An Orthomolecular Approach To Diabetes

[Guest guest]

An Orthomolecular Approach To Diabetes

JoAnn Guest

Oct 28, 2006 14:22 PDT

 

http://smartlifeforum.org/2005/02/newsletter.html

Cubberly Community Center

4000 Middlefield Road, Room H1, Palo Alto, Cal

Main Speaker - Julian Whitaker, MD

 

---

What Is Orthomolecular Medicine

---

Dr. Pauling coined the term orthomolecular medicine in 1968 as " the

preservation of good health and the treatment of disease by varying

the concentrations in the human body of substances that are normally

present in the body and are required for health. " According to Dr.

Whitaker, this term, rather than alternative, nutritional, natural,

holistic, or comple-mentary, comes closest to describing the kind of

medicine that he practices.

 

The popular media tends to characterize this kind of medicine

as " lite " medicine, lumping it together with prayer, yoga,

relaxation techniques, visualization, and massage. While one can fully

appreciate the value of these therapies, they are not true alternatives to the

drugs and invasive procedures that define conventional medicine.

 

Orthomolecular medicine is very serious medicine, working as well

as,

and most often better than, mainstream therapies in the treatment of

serious diseases . Diet, exercise, vitamins and minerals,

botanicals, oxygen therapies, and other orthomolecular approaches

are effectively used to treat serious, sometimes life-threatening

medical conditions. Let's look at diabetes as an example.

 

-

Diabetes Management: An Orthomolecular Model

 

 

Type 2 diabetes is a rapidly growing menace in this country. Caused

by insulin resistance (the cells' inability to respond to insulin's

signals), it affects 18 million Americans, including a disturbing

number

of children. Furthermore, an additional 41 million have impaired

glucose tolerance and are on the verge of developing diabetes.

 

He has been using an orthomolecular approach to diabetes prevention

and treatment for more than 25 years . In his opinion, this is the

only way to handle the rising tide of diabetes. You can't stop it

with a pill, but you can stop it with a program of safe, affordable

orthomolecular therapies.

 

In 2001, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the

results of a three-year study that confirmed the superiority of the

orthomolecular approach:

Diet, exercise, and weight loss prevent type 2

diabetes far better than Glucophage, the country's leading diabetic

drug. In this study, 3,234 overweight men and women with impaired

glucose tolerance (a pre-diabetic condition) were randomly assigned

to a lifestyle program, a daily dose of Glucophage, or a placebo.

Patients taking the drug lowered their risk of developing diabetes

by 31 percent. But those who ate a low-fat diet, exercised for 30

minutes five days a week, and lost weight lowered their risk by an

astounding 58 percent!

 

Even though this approach requires much more effort on the part of

both patients and physicians, it is infinitely better than the drug

treatments so commonly used, for it does much more than simply lower

blood sugar: It engenders optimal health.

--

 

Lower Blood Sugar With Natural Therapies

 

 

Patients with type 2 diabetes don't just have high levels of blood

sugar. They also have high levels of both insulin (released in

response

to elevated blood sugar) and blood fats (caused by metabolic

disturbances of insulin). These abnormalities upset metabolism and

contribute to a plethora of problems, including weight gain, high

blood pressure, and increased risk of heart disease.

 

Diet can improve or worsen this state of affairs. Refined

carbohydrates (anything made with sugar or white flour), 'processed'

grains (most cold cereals, white rice), and starchy vegetables

exacerbate this vicious cycle.

 

Fiber-rich carbohydrates beans, vegetables, oatmeal,

and other whole grains, on the other hand, help to ameliorate it.

 

Some kinds of dietary fat also throw a wrench into the works, so

one should avoid fried foods and processed fats and include healthy

fats from avocados, olive oil, and cold-water fish like salmon and

sardines.

 

Exercise dramatically improves insulin resistance. The exercising

muscle takes up glucose, even when insulin is absent. And the

benefits of exercise last long after you take off your walking

shoes, for regular

exercise increases insulin sensitivity. Equally important, exercise

promotes weight loss. In the NIH study, regular exercise (just 30

minutes, five days a week) and a low-fat diet resulted in an average

sustained weight loss of 10-15 pounds. Weight loss alone helps

prevent and reverse diabetes in many patients.

 

An additional orthomolecular approach to lowering blood sugar and

insulin levels is with targeted nutritional supplements.

 

These include

Gymnema sylvestre, cinnamon, banaba leaf, and chromium, which have

been shown in numerous clinical studies to improve glucose control.

