What Do the Experts Say pt.4

Hello, everybody. Sorry I didn’t blog yesterday. We had a death in the family and quite frankly, I just didn’t feel up to it. But, I’m back, so here goes.

I want to talk a little more about Dr. Vernon, her line of treatment for Type 2 patients, why we got away from her type of treatment, and more of the ADA’s out-dated thinking (in my opinion). Here’s a little more from the Men’s Health article entitled, "A Cure for Diabetes".


Although the typical advice recommended by the ADA and most diabetes health providers is a high-carb, low-fat diet, Dr. Vernon is among a minority of voices who believes this advice is absolutely absurd. And she knows firsthand the positive impact that a controlled-carbohydrate nutritional approach is having on the A1C levels of her patients.

"My first line of treatment is to have patients remove carbohydrates from their diets," explains Dr. Vernon, a petite, energetic mother of two who also serves as the president of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. "This is often all it takes to reverse their symptoms, so that they no longer require medication."

What's odd here, however, is that the ADA doesn't advise giving the lifestyle component a chance to work before reaching for the pill bottle.
"Metformin is insurance for people who aren't following their diet and exercise plan," explains John Buse, M.D., Ph.D., president-elect of medicine and science for the ADA.
The message to insulin-resistant America: We don't think you're going to help yourself, so here, take this.

"I believe in addressing the cause, not the symptoms," Dr. Vernon says. "That's why I first eliminate the foods that raise blood sugar. It's only logical."
So logical, in fact, that Elliott Proctor Joslin, M.D., a Harvard- and Yale-educated physician, used it more than a century ago. According to carefully documented patient logs he kept from 1893 to 1916, Dr. Joslin successfully treated dozens of diabetic patients -- including his own mother -- using a diet made up of 70 percent fat and just 10 percent carbohydrates.

Then, in 1921, a Canadian scientist named Frederick Banting found that by injecting diabetic dogs with insulin, he could lower their blood sugar back to normal. Soon after, insulin therapy made the leap from these hyperglycemic hounds to human beings. By the 1940s, insulin was in widespread use, and low-carbohydrate diets were on the decline. Dr. Joslin was later labeled a medical reactionary.

"Instead of advising people with diabetes to first restrict carbohydrates, physicians simply started prescribing enough insulin to accommodate patients' carbohydrate intake," says Dr. Vernon, who some 60 years later is trying to pick up where Dr. Joslin left off and reeducate academics and physicians by sharing her observational evidence. In published, retrospective reviews of her patients' medical charts, Dr. Vernon has documented the beneficial effects of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet for more than 60 people who had diabetes or were at high risk of developing the disease.

Of course, in the world of medicine, the experience of one doctor carries little scientific weight compared with experimental studies conducted under controlled conditions. That's why, in 2003, researchers at Duke University set out to test Dr. Vernon's findings in a laboratory setting. The results of their 16-week study: 17 out of the 21 diabetic patients who participated were able to significantly reduce their medication or discontinue it altogether.

Again, I am not a doctor. I just want to share with you information from my research and my experience with a low carb/high fat lifestyle. It has worked for me and many others, and I am sure it will work for you. For sure, it takes discipline and self-responsibility but it is so much easier and better for you than popping pills and/or taking shots that really just mask the symptoms while the disease itself continues to ravage your body. See you tomorrow.

Men's Health, "A Cure for Diabetes"
http://www.menshealth.com/men/health/other-diseases-ailments/the-cure-for-diabetes/article/4a935e4e40fae010VgnVCM20000012281eac