is not an effective strategy for fatburning. Yet this is the protocol that many trainers use for individuals wanting to quote-unquote "tone" their muscles.

This is also the preferred strategy for many female weight trainees who have been told that heavier weights would build too much muscle.

The post-exercise caloric burn is what really pays the dividends when it comes to fatburning.

Exercise by itself burns only a marginal amount of calories during the session itself. When used in conjunction with a smart mealplan, this can be a
very powerful fatburning tool.

However, bear in mind that even an intense workout, one that may burn five hundred calories or more, can be offset by a single modest-calorie meal.

------------------------------------------------
The Conclusion
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The bottom line is weight training rules when it comes to sculpting the body and earning the greatest post-exercise dividends.

Like a good investment, a brief but targeted weight training routine conducted just two or three times per week can produce rewards that are both short-term and exponentially powerful.

When combined with a fat-burning nutrition plan and stress-reducing exercise (such as yoga, walking, or Pilates), the rewards are greater still.

Sincerely,

Jon Benson
Creator, Fit Over 40

P.S.

Here is the challenge you probably face:

how to actually "do" weight training.

I understand. That is why I developed the 15-Minute Ultimate Workout Plan.

You get this plan for freee when you get The Fit Over 40 Success For Life Kit.

I include it in audio and printed format.

15 minutes...that is all you need to get all of the metabolic fatburning benefits!

http://www.fitover40.com/aff/iehealth “

The other point that Jon makes elsewhere is that the 6 to 12 repetitions need to be progressive.

If you get to the point where you can easily do several more than 12 & just do 12, you won’t get the effect -- or get it nearly as much. Increase the weight to the very next level next time you do the workout. And, if that’s still too easy, increase it until you can only do 5 or 6. Then focus on doing at least 6 in good form. Once you do that, add repetitions one at a time as you are able until you can again do 12.

Yes you do get to the point where you have to work at it. And the last one or two reps can be hard or you may find you can’t quite do the last one. The great news is that those are the reps that make you stronger & trigger this fat burning effect.

The other important point is that this effect also includes a dramatic improvement in insulin resistance. And, for those hours, you will be far more able to keep your blood sugar low enough for good health.

How effective this is varies some from person to person with how hard they workout & their individual heredity. But some people have literally turned off type II diabetes by simply eliminating high glycemic & junk foods & doing this kind of strength training.

The rest of the people may have to continue on drugs. But they will be far healthier & their blood sugar readings will be much more desirable or even totally normal -- when, with the drugs alone, they were not.

Another point: You can do well for your health & strength doing two nonconsecutive days of strength training where you do both leg exercise & upper body exercise in the same session.

But if fat loss or controlling high blood sugar levels are important to you, here’s a way to get this effect all week long.:

Do upper body strength training on three days & then on the days off from that, every other day, do three days of leg strength training. On Monday, Weds, & Friday for upper body & Tues, Thurs, & Saturday for legs for example.

These may be the same three hours total you would spend doing both upper body & leg exercises together for one hour 3 days a week. But by doing about half an hour six days a week, the sessions are shorter AND you get more fat burning & metabolic effect.

Similarly & with similar results:

2. Do a little bit of exercise several times a day. That not only makes it easier to fit in exercise into your day, it too helps keep up your metabolism for more hours each day than just doing your exercise in one session. Even a few extra sessions of 5 to 10 minutes each week will help.

Separate research has shown that a few minutes of exercise several times a day is more effective for boosting your metabolism than the same total all done at the same time.

And, in fact I know one woman with type II diabetes that got excellent blood sugar control doing exactly that.

She does just five minutes of freehand squats & pushups & situps before leaving the house in the morning & a mid-morning exercise walk of about 10 or fifteen minutes. And, she does a longer walk at lunchtime some days. And she only gets to the gym for strength training two evenings a week for half an hour each time.

And, the combination has given her such good blood sugar control her doctor is impressed.

Your schedule may be different. But the other thing that makes this such a great way to go is that you can fit it into almost any schedule since each bit of exercise can be as short as you need for it to be.

3. Do moderate & lower intensity exercise for bigger chunks of time if you possibly can.

Humans have been on earth for hundreds of thousands of years & our preceding ancestors for several million years more before that.

And, until about 80 to 120 years ago, almost everyone who wasn’t sick in bed got in several walks each week of two to seven miles each.

So, it should hardly be surprising that people who get at least one or two such walks (or do such relatively easy to moderate exercise) every week tend to have better health & be less fat than those who never do. And, they have higher metabolism & blood sugar control.

This can be extremely challenging to do in addition to doing strength training & all the rest of your schedule. But if you can add it, it will help.