Participants: George Guthrie, Don Mackintosh
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL000129
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00:47 Hello and welcome to "Health for a Lifetime"
00:49 I'm your host Don Mackintosh 00:50 and we're glad you've joined us today. 00:52 We're going to be talking about something that is 00:54 affecting millions of Americans and many people around the world 00:58 and that is type 2 diabetes. 01:00 Joining us to talk about this subject is Dr. George Guthrie 01:04 He is a physician at the "Lifestyle Center of America" 01:07 in Oklahoma, that deals with these types of things; 01:11 with lifestyle diseases. 01:12 He also is one of the founding physicians in a program called, 01:17 "Wellspring" that deals with the same thing. 01:19 He has practiced medicine for about 14 years 01:22 in a family practice setting. 01:23 He has also taught in the university, 01:26 at the university level, subjects like nutrition 01:29 as it relates to health, and were glad you're 01:31 with us Dr. Guthrie! Glad to be here, Don 01:33 I'm excited about the different things we're hearing 01:36 about the hope and help that can come to the 01:38 millions of Americans that have diabetes type 2. 01:41 That's right! It's encouraging! 01:43 And I guess you do this day-in-day-out, 01:45 you really help people all the time. 01:47 Yes, it's exciting to see people 01:49 actually changing their disease process. 01:52 Now we talked a little bit about diabetes on other programs 01:56 here on "Health for a Lifetime," 01:58 one type of diabetes is type 1 which is an autoimmune situation 02:03 that really you can't do anything about 02:06 except to treat with medication or there are some new approaches 02:09 that they are still implementing with 02:11 transplant of cells and whatnot. 02:13 But this is type 2 diabetes... 02:15 What is type 2 diabetes, what causes it, 02:18 what can we do about it? 02:19 In order to understand type 2 diabetes, 02:21 we need to understand how the 02:23 Creator designed us in the first place. 02:24 So let's review a little bit and then kind of 02:26 explain how it comes. 02:27 We take food in our mouth, it goes down into our stomach, 02:32 that little sac which kind of mixes up the digestive enzymes 02:36 and gets things started. 02:37 It then goes into the small intestine, 02:39 and is absorbed into the bloodstream. 02:41 The bloodstream takes the food, 02:45 the energy that's coming into the body 02:47 in a variety of different places. 02:48 one of the places it goes is the pancreas, 02:51 and there in the pancreas are cells; 02:54 they are called "beta cells" 02:56 Their job is to make a hormone which I like to call the 03:00 "Paul Revere hormone" 03:01 Remember what Paul Revere said? 03:03 Ahh... "The British are coming" Right! 03:05 Well insulin says, "The energy is coming" 03:08 to let the body know. 03:10 That messenger goes out throughout the whole body 03:14 and the cells of the body then 03:15 HEAR THAT... "The energy is coming" and open up 03:19 to RECEIVE the energy that is coming. 03:22 So that's the way the system works normally. 03:25 And then what happens when you've got a problem? 03:27 Paul Revere falls off his horse? What happens? 03:29 No, no - it's not Paul Revere falling off his horse this time. 03:32 In essence, it has to do with the listening ability. 03:35 You see, each cell in our body responds to that insulin 03:39 according to its own need. 03:41 You can imagine if I were running a race... 03:43 the thigh muscles, because I'm running, need a lot of energy, 03:46 and when the energy comes in, 03:48 the Paul Revere hormone says, "The energy is coming" 03:51 the cells of the thigh muscles say, 03:53 "I want it, give it to me" 03:54 On the other hand, your eye blinkers, 03:57 the ones that are kind of cleaning the windshield, 03:59 don't need all that much energy... 04:01 So if I'm running that race and all that energy comes in, 04:03 the Paul Revere hormone says "The energy is coming" 04:05 the eye blinkers say, "Hey, I'll take a little bit of it" 04:08 So there's an individual variation really among 04:10 ALL the cells of the body. 04:12 A relative insulin sensitivity 04:15 versus a relative insulin resistance. 04:18 Now, you asked about type 2 diabetes... Right 04:21 Here's what happens... 04:23 If there's too much energy in ALL the time, 04:27 coming, coming, coming, and no energy out - no EXERCISE 04:32 the cells get FULL - they don't need it individually, 04:37 like the eye blinkers which say, 04:39 "Maybe I'll take a little bit of it," 04:40 the rest of the cells begin to say the same thing. 04:43 When the thigh muscles or most of the cells in the body 04:46 are saying, "No thank you," 04:49 then we begin to see the changes that lead to 04:53 type 2 diabetes. 04:54 Okay, so this then - they resist because there's SO much 04:58 insulin out there they just don't need it. 04:59 Exactly! And then what happens? 05:02 What happens... the body knows that TOO much sugar, 05:08 too much energy in the bloodstream will tend to cause 05:13 problems! 05:15 Now, I think we've mentioned these before... 05:17 There can be problems... The graphic that we looked at, 05:21 I think we have one that we can look at. 05:23 Small blood vessel diseases are CAUSED BY blood sugars that are 05:27 UP too much - too LONG... 05:29 And so the body tries to keep that from happening. 05:34 If there is a, for example, the blood vessels in the eyes 05:39 are kind of plugged up by too much blood sugar, 05:41 it leads to blindness, 05:42 same thing can happen in the kidneys, 05:44 or in the nerves to lead to neuropathy... 05:47 The body KNOWING that says, 05:49 "We've got to get this energy OUT of the bloodstream," 05:53 and so it starts to yell LOUDER. 05:56 Okay, so the real problems then and we talked about those, 06:00 with the sugar going up is that it really causes damage 06:03 in these small vessels and they say, 06:05 "Hey, get it OUT of the bloodstream 06:08 because we don't want the person going blind, 06:09 and we don't want that happening. " 06:11 So where does it go? 06:12 So what happens is the pancreas just yells LOUDER. 06:15 The Paul Revere hormone keeps coming out... 06:17 "THE ENERGY IS COMING... THE ENERGY IS COMING" 06:19 And that higher and higher... 06:21 Well the increasing levels of insulin 06:24 kind of force the cells to take it. 06:28 But they are developing something called an 06:31 insulin resistance... 06:34 And when MOST of the cells in the body have 06:36 this thing called "insulin resistance," 06:39 then we say that the whole body has insulin resistance. 06:43 I think we have a graphic that shows a little bit of 06:45 the physiology... we want to look at that. 06:48 I assume is the stomach and it's going down in there 06:51 and getting churned up and then supposedly going 06:53 down into the intestine... What's happening here? 06:55 Well it's absorbed into the blood vessels. 06:57 Some of the blood vessels go to the pancreas 06:59 which then respond. 07:01 Isn't that that little finger- like thing off the stomach? 07:03 Yeah, it kind of sticks behind the stomach. 07:05 You can see part of it over there to the left, 07:06 and then the little finger that sticks out. 07:08 And then the insulin goes out and really sends the message 07:12 to ALL the cells in the body. 07:14 Okay and then when that's messed up, 07:17 just like you described, we get insulin resistance. 07:19 The cells don't want it. 07:21 They're saying, "Absolutely not" 07:22 We see the insulin levels going UP. 07:25 As the insulin levels go up, 07:27 it begins to cause problems in the body. 07:31 What are the problems it causes, 07:32 and what should we do to treat them? 07:33 Okay, the first one I'd like to put up on the list is actually 07:40 OBESITY 07:42 And that's because insulin is a growth hormone. 07:47 When your insulin levels go up, 07:49 it tends to make you store energy. 07:51 So not only do you tend to store fat energy, 07:56 but you also tend to build up, 07:59 increase proteins in the body as well. 08:04 One of the common things that happens to me in the office 08:06 is that a young man will come in... 08:07 I say "young" now, so let's say 45 years of age... 08:10 That's young! Very young! Thank you! 08:13 He says, "You know doc, I'm having a hard time 08:17 getting the weight off. " 08:18 "I've put on 30-40 pounds; 08:20 when I was young, I was a jock; 08:22 football, track, field - whatever it may be" 08:25 "I'd gain a little weight, I'd just exercise 08:27 and it would come off. " 08:28 "I graduated from college and got a desk job, 08:31 and I still try to do the exercise, 08:33 but you know, my weight would go up a little bit, 08:36 I'd exercise and it would go back down. " 08:38 "Well, recently it's not working .. my weight is still going up" 08:43 So this clicks in your mind... Well, he's not processing 08:46 the insulin and all that stuff correctly. 08:48 He is developing insulin resistance; 08:50 his insulin levels are going up, 08:53 and that's making it hard for him to lose weight. 08:56 So if someone that has that happening today 08:57 that's listening, they may need to check out whether or not 08:59 they have... If it's hard to lose weight, 09:01 it's LIKELY that your insulin levels are starting to go up. 09:05 If the insulin levels are going up, 09:06 you're on the road to developing that diabetes. 09:10 Is this something that you should go immediately 09:12 see a physician about or is it something 09:14 that could wait a couple of years? 09:17 Let's wait until we talk about the treatment! Okay? 09:20 What's another thing that happens then? 09:21 High insulin levels are also strongly associated with 09:24 elevated blood pressure! 09:26 I've seen reports in the literature; 09:28 taking people of hypertension, 90% of them, 09:32 have elevated insulin levels. 09:34 Now insulin... we're not 100% sure of the cause and 09:36 relationship here, but we know that insulin 09:39 tends to make the kidneys hang on to sodium... 09:42 And sodium pulls water in and if there's more water 09:44 in the pipes, the pressure tends to go up! 09:46 Also... 09:48 So high blood pressure is related to diabetes... 09:49 I mean, I haven't heard this too often, 09:51 and you're saying that happens as a result of... 09:53 The elevated insulin levels! Okay, all right. 09:55 You see, the body is getting insulin resistance... 09:57 The insulin resistance, the body is overcoming that by 10:00 increasing the insulin. Okay 10:02 As the insulin goes up, it tends to hold on 10:04 to the sodium AND the insulin resistance itself 10:07 makes the blood vessels so they're less stretchy. 10:10 That is, they tend to be a little narrower. 10:12 Smaller pipes and more water in the pipes 10:15 tend to make the pressure go up. 10:17 Something ELSE elevated insulin levels do... 10:21 is to actually RAISE cholesterol. 10:26 High insulin levels make the cholesterol go up 10:28 That includes the BAD cholesterol... the LDLs 10:33 At the SAME time, it tends to 10:35 make the GOOD cholesterol, the HDLs, go DOWN. 10:38 How does that work? Why does that happen? 10:40 You know, I'm not sure of the mechanism on that, 10:42 but it's pretty direct, it connects... So they always this 10:45 when the insulin goes up, cholesterol goes up, 10:47 HDL goes down. 10:49 That's right... the insulin, as it raises, has this effect, 10:53 and put those effects together, and you have a set up 10:57 for something called "heart attacks," right? 11:00 So we're kind of building a case here on the way to 11:04 type 2 diabetes... actually a series of diseases 11:08 that are coming secondary to the insulin levels going up. 11:13 We have increase in weight. 11:15 We have increase in blood pressure. 11:17 We have the increase in cholesterol, 11:18 and heart attack risk. 11:21 So 3 or 4 of them... Someone I was talking to once 11:25 called these 4, "The deadly quartet" 11:27 That's one of the for it, yes. 11:29 Sometimes it's called, "The insulin resistant syndrome" 11:32 Because its insulin resistance is actually causing these things 11:35 So if anybody has a duet or a solo or a trio happening, 11:38 it's TIME TO GET TO THE DOCTOR! RIGHT? 11:40 Well, it's time to do something about it FOR SURE! 11:43 Are we ready to talk about what we can do about it? 11:45 Okay, we can do that, it's really NOT that difficult. 11:50 If you understand that the CAUSE of the disease 11:54 is actually from too much energy in, 11:57 and NOT enough energy OUT... exercise, 12:01 then the best way to deal with it is to 12:03 turn that process around. 12:05 So EXERCISE is one thing we can do. 12:07 Exercise and decrease the number of calories coming in. 12:11 What kind of exercise is the best? 12:13 Anything that uses the muscles! 12:18 Well that pretty much opens it up! 12:20 Well what kinds of things do they do at the Lifestyle Center? 12:23 What kind of things do they recommend 12:25 in the Wellspring Program? 12:26 Well, there are a lot of different kinds of exercise 12:29 and they can be talked about in a lot of different ways. 12:31 You need to MOVE for #1 12:33 The antithesis of health is the couch potato... 