Category Archives: Diabetes

Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes Depends on the Cause

Posted on January 8, 2013 | Comments Off on Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes Depends on the Cause

(moonlights as a clown)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control predicts that one of every three Americans born in 2000 will develop diabetes, mostly type 2.

You can lower your risk of type 2 diabetes significantly by avoiding overweight and obesity, by exercising regularly, and by choosing the right parents.  These provide clues as to the causes of diabetes.

UpToDate.com offers a deceptively simple explanation of what causes type 2 diabetes:

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is caused by a combination of varying degrees of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. [Insulin is the pancreas hormone that lowers blood sugar.] Its occurrence most likely represents a complex interaction among many genes and environmental factors, which are different among different populations and individuals.

So what causes the insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency?

Understanding the pathogenesis [cause] of type 2 diabetes is complicated by several factors. Patients present with a combination of varying degrees of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency, and it is likely that both contribute to type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, each of the clinical features can arise through genetic or environmental influences, making it difficult to determine the exact cause in an individual patient. Moreover, hyperglycemia itself can impair pancreatic beta cell function and exacerbate insulin resistance, leading to a vicious cycle of hyperglycemia causing a worsening metabolic state.

The UpToDate article then drones on for a couple thousand words discussing mouse studies, various genes, free fatty acids, adiponectin, leptin, amylin, insulin secretion, insulin resistance, impaired insulin processing, insulin action, body fat distribution, inflammation, various inflammatory markers, low birth weight, high birth rate, prematurity, etc.  More excerpts:

Increased free fatty acid levels, inflammatory cytokines from fat, and oxidative factors, have all been implicated in the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and their cardiovascular complications.

Insulin resistance may, at least in part, be related to substances secreted by adipocytes [fat cells] (“adipokines” including leptin adiponectin, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and resistin).

Type 2 diabetes most likely represents a complex interaction among many genes and environmental factors.

While it’s too late to pick your parents, you can modify environmental factors that affect your risk of diabetes.  See the second paragraph above.  The Mediterranean diet also prevents diabetes.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Reference: “The Pathogensis of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus”  by David K McCulloch, MD, and R Paul Robertson, MD, at UpToDate.com, updated June 2012, and accessed November 19, 2012.

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Which Are the Low-Carb Veggies?

Posted on January 4, 2013 | Comments Off on Which Are the Low-Carb Veggies?

A half cup of sliced bell pepper has about 2 grams of digestible carbohydrate

Laura Dolson over at About.com has a helpful list of low-carb veggies.  Helpful if you experience excessive blood sugar spikes from high-carb items, or if you’re restricting carbs for weight management.

-Steve

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U.S. Life Expectancy: Overall Versus Type 1 Diabetes

Posted on December 15, 2012 | Comments Off on U.S. Life Expectancy: Overall Versus Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetics diagnosed in childhood and born between 1965 and 1980 have an average life expectancy of 68.8 years.  That compares to a lifespan average of 53.4 years for those born earlier, between 1950 and 1964.  The figures are based on Pittsburgh, PA, residents and published in a recent issue of Diabetes.

Elizabeth Hughes, one of the very first users of insulin injections, lived to be 73.  She started on insulin around 1922.

Average overall life expectancy in the U.S. is 78.2 years—roughly 76 for men and 81 for women.

Don’t be too discouraged if you have diabetes: you have roughly a 50:50 chance of beating the averages, and medical advances will continue to lengthen lifespan.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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U.S. Diabetes Prevalence From 1935 to 1979 and Beyond

Posted on October 31, 2012 | Comments Off on U.S. Diabetes Prevalence From 1935 to 1979 and Beyond

From 1935 to 1996, the prevalence of diagnosed type 2 diabetes [in the U.S.] climbed nearly 765%.

This shocking statistic is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as cited in Increased Consumption of Refined Carbohydrates and the Epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes in the United States: an Ecologic Assessment, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2004, vol. 79, no.5, pp: 774-779.

I thought 765% might be a misprint, so I did some digging.  A similar figure is in DHHS Publication No. (PHS) 82-1232 published in 1981:

  • Diabetes prevalence rose from 0.4% of the population in 1935,  to 2.4% in 1979.

