Backing up your resolutions
If you have diabetes, chances are one of your New Years resolutions included a commitment — or a re-commitment — to using what you know about diet and exercise to keep your diabetes under control. But there are also a few supplements you can include to assist you in your daily glucose control regimen.
The trace element chromium is not only good for diabetes prevention, but also for blood sugar regulation in people with type 2 diabetes. Many Americans don’t get enough chromium in their diets, which studies show can result in high blood sugar levels. Dr. Wright recommends anywhere from 500 to 1,000 micrograms (1 milligram) daily. Foods high in chromium include mushrooms, brewers yeast, and eggs. Other minerals that can be useful are magnesium, vanadium, zinc, copper, and manganese, which can often be found together in sufficient doses in a multi-mineral supplement.
Coenzyme Q10 is often thought of as a heart health supplement, but it also plays an important role in regulating insulin levels. In one study researchers compared the effects of 120 milligrams of coQ10 daily to a placebo in 59 individuals with coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, elevated fasting blood sugar, and elevated fasting insulin. After eight weeks, both fasting blood sugar and fasting insulin levels dropped significantly in those taking coQ10. Dr. Wright recommends 30 to 60 milligrams of coQ10 daily.
Finally, alpha-lipoic acid has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and resistance in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Dr. Wright suggests 100 milligrams a day.
Of course, its always important to keep your physician informed when you incorporate supplements into your routine. But since diabetes affects your entire metabolic system, and can have such grave health consequences, the more you can add to your arsenal the better off you’ll be.
Low-Carb or Bust?
Q: I overdid it over the holidays a bit, and I was considering starting on the Atkins diet to shed the extra pounds. But Ive read some news articles proclaiming the low-carb craze a fad that is starting to wind down. Does that mean its not a safe or effective diet, or just that its too difficult to maintain do you think?
JVW: The quick rise of any diet or health regimen is often a set-up for just as fast a fall in this culture of quick fixes and waning attention spans. Nonetheless, a low-carbohydrate diet has a great deal of merit and shouldn’t be quickly dismissed even if its popularity wanes. The June 2004 issue of Nutrition & Healing contains a more complete article that might help you decide if low-carb is the way you should go, but Ill review a few points quickly here.
First, there’s no one diet plan that is best for everyone. If you have symptoms of low blood sugar, or Type 2 diabetes runs in your family, a low-carb diet is something you might want to seriously consider. Often, insulin resistance inherent in people with diabetes or pre-diabetes is responsible for their excess weight, and they will quickly shed the pounds on this diet, indicating that its probably a good metabolic fit.
Even if you aren’t in this category, I recommend eliminating refined sugar and refined carbohydrates. They are simply terrible for your system, no matter what metabolic type or tendency you have. Also, low-carb diet plans include dairy, which I don’t recommend. There are too many health problems associated with dairy intake, and the emphasis on dairy products that results when carbs are cut is often way too much for good health.
If you do decide to try low-cab dieting, be sure you are getting enough nutrients in your new diet — and supplement any that are falling short. And also, be extra careful that you produce enough stomach acid to handle the increase in your intake of protein and animal products.
Finally, be attentive to how you feel — keep an eye on your energy level, bowel function, and any other indicators that something might be amiss. After all, losing weight is only one aspect of your overall health, and compromising other factors for the sake of the scale isn’t usually worth it in the end.
What is intestinal putrefaction?
Not the nicest-sounding health term you’ll come across, intestinal putrefaction can occur when there is not enough stomach acid in your system to adequately digest the amount of protein you consume. If the pancreatic enzymes cant handle the load, partially digested protein can make its way down to the intestines. As it gets further down into the intestine, it encounters dozens of bacterial species that have a feast called bacterial digestion. This feast produces toxins that are absorbed into the blood stream that then must be handled by the liver and kidneys. Ultimately, toxins like this can cause all sorts of problems, possibly as serious as cancer.
Yours in good health,
Amanda Ross
Managing Editor
Nutrition & Healing
Sources:
McCarty MF. Nutraceutical resources for diabetes preventionan update. Med Hypotheses 2005; 64(1): 151-158
Miranda ER, Dey CS. Effect of chromium and zinc on insulin signaling in skeletal muscle cells. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2004; 101(1): 19-36
Song KH, et. al. Alpha-Lipoic acid prevents diabetes mellitus in diabetes-prone obese rats. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2004; 326(1): 197-202
Hodgson JM, Watts GF, Playford DA, et al. Coenzyme Q10 improves blood pressure and glycaemic control: a controlled trial in subjects with type 2 diabetes. Eur J Clin Nutr 2002; 56(11): 1,137-1,142
