Overweight or Diabetic?
By Dr. Fred Hui, MD
How to prevent, or correct the problem
Obesity and diabetes have a common cause and they can lead to each other. I would like to give you insight into some oversights by mainstream medicine.
The patient with either of these health conditions has trouble metabolizing carbohydrates. The underlying cause is a phenomenon called Insulin Resistance. Carbohydrates are sugar (including fruit and juices) and starch (bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, corn or any grains, or root vegetables). When we eat carbohydrates the body digests and converts them into sugar (glucose in the blood).
Type 1, juvenile onset diabetics have a problem secreting insulin. Type 2 diabetics (90% of all diabetics) do not have a lack of insulin. They, in fact, have too much insulin floating around (hyperinsulinism), because they have insensitive insulin receptors, or a lack of them on the surface of the cells. The end result is that sugar is not transported into the cells to be burned for energy. Instead, the sugar is turned into fat.
What’s wrong with increased circulating levels of insulin? Insulin stimulates the appetite. One of its main functions is to convert excess sugar to fat. When insulin is at a higher level, there is a more rapid conversion of blood sugar into fat. Insulin resistance results in a higher proportion of blood sugar being converted into fat than just meeting the normal needs of the body (muscles, organs, etc). This is the usual case of people eating more than they need. The unfortunate thing is that they are driven to eat as a result of the excess insulin in circulation.
Blood sugars dropping quickly from a high level can bring on hunger. And when it has been packed away as fat rapidly, the rest of the body cries out for more food in a steady supply.
We can see at a glance on the street who has hyperinsulinism. Externally they have a “spare tire,” internally they have increasingly thickened arterial walls. Excess insulin causes damage to arterial walls. This in turn causes cholesterol to patch up the damage. Over time, the arterial walls become thicker and thicker, leading to circulation problems, and a higher risk of stroke and heart attack.
As a result, even though a diabetic has seemingly good sugar control when fasting, after eating, it rises significantly. So, an obese person, with normal sugar at the time of a medical checkup, will eventually suffer the consequences of arterial blockage: angina, heart attacks, stroke and decreased circulation in the legs. It is not just high sugars that are detrimental, but also the large amounts of insulin in circulation.
Glyburide, the most common medicine prescribed for diabetes, forces the pancreas to create more insulin, and, in fact is not addressing the problem. It may help reduce blood sugar in the blood stream but it will burn out the pancreas faster, make you fatter and stimulate your hunger sometimes to frustrating levels even when you don’t really want to eat. Insulin is the “hunger hormone.” For those of you that are taking Glyburide, have you noticed that you cannot resist hunger? You constantly need to eat, or even have a disturbing craving for sweets.
If you were to do an educational experiment tomorrow morning by eating a large, high calorie breakfast that consists of lots of fruit, cereal, muffins, toast (all carbohydrates) you would think you should not be hungry for quite a while. But by 11:30 am you will feel extra hungry and shaky. What is happening is a high carbohydrate meal will trigger the body to release lots of insulin into the blood stream and carbohydrate is easily and quickly stored away within three hours. Then 3 ½ hours later your sugar may be so low that you might feel you would “kill” to get something sweet to give yourself a “sugar fix.” Consequently, your physiology prompts you to look for a big, satisfying sweet or carbohydrate filled lunch and the vicious cycle repeats itself.
Solution tried during the last 30 years
Conventional mainstream medical advice for weight loss is to avoid fat, and avoid the meat that contains fat and eat more complex carbohydrates. Based upon results, this concept does not work. The incidence of obesity and adult onset diabetes has been increasing at an alarming rate. Recently released in the news is the shocking fact that diabetes has increased 31% in Ontario in only 5 years from 1995 to 1999.
When average North Americans rely on “whole wheat bread and no oil pasta” as their main calorie source, their waistlines just keep getting bigger. They may try to diet and cut their total calories and amount of food. While calorie restriction may work in the short term, when the body senses that there is a famine happening, it will adjust and become more thrifty. It will slow down the body’s metabolism rate and concentrate on “storing fat” rather than “spending energy.” The body then feels tired, and the food is tasteless. McDonalds tried to market a low fat hamburger, but they gave up as nobody liked it enough to buy it. People give up on these restrictive diets and gain their weight back because they go overboard again in eating, after being deprived.
What is the real solution?
When Dr Atkins first proposed a low carbohydrate, high protein diet, he was ridiculed, and angrily opposed. In spite of the favourable consumer feedback, judging from the number of best selling books based on a variation of the Atkins diet. Read the various good books such as “The Zone” diet, the Carbohydrate Addicts’ Diet, Protein Power by the 2 Dr Eades, and the Suzanne Somers’ diet, among others. Mainstream medical doctors and dieticians have been the last to accept the low carbohydrate diets because they are afraid of recommending diets with saturated fats. Now, the diet is finally gaining ground. Even prominent academics such as Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, have become strong proponents of this diet.
What is an ideal diet?
It goes without saying that if you are overweight or diabetic, you should avoid sugar. The main point is to avoid filling up on starches, no matter how good you think complex carbohydrates may be. Instead, eat lots of green vegetables, lean meat and oily fish and nuts.
Some guidelines such as Health Canada’s Food Guide Pyramid are outdated for our sedentary lifestyle. You should imagine a food pyramid where low carbohydrate vegetables are at the base and rice is just a small side dish. By eating the bulk of your meals as starches, or sugar you become victimized by the effects of insulin, whereby you feel compelled to eat soon afterwards.
For the diabetic, don’t just check your fasting blood sugar, but check your level 2 hours after a meal, to give you direct feedback about your worst case scenarios, and to determine how different foods affect your blood sugar.
Exercise regularly
If your insulin receptors are insensitive, they are not depressed permanently. The receptors have only receded temporarily because your cells are not calling out for more glucose. While fat cells can expand indefinitely, other cells have only limited room for storing glucose. Cells withdraw their willingness to accept glucose by making the receptors either insensitive or pulling them away from the cell wall.
You should at least go walking twice a day for half an hour, not just to burn calories but to re-sensitize your insulin receptors and bring them back into action, by using up your accumulated stores of glycogen (stored glucose) in your cells. The receptors will be signaled to go to the cell walls to collect more glucose.
Other Measures
There are numerous health supplements that have a positive effect such as the Ayurvedic Indian herb, Gymnema Sylvestre.
Chinese herbs containing bitter melon are extremely useful.
Research indicates this amazing herb has positive benefits on blood sugar control, helps with sugar cravings and may help to regenerate the pancreas.
Chromium is useful for stabilizing blood sugar levels, both the high and the low. It helps insulin attach to the receptor sites.
I have used a mixture of Chinese herbs that has a wonderful, dramatic effect on blood sugar control. I have managed to get most type 2 diabetic patients off insulin or all their diabetic medication, while still maintaining good blood sugar control.
The mixture of herbs seems to promote progressive healing of the diabetic system so that the patient has less need for medication, including even the need for the herbs.
To help sensitize the insulin receptors and to reopen blocked circulation, Intravenous Chelation Therapy has also been extremely effective. Diabetics are prone to heart disease, Clogged arteries resulting in poor circulation, with reduced oxygen and nutrient delivery to tissues and organs can lead to:
- calf pain when walking,
- shortness of breath and chest pain when carrying a heavy load or going up stairs,
- cold feet and cold fingers,
- shrinkage of the brain due to impaired blood flow,
- difficulty with memory management,
- vision problems including macular degeneration,
- declining function of all organs.
Current treatments for arteriosclerosis include medications, exercise, wise food choices, and supplements. When these are not enough, more heart patients are turning to Chelation Therapy, which has been in use since WWII and is now refined to a fine art. Chelation is a series of intravenous infusions including the following ingredients:
- “EDTA” (Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetate) — a metal binding agent that has the magnetic ability to attract and “hand cuff” heavy metals and misplaced calcium that have been hardening and calcifying our arterial “pipes”.
- A high dose of vitamin C – to work as an anti-oxidant, neutralizing harmful free radicals in our circulation. In this way, Vitamin C serves to “rust proof” the linings of our arterial pipes.
- A high dose of magnesium — to relax the arteries and return flexibility to our arterial “hose”.
- Vitamin B12 — provides energy to every cell.
- Vitamins B6 and B1 work together to reduce toxic substances like “homocystine” that accelerate the blockage of arteries.
This has become the safest natural method of treating heart disease. It is the solution for those who have been told surgery is no longer an option, and for those who want a more complete, full body solution that is non-invasive.
Overweight or Diabetic?
By Dr. Fred Hui, MD
How to prevent, or correct the problem
Obesity and diabetes have a common cause and they can lead to each other. I would like to give you insight into some oversights by mainstream medicine.
The patient with either of these health conditions has trouble metabolizing carbohydrates. The underlying cause is a phenomenon called Insulin Resistance. Carbohydrates are sugar (including fruit and juices) and starch (bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, corn or any grains, or root vegetables). When we eat carbohydrates the body digests and converts them into sugar (glucose in the blood).
Type 1, juvenile onset diabetics have a problem secreting insulin. Type 2 diabetics (90% of all diabetics) do not have a lack of insulin. They, in fact, have too much insulin floating around (hyperinsulinism), because they have insensitive insulin receptors, or a lack of them on the surface of the cells. The end result is that sugar is not transported into the cells to be burned for energy. Instead, the sugar is turned into fat.
What’s wrong with increased circulating levels of insulin? Insulin stimulates the appetite. One of its main functions is to convert excess sugar to fat. When insulin is at a higher level, there is a more rapid conversion of blood sugar into fat. Insulin resistance results in a higher proportion of blood sugar being converted into fat than just meeting the normal needs of the body (muscles, organs, etc). This is the usual case of people eating more than they need. The unfortunate thing is that they are driven to eat as a result of the excess insulin in circulation.
Blood sugars dropping quickly from a high level can bring on hunger. And when it has been packed away as fat rapidly, the rest of the body cries out for more food in a steady supply.
We can see at a glance on the street who has hyperinsulinism. Externally they have a “spare tire,” internally they have increasingly thickened arterial walls. Excess insulin causes damage to arterial walls. This in turn causes cholesterol to patch up the damage. Over time, the arterial walls become thicker and thicker, leading to circulation problems, and a higher risk of stroke and heart attack.
As a result, even though a diabetic has seemingly good sugar control when fasting, after eating, it rises significantly. So, an obese person, with normal sugar at the time of a medical checkup, will eventually suffer the consequences of arterial blockage: angina, heart attacks, stroke and decreased circulation in the legs. It is not just high sugars that are detrimental, but also the large amounts of insulin in circulation.
Glyburide, the most common medicine prescribed for diabetes, forces the pancreas to create more insulin, and, in fact is not addressing the problem. It may help reduce blood sugar in the blood stream but it will burn out the pancreas faster, make you fatter and stimulate your hunger sometimes to frustrating levels even when you don’t really want to eat. Insulin is the “hunger hormone.” For those of you that are taking Glyburide, have you noticed that you cannot resist hunger? You constantly need to eat, or even have a disturbing craving for sweets.
If you were to do an educational experiment tomorrow morning by eating a large, high calorie breakfast that consists of lots of fruit, cereal, muffins, toast (all carbohydrates) you would think you should not be hungry for quite a while. But by 11:30 am you will feel extra hungry and shaky. What is happening is a high carbohydrate meal will trigger the body to release lots of insulin into the blood stream and carbohydrate is easily and quickly stored away within three hours. Then 3 ½ hours later your sugar may be so low that you might feel you would “kill” to get something sweet to give yourself a “sugar fix.” Consequently, your physiology prompts you to look for a big, satisfying sweet or carbohydrate filled lunch and the vicious cycle repeats itself.
Solution tried during the last 30 years
Conventional mainstream medical advice for weight loss is to avoid fat, and avoid the meat that contains fat and eat more complex carbohydrates. Based upon results, this concept does not work. The incidence of obesity and adult onset diabetes has been increasing at an alarming rate. Recently released in the news is the shocking fact that diabetes has increased 31% in Ontario in only 5 years from 1995 to 1999.
When average North Americans rely on “whole wheat bread and no oil pasta” as their main calorie source, their waistlines just keep getting bigger. They may try to diet and cut their total calories and amount of food. While calorie restriction may work in the short term, when the body senses that there is a famine happening, it will adjust and become more thrifty. It will slow down the body’s metabolism rate and concentrate on “storing fat” rather than “spending energy.” The body then feels tired, and the food is tasteless. McDonalds tried to market a low fat hamburger, but they gave up as nobody liked it enough to buy it. People give up on these restrictive diets and gain their weight back because they go overboard again in eating, after being deprived.
