Diabetes is rapidly becoming the most common and dangerous disease of aging for Americans.
Three recent studies have shown a new light on treatments for diabetes. This group of research discoveries teaches us how to improve the severity of diabetes through several changes in diet and medication choices. One study discovered that a simple food addition to your diet can lower the risk of complicating illnesses and death from diabetes. The second study reveals the fact that statins increase the risk of getting Type II Diabetes just by taking a particular cholesterol lowering medication. The third study found that select diabetic medications are effective at preventing heart disease in diabetics. Join us to learn what you can do to help you, or someone you love, avoid diabetes and the complications from diabetes.
Diabetes is a disease that is rapidly becoming the most common and dangerous disease of aging Americans. The increase in obesity, the switch from whole food to junk food and fast-food and lack of active lifestyles, has contributed to the development of Adult-Onset Diabetes in almost half of all Americans. Now that our society is flooded with citizens who have high blood sugars that cause heart disease, stroke, infections and increase the risk of cancer, what are we to do?
The first medical study recommends a simple diet change to those MEN (and possibly women) who already have diabetes, to prevent Adult-Onset Diabetes. A study done at Stratton Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Albany, NY revealed that just one cup of blueberries daily, fresh, frozen or freeze-dried, significantly decreased triglycerides in the men tested who followed this recommendation. It is widely known that elevated triglycerides increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in diabetic men, and one cup of blueberries daily lowered triglycerides and the risk of cardiovascular disease. I believe that this diet recommendation can work for women as well, but they only tested men.
The previous research gave Diabetics a simple way to lower their risk of getting heart disease by eating one readily available food! Our next study reveals how doctors can prevent their patients from developing diabetes in the first place, beyond the strategies of achieving ideal weight, exercise, and eating a low carbohydrate diet? A study done recently revealed the fact that taking statins for high cholesterol increased the risk for elevated blood sugars, HBA1C and triglycerides in patients who weren’t diabetic and could cause Type II Diabetes! As with most meds, all statins are not the same. The cholesterol medication, Crestor ®, is the least likely to have this side effect, however it is better to take an alternate drug that lowers cholesterol called Zetia® if it is strong enough to lower these blood fats enough. Zetia® is not a statin, and It doesn’t cause any of the side effects that statins do, including raising your blood sugar, because it works in a completely different way than statins.
If you have gotten diabetes since starting your statin then ask your doctor to switch your medication to Crestor®, Zetia®, or try normalizing your sex hormones and triglycerides through diet or by taking diabetic medications like Metformin®., which will lower your LDL cholesterol as well, without a statin! At BioBalance Health® we are able to get patients off statins all the time by replacing testosterone with pellets, lowering body fat, treating patients AODM with Metformin, and normalizing thyroid hormones. This is Dr. Maupin’s secret weapon for treating patients with a high risk for vascular disease, who have high LDL cholesterol and or Triglycerides…Testosterone pellet therapy!
Last but not least is a study from the June 2020 Endocrine News that gives us hope for a new classification of diabetic drug that lowers cardiac risk and all vascular causes of morbidity! This class of drug is called SGLT2 Inhibitors, specifically Invocana® and Farxiga®. These two drugs lower glucose by increasing sugar in the urine to get it out of your system. This is how it works to treat the intended disease of Adult-onset Diabetes, but recently it has been found to prevent a common outcome of diabetes, cardiovascular disease! Specifically, it lowered the rate of heart failure by 35% in diabetics.
Dr. Maupin has always started AODM patients on Metformin® for the past 18 years to lower blood sugar, sensitize diabetics to insulin which helps them lose weight and lower their blood sugar, and to make the other diabetic drugs they are taking, more effective. It is inexpensive, generic, very effective, and has few side effects if a patient follows a low carbohydrate diet.
The Endocrine Society guidelines, that rule the actions of Endocrinologists, changed this year:
- Pre-diabetes and early uncomplicated diabetes first with Metformin®.
- Patients with established AODM and atherosclerotic heart disease and kidney disease should be placed on SGLT2 Inhibitor like Invokana®, or the drugs like Victoza®, a GLP-1 receptor agonist.
The experts in treating Adult-Onset Diabetes, Endocrinologists, are considering the use of Metformin ® for diabetic and non-diabetic patients alike, who have kidney disease, and heart disease without diabetes to improve these diseases as well. If you have these complications to diabetes, or have these diseases but do not have AODM, ask your doctor about these new uses for this old drug.
The most important part of this message is for individuals to prevent diabetes if at all possible, with lifestyle changes low carbohydrate diet and daily exercise, however some people get diabetes anyway because of their genetic makeup. You can easily have a cup of blueberries every day to prevent heart disease if you do have diabetes, and then change your statin to Crestor® or Zetia®, and yes to the appropriate diabetic medications plus Metformin® to save you from having a heart attack, heart failure or stroke. All of these recommendations for medications should be discussed with your doctor, who knows you best. If they have not read these new studies or find that this research is not going to help you then always follow the advice of your diabetes doctor.
This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author, with Brett Newcomb, MA., LPC., Family Counselor, Presenter and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com.