This is a six-fold increase.  The major part of the upward trend started in 1960.  Interestingly, that’s when corn syrup started working its way into our food supply.  Coincidence?  The authors of the Department of Human Services paper write:

Preliminary evaluation of these trends suggests that the change in the prevalence of known diabetes has resulted from improvements both in detection of diabetes among high-risk groups and in survivorship among persons with diabetes.

Like type 1 diabetics, many type 2’s need insulin shots

To me, it sounds like they weren’t considering an true increase in the number of new diabetes cases (incidence), but better detection of existing cases and improved longevity of existing patients (prevalence).  Incidence and prevalence are often confusing.  Wikipedia has a clarifying article.  These days, both incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes are greatly increased over 1935 levels.

In January of 2011, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the latest estimates for prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes.

  • 8.3% of the total U.S. population has either diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes (earlier percentages in this post were for diagnosed cases only)
  • 6% of the U.S. adult population has diagnosed diabetes (My calculation: Population in 2011 was 311 million; with 18.8 million diagnosed cases of diabetes, 7 million undiagnosed)
  • Nearly 27% of American adults age 65 or older have diabetes (overwhelmingly type 2)
  • Half of Americans 65 and older have prediabetes
  • 11% of U.S. adults (nearly 26 million) have diabetes (overwhelmingly type 2)
  • 35% of adults (79 million) have prediabetes, and most of those affected don’t know it

Even if type 2 diabetes runs in your family, you may well be able to avoid it.  Here’s a post about prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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How Many Diabetic Diets Are There?

Posted on September 24, 2012 | Comments Off on How Many Diabetic Diets Are There?

Elizabeth Woolley reviews most of them at her About.com column on type 2 diabetes. I don’t endorse everything there; just thought you might be interested.

I still see doctors at the hospital order “ADA diet” (American Diabetes Association) for their patients with diabetes.

There is no ADA diet.

-Steve

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In U.S. Adolescents, Diabetes and Prediabetes Doubled in the Last Decade

Posted on August 29, 2012 | Comments Off on In U.S. Adolescents, Diabetes and Prediabetes Doubled in the Last Decade

In June, 2012, the journal Pediatrics had an article stating that the incidence of diabetes and prediabetes in U.S. adolescents increased from 9% in 1999 to 23% in 2008.  The finding is based on the NHANES survey of 12 to 19-year-olds, which included a single fasting blood sugar determination.

The investigators offered no solution to the problem.  I’m no pediatrician, but my guess is that the following measures would help prevent adolescent type 2 diabetes and prediabetes:

I’m sure many of the adolescent type 2 diabetics and prediabetics are overweight or obese.  A 2010 study out of Colorado found a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet safe and effective for adolescents.  Fortunately, the decades-long ascent of the adolescent obesity rate in the U.S. seems to have peaked for now.

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: I scanned the article quickly and don’t remember if the researchers broke down the diabetes cases by type 1 and type 2.  I’d be shocked if type 1 diabetes rose this much over the last decade.

Reference: Martinez-Gonzalez, M.A., et al.  Adherence to Mediterranean diet and risk of developing diabetes: prospective cohort study.  British Medical Journal, BMJ,doi:10.1136/bmj.39561.501007.BE (published online May 29, 2008).

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Nuts: What’s Not to Love?

Posted on July 28, 2012 | 1 comment

MPj04031620000[1]Nut consumption is strongly linked to reduced coronary heart disease, with less rigorous evidence for several other health benefits, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

This is why I’ve included nuts as integral components of the Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet and the Advanced Mediterranean Diet.

Regular nut consumption is associated with health benefits in observational studies of various populations, within which are people eating few nuts and others eating nuts frequently. Health outcomes of the two groups are compared over time. Frequent and long-term nut consumption is linked to:

  • reduced coronary heart disease (heart attacks, for example)
  • reduced risk of diabetes in women (in men, who knows?)
  • less gallstone disease in both sexes
  • lower body weight and lower risk of obesity and weight gain

The heart-protective dose of nuts is three to five 1-ounce servings a week.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Reference: Sabaté, Joan and Ang, Yen. Nuts and health outcomes: New epidemiologic evidence. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 89 (2009): 1,643S-1,648S.

