Diabetes, Hypoglycemia, Osteoporosis, Arthritis, Rheumatism

Diabetes | Juvenile Diabetes | Hypoglycemia | Blood Deficiencies | Rheumatic and Arthritic conditions | Osteoporosis | Alzheimer's

Diabetes Mellitus, or sugar diabetes, is a condition in which the body is unable to properly metabolize sugar. The pancreas fails to produce either effective or sufficient insulin, a hormone, which controls blood sugar levels. The result is hyperglycemia - excessive sugar in the blood stream. Symptoms include increased hunger and thirst, excessive urination, weight loss and fatigue. Your body's ability to metabolize fat is affected and small blood vessels deteriorate. The disease hampers your body's ability to fight infections. If untreated it can cause blindness and kidney damage, and increase your risk of heart attacks and other complications.

Juvenile-onset diabetes and adult-onset diabetes are different.

Juvenile diabetes is a result of a damaged pancreas causing insufficient insulin. This kind is difficult to cure. A good diet can only help somewhat.

In adult-onset diabetes enough insulin is produced but the effects of a diet rich in fats and sugars block its utilization. When a low-fat diet based on complex carbohydrates (unrefined grains, vegetables, legumes) is followed for several weeks most diabetics experience dramatic improvement. Limiting greasy, fatty foods (meats, eggs, cheeses, butter, excess oil and nuts and seeds) and avoiding denatured foods (refined flours and sugars), hydrogenated, synthetic fats (margarine, shortening) and very sweet, salty and spicy foods. Avoid late-night eating. Small frequent meals (4-5 per day) help to stimulate insulin production.

Nutritionists have identified chromium, manganese and zinc as factors that control blood sugar levels. These minerals are removed in the refining process. Depending on the depth of symptoms, most diabetics who greatly improve their diet as suggested, show significant improvement within, at most, a few months. It is not uncommon for insulin to become unnecessary. Check with your doctor and let him know of your improved diet, he may recommend reducing dosage gradually.

Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, often develops for the same dietary extremes that cause diabetes but instead of a shortage of insulin, excess is produced. Hypoglycemia often precedes diabetes.

It is believed that at least half of the population of America has hypoglycemic symptoms. The hypoglycemic person usually has a history of high-level sugar and meat consumption. Too much meat in the diet causes sugar cravings as our bodies try to balance protein to carbohydrates. It also generates prostaglandin that causes pain, inflammation and depression that sugar and alcohol seem to temporarily reduce but actually only cause more problems.

Avoiding denatured foods is important because of the missing nutrients that control blood sugar levels. Refined flours and sugars, for example, are composed primarily of carbohydrates that deliver energy. The minerals that are refined away needed to be incorporated into the blood, hormones, and various body fluids to subdue the burning of sugars into energy. Thus, the hypoglycemic body robs its own tissues of the minerals causing the stabilizing reserves to be depleted.

The principle dietary remedy for hypoglycemia is complex carbohydrates in whole forms. Grains, vegetables, and legumes. These take time to break down and metabolize and contain the necessary nutrients that regulate insulin production. Salt consumption must be curtailed because it reduces blood sugar. Eat limited whole fruits, not juices that are too concentrated. Citrus lowers blood sugar rapidly and should be avoided. Wholesome concentrated sugars (molasses, rice syrup, barley malt, and honey) can be tolerated by hypoglycemics occasionally if used moderately.

Hypoglycemics are not only mineral deficient but also usually lack essential fatty acids (EFA). This can manifest itself through dry skin, hair, low body weight, poor glandular function, irritability, depression, nervousness, pains and cramps. In these cases it is good to add EFAs of exceptional quality such as fresh, cold-pressed flax oil.

Hypoglycemia can cause many problems. The brain requires a constant supply of blood sugar to function properly, thus low blood sugar affects our mental processes. Insufficient blood sugar can result in depression, foggy thinking, distorted moral senses, and retardation in children, juvenile delinquency, schizophrenia, drug addiction, alcoholism, and obesity.

Blood deficiencies have two major causes. Inadequate intake of nutrients and inadequate absorption of nutrients. Signs of blood deficiency are paleness of lips, nail beds, tongue, and complexion in general, thinness, spots in the field of vision, unusual hair loss, premature graying, and thin dry hair, dry skin and trembling or numbness in the arms or hands. Disorders associated with blood deficiency are anemia, nervousness, low back pain and headache, and painful or lacking menses.

Hair is a good indicator of blood quality. Healthy hair is lustrous and thick. Improving blood quality can treat hair loss and prematurely gray hair. Americans have the greatest incidence of baldness. This is understandable since hair loss is tied to high fat, high protein diets, which damage the kidneys, and creates acidic blood.

To enrich and build the blood through nutrition, there are two general approaches. Increase digestive absorption of nutