High blood sugar can destroy your organs. What you can do about it?
Glucotoxicity (toxicity of glucose, which is sugar) causes a massive oxidation effect, which is like rusting inside your body. It can happen in your arteries, brain, or nerves.
Your body starts to heal it with proteins, calcium, and cholesterol that form plaques. That is the body’s equivalent of a bandaid. (By the way, diabetics that consume antioxidants from real food can lower the effects of glucotoxicity.)
Then you have glycation, caused when glucose and protein are combined then heated, such as with barbequed ribs that you then eat. This can cause some proteins in your body to become unusable and cause damage anywhere within your body.
These are the four main organs at risk from high blood sugar:
This is Part One of a series of three Posts. Part Two will cover more questions about Type 2 Diabetes. Part Three will cover Gestational Diabetes.
What causes high blood sugar?
Many things can cause high blood sugar, but what we eat plays the biggest and most direct role in elevating blood sugar. When we eat carbohydrates, our body converts those carbohydrates into glucose, and this can play a role in raising blood sugar. Protein, to a certain degree, in high amounts can also raise blood sugar levels. Fat does not raise blood sugar levels. Stress leading to an increase in the hormone cortisol can also raise blood sugar levels.
What’s the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition that results in the body’s inability to produce insulin. People who suffer from Type 1 diabetes must be on insulin in order to keep glucose levels within normal limits.
Type 2 diabetes is a disease in which either the body is able to produce insulin but is not able to produce enough or the body does not respond to the insulin that is being produced (known as insulin resistance). People with type 2 diabetes must be on a low carbohydrate diet to keep their diabetes from worsening.
What should your fasting blood glucose be?
A fasting blood sugar should be less than 100 in order to be considered normal. A fasting blood sugar of >100 to 125 is consistent with prediabetes. Fasting blood sugar levels of 126 or greater is diagnostic of diabetes.
If your fasting blood glucose is consistent with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, we recommend that you speak with your physician.
What is diabetic ketoacidosis?
Diabetic ketoacidosis (or DKA) is a serious medical condition that can result from very high levels of ketones in the blood. If it is not recognized and treated right away, then it can lead to a coma or even death. Because it is such a serious condition, a person who develops diabetic ketoacidosis is usually admitted to the hospital for treatment.
This condition occurs when the body’s cells are unable to use glucose for energy, and the body begins to break down fat for energy instead. Ketones are produced when the body breaks down fat, and very high levels of ketones can make the blood extremely acidic. The acidity can potentially cause coma and death.
People with type 1 diabetes are at risk of developing diabetic ketoacidosis if they do not take their insulin, if they do not eat, or if they become sick for other reasons (such as an infection). It is very unusual for people with type 2 diabetes to develop diabetic ketoacidosis.
Ketosis vs. ketoacidosis: What is the difference?
Ketosis: Endogenous ketones are known to be safe at physiologic levels. It has long been known that ketones are an effective alternate metabolic fuel and recent studies have shown them to be potent epigenetic and hormonal signaling molecules as well. In nutritional ketosis, serum ketones range from 0.5 to 5 mM. This is the body’s normal state of lipolysis (breaking down of fats) that occurs when carbohydrates are avoided.
Ketoacidosis:In stark contrast to this normal physiology of ketosis, pathologic ketoacidosis manifests with serum levels ketone levels of 15-25 mM (i.e., three- to ten-fold higher than in nutritional ketosis). Lipolysis is exquisitely regulated, so it is exceedingly rare for a patient with normal pancreatic beta cell function to enter ketoacidosis.
How does Metformin treat prediabetes and type 2 diabetes?
The mechanism of action of metformin is not fully understood. It appears to reduce glucose production in the liver, although there is now evidence that other factors may also play a role.
What is type 1 diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes is a condition where the body does not produce insulin.
What is insulin? Insulin is a hormone that is needed for the body to move glucose from the blood into the body’s cells. All of the organs in the body, including the brain, the heart, and the lungs, are made of cells. These cells use glucose for energy, which is why it is important for the glucose to move from the bloodstream into the cells.
The lack of insulin production in type 1 diabetes is usually caused by a problem with the pancreas. Type 1 diabetes is considered to be a permanent condition when it is diagnosed.
Prediabetes
What are the signs and symptoms of prediabetes?
Prediabetes is considered to be one of the most insidious precursors to diabetes because it may not have any signs or symptoms. This is why it is so important to do diagnostic blood tests checking a fasting glucose or hemoglobin A1c (Hba1c) test to establish a diagnosis of prediabetes. Many people who have prediabetes do not have any symptoms. By the time symptoms occurs, the diagnosis has usually already progressed to diabetes. There are some rare situations in which an individual can present with diabetes-related complications such as a retinal bleed, neuropathy or even a stroke, while only having a diagnosis of prediabetes.
What is the best diet for prediabetes?
A low carbohydrate diet is the ideal diet for prediabetes. This is because prediabetes occurs when glucose levels start to rise and the body produces insulin to try and lower the glucose levels. If the body cannot produce enough insulin or if the insulin level that the body is producing is not enough to meet the demands of the high glucose load, then glucose levels continue to rise.
How do you reverse prediabetes?
Prediabetes can be reversed by following a low carbohydrate diet.
Once glucose levels are lowered with a low carbohydrate diet, the body’s demand for insulin also goes down. As insulin levels are lowered due to lowered glucose levels, this will then be reflected in lab results such as a normal HbA1c or fasting glucose. Once Hba1c or fasting glucose has been normalized, then one can say that the prediabetes has been put into remission or reversed.
Dr. Hallberg describes how a low carbohydrate diet can be an effective treatment for insulin resistance in this video.
What is the usual treatment for prediabetes?
Some providers may prescribe Metformin to patients who suffer from prediabetes for some time and are unable to make the dietary changes to reverse their prediabetes, yet are at high risk for developing diabetes.
Many patients who receive a diagnosis of prediabetes will also be told to lose weight with diet and exercise. Weight loss also plays a role in reversing prediabetes; however, the mechanism by which prediabetes is reversed is related to lowering insulin levels, and lowering insulin levels can help reduce weight.
Can prediabetes be reversed permanently?
Prediabetes can be reversed through the dietary changes outlined here. However, it is important to understand that if someone eats a low carbohydrate diet and reverses their prediabetes but then begins eating carbohydrates again in the future, the prediabetes will return.They must eat a low carbohydrate diet lifelong in order to reverse prediabetes and keep it permanently reversed.
The source of this information is the Virta Health website. Here is the link, please copy and paste it into your address bar
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Dr. Dwight Lundell is the past Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital, Mesa , AZ. His private practice, Cardiac Care Center was in Mesa, AZ. Recently Dr. Lundell left surgery to focus on the nutritional treatment of heart disease. He is the founder of Healthy Humans Foundation that promotes human health with a focus on helping large corporations promote wellness. He is also the author of The Cure for Heart Disease and The Great Cholesterol Lie.
Dr. Lundell says, as a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact. I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labeled “opinion makers.” Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol. The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease.
Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.
What follows are the highlights from the video:
World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease.
Dr. Lundell observed while doing heart operations that the cornonary artery had a lot of redness and swelling around the plaque area. These are two of the cardinal signs of inflammation.
He began wondering if inflammation was part of the problem. Russell Ross and others published and articles about vascular biology, that proved inflammation was the mechanism behind plaque build up in the arteries.
The cause is not cholesterol. 70% of heart attack patients have normal cholesterol.
Scientific studies after 2006 had more stringent guides and showed that statins do not reduce the risk of heart attack.
Dr. Lundell says that cholesterol is not a marker for heart disease. It is a marker for eating too many carbohydrates because carbohydrate gets turned into triglycerides, which raises your LDL cholesterol. To lower your cholesterol, eat a lot of saturated fats and lower your carbohydrate intake.
Cholesterol is not important. What is important is sugar, that’s carbohydrate.
The 1977 US food guide recommended 60 to 70% of the food intake should be carbohydrates and eliminated saturated fats.
Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol. If LDL cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, eliminating saturated that makes no sense.
What is the real cause of heart disease? It is inflammation. Inflammation follows injury. What is causing the injury? It is sugar.
Dr. Michael Brownlee published an article detailing the mechanisms by which sugar damages. The cells in the eyes and the kidneys are different from the rest of the body. They cannot stop sugar or glucose going into their cells so they were damaged more quickly than other cells. Dr. Brownlee wanted to know how these cells were so injured as to cause blindness and kidney disease. He found that injury causes inflammation, and inflammation is the mechanism for heart disease as well as other diseases. But what’s causing the injury?
Sugar is causing it. Sugar molecules combined with protein or fat in a process called glycation. A1c is glycated hemoglobin. The main pathway to inflammation is when the sugar (glucose) gets presented to the mitochondria inside endothelial cell and since it can’t stop sugar coming in it gets damaged. (Endothelial cells normally line blood vessels to maintain vascular integrity and permeability).
When sugar is introduced to the mitochondria it overloads it and produces a whole bunch of extra free radicals, which then caused damages to the cell, which then trigger the inflammation. Plaque as produced as a bandage over the inflammation.
The standard American diet injures the cells every day. It is the main cause of heart disease. Not cholesterol, not salt. It’s sugar.
Other cells can stop glucose sugar from coming in that is the essence of insulin resistance causing diabetes.
If you want to be healthy and control blood sugar, stop eating a standard American diet. Get yourself on a reduced low carbohydrate diet with extra healthy saturated fat and a moderate amount of protein.
Low carbohydrate nutrition is the key to health.
I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.
I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.
To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.
I thrive on feedback. Please let me know you are interested in the content by clicking Like, Commenting or sending me a message or email about the Post.
If you wish to contact me by Email, please email lpolstra@bell.net using this form.
Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.
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