LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

prediabetes

This Superfruit Can Help Avoid Diabetes

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There are definitely certain plants on this planet that pack quite a wallop when it comes to protecting our bodies.  Acai, pomegranate, lychee, goji.

While wild blueberries do not sound as exotic, they are on the list of powerful superfoods.  And seriously…just how difficult is it to eat a small cup of frozen wild blueberries per day?  The only fight I ever had with my toddler over ingestion of wild blueberries was WHERE he was going to ingest them (wild or not, they still stain…).

This particular study found that daily doses of blueberries (they did not use wild, but wild is more potent) helped with markers of prediabetes and markers of oxidative stress.  As an FYI, the wild frozen blueberries are always cheaper than the sale prices of conventionally grown blueberries.

Does Being Overweight Really Increase My Risk of Diabetes?

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The answer is yes, but what is striking about this study is just how much it puts you at risk.
In this particular study, researchers looked across multiple studies to determine the risks associated with being overweight or obese and diabetes.  Here’s what they found:
  • Those who were overweight had a 728% higher risk of developing diabetes.
  • Those who were obese had a staggering increase of 828%.
Personally, I really wish we would get rid of the diagnosis of diabetes.  A scoring system to tell if you are physiologically handling your blood sugar better or worse.
Somewhere along the line, we gave a magic value to a blood marker and that has become the only thing to worry about.  It’s like using the same marker for cigarette smokers and lung cancer.  Do those smokers who have not yet been diagnosed with lung cancer think everything is ok?
Of course not.
So why do people who are overweight and have not (yet) been diagnosed with diabetes think everything is ok?  The prediabetic state is arguably one of the most damaging states for our bodies to be in.  But we continue to ignore this condition, with drastic ramifications on all aspects of health.

 

Dangers of Diabetic Medications

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ARE DIABETIC MEDICATIONS KILLING OFF OUR DIABETICS?
Seems kind of an odd question, huh?
I mean, after all, doesn’t the Hippocratic Oath state that first and foremost we should do no harm?  So why does it always seem that many medications actually increase the risk of the diseases we are trying to ameliorate?  It’s been known for some time that the sulphonylurea class of drugs (i.e. glipizide / Glucotrol) actually damages the beta cells of the pancreas, increasing the risk for insulin dependence.  There’s also been heated debate about pulling Avandia (another class of diabetic drugs called the thiazolidinediones) off the market because of the greatly increased risk of cardiovascular disease.  It currently has a block box warning.
This particular study found no increased risk with the combination of a sulphonylurea with metformin on heart disease when compared to other standard diabetic approaches.  So basically, it’s ok because they ALL increase the risk of heart disease.  Looking deeper into the study, though, researchers found that there was ONE exception.  You guessed it–the combination that included dietary changes!!

 

Too Young for Your Brain to Rot? Results Will Surprise You

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prediabetes and the brain
chrisharvey / Dollar Photo Club

Sure, you know that a daily meth habit will fry your brain. But what if over half of 40-somethings had brain damage? Couldn’t be possible, right?

Alzheimer’s dementia, memory loss, cognitive decline, Parkinson’s…these all happen to OLDER people, so you’re safe.  You gave up the obvious brain-damaging behaviors after college and you’re pretty sure your neurons have recovered enough to last you until your grandkids get married.

Besides, you take all those nutrients that we know protect the brain–magnesium, fish oils, ginko and vitamin D–so you’re even better off.  And if there really was some dastardly virus or bacteria or toxic chemical destroying your brain you would’ve read about it in Newsweek or there would be a Hollywood blockbuster with Julia Roberts as the hotshot young attorney taking on Monsanto for dumping hazardous waste into the Potomac resulting in children being born with an extra arm.

Nope.  Reality is far more sinister.

Neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s dementia and Parkinson’s disease have long been considered a Type 3 diabetes because the links between poor sugar handling and these conditions is so strong.  I’ve taught classes on this topic for several years and most of the participants in the classes were unaware of the strong links.

Even fewer still are aware that these links exist for PRE diabetes as well.  Prediabetes–that condition that is found is about HALF of the industrialized world.  That means there’s a good chance that you fall into this category.

Carrying too much weight around the middle?  Cholesterol problems?  Liver enzymes elevated?  Had your gallbladder out?  Ringing in your ears?  High blood pressure?

Doesn’t apply to you?  How about liver enzymes still normal, but in the top half of “normal?”  How about high normal glucose levels?  How about a combination of “normal” trigylcerides at the higher end and “normal” HDL levels at the low end?  Is your blood pressure over 120 systolic (WITHOUT meds)?

