Diabetes Drug Dangers

Inflammation is of great interest to me. All sorts of inflammation will increase our blood glucose levels, and I wrote several articles about two types, gum disease and peripheral artery disease (PAD), that have direct effects on our levels. But I know that there's much more to be discovered. The concept of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory food is fascinating, and as I learn more about it I will surely write about it here.

 

David

Thanks.

If you (or others) are going to be looking into this here are some of the things I'm finding interesting. I haven't seen either of the books but am thinking about ordering one or both.

Books:

Monica Reinagel, author of The Inflammation Free Diet Plan which has a food list of  IF factor a system she developed showing the inflammatory level of many foods. Sort of similar to the GI index.

website: http://www.inflammationfactor.com/index.php  

Blog: http://blog.nutritiondata.com/

And books at Amazon

 

Jack Challem, author of The Inflammation Syndrome and Stop Diabetes Now.

blog/website: http://www.thenutritionreporter.com/

And a bunch of books on Amazon.

 

Quiz:

http://nutrition.about.com/library/bl_antiinflammatory_diet_quiz.htm

 

Basic Guidelines:

http://www.angelhealingcenter.com/Anti-InflammatoryDiet.html

I remember reading an article originating from Joslin medical center about how a researcher was able to turn diabetes (T2?) on and off like a switch by just using Salsalate, a very potent form of aspirin which used to be given to arthritis sufferers.  The only problem here is controlling the potential bleeding problems as result of the Salsalate.  it works on this inflammation principle.  Just by removing inflammation in the body, he found that he could remove insulin resistance.  Amazing!! The researcher according a later report has gone on to clinical trials and are looking for experimental volunteer subjects.  If you are living in Boston, you can contact him.

 

Thinking herbally, I suppose drinking white willow bark tea from which aspirin is synthesized could help as it has none of the bad side effects associated with aspirin, which contains salycylate and acetic acid. The active anti-inflammatory agent in the white willow bark is salycylic acid.

i second the motion for vinegar- it's effects are like a low-dose metformin, without the side effects- of course there are no new studies on vinegar, because noone can make any money off it- we did a small study with vinegar/spicy food on post prandial GLC/stomach motility, with positive results- interestingly, vinegar drinks are marketed/popular in Japan, and we all know how healthy the Japanese are... cheers (i'll swig the cabernet, you can down the white wine vinegar :))

Vinegar in the Far East is considered health giving and the Japanese I daresay learnt about it from the Chinese.  The black vinegar made from black glutinous rice in China is famous and costs about one sixth of the price of apple cider vinegar.  Readily available at most ethnic supermarkets. the only problem with drinking vinegar is that it can erode tooth enamel and so it is best to use a straw.  I usually rinse the mouth with water immediately after that and hope for the best!!

 

There is a now a mini boom in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore in the making of both homemade and commerical vinegars using fruits and veges - pineapple, papaya, plums, etc.  You can try it out yourself - just fruit or veges or a combination.  Add lots of sugar and let the lot ferment in a glass jar.  After a week or two, the sugar will be consumed in the fermentation process and what's left is delicious vinegar. You can buy the bottled stuff in Asian supermarkets and sometimes they are called "fruit enzymes."

 

It is not just vinegar that is valued - limes, lemons and especially sour plums.  The secret lies in the citric acid (not acetic acid in vinegar), the essential component in the famous Krebs cycle of metabolism.  If one is inthe habit of consuming some lime, lemon juice during a meal, much of the carbs will be quickly metabolized and turned into energy.  without citric acid they are likely to be stored as body fat instead, fuelling obesity.  The Japanese are in the habit of eating 'umeboshi', a pickled sour plum that is extremely rich in citric acid.

 

Contrary to popular opinion, both vinegar and citric acid are "alkaline-forming" once they are consumed.  Both have a low pH (very acid) before consumption but once in the body, they are very alkaline, hence the term "alkaline forming".  From this one can see that the secret in lowering inflammation actually lies in an even more fundamental principle - food acidity and alkalinity.  Not surprisingly, the notorious agent of inflammation known as sugar, is very acid-forming.  Modern medical scientists are now in general agreement that behind the major modern day diseases arthritis, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular issues, multiple sclerosis is the inflammation factor.  

 

 

 

thanks for your informative post- again, not much is known/taught about vinegar here in US because there's no $ to be made- fyi another benefit of vinegar is that it lowers post prandial glucose spike, via slowing gastric motility- this helps to avoid insulin resistance, which can progress to diabetes if the genes are there- other spices have this effect, but as you point out, there are side effects (tooth and stomach wear and tear) that should be monitored

fruit enzyme, or vinegar is big bucks here in Malaysia.  The market is flushed with all sorts, one even made from Pitaya, the so-called dragon fruit found originally in S America.  It's absolutely divine in taste.  Won't be surprised it will soon be big $ in America when word gets round.  Japanese scientists have done quite a bit of research on vinegar and it is they who clarified the alkaline-forming status of vinegar.  I'm aware of the potential hypoglycemic effects of vinegar but have given up trying as it weakens my teeth much like Vit C even when I drink it down with a straw - low dose of 1 tbspoon per coffee mug of water !!  Within a day or two I would have problems chewing my food.  Oddly stevia tea has the opposite effect - the gums would firm up and it's great when one brushes one's teeth within a day of drinking a cup.  Do not go for the apple cider vinegar in pill form as a study by researchers from one US university found that in practically all cases, the acetic acid agent/principle of vinegar was absent.  Most of the pills were also contaminated with mold too.  Anyway, there are plenty of alternative remedies to choose from.  Mulberry leaf/fruit tea, rosemary and oregano, and the most interesting one to date, owing to the new antidiabetic approach and therapy focussing on glucagon and GLP-1, is tarragon tea (Russian and not French tarragon called Artemisia dracunculus).  Avoid the glucose-lowering spices like cinnamon, cardamon, star anise, turmeric etc as these are "heaty" or thermogenic substances.  Prolonged use will invariably trigger excess body heat, inflammation, mouth ulcers, illness.  If you take full spectrum turmeric over a period of two weeks at the rate of say 4-6 pills of 500mg a day, you will soon come down with a cold or flu.  Excess heat will "keel over" and turn into the opposite state - a well-known medical phenomenon in the Far East. Excess Yang generates Yin and vice versa - note that all excess states like these are potentially pathogenic.  Few will bother to tell you or write about it for there it is common knowledge.   Regards, Cjuan

well, here in the west we say- all things in moderation

I have more than a little life experience, and my experience tells me that you don't get sick from eating cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric or anise. Sentences like this serve only as negative suggestions for the weak-minded: "Prolonged use will invariably trigger excess body heat, inflammation, mouth ulcers, illness." Every substance is toxic in some way, and you can't avoid them all.

ha, ha, ha, I am not one who's in the habit of spicing up my food with these spices found often in Indian curry.  Sorry, I didn't provide enough context for you to decode what I was saying - I have been experimenting with these spices for their sugar-lowering effects, which requires me to use them regularly.  This implies prolonged use to get consistent results.  Unfortunately, I've found that they cause a built up of body heat in a very short time, leading to illness.  You're right in saying that they should be regarded for what they are - spices - and as such, ought to be used sparingly owing to their thermogenic (the term 'pyrogenic' is probably more accurate) character.  The same applies to cayenne, which I have reluctantly given up, despite the fabulous claims made about its great therapeutic values by Dr John Christopher.

