Insulin
Resistance - The Killer
Don't Wait For Your Doctor To Save Your Life!
Have you
been diagnosed with clinical depression? Heart disease? Type II or adult,
diabetes? Narcolepsy? Are you, or do you think you might be, an alcoholic?
Do you gain weight around your middle in spite of faithfully dieting?
Are you unable to lose weight? Does your child have ADHD? If you have
any one of these symptoms, I wrote this article for you.
Believe it or not, the same thing can cause all of the above symptoms.
I am not a medical professional. I am not a nutritionist. The conclusions
I have drawn from my own experience and observations are not rocket science.
A diagnosis of clinical depression is as ordinary as the common cold today.
Prescriptions for Prozac, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, etc., are written every
day. Genuine clinical depression is a very serious condition caused by
serotonin levels in the brain. I am not certain, however, that every diagnosis
of depression is the real thing. My guess is that about 10 percent of
the people taking these drugs actually need them.
I am not saying that the other 90 percent do not have real and very distressing
symptoms! I am saying that I believe that 90 percent of the people diagnosed
with clinical depression actually do have normal serotonin levels. They
have a very real condition, all right, but it isn't depression.
The condition
they have is called insulin resistance. Left untreated, it will cause
weight gain (around the middle of the body) and depression-like symptoms.
Over time, it will cause problems with concentration and alertness. In
the worst cases, it will cause diabetes, heart disease, and eventually,
death.
The problem here is elementary physiology. The human body uses insulin
to store glucose in cells (as fat). Most of us know that glucose is sugar,
but very few of us know that the body cannot distinguish between starches
and sugar. Your body cannot tell the difference between a piece of white
bread and a handful of sugar.
Whole wheat
bread is better, but only because it’s absorbed into the blood more
slowly. All carbohydrates - including, but not limited to, rice, corn,
potatoes, and even carrots - are converted into sugar in your body. In
fact, there is a school of thought that says that a baked potato is actually
worse for you than eating raw glucose. From my own experience, I think
that school of thought is quite correct.
In some people, particularly after years of abuse, the body stops utilising
insulin well. To compensate, the pancreas makes more insulin. The results
include weight gain, an increase in triglycerides, lousy cholesterol ratios,
climbing blood pressure. In extreme cases, the pancreas eventually becomes
exhausted and insulin levels fall, creating Type II diabetes.
In short, I am talking about a recipe for suicide.
Insulin Resistance Is Deadly
Insulin resistance is deadly, but why does it also make you feel lousy?
Blood sugar! First, you eat something that makes blood sugar rise - some
sort of carbohydrate. Maybe it was a chocolate bar. Maybe it was a sandwich
(two slices of bread!). Maybe it was a baked potato, or rice, or a serving
of corn. Maybe it was a breakfast pastry or bowl of cereal. After you
eat, blood sugar rises for about twenty minutes, which makes you feel
quite good.
Meanwhile, your body is busily trying to utilize this food. Whoops! The
insulin isn't working. Make more. And more. All of a sudden, you have
too much insulin floating about and your blood sugar drops through the
floor.
You feel worse than sleepy. It's a groggy feeling, like you've taken a
barbiturate - you can't keep your eyes open. If you can, you go to sleep.
If you can't, you suffer. Either way, it's over eventually. Afterward,
you actually have a slight hangover, like you've been poisoned. Well,
your own body has poisoned you. Worse still, you are now ravenously hungry
- so you do it again.
If I have just described you, then you are insulin resistant and addicted to carbohydrates. It wasn't your fault. You did as you were told by the folks who should have known better. Don't beat yourself up about it. But it's going to kill you if you don't change it.
The lousy
feeling of low blood sugar mimics depression. That uncontrollable sleepiness
mimics narcolepsy. But how does this explain alcoholism? As in the other
two cases, it doesn't.
Alcoholism, like clinical depression and narcolepsy, is a real and incurable
disease. But carbohydrate addiction can certainly cause problem drinking!
Nothing on this planet can be converted to pure sugar faster than alcohol,
so nothing makes you feel better faster when your blood sugar is below
the floor - very briefly.
Then your blood sugar crashes, and you need another drink to feel better
again. And another. And another. The next thing you know, you are looking
at a DWI, which is totally bewildering because you did not set out to
get drunk!
Are you an alcoholic? It's possible. It is also possible that you’re
not. If not, should you ever drink? Not for a long, long time. You've
got healing to do. You will also need to accept the fact that you will
never, never be able to drink like other folks. I find I can manage a
glass of dry wine a couple of times a week now. That's it, and I do it
only at bedtime.
That way, if it gets me, I just go to bed instead of having another drink.
I was never a heavy drinker, fortunately. My carbohydrate addiction took
other forms. My father drank a quart of Vodka a day for fifty years. Was
he an alcoholic? I used to think so, but in the light of what I've learned
over the last year, I'm not so sure now.
He didn't
like to get drunk, and he was appalled when he did. Was he a carbohydrate
addict? Well, he was certainly a depressive. He was diagnosed a narcoleptic,
too, but I remember he always fell asleep after meals. He was fat, and
he gained all that weight right around his waist. You tell me.
Cut Out The Carbs
So what is the answer? Stop eating the carbohydrates! And please, please
get over the irrational fear of dietary fat. Your body needs fat to function.
There are dozens of low carbohydrate books out there, and most were written
by physicians. Buy several and read them carefully. Then pick the plan
that works for you.
Everyone's body is different. I personally follow the Atkins Diet, which is the most severe of the popular plans today, but my insulin resistance was quite bad. Fortunately, I caught it before I'd done any permanent damage to my body. I am not, thank God, diabetic, but I believe I would have been eventually if I had not found this way of life. My pancreas was certainly working overtime.
What do I
eat now? Lots and lots of meat and cheese. Reasonable amounts of green
vegetables and salad (with real dressing, containing real fat). No sugars
of any kind (not even fruit). And no starches. Needless to say, I do take
a major handful of vitamins daily.
I also have occasional treats. I make my own chocolate, for example, using
Baker's Unsweetened chocolate, real butter, vanilla, pecans, and a sweetener
called Splenda (which I can't distinguish from real sugar, but doesn't
cause an insulin response). Any woman over the age of twelve years who
reads this article will understand why I can't survive without chocolate!
Fortunately, I don't have to.
Am I in ketosis?
I certainly hope so. Ketosis is that state where your body burns fat instead
of
carbohydrates for energy. The word comes
from the appearance of ketones in urine (ketones are a normal byproduct
of fat burning).
Unfortunately,
many people confuse what Dr. Atkins calls "benign dietary ketosis"
with keto-acidosis, which is lethal for a diabetic. The difference to
remember is that keto-acidosis is a result of uncontrolled high blood
sugar in a diabetic. On this diet, it is just about impossible to have
high blood sugar. My blood sugar remains well within normal limits and
stable now, regardless of how much food I consume.
So what has happened for me in the ten months since I made this drastic
change? Well, my triglycerides have dropped from 256 to 69! My cholesterol
is 150 with an excellent ratio (used to be about the same, but with much
lower HDL). My blood pressure has dropped from 145/110 to 107/70. My energy
levels have surged. I get through a 13-hour work shift in reasonably good
shape now - with none of this feeling like I'm going die around mid-afternoon.
If I get hungry, I eat something immediately, so I am never uncomfortably
hungry. My migraines have just about vanished. I have taken antidepressant
medication for most of my life, but I haven't touched the stuff in many
months, and I am no longer even slightly depressed. Frankly, I haven't
felt this good in thirty years! My exercise endurance is better than it
ever was eating carbohydrates - so much for that mythical nonsense.
Last, but far from least, I've lost 70 pounds. According to my weight
in the past, I've still got about 40 pounds still to lose, but I don't
think so. Because the weight I've retained is mostly muscle (if you eat
high protein, you don't lose muscle), I actually look - and my clothes
fit - like I've got about 10 pounds to go. I would certainly no longer
describe myself as obese!
Is this diet
hurting my health? My doctor certainly doesn't think so. In recent years
he has seen enough results from low carbohydrate diets to recommend them
to just about all his patients, obese or not.
Will it work for you? That is difficult to say. You will see dramatic
results if you are, in fact, insulin resistant. If you are really depressed
or narcoleptic, you may not. Unfortunately, the only test for insulin
resistance is so unpleasant that doctors almost never recommend it.
It is far,
far easier to just give a low carbohydrate diet a try and see how you
feel after about two weeks. Give it a full two weeks. There is an adjustment
period, and you will feel worse briefly, but for most people, that's over
in a couple of days.
Lifesaver!
It could save your life. It could do nothing at all, but what have you
lost in that case? Only a little time and effort! You must decide if it
is worth enough to you to give it a try.