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Do Eggs Cause Heart Attacks and Premature Death?

Posted on July 12, 2012 | 6 comments

At the beginning of my 30-year medical career, egg consumption was condemned as a cause of heart attacks.  Heart attacks can kill.  How did eggs kill?  It was thought to be related to the cholesterol content – 200 mg per egg – leading to higher serum cholesterol levels, which clogged arteries (atherosclerosis), leading to heart attacks.

Fifteen years ago the pendulum began to swing the other direction: Egg consumption didn’t seem to matter much, if at all.

The evidence is usually collected in observational, epidemiologic studies of large groups of people.  The groups are analyzed in terms of overall health, food intake (e.g., how many eggs per week), healthy lifestyle factors, etc.  Egg consumption of the group is broken down, for example, into those who never eat eggs, eat 1-4  eggs per week, eat 5-10 per week, or over 10 eggs weekly.  A group is followed and re-analyzed over 10-20 years and rates various diseases and causes of death are recorded.  Researchers don’t follow just 25 people like this over time.  You need thousands of participants to find statistically significant differences.

The debate about eggs was re-opened (although never really closed) by the publication in April, 2008, of an article in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  Scientists of the Physicians’ Health Study suggest that consumption of seven or more eggs weekly is associated with significantly increased risk, over 20 years, of all-cause mortality.  Interestingly, this level of consumption did not cause heart attacks or strokes.  Study participants, by the way, were 21,327 Harvard-educated male physicians.  5,169 deaths occurred during 20 years of follow-up.  If you’re not a Harvard-educated male physician, the study results may not apply to you.

When physicians with diabetes  – type 2’s mostly, I assume –  were analyzed separately, consumption of even less than seven eggs per week was associated with higher all-cause mortality.

Several other observational studies looking at this same issue have found no association between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and all-cause mortality.

Bottom line?  If you worry about egg consumption, limit to 7 or less per week.  If you have type 2 diabetes, consider limiting to 4 or less per week.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a study were published next week saying “eat as many eggs as you want; they don’t have adverse health effects.”

Remember, all the cholesterol is in the yolk.  Try making an omelet using the whites only.  But in our lifetimes you’ll never see an observational study looking at egg white consumption and mortality rates.

I’m still not convinced egg consumption is worth losing sleep over.  “More studies are needed…”

Steve Parker, M.D.References:

Djousse, L. and Gaziano, J. M.  Egg consumption in relation to cardiovascular disease and mortality: the Physicians’ Health Study.  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 87 (2008): 964-969.

Dawber, T.R, et al.  Eggs, serum cholesterol, and coronary heart disease.  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 36 (1982): 617-625.

Nakamura, Y., et al.  Egg consumption, serum cholestrol, and cause-specific and all-cause mortality: the National Integrated Project for Prospective Observation of Non-communicable Disease and Its Trends in the Aged, 1980.  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 80 (2004): 58-63.

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Mediterranean Diet Cuts Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Posted on July 10, 2012 | 1 comment

The traditional Mediterranean diet has long been associated with lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia.  The diet is rich in olive oil, fruits, nuts, cereals, vegetables, and fish but relatively low in dairy products and meat.  Several studies suggest the Mediterranean diet may also help prevent type 2 diabetes.

Researchers at the University of Navarra in Spain followed 13,380 non-diabetic university graduates, many of them health professionals, over the course of 4.4 years.  Average age was 38.  I assume most of the study participants lived in Spain, if not elsewhere in Europe (the article doesn’t say).  Dietary habits were assessed at the start of the study with a food frequency questionnaire.  Food intake for each participant was scored by adherence to the traditional Mediterranean diet.  Participants were labelled as either low, moderate, or high in adherence.  Over an average follow-up of 4.4 years, 33 of the study participants developed type 2 diabetes.  Compared to the participants who scored low on adherence to the Mediterranean diet, those in the high adherence category had an 83% lower risk of developing diabetes.  The moderate adherence group also had diminished risk, 59% less.