 

However, the most powerful natural agent for lowering blood sugar

and improving insulin sensitivity is vanadium. This trace mineral

acts remarkably like insulin, stimulating the uptake of glucose into

the cells.

In one study, patients taking 100 mg of vanadyl sulfate (a vanadium

compound) daily for four weeks had a 20 percent average reduction in

blood sugar. Remarkably, these benefits extended after the

supplement was discontinued!

 

---

-

How to Prevent Diabetic Complications

 

 

So much emphasis is placed on blood sugar control that conventional

physicians routinely ignore a crucial aspect of this condition, and

it's one that can only be addressed with orthomolecular therapies.

 

Diabetes is a nutritional wasting disease. The elevated blood sugar

levels that characterize diabetes cause excessive urination. In

fact, " diabetes mellitus " is taken from two Greek words meaning " to

pass through " and " honey, " referring to excessive glucose-laden

urination. Excessive levels of glucose in the blood overwhelm the

kidneys' capacity to

reabsorb glucose and other water-soluble nutrients along with it. It

becomes an osmotic diuretic, washing out virtually everything.

 

Every time the blood sugar level rises and urination increases, the

diabetic patient loses water, magnesium, zinc, B12, B6, folic acid,

and many other nutrients.

 

Although water is replaced by drinking, nothing is done to replenish

the water-soluble nutrients that are also swept out.

 

The diabetic condition demands that these nutrients be replenished,

and in large supply, to prevent the devastation that comes from

nutritional deficiencies.

 

Yet of the approximately 15,000 patients with diabetes who have been

treated at the Whitaker Wellness Institute since it opened in 1979,

few if any of them had been put on a nutritional supplement regimen

by their conventional physicians to counteract these inevitable

losses.

 

As a result of the continual nutritional losses that occur in

diabetics, body parts simply fall off. Diabetes is our number one

cause of blindness, amputation, and kidney failure, and it

dramatically increases the risk of both heart attack and stroke

These complications are

virtually inevitable. If people were given an osmotic diuretic every

day and nutrients were not replaced, the same compli-cations

suffered by diabetics would result.

 

Let's examine some of these losses and their

consequences.

 

 

Magnesium

 

 

Excessive urination washes out magnesium. Low magnesium levels are

present in 25 percent of diabetics, and even those with levels

considered to be " high " for diabetics don't reach the average levels

of

the non-diabetic population. As magnesium levels decrease, glucose

control deteriorates because magnesium is essential to normal

carbohydrate metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and glucose transfer

across cell membranes. Low levels are associated with diabetic

retinopathy: Diabetics with the lowest magnesium levels have the

greatest risk of going blind. Low magnesium is also associated with

high

blood pressure and vasospasm (constriction of blood vessels) as well

as

cardiovascular disease. Shouldn't all diabetic patients be taking

supplemental magnesium?

 

 

Zinc

 

 

This is another water-soluble nutrient that is flushed from the

body,

and as a result, many diabetics have low zinc levels. This

deficiency may impair the immune system, particularly T-cell

function, which could

lead to more infections and non-healing ulcers. Zinc deficiency also

can cause diarrhea, which triggers further nutrient losses still.

Shouldn't all diabetics be taking supplemental zinc?

 

 

B complex vitamins

 

 

B6, B12, and folic acid are water-soluble and therefore vulnerable

to loss via excessive urination from diabetes. This leads to

increased homocysteine levels and dramatically increased risk of

cardiovascular disease. Low levels of B6 can cause glucose

intolerance, depression, and

dry skin. A B12 deficiency may have no obvious symptoms at first,

but

over time it can produce mental disturbances, anemia, and impaired

nerve function. A lack of folic acid may bring on depression,

forgetfulness,

insomnia, irritability, and fatigue. Shouldn't all diabetics be

taking supplemental B vitamins?

 

 

Antioxidants

 

 

Diabetics are routinely low in virtually all of the water-soluble

antioxidants and are often low in fat-soluble vitamins A and E as

well.

At the same time, high blood sugar causes severe oxidative stress,

which consumes whatever antioxidants are available. If antioxidants

are not liberally replaced, then free radical damage is accelerated.

Vitamin C is a water-soluble antioxidant and vulnerable to urinary

losses as well

as poor cellular uptake. Deficiencies are linked with poor wound

healing and susceptibility to infection. Shouldn't all diabetics be

taking

supplemental vitamin C and other antioxidants?

 

 

Glucose Control Won't Solve the Problem

 

 

The reality is there is not a single essential micronutrient that is

not either wasted or used up in diabetic patients. Not one. And the

consequences of this fact are obvious. Good glucose control reduces

urinary losses of micronutrients as well as the other stresses of

the diabetic condition. However, it does not eliminate them, because

even under good control there are regular periods of high blood

sugar.

This point is missed entirely by virtually every conventional

physician.

Focusing on glucose control alone simply leads to devastation for

the

diabetic patient, and even those with good control still go blind

and

suffer amputations.

 

When an aggressive orthomolecular approach is used to correct these

numerous nutritional losses — even after problems have already

occurred

—complications can often be mitigated and future occurrences

prevented.

 

 

For instance, Jerome, who had been treated for a diabetic ulcer on

his

foot for years, was awaiting amputation when he checked out of the

hospital and came to our clinic. He gave him EDTA chelation therapy

and

put him on large doses of all the beneficial micronutrients. His

foot

ulcer healed, and he has had no further diabetic complications for

the

past 13 years.

 

Theodore, who had type 2 diabetes and was taking large doses of

insulin,

was also facing amputation because of a non-healing ulcer on his

foot.

Same story. With good wound care and lots of vitamins and minerals,

the

wound soon healed, and over the next ten years, Theodore was spared

from

any significant diabetic complications. During that time, his

brother,

who was also diabetic but did not undergo nutritional therapy, went

through several amputations and died from complications.

 

Roxann, another type 2 diabetic, had been on insulin for 16 years.

She

had retinopathy, angina, high blood pressure, a history of two heart

attacks, and an open ulcer on her foot that refused to heal. But the

most debilitating of her problems was neuropathy. Nerve damage left

her

with virtually no sensation in her feet, and she could barely get

around

on her own. Roxann came to the clinic and started on a comprehensive

nutritional regimen. Given \the severity of her condition, she also

underwent a course of Enhanced External Counterpulsation (EECP) and

hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO). Within three days, the feeling

began to

return to Roxann's feet. She had more energy, less pain, and a

renewed

sense of hope. By the end of her second week at the clinic, she was

walking normally, and she and her daughter did something that would

have

been unthinkable just three weeks before: They spent two days

strolling around Disneyland and Catalina Island.

 

http://smartlifeforum.org/2005/02/newsletter.html

---

Julian Whitaker graduated from Dartmouth College and received his MD

degree from Emory University Medical School in 1970. He completed a

surgical internship at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and

continued his training at the University of California in San

Francisco.

 

After working at the Pritikin Longevity Center, he opened the

Whitaker Wellness Institute in Newport Beach, Cali-fornia, in 1979.

Since then, more than 35,000 patients have visited his clinic and

benefited from his program of diet, exercise, nutritional

supplementation, and other therapies for the treatment of diabetes,

heart disease, and other chronic diseases.

Dr. Whitaker is an internationally known champion of alternative

medicine and a powerful voice against FDA abuses. He is a board

member of the American College for Advancement in Medicine, founder

of the Whitaker Health Freedom Foundation, and cofounder of the

California Orthomolecular Medical Society.

His monthly newsletter Health & Healing reaches more than 200,000

rs every month, and he has written nine books, including

Reversing Diabetes, Reversing Hypertension, Reversing Heart Disease,

and Shed Ten Years in Ten Weeks.

 

Dr. Whitaker has appeared on numerous national television and radio

shows and has lectured widely all over the United States on issues

of health and the political forces within the medical profession. An

Orthomolecular Approach to Diabetes The year was 1974. Dr. Whitaker

had driven from Los Angeles to San Diego to meet with four other

young,

eager doctors interested in nutrition and natural therapies and

looking for ways to share our research and clinical experience. When

he entered the small conference room of a very modest motel, he was

stunned to see Linus Pauling, Ph.D.

 

Dr. Pauling was in his early seventies at the time, and he had won

virtually every scientific honor possible, including the Nobel Prize

for Chemistry. He had also been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace

for his

efforts in uniting the scientific community against the atmospheric

testing of nuclear weapons. (He is the only individual to have been

awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes.) In fact, the British journal New

Scientist listed Dr. Pauling as one of the top 20 scientists of all

time, along with Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Faraday,

Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein.

 

Yet here he was, sitting in a Motel 6 conference room with five

unknown physicians to lend support to a fledgling movement called

orthomolecular

medicine and to help get the California Orthomolecular Medicine

Society off the ground .

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets