Have you ever thought about the fact that white flour, potato starch, confectioner’s sugar, and corn starch look remarkably similar, essentially identical? They have all been converted to a pile of white powder. What these examples have in common is that they have been ultraprocessed in such a way as to change their unique individual identities until all that remains, in each case, is a pile of stripped carbohydrate. Continue reading
Category Archives: Diabetes prevention
On Ordering Food for Hospitalized Patients
My mom was a very no-nonsense type of person. When her blood sugars began to rise slightly as she entered her 70s, she announced that she did not want take any diabetes medicine. From then on, she kept her blood sugars normal through a combination of common sense and careful carbohydrate consumption. Once, she was hospitalized for what she called a “minor procedure.” The procedure went fine, but not the food. The first meal they brought her consisted of breaded fish (frozen), mashed potatoes (instant), corn (canned), a dinner roll (frozen), and tea (2 sugar packets on tray). “If I ate that, my blood sugars would have gone through the roof!” she told me. She drank the tea (without sugar), and called my dad, who arrived in short order with a chopped salad, roasted peppers, and meat loaf. Continue reading
Testimonial from an Old Friend
I was scrolling back through some posts that I wrote over a decade ago, and came across this one. I decided to include it here once again to highlight the message that diabetes is reversible. A great many people feel that their diagnosis is inevitable, and that once it appears on their list it will stay forever. Not true. Continue reading
When Your Heart Becomes a Home
A while back I wrote about various ways a heart’s function can become compromised. Think of the heart as having electricity, carpentry and plumbing. Today’s post focuses on the plumbing. Heart attacks are a plumbing problem, a blockage in the blood vessels, or pipes, of the heart. Yes the heart has its own blood supply. Blockages are caused by a clot, or a thick layer of plaque. If blood can’t pass through a vessel, then all the cells beyond the blockage quickly become starved for oxygen, after which they die. This is a heart attack. Continue reading
A Primer on Heart Diseases
On my first day of medical school I could not have told you exactly what a heart attack was. I knew it was related to some kind of blockage, but I didn’t know exactly how, where, or why. And though I’m not sure whether anyone yet can explain exactly why, the research continues to bring us closer to answers. At a certain point though, I did begin to understand what heart attacks are, and that is what I’d like to discuss today. Continue reading
About Omega-3s and Omega-6s
This week I’d like to share some of the things I’ve learned about two specific polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
Let’s start with omega-3 fatty acids. These are compounds in the form of a long chain of carbon molecules with several double bonds, each of which acts as a pivot point. Flexible pivot points confer the ability to move in many directions, essential for movement and flexibility. Omega-3s owe their flexibility to all those double bonds, the last of which is located just three carbons from the tail, or omega, end of the molecule. That’s why it’s called an omega-3 fatty acid. Omega means end. In contrast, omega-6 fatty acids contain fewer double bonds, and the last one is located six carbons from the tail. Hence, omega-6. Continue reading
Giving Your Body the Help it Needs
Some years ago, when my patient, Mrs. Price, heard me say that her blood sugar measurement had come back from the lab at 204, a single tear ran down her cheek as she said, “My eldest granddaughter is getting married next year.” A blood sugar measurement over 200 is one way to confirm a diagnosis of diabetes. Both of Mrs. Price’s parents had died in their 60’s from complications of uncontrolled diabetes, or chronically elevated high blood sugars. This is what I told her. Continue reading
Learning to Keep Your Blood Sugars Normal
As a doctor, it’s easy enough for me to think I understand a disease state, and then to know how to manage it with medication to be taken two or three times daily. I spent hours and hours studying that problem. I talked with patients who were diagnosed with that illness, and learned how it changed their lives. But it’s still not the same as having someone close to you diagnosed with it. Continue reading
My TEDx Talk
It’s been about ten years since I gave this talk at Ursuline College in Cleveland, Ohio. That’s quite a long time. I remember there weren’t enough spaces for the whole title, so it was changed from Your Health to Our Health. That also works. There’s a lot here that I still use, Continue reading
Defining Diabetes
Diabetes is a complex disease whose hallmark is elevated blood sugars. Persistently uncontrolled diabetes causes devastating and costly complications. My former patients knew that I would pay any price, whether it involved medication or not, to keep their blood sugars in the normal range. No matter what it costs to keep blood sugars normal, let’s be honest: It costs a lot more not to. We continue to see skyrocketing costs of medical care for patients with diabetes and associated complications. But prevention is not just the most economical approach; it’s also the most humane one. Continue reading