Let me offer one word of caution. If you are already an insulin-dependent
diabetic, either Type I or Type II, this will lower your insulin requirement
more than you would believe possible. Most Type II diabetics can stop
taking insulin altogether. This is more than a good thing, but you must
start this only under the very close supervision of a doctor, so that
he can adjust your insulin intake downward to avoid insulin reactions
that could result in your death.
There is one more disease I want to talk about, because it is hurting
our children terribly - Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder. I
don't know what percentage of children between the ages of five and twelve
are actually taking Ritalin, but the
figures are appallingly high.
Recent research has shown that kids who take Omega 3 fatty acids show
a dramatic improvement in ADHD. This makes sense, because ADHD only started
appearing in huge numbers about fifty years ago, and in the last fifty
years, the average consumption of cold water fish (a primary source of
Omega 3) has dropped by 80 percent. Personally, I’m not fond of
fish. I'd rather take the pills. Either way, you need Omega 3 fatty acids,
and children need them even more.
I also believe that there is another factor at work here. Have you ever
watched a small child drink fizzy pop - and watched what happened afterward?
The kids I've seen act psychotic. They bounce off walls for a few minutes.
Then they become downright mean. Classic ADHD!
This is caused
partly by caffeine, but mostly by sugar. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich
is not an appropriate meal for a small child, but we've been brainwashed
for years to believe that a high carbohydrate diet - I mean ridiculously
high - is actually good for our kids. That is not true!
I would never recommend putting a child on a severely restricted carbohydrate
diet, unless they are already insulin resistant. If the child is not obese,
then a balanced diet is the way to go. I mean equal portions of protein,
high fibre vegetables, and one starch (rice, corn, etc.). No deserts and
very little bread! Absolutely no drinks containing sugar or caffeine!
If you feel
you must provide your child with a sweet, make it a banana or an orange.
If you help your children form this dietary habit young, the chances are
far less that they will ever develop ADHD or insulin resistance. In addition,
you are going to spend a lot less at the dentist's office!
AMA Daren't Admit It's Wrong
The American Medical Association has recommended a diet ridiculously high
in carbohydrates and low in fat for more than thirty years. Many people
in this country follow this diet, and it is a perfect recipe for causing
a normal, healthy person to become insulin resistant! These folks would
be wise to remember that the average physician has less training in nutrition
than a two-year dietician.
During these thirty years, what results have we seen?
A hundred years ago, the average American consumed less than seven percent
of the sugar he eats (and drinks) today, and Grandma kept a can of lard
on the stove. The typical breakfast was bacon or sausage and eggs - fried
in lard. Nobody had ever heard of margarine or fake eggs. Heart disease
was nowhere near as prevalent as it is today. Cancer rates were much lower.
So it’s very unlikely that cancer rates will climb drastically with
an increase of fat in our diet.
As for the deterioration in our cardiac health, we have assumed it was
due to lack of exercise. Partly true! But people owned just as many cars
thirty years ago as they do today, and it wasn't as "fashionable"
to exercise. So exercise can’t be the whole story!
After thirty years of high carbohydrate and low fat, obesity and diabetes
are major epidemics, and heart disease is now the number 1 killer in most
industrialised countries! Type II diabetes is becoming a common diagnosis
in children! Am I the only one who can see the connection here?
I don't think so. My doctor sees it. A lot of other doctors have written
books about it.
Nevertheless,
the American Medical Association stubbornly refuses to change their recommendation
for a healthy heart. Their so-called "food pyramid" completely
ignores the fact that muscle needs protein, and the heart is a muscle.
Why? I don't know. I am sure that most of the doctors involved are sincere.
However, I do also suspect that admitting that the so-called "heart
healthy" diet actually causes diabetes and heart disease would make
it possible for the families of victims to sue. And the United States
is the most litigious society in the world. With the UK catching up fast.
I don't think the AMA can afford to admit they goofed.
About
the author:
At a tiny 5'1", Kathryn A. Graham is a licensed private investigator,
pilot, aircraft mechanic and handgun instructor in Texas. Also a prolific
author, she has written numerous articles, short stories and a science
fiction novel.
http://www.kathrynagraham.com/
Email:
kate@devtex.net
For
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is why this website is worth a visit. Compiled by a diabetic to help fellow
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http://www.your-diabetes.com
Editor's comment:
If you have any sugar level concerns you should also read this snippet
on how Cinnamon may help reduce your blood
sugar levels.
©2004 Natural Good Health