The point is, while you may not think you’re prediabetic (or even if your doctor told you that you’re not), there’s a very good chance that you are.  In which case, the results of this particular study should be a great interest to you.  In it, researchers looked at a group of 2,216 men and women at an average age of FORTY to see about the relationship between blood sugar and brain health.  This is important, because we’re not talking about an 80 year old in a retirement community.  Here’s what they found:

  • Diabetes was associated with worse memory, visual perception, and attention performance.
  • Diabetes was also associated with higher “white matter hyperintensities”–a sign of damage to the cells of your brain.
  • Diabetics also had lower cerebral brain and occipital lobar gray matter volumes.  In other words–their brains were shrunk.
  • Here’s the kicker–increased fasting blood sugar was also associated with shrinkage of large areas of gray matter.

With the last detail we are no longer talking about diabetics (who, at some level, probably understand that diabetes is slowly destroying every part of their bodies) but also the prediabetics.  That’s a huge chunk of the population that has already begun to lose brain cells at a very early age.  Fast forward another 20, 30 or 40 years and there’s not likely going to be much left to finish a Sudoku puzzle.

The bottom line is that, if you care about your brain at all (and really…you should) and you have even the slightest concern that you are prediabetic or have any of the things listed about, you need to start NOW with a lifestyle revamping (feel free to check out my Diabetes eBook for some help by clicking here).  The brain damage is already occurring.  You may never get it back.

 

NSAIDs, Prediabetes and Your Liver; Dangerous, but Not Like You Think

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elevated liver enzymes
creative soul/Dollar Photo Club

There is pretty much no chronic disease that prediabetes does not contribute to.  Fatty liver is on the list.

It goes by many names: non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fatty liver, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).  It can start with just a mild elevation of liver enzymes on a routine blood work panel.  This may prompt your doctor to order a viral hepatitis panel just to make sure that hepatitis is not at work.

When the virus panel comes back normal you just get kind of a mention of it not being anything significant and that we’ll just keep an eye on it.

This is how it starts (I’ve covered this concept in a previous blog article that can be read by clicking here), but it can progress to something far more severe with time, leading to scarring of the liver (fibrosis, cirrhosis) and liver transplants.

Currently, there is a rather large amount of research being published on this topic because this elevation of liver enzymes is on the rise.

As always, the answer comes down to that condition that about half of the Westernized world has prediabetes.  There are some very, very strong links between the diabetic progression and NASH.  It boils down to the accepted fact that the diabetic process pretty much pisses off the liver cells, ultimately killing them off slowly (leading to the elevation in liver enzymes in the blood).  Inflammation that is generated by the diabetic lifestyle likely plays a pivotal role as well.

This means that living an anti-diabetic lifestyle is the ONLY real answer (despite the rush to try to develop a drug for this condition).

(While it is beyond the scope of this article, feel free to check out my Diabetes eBook for a complete outline of the necessary lifestyle changes to combat diabetes by clicking here.)

Or at least, an anti-diabetic lifestyle was the only thing that USED to be on the list.  This particular article adds another aspect to this condition.  In it, researchers looked at the relationship between the activation of the enzyme cyclo-oxygenase 2 (COX2) and the development of fatty liver.

You may recognize the name of the enzyme because COX1 and COX2 are the enzymes that are blocked by the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and naproxen.  And we can’t forget the Vioxx debacle, a drug that was designed to block only COX2, along with Celebrex and Bextra.

Vioxx was pulled off the market because it greatly increased the risk of heart attacks, causing at least tens of thousands of heart attacks in the time it was being prescribed.

Why?  Because, while we know that COX1 and COX2 produce inflammatory chemicals in our body, they also do things like thin the blood via the enzyme prostacyclin.  The problem is that we don’t find out about these other enzymes functions until we block it in large numbers in a brand-new-to-the-market blockbuster drug.

Here’s some interesting things that the researchers found:

  • Adult liver cells do NOT turn on the COX-2 enzyme when the rest of the body is in an inflammatory state.
  • This lack of expression of COX2 may leave liver cells vulnerable to the development of insulin resistance / prediabetes.
  • If the baseline production (constitutive) COX-2 in liver cells is forced (in the lab in mice), they found that this protects these cells against adiposity, inflammation, and, hence, insulin resistance.
  • This increased production of COX2 leads to decreased fatty liver, adiposity, triglycerides and free fatty acids, increased adiponectin-to-leptin ratio (an anti-diabetic marker), and decreased levels of chemical involved with inflammation.
  • As an added benefit, these mice who produced more COX2 enzyme activity burned more fat.

So, just like most everything else that has to do with human physiology, we really don’t have any idea how things work.  We THINK we know what enzymes do.  COX2 produces inflammation.  We block that with a drug and we’ll stop pain.