What is the real solution?
When Dr Atkins first proposed a low carbohydrate, high protein diet, he was ridiculed, and angrily opposed. In spite of the favourable consumer feedback, judging from the number of best selling books based on a variation of the Atkins diet. Read the various good books such as “The Zone” diet, the Carbohydrate Addicts’ Diet, Protein Power by the 2 Dr Eades, and the Suzanne Somers’ diet, among others. Mainstream medical doctors and dieticians have been the last to accept the low carbohydrate diets because they are afraid of recommending diets with saturated fats. Now, the diet is finally gaining ground. Even prominent academics such as Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, have become strong proponents of this diet.
What is an ideal diet?
It goes without saying that if you are overweight or diabetic, you should avoid sugar. The main point is to avoid filling up on starches, no matter how good you think complex carbohydrates may be. Instead, eat lots of green vegetables, lean meat and oily fish and nuts.
Some guidelines such as Health Canada’s Food Guide Pyramid are outdated for our sedentary lifestyle. You should imagine a food pyramid where low carbohydrate vegetables are at the base and rice is just a small side dish. By eating the bulk of your meals as starches, or sugar you become victimized by the effects of insulin, whereby you feel compelled to eat soon afterwards.
For the diabetic, don’t just check your fasting blood sugar, but check your level 2 hours after a meal, to give you direct feedback about your worst case scenarios, and to determine how different foods affect your blood sugar.
Exercise regularly
If your insulin receptors are insensitive, they are not depressed permanently. The receptors have only receded temporarily because your cells are not calling out for more glucose. While fat cells can expand indefinitely, other cells have only limited room for storing glucose. Cells withdraw their willingness to accept glucose by making the receptors either insensitive or pulling them away from the cell wall.
You should at least go walking twice a day for half an hour, not just to burn calories but to re-sensitize your insulin receptors and bring them back into action, by using up your accumulated stores of glycogen (stored glucose) in your cells. The receptors will be signaled to go to the cell walls to collect more glucose.
Other Measures
There are numerous health supplements that have a positive effect such as the Ayurvedic Indian herb, Gymnema Sylvestre.
Chinese herbs containing bitter melon are extremely useful.
Research indicates this amazing herb has positive benefits on blood sugar control, helps with sugar cravings and may help to regenerate the pancreas.
Chromium is useful for stabilizing blood sugar levels, both the high and the low. It helps insulin attach to the receptor sites.
I have used a mixture of Chinese herbs that has a wonderful, dramatic effect on blood sugar control. I have managed to get most type 2 diabetic patients off insulin or all their diabetic medication, while still maintaining good blood sugar control.
The mixture of herbs seems to promote progressive healing of the diabetic system so that the patient has less need for medication, including even the need for the herbs.
To help sensitize the insulin receptors and to reopen blocked circulation, Intravenous Chelation Therapy has also been extremely effective. Diabetics are prone to heart disease, Clogged arteries resulting in poor circulation, with reduced oxygen and nutrient delivery to tissues and organs can lead to:
- calf pain when walking,
- shortness of breath and chest pain when carrying a heavy load or going up stairs,
- cold feet and cold fingers,
- shrinkage of the brain due to impaired blood flow,
- difficulty with memory management,
- vision problems including macular degeneration,
- declining function of all organs.
Current treatments for arteriosclerosis include medications, exercise, wise food choices, and supplements. When these are not enough, more heart patients are turning to Chelation Therapy, which has been in use since WWII and is now refined to a fine art. Chelation is a series of intravenous infusions including the following ingredients:
- “EDTA” (Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetate) — a metal binding agent that has the magnetic ability to attract and “hand cuff” heavy metals and misplaced calcium that have been hardening and calcifying our arterial “pipes”.
- A high dose of vitamin C – to work as an anti-oxidant, neutralizing harmful free radicals in our circulation. In this way, Vitamin C serves to “rust proof” the linings of our arterial pipes.
- A high dose of magnesium — to relax the arteries and return flexibility to our arterial “hose”.
- Vitamin B12 — provides energy to every cell.
- Vitamins B6 and B1 work together to reduce toxic substances like “homocystine” that accelerate the blockage of arteries.
This has become the safest natural method of treating heart disease. It is the solution for those who have been told surgery is no longer an option, and for those who want a more complete, full body solution that is non-invasive.