12:38 who is sitting there doing nothing! 12:40 You know, you get credit for the exercise you do 12:43 when you just get up and walk, right - a little bit. 12:47 Parking at the far end of the parking lot 12:49 so you can walk forward. 12:51 But, you know, you ask about specific forms of exercise 12:54 that might be beneficial and again I want to emphasize 12:56 ANY exercise is better than none. 12:58 At the Lifestyle Center of America, 13:00 we believe that something called "intermittent training" 13:04 ...usually used in high Olympic-class athletes 13:08 modified for people with these diseases... 13:12 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, heart disease 13:16 is actually a better way of exercising. 13:19 So intermittent - does that mean you stop and start? 13:22 Yes, our little rule is - every minute that you exercise 13:27 needs some rest within that minute. 13:29 So, for example, in my exercise program, 13:31 now that I've learned how to do it, 13:33 I'll exercise hard for about 45 seconds, 13:36 and then rest for 30 seconds, 13:39 and then 45 seconds really hard, 13:40 and then rest or slow WAY down for 30 seconds. 13:44 So it's okay for when I'm out there running, 13:46 and I see all these cars coming by and I say, 13:47 "Man, I wish I could slow down" 13:48 I should just do it instead of just saying... 13:50 "Just keep going because they're all coming, 13:52 and they're going to think you're a wimp" 13:54 "You just keep going" 13:55 You've kind of gotten me moving 13:57 over towards the exercise side of things, 13:59 but let me focus on the intermittent training. 14:03 We really think it works well because it keeps 14:06 lactic acid out of the blood. 14:07 Lactic acid is a toxic sort of a substance 14:10 that tends to make the cells sick. 14:12 Well you know, if you push it too hard your muscles are sore. 14:15 Lactic acid tends to decrease your pleasure from your exercise 14:19 and especially for people who are sick... 14:21 Makes them... they don't feel as well. 14:23 If we keep the lactic acid out, 14:24 they can actually improve faster. 14:26 So that's an important part of our treatment program, 14:30 and certainly taught and recommended at 14:32 Lifestyle Center of America, 14:34 as well as the Wellspring Program 14:35 available for people in their homes. 14:37 We've been talking with Dr. George Guthrie 14:39 We're talking about type 2 diabetes. 14:41 We're going to be getting some more practical suggestions 14:44 on how to stop, reverse or probably better yet 14:47 even than that... PREVENT this disease when we come back. 14:50 We hope that you join us. 14:52 Have you found yourself wishing that you could shed a few pounds 14:55 Have you been on a diet for most of your life, 14:57 but not found anything that will really keep the weight off? 15:00 If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions, 15:03 then we have a solution for you that works! 15:06 Dr. Hans Diehl and Dr. Aileen Ludington 15:09 have written a marvelous booklet called... 15:11 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 15:13 and we'd like to send it to you FREE of charge. 15:16 Here's a medically sound approach successfully used 15:19 by thousands who were able to eat more, 15:21 and lose weight permanently without feeling guilty 15:24 or hungry through lifestyle medicine. 15:26 Dr. Diehl and Dr. Ludington have been featured on 3ABN 15:30 and in this booklet they present a sensible approach 15:33 to eating, nutrition and lifestyle changes 15:36 that can help you prevent heart disease, diabetes, 15:38 and EVEN cancer. 15:39 Call or write today for your free copy of... 15:42 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 15:43 and you could be on your way to a healthier, happier YOU! 15:46 It's ABSOLUTELY free of charge, so call or write today! 15:50 Welcome back - we've been talking with Dr. George Guthrie 15:56 We've been talking about diabetes type 2. 15:58 And this afflicts millions of Americans, 16:00 and we've been learning some exciting things 16:02 as we've talked about how the disease works... 16:05 or should we say, it makes your 16:06 body not work, Dr. Guthrie. Right, right 16:08 And you've done a lot of work in this area. 16:11 You work at the Lifestyle Center of America 16:13 in Oklahoma where I think they have 16:14 in-home treatment programs 16:16 or in-house treatment programs there. 16:18 And then also, there's a new program developing... 16:22 You told me a little bit about the Wellspring Program 16:24 that people can even have in their own community. 16:26 What kind of things... 16:28 We talked about what causes diabetes. 16:30 We talked about how we have insulin resistance. 16:35 We have a problem with the pancreas ultimately 16:37 starting to shut down and then we started to 16:39 talk about REVERSING that. 16:41 And then we had talked about weight, 16:42 and how we want to exercise to reverse that problem. 16:46 What other kinds of things can we do 16:48 to be reversing diabetes type 2? 16:50 You remember the CAUSE of the problem is 16:52 too much energy in - that's food calories 16:55 and not enough energy out, that's in essence - exercise. 16:58 And we focused a bit on the exercise... 17:00 Why don't we pull over to the food side here for a little bit. 17:02 So we're out there exercising, NOW to what we eat! 17:06 When we eat, if we take a lot of calories in all at once, 17:11 and it HITS the body like a TRUCK - like a wall of bricks, 17:17 it's really quite a strain. 17:18 All that energy comes in, it hits the pancreas; 17:21 the pancreas is yelling - "THE ENERGY IS COMING" 17:23 THE ENERGY IS COMING! A LOT of insulin goes up. 17:25 We've talked about already as we've talked about the cause 17:28 that when the insulin is high, 17:30 it tends to make the weight go up. 17:31 It tends to make the blood pressure go up, 17:33 and the cholesterol and all that stuff. 17:35 So if we can take food that doesn't stimulate 17:39 as much insulin production, 17:41 we'll actually be helping the process. 17:43 Does that make sense? Now that makes sense! 17:45 So speaking of food then, 17:48 does that mean we should just eat LESS food? 17:51 Well that would be one way to do it. 17:52 But, if one chooses food that is lower in calories, 17:56 and larger in volume, one doesn't have to decrease 18:00 the amount of food. 18:02 They can even eat MORE food! 18:03 That's happened! Exactly 18:05 So what should be in the food we're eating? 18:06 You said DECREASE the calories 18:08 but the VOLUME... How would I do that? 18:10 Does it have a knob, I turn up the volume? 18:13 Or maybe a better question is... 18:14 "Where in the grocery store do I find that aisle?" RIGHT! 18:17 Well the best place is actually in the produce section. 18:20 The way God designed food, it didn't have the calorically 18:24 dense nature - it has mixed with it a lot of fiber and water, 18:29 and other important things. 18:32 So generally, the rule that we use at 18:35 Lifestyle Center of America 18:37 is move toward a plant-based diet. 18:39 The closer you get it to the way God made it, the better. 18:42 So MANGOS and mashed potatoes instead of M&Ms 18:46 Well certainly mangos would be better than M&Ms 18:52 All right, so just more fiber. 18:56 Anything else about food we need to know as we're 18:58 trying to reverse type 2 diabetes? 19:00 Well, when we talk about the fiber, 19:02 one of the encouraging things about fiber is that it works 19:06 in other ways that are beneficial to the 19:09 insulin resistance - to that stimulus to the insulin. 19:13 What the fiber tends to do is to hang on to the energy, 19:17 and let it go into the body more slowly. 19:19 If it goes in more slowly, the pancreas doesn't have to 19:22 respond so emotionally... so VIGOROUSLY, okay 19:26 It can... okay, we can handle this, 19:29 and there will be less insulin. 19:30 If there is less insulin, then there's less stimulus 19:33 for the weight gain, etcetera. 19:35 Okay, exercise, first of all we talked about, 19:39 and now we talked about how to deal with the weight problem 19:43 in terms of what we eat. 19:46 There were other things that we saw on our graphic that 19:49 CAUSED or came as a result of type 2 diabetes, 19:53 and the next one on our list, 19:55 I'm trying to recall what that was... 19:57 We had - what was the next thing? 19:59 We had obesity, hypertension and the heart disease. 20:02 So heart disease, let's talk about that then, 20:05 or hypertension. 