How could the Mediterranean diet protect against diabetes?  The authors note several potential mechanisms: high intake of fiber, low amounts of trans fats, moderate alcohol intake, high vegetable fat  intake, and high intake of monounsaturated fats relative to saturated fats.  Olive oil, loaded with monounsaturated fats, is the predominant fat in the Mediterranean diet.  In summary from the authors:

Diets rich in monounsaturated fatty acids improve lipid profiles and glycaemic control in people with diabetes, suggesting that a high intake improves insulin sensitivity.  Together these associations suggest the hypothesis that following an overall pattern of Mediterranean diet can protect against diabetes.  In addition to having a long tradition of use without evidence of harm, a Mediterranean diet is highly palatable, and people are likely to comply with it.

Please give serious consideration to the Mediterranean diet, especially if you are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.  Major risk factors include sedentary lifestyle, overweight, and family history of diabetes.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Reference: Martinez-Gonzalez, M.A., et al.  Adherence to Mediterranean diet and risk of developing diabetes: prospective cohort study.  British Medical Journal, BMJ,doi:10.1136/bmj.39561.501007.BE (published online May 29, 2008).

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Eye-Popping Statistics

Posted on July 8, 2012 | Comments Off on Eye-Popping Statistics

I often talk to people interested in improving their health or losing weight via lifestyle modification, mostly changes in diet and exercise.  Many of them are motivated by health-related facts.  Here is a smattering of facts I compiled in 2008 (so some are outdated), starting out worrisome and ending hopeful: 

  • 65% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese.  Half are overweight, half are obese. 

  • 12% of deaths in the U.S. are due to lack of regular physical activity – 250,000 deaths yearly.

  • 11% of U.S. adults have diabetes mellitus.

  • 24 million in the U.S. have diabetes.  Another 57 million have pre-diabetes, a condition that increases your risk for diabetes.

  • 23% of U.S. adults over 60 have diabetes. 

  • 85% of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight.

  • 200,000 yearly deaths in the U.S. are due to obesity.

  • Excess body fat causes 14 to 20% of all cancer-related deaths in the U.S.

  • 550,000 people die yearly of cancer in the U.S. 

  • Obesity-related cancers in men: prostate and colorectal.  Obesity-related cancers in women: endometrial (uterine), cervix, ovary, breast.  Both sexes: kidney, esophageal adenocarcinoma.

  • 20% of us in the U.S. will die of cancer.

  • Lifetime risk of developing invasive cancer in the U.S. is four in 10 (a little higher in men, a little lower in women).

  • At least one-half of high blood pressure cases are caused by excess body fat.  Every 20 pounds of excess fat increases blood pressure by two to three points.

  • Peak aerobic power (a measure of physical fitness) decreases by 50% between age 20 and 65.

  • Middle-aged and older people through regular exercise can increase their aerobic power by 15 to 20%, equivalent to a 10 or 20-year reduction in biological age. 

  • Regular aerobic exercise reduces blood pressure by 8 to 11 points.  

  • Have you already had a heart attack?  If so, regular exercise reduces the odds of fatal recurrence by 25% and adds two to three years to life.

  • The Mediterranean diet is associated with lower incidence of cancer (colon, breast, prostate, uterus), cardiovascular disease (e.g., heart attacks), and dementia (both Alzheimers and vascular types). 

  • High fruit and vegetable consumption protects against cancer of the lung, stomach, colon, rectum, oral cavity, and esophagus.  The protective “dose” is five servings a day.

  • Coronary artery disease is the cause of heart attacks and many cases of sudden cardiac death.  Legume consumption lowers the risk of coronary artery disease.  The protective dose is four servings of legumes a week. 

  • Whole grain consumption is associated with reduced risk of coronary artery disease (e.g., heart attacks), lower risk of death, lower incidence of type 2 diabetes and several cancers.  The protective dose is three servings a day. 

The good news is that we can significantly reduce our risk of premature death and common illnesses such as high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, coronary artery disease, and dementia.  How?  Weight management, diet modification, and physical activity.     

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Posted in Diabetes, Exercise, Heart Disease, Longevity, Overweight & Obesity, Stroke