Until you cause a heart attack.

And here we see yet another aspect of what this enzyme does.  This leads to the very reasonable possibility that drugs like the NSAIDs and the selective COX2 inhbitors (Celebrex is still available although Vioxx was pulled off the market) may contribute to fatty liver.

Although it has always been known that these drugs damage the liver, it was thought to occur by a different mechanism; one that had not been previously thought of.  At least until now.

(Just in case you’re a little rusty on your ibuprofen side effects, feel free to check out my eBook on the topic by clicking here)

This is not, however, the direction the researchers were looking.  Rather, the conclusions stated that drugs that INCREASE the expression of COX2 in the liver may be a new route of research into drugs used to treat NAFLD.

Yep.  I’m sure it’ll be a blockbuster.  At least until it starts killing patients left and right.

 

The Diabetic Breakfast; Why You Should Avoid Oatmeal

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breakfast options for diabetes
mariiya / Dollar Photo Club

This is not the first time I’ve debunked the idea that oatmeal and Cheerios are good breakfast options, despite the frequent recommendation.

Breakfast is, without a doubt, one of the most important health decisions you’ll make in a given day.  And that decision starts with actually having breakfast.  The decision to skip breakfast is one of the most common problems I find in patients.  Sometimes patients say they just aren’t hungry, don’t have time or are nauseous when they first wake up.

If you’re not hungry first thing in the morning, all it takes is a little amount of fuel to begin your day properly.  A handful of raw almonds or a tablespoon of real peanut butter can be enough to jump start your system.  Here’s the deal:  Your brain needs fuel in the morning whether you feed it or not.  If you choose to skip breakfast, your body will break down precious muscle to fuel your brain.

If you’re looking for the “less muscle, more fat” look, then by all means continue to skip breakfast.  If, however, this isn’t the look you are deliberately going for, then breakfast has to be on the menu, hungry or not.  Eventually, your body will get used to getting fed early and will let you know it’s ready for fuel from outside the body by stimulating hunger.

The time excuse is not a good one, either.  I’ve had patients use the time excuse but will run through the drive-thru of McDonalds to buy an Egg McMuffin, which arguably takes time as well.  Compare that to warming up an Amy’s breakfast burrito for 1 and a half minutes in the microwave (with the added bonus of being less expensive).  The same goes for the aforementioned handful of almonds or bit of real peanut butter.

As for the nausea, this boils back down to your body looking inside for fuel.  The sympathetic / adrenal pathway gets activated and this shuts down digestion, potentially leaving you feeling nauseous.  Again, within a short period of time your body will adapt to being fed and you’ll find yourself being hungry instead of nauseous at breakfast time.

Which brings us back to the all-important “what” for breakfast.  This has remained an avenue of very poor recommendations for a long time now.  Yogurt, with very few exceptions, is not a good option.  If you’re going to do yogurt, make sure you’re doing plain Greek yogurt with a higher protein content and lower calories (you’ll have to read the labels and compare…consider brands like Fage that can be found at Costco) only with a serving of fresh or frozen fruit added in.

Oatmeal, again with a few exceptions, is not a good option.  Certainly the instant Quaker-type oatmeals are absolutely off the list.  I’m usually ok with the steel cut, slow cooked oatmeal with some high quality protein source mixed in (real peanut butter, nuts, granola).  But the vast majority of the oatmeal that people seem to choose for breakfast doesn’t cut it.

In general, the anti-diabetic breakfast (which we should all be eating) should be protein-based or very high fiber (8 grams or more).  Good recommendations include:

  • Eggs, either scrambled in olive oil or hard-boiled
  • High fiber, unprocessed breakfast cereal in something other than cow’s milk (Nature’s Path, Cascadian Farms, etc…)
  • Real peanut or other nut butter (no added oils) in celery or on true whole-grain bread
  • Granola (just be careful of the calories!)
  • Steel cut, slow-cooked oatmeal with a high quality protein mixed in
  • Juicing (the blending type with the pulp included) so long as you add in some type of high quality protein like powered peanut butter, high quality whey or pea protein or high protein Greek yogurt.

Just how important are these breakfast decisions for fighting off or controlling diabetes?  This particular study gives us some insight.  In it, researchers looked at the effect of glycemic index (a score for how fast sugar shows up in the bloodstream after eating a meal, the lower the better) of 4 different meals on certain markers of diabetes in a small group of Type 2 diabetics.  Here’s what they found:

  • There was more glucose in the bloodstream in the high glycemic index diet with low fiber.
  • The amount of insulin after patients consumed the high glycemic index, low fiber diet was 13% higher than the low glycemic index, high fiber diet.
  • When consuming a low glycemic diet, the diet with high fiber led to 12% lower insulin levels after a meal.
  • Ghrelin (a hormone that helps increase hunger) dropped ONLY after the low glycemic index diets (both with high and low fiber).

Overall, it is very clear that your breakfast choices will have a clear effect on how well your body does or does NOT respond after the meal.  Choosing the options listed above will lead to a much stronger anti-diabetic effect and protect every other aspect of your health.

And you’ll notice that Cheerios, the go-to breakfast to lower your cholesterol (which is probably because you’re prediabetic…), in no way, shape or form fits these recommendations.  And you will also notice that fruit, by itself, is NOT on the list.  Nor is orange juice (all calories, little value).  These items have way too much carb content without the needed protein or fiber to balance it out.

 

Sleep Apnea Compliance: Is Your Brain Worth It?

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sleep apnea and dementia
karuka/Dollar Photo Club

I recently wrote an article about the strong links between sleep apnea and dementia. But hey–you’re only 45 and dementia is way too far away to worry about.

But what if sleep apnea was causing brain damage RIGHT NOW??

Let’s backtrack a little here and cover what sleep apnea really is.  There are two basic types; central (caused by an inability to regulate breathing while asleep) and obstructive (caused by mechanical blockage in the back of the airway).  You are probably familiar with obstructive sleep apnea and associate it with snoring and obesity.  This is the type of sleep apnea that you can’t miss if you’re sleeping in the same room with someone who has obstructive sleep apnea.  And, in more severe cases, you just have to be in the same zip code…

Central sleep apnea, however, is not thought of as much but it has a much more sinister plot.  It is very closely associated with prediabetes.  To put in more clearly, the prediabetic process is dangerous enough to your body to cause it to stop breathing at night.  “But my doctor checked me for this and said I was fine,” is not going to cut it anymore.

The key to both of the sleep apneas is simple; manage the condition short-term with a CPAP or BiPAP but eliminate sleep apnea long-term through appropriate lifestyle changes that are going to lead to weight loss and pulling away from the diabetes development track.

For those of you out there who THINK you may have sleep apnea but you are afraid to find out (via a sleep study)–you are probably making the biggest health mistake of your life. Sleep apnea is devastating for your health.  It is an extreme stress on your body and brain that WILL shorten your life.  And the answer (CPAP), while a wee bit of a hassle, is non-drug, non-addicting and can have a major impact on your daily life.

On a side note, for those of you who snore but do NOT have sleep apnea, there have been concerns over the past few years on the relationship between snoring and later heart disease.  This means you are not off the hook for making the aforementioned lifestyle changes.

Back to this particular study.  In it, researchers looked at 8,059 Hispanics aged 45 to 74 years, to see if there were relationshiops between brain testing (specifically, neurocognitive scores were measured using Word Fluency Test, the Brief–Spanish English Verbal Learning Test, and Digit Symbol Substitution Test) and obstructive sleep apnea.  The sleep apnea was graded based on the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI), or how many times the patient stopped breathing in an average hour of sleep.  Normal is consider none to 4 episodes per hour.  Here’s what they found:

  • The mean AHI was 9.0 (this means that, on average, everyone in the study had some degree of sleep apnea).
  • As the AHI number got higher, the female patients scored worse on all 4 of the brain-based tests.

The bottom line is that there are clear associations between sleep apnea and damage to the brain as demonstrated in these tests.  If you even remotely think that you may have sleep apnea, you need to have this fully evaluated at a sleep center or at home with a home sleep-study kit (not as good for other sleep disorders, but is pretty good for identifying sleep apnea).

And, if you have a CPAP machine collecting dust on the nightstand, it’s time to dust it off and start using it.  Your brain will thank you.

 

Diabetes and Drugs to Lower Cholesterol

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DO THE DRUGS THAT LOWER CHOLESTEROL ACTUALLY MAKE THE CONDITION WORSE?

It is a sad state that most cases of elevated cholesterol are actually due to being pre-diabetic.  How do we know?  Look for lowered HDL and elevated triglycerides.  Clear sign.  So, enter mainstream medicine and respond with knee-jerk reaction.  Give statins.  Numbers look better.  Doctor is very happy.  Patient is deluded into thinking everything is OK.  Numbers great, no need for lifestyle changes.  Everyone’s happy.  Including the OTHER drug company that makes diabetic drugs, because more evidence is mounting that statins INCREASE THE RISK OF DIABETES, WHICH IS WHAT WAS WRONG IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!  UGH!!!  This, more than anything, is one of the most frustrating “fixes” in mainstream medicine to me.  And stay tuned for the next update, which finally begins to admit that statins do nothing to protect against that first heart attack..

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