Diabetes: What Physicians are Teaching You may be Killing You

July 30, 2006

The Diabetes Conundrum: What Physicians are Teaching You may be Killing You

Fact: Very little relationship exists between what a patient knows about diabetes and his or her control of its related cardiovascular risk factors and whether or not he or she ultimately succeeds or fails, indicated a study by Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Research found that improved disease knowledge alone does not lead to improved blood sugar control, cholesterol levels, weight management and mortality rates.

And, while education may be part of the puzzle, researchers noted there are likely other pressing health care delivery issues that must be addressed if a diabetic patient hopes to reduce their risks of dying from heart disease -- the main culprit of death among diabetic patients.

The Minute Role of Knowledge

Diabetic patients are twice as likely to suffer from acute coronary syndrome (ACS) than the general population; ACS can eventually lead to chest pain and possibly heart attack.

Considering the facts, researchers measured the progress of 200 diabetic patients who were treated for ACS. At enrollment, each patient took a 14-question standardized test that measured his or her knowledge on diabetes. Patients were then divided into two groups: high- or low-scoring.

Six months later, researchers linked how each of the groups scored with clinical measurements such as glycemic control, cholesterol levels, body mass index (BMI) and death. Data showed:

The only parallel between the two groups was that diabetes-related knowledge scores rose as the years of education increased.

In terms of mortality, the high-scoring group had a six-month mortality rate of 6.2 percent, compared to 9.7 percent for patients in the low-scoring group.

Moreover, 15.5 percent of the high-scoring group suffered from at least one heart attack, compared to 19.4 percent in the low-scoring group.

In light of the findings, researchers recognized the need to determine how to best assign scarce health care resources to reduce cardiovascular risk factors faced by diabetics.

American Journal of Cardiology June 1, 2005;95(11):1290-1294

Duke University Medical Center June 2, 2005

Guest Comment by Dr. Ron Rosedale:

Dr. Ron Rosedale

Note from Dr. Mercola: One of the more popular articles on my Web site is a transcript of a lecture about the importance of insulin by Dr. Ron Rosedale, who is an expert on leptin physiology, a very powerful and influential hormone that has totally changed the way science looks at fat, nutrition and metabolism. I interviewed him in 2004 for the book he wrote, The Rosedale Diet, and I invited him to give a guest editorial comment on this article.

In the prior study, it is assumed that the knowledge patients are being taught is not being used, complied with, and translated into improved cardiovascular outcome. I will quote this extremely important and powerful study,

"Poor patient understanding of diabetes is believed to impede appropriate self-management, thus accelerating cardiovascular complications."

Since greater patient "knowledge" -- what they have been taught -- did not translate into better outcomes, it was concluded that patients were not utilizing that knowledge. However, there is another possibility, and I believe that that possibility is very likely correct: It could be that patients are listening and complying, at least partially, but they're being taught, perhaps unknowingly, the wrong information by the medical profession.

What they're being told to do by their doctor is not helping them, and in fact may be prolonging and likely exacerbating their disease. If you're given the wrong directions, you will not get to where you want to go.

It is not "poor patient understanding of diabetes" that first needs to be addressed; it is poor doctor understanding of diabetes. As the saying goes, "There is no such thing as a bad student, only bad teachers." That is especially unfortunate since the word "doctor" is derived from the Latin word meaning "to teach." Presumably, we are supposed to be doing that well.

Unfortunately, doctors are poor teachers because they themselves are being taught wrong. They are being taught by very large and wealthy corporations, including pharmaceutical companies, whose motives are not to improve people's health, but to maximize profit. The truth is being, well, "doctored."

The medical profession still treats diabetes as a disease of blood sugar, since that is a symptom that can be modified with drugs. As I have stated several times in this newsletter previously, diabetes is not a disease of blood sugar, it is a disease of insulin, and perhaps even more appropriately, leptin signaling.

Only when the deeper roots of insulin and leptin signaling are correctly addressed (see my book The Rosedale Diet and Dr. Mercola's Total Health Program), can diabetes be correctly treated. Until that concept is learned and utilized by the medical profession, needless and deadly outcomes as seen in this study will unfortunately continue.