20:06 Now you mean how to get the hypertension down? Right 20:12 Well, since the insulin tends to stimulate or the holding on 20:18 of the sodium and tends to make the blood pressure go up, 20:20 if we can lower the insulin levels, 20:24 why the blood pressure will tend to come down as well. 20:27 So it's just kind of a natural thing, 20:29 and if we're moving and if we're eating the right things. 20:30 What other things do we do then or do you do there 20:33 at the Lifestyle Center of America, 20:34 or in the Wellspring Program to REVERSE type 2 diabetes? 20:39 Well, it's really simple. 20:41 It's the exercise and the diet. 20:43 One of the things we focus on is something called 20:46 the "glycemic index. " Have you heard of this? 20:48 I have NOT really heard about this - no. 20:51 It's a rather interesting concept. 20:52 Scientifically, we can actually measure how fast 20:57 the energy comes into the body. 20:59 Measure the speed of the 21:00 freight train - if you want to put it that way. 21:02 So when you eat a food, how fast does it actually 21:05 enter the bloodstream? 21:07 The measurement we use is called the "glycemic index" 21:12 In essence, it's a percentage. 21:14 You take 100 grams of sugar or 100 grams of white bread 21:19 and you measure somebody's blood sugar when they eat that, 21:22 and it goes UP and it comes down. 21:24 You measure that under the curve ... you call that 100% 21:26 Then you give somebody 100 grams of broccoli. 21:30 And the blood sugar goes up just a little bit. 21:33 And you measure the area under the curve, 21:35 and then you say, "Well that's a percentage of the 100% 21:39 of either the white bread or sugar. 21:42 And that then creates something called the "glycemic index" 21:46 So you carry a glycemic index with you 21:48 and say, "Okay, that's going to 21:50 make it go up - I don't want that" 21:51 Well it certainly helps to answer questions when people 21:53 look at foods and there are lists of foods 21:56 to help people with that... 21:57 BUT - truth is, the closer you get it to the way God made it, 22:01 the better off you are. 22:03 For example, if you look at the glycemic index of, 22:07 we mentioned it already... white bread, 22:08 it's wheat that has been highly refined. 22:11 It goes into the body really fast. 22:14 If you look at the whole wheat, it goes in quite a bit slower. 22:19 If you take the fiber out, it goes in faster still. 22:22 If you grind it up into powder, like the flour, 22:26 it goes in very fast. 22:28 If you eat it as wheat berries, it goes in even slower. 22:30 So the same thing would be true with white rice 22:32 versus brown rice? Exactly! 22:35 Okay so the glycemic index then, 22:37 this could be something that would be handy, 22:39 but basically, if you don't want to carry anything 22:41 with you, just eat foods in their natural state, 22:43 and you're going to be okay. 22:44 Foods as grown is a good principle. 22:46 The closer that you get it to the way God made it, 22:49 the better off you are. 22:51 Honey... What about honey? 22:53 Well, honey has a lot of sugar in it. 22:55 It's a processed food from the bee, huh? 22:57 A processed food from the bee - that's correct. 23:00 And this brings out a good point, Don 23:02 It's not that you can't eat the foods that are higher 23:05 in glycemic, but your meal should be composed 23:08 largely of foods that are LOW on the glycemic index. 23:14 So, for example, you could have a little honey with some sort of 23:19 a whole grain as a sweetener, 23:22 because the fiber helps to modulate that. 23:25 We eat whole meals, we don't usually eat plain foods 23:28 As-a-matter-of-fact, there has been some argument 23:29 among those who work directly with patients 23:33 about how USEFUL this whole glycemic index is... 23:37 because who wants to go around with a list. 23:40 So, in essence, it is a TOOL to help people 23:43 begin to THINK about foods that are safer and better. 23:47 Okay, you know, in speaking about treating type 2 diabetes, 23:52 at the Lifestyle Center of America, 23:55 and also in the Wellspring Program, 23:57 have you seen SUCCESS? 23:58 Can people reverse this disease? 24:00 Do they get off insulin? What kinds of things happen? 24:03 Oh Don, I'm afraid of that "reversing" word, okay 24:07 When you talk about reversing a disease, 24:10 that's a little scary to say. 24:12 For example, if somebody has blindness from the diabetes, 24:15 I don't know that I can reverse that... Right 24:17 The amputations, kidney failure, 24:22 I don't know that we can reverse that. 24:24 But what I have seen happen is I've seen blood sugars come down 24:27 I've seen insulin levels come down. 24:29 Blood pressures come down, weights come down. 24:31 In essence, this whole problem associated with 24:35 high insulin levels is... I'm afraid to say that word 24:40 "reversed" It's backed up! 24:42 It's STOPPED at least. It's not going further, 24:46 and in many people it actually, okay - reverses! 24:52 So that's good news. 24:54 It also means that if someone is watching today 24:56 and they have that increase in weight, 24:57 increase in blood pressure, increase in cholesterol, 25:00 all those different things - it MAY BE DIABETES, 25:02 then they should get on it as soon as possible! 25:05 If their blood sugars haven't been found to be elevated, 25:09 it's PROBABLY with those 3 or 4 things going on 25:13 at least PRE-DIABETES... 25:14 And those we know we can "reverse" 25:18 Those reports are in the literature. 25:20 So if you catch it when it's kind of in its 25:22 pre-diabetes state, then you can really do 25:24 something about it by decreasing the amount of calories in, 25:28 and INCREASING the amount of calories that you're expending, 25:31 i. e., exercise. 25:33 Some people say, "I can't control my will" 25:35 "What I WILL do- what I WON'T do so give me a pill" 25:37 You know, something like that. 25:40 That really - it sounds like is not a good approach... 25:43 The medications and what role do they play 25:45 or should they NOT play. 25:47 Well you already know from our previous discussion here 25:51 that raising the insulin levels by giving insulin shots 25:53 may make things actually worse! 25:55 ...Because high insulin levels are part of the problem. 25:58 Same thing with medications that kick the pancreas... 26:01 MAKE MORE INSULIN, MAKE MORE INSULIN! 26:02 It's kind of the same problem. 26:03 We do have some medications that tend to 26:05 decrease insulin levels... those make sense 26:07 and may be helpful. 26:09 Some provocative things you talked about 26:11 I've never heard about before "magnesium and iron" 26:13 We have about 1.5 minutes. 26:14 Tell me a little bit about these. 26:16 Oh Don, it's hardly enough time. 26:17 The average American is low in magnesium. 26:19 If we can increase the magnesium in our diet, 26:22 in our body, in our CELLS, 26:24 and it's the intracellular magnesium NOT the blood level. 26:26 The blood level doesn't correlate well, 26:28 but intracellular magnesium, if it goes up 26:30 it INCREASES the energy that the cells use, 26:33 and if you replace that magnesium, 26:36 you actually tend to see the parameters of diabetes 26:39 and this whole syndrome improving. 26:42 Real quick - foods high in magnesium. 26:43 Plants. Anything that's a plant. 26:46 Generally - you remember chlorophyll, 26:48 when you learned about it in high school, 26:49 the central little element in the middle is magnesium. 26:52 So there's a lot of it in plants, 26:54 and it's very deficient in animal products. 26:56 So pull over right now and eat some plants... What about iron? 26:59 Iron - some interesting data coming out. 27:02 Increase the iron - you increase the insulin resistance, 27:06 you tend to make the cholesterol go up. 27:08 Meat diets tend to be high in iron, 27:11 especially the red meat. 27:12 They tend to make this whole process worse. 27:14 There are some interesting studies demonstrating 27:16 that people who donate blood on a regular basis 27:19 have fewer heart attacks, lower cholesterol 27:22 and less diabetes. 27:23 So less iron, basically. 27:25 We don't have to worry about it as we get older. 27:26 When we're younger and growing, if we don't get enough, 27:28 it causes problems with learning, 27:30 but as we get older, we tend to store it, 27:32 and too much iron is more likely to be a problem as we get older. 27:36 So watch that... that's interesting. 27:38 So, you know, there is either side of that 27:39 because when you're young you certainly don't want to 27:41 be recommending no iron for 27:42 some people depending on where they are in life. 27:45 We've been talking with Dr. George Guthrie 27:47 We've been talking about diabetes and how to STOP it, 27:51 PREVENT it and perhaps even REVERSE it. 27:55 If you'd like more information, give us a call. 27:57 Thanks for joining us on Health for a Lifetime! |
Revised 2014-12-17