I realized after I posted my reply that you were referring to their use as diabetes treatments.  Even so, one person's experience is just one person's experience.  If double-blind studies involving hundreds of people can disagree on their findings (as often happens), then one person's experiences aren't enough to draw any conclusions.  "A build up of heat" is a very subjective perception -- who knows what it is you are actually experiencing.  Certainly, people can figure out when a substance is giving them a bad reaction, but can a person know when a substance is giving him a "thermogenic" reaction?  I doubt it, especially when that substance doesn't contain any of the usual energy-producing substances (carbohydrates, fats and proteins).  What I primarily object to is that you are offering general advice based on just your experience.  If you are passing along common knowledge, and not just your experiences, you didn't say that.

 

If I sound overly sensitized on this subject, it's because I have a sister who will believe anything based on the slightest evidence.

Once again the contextual issue has cropped up. Here in the Far East where I live, therapeutic substances are classified according to whether it is hot, warm, neutral, cool, cold amongst other things.  Now this is of course very perplexing to those unfamiliar with this mode of classification.  In Ayurveda, heat producing herbs such as Indian basil, is described as 'pitta' while ginseng is described as 'yang' - both meaning 'hot' or heat-producing.  While this description does not exist in western pharmacopeia, the issue of heat is really absent in western medicine e.g the implication of heat in the terms 'fever', 'hypothermia', 'hyperthermia' - life threatening situations, in fact.  I only started to reply and comment on the healthcentral entries after being intrigued by the subject of inflammation and inflammatory foods that someone has written about.  Obviously thermogenics is implied here, which means that at long last, the issue of heat is showing signs of being recognized as a factor in pathogenesis.  A wonderful convergence in eastern and western medicine.  Of course I am sharing my own subjective experience but I am beginning to see that others are also experiencing more or less similar symptoms.  A few diabetic friends of mine are for instance complaining of excessive body heat.  While there is indeed room for invidividual, subjective differences, I was in fact taught in a western university that no one is a law unto himself!!  If you look to an earlier entry, this is precisely what I said to someone about the use of Banaba - it may not work for him  as each one a different biological constitution. I was glad to stumble on the term thermogenic and pyrogenic which incidentally are coined in a western context suggesting they do correspond to actual and not imaginary states but even more significantly, in very concrete terms, is the success of the Boston medical researcher who found that by removing inflammation using Salsalate, a very potent form of aspirin, he could turn off insulin resistance.

Once again the contextual issue has cropped up. Here in the Far East where I live, therapeutic substances are classified according to whether it is hot, warm, neutral, cool, cold amongst other things.  Now this is of course very perplexing to those unfamiliar with this mode of classification.  In Ayurveda, heat producing herbs such as Indian basil, is described as 'pitta' while ginseng is described as 'yang' - both meaning 'hot' or heat-producing.  While this description does not exist in western pharmacopeia, the issue of heat is really absent in western medicine e.g the implication of heat in the terms 'fever', 'hypothermia', 'hyperthermia' - life threatening situations, in fact.  I only started to reply and comment on the healthcentral entries after being intrigued by the subject of inflammation and inflammatory foods that someone has written about.  Obviously thermogenics is implied here, which means that at long last, the issue of heat is showing signs of being recognized as a factor in pathogenesis.  A wonderful convergence in eastern and western medicine.  Of course I am sharing my own subjective experience but I am beginning to see that others are also experiencing more or less similar symptoms.  A few diabetic friends of mine are for instance complaining of excessive body heat.  While there is indeed room for invidividual, subjective differences, I was in fact taught in a western university that no one is a law unto himself!!  If you look to an earlier entry, this is precisely what I said to someone about the use of Banaba - it may not work for him  as each one a different biological constitution. I was glad to stumble on the term thermogenic and pyrogenic which incidentally are coined in a western context suggesting they do correspond to actual and not imaginary states but even more significantly, in very concrete terms, is the success of the Boston medical researcher who found that by removing inflammation using Salsalate, a very potent form of aspirin, he could turn off insulin resistance.

Hi John

so sorry to hear about your unhappy experiences and the dent in your pocket.  How about trying out this herbal extract from Banaba called corosolic acid.  there are a few preparations available if you search the Net. the one that worked for me is the one sold under the name of Club Natural. It worked very well for me.  Just two a day and it brought my fasting glucose to normal.  It may not work for you as each person has a different diabetic constitution.  Other alternatives are Ginseng berry sold under the name of Seng Berry, and Cedarberry combo, a famous formulation by one of America's greatest herbalist, Dr John Christopher. The story of how cedarberry combo came about is fascinating. 

Cjuan

 

Banaba Leaf Extract, 250 mg
12:1 Extract, 60 Banaba Capsules
Club Natural

I have also used Banaba extract for many years and find that it is a reliable reducer of blood glucose levels. I usually take it on an empty stomach and its good for at least a 30-40 point redcution. You should always look for a product standardized on the corosolic acid content and in the 3% range. As a practical matter, Vitacost sells an equivalent banaba extract for half the price of the Club Natural brand.

glad to hear that you also experienced positive effects from Banaba too. I've tried Swanson's product standardised at 2% compared to Paradise Herbs (sold by Club Naturals) 1.5%.  Yet, the Swanson's product did nothing for me.  It is possible that this is due to the difference in  potencies  60 mg vs 250 mg.  Even when I upped the dosage of Swanson's, it was still ineffective.  I figured it has to do with the fact that the Paradise Herbs formulation was different - that is, it was a whole-herb extract and not just the much touted corosolic acid alone found in the Swanson's product.  I remember reading somewhere that some researcher has discovered a component in Banaba that is even more powerful than corosolic acid. You're right about the much higher price - I wish it was h it was a lot lower.

I also tried the Swanson brand with a similar result. I think the key is the total corosolic acid percentage. The Vitacost brand is standardised at 1% but with 300 mg, while the Club brand is 1.5% with 250mg. But the total amount for both is 3mg.

 

The original clinical trials on banaba used only 48mg of a 1% extract, but the results were telling; there was a significant reduction of blood glucose. They speculate that the corosolic acid acts like insulin in that it carries glucose into the cell. This might be preferable to actual insulin in some cases and may reduce the amount of circulating insulin and the undesirable side effects of having too much circulating.

 

You probably are aware of this already, but I figured we could educate some of the visitors.

Hello,

 

I was on Byetta for awhile. Initially it was great but it didn't take long before it stopped working for me. New Years 2008 I stopped taking all prescription drugs and went with diet ( Atkins ) and exercise ( walking, bicycling) . My numbers have never been better. 

Dear Doris,

 

What is the address of your blog? I would like to read what you write.

 

As to metformin and Alzheimer's, I don't know what to believe, since the study was, as I wrote, on the brains of rats. Their brains are a bit smaller that what most of us have. My point, however, is that all drugs have their problems. People with type 2 diabetes can get off of all drugs eventually by diet and exercise alone. Unfortunately those with type 1 can't, but even type 1s can reduce the amount of insulin that they take.

 

Best regards,

 

David

Hi David,

 

Thanks for asking.  The link is:  http://www.diabetes1.org/blogs/Doris_Blog

 

I also write articles ... though most of mine are sitting in editing.  My book reviews are all posted. 

 

You'll note I get into heated discussions ... for instance, most recently - the risk of getting pregnant with high blood sugar!  So, I'll be writing an article about the subject.  No use arguing it without the detail I suppose.

 

Gotta love those rats by the way.  After all, how much saccharin was that a mouse/rat had to drink to get cancer?  365 cans per day if I recall correctly. 

 

Doris J. Dickson

This is my experience. On meds my A1C was 6.9 . With a total prescription cost of over $550 per month. With diet and exercise only; A1C is 5.4 . Prescription cost - zero. 

Good question about starting with a CPAP! Your experience somewhat parallels mine, but I started with a CPAP before starting Byetta. Yes, my blood glucose level went down with CPAP use -- but went down much more when I added Byetta.

 

Best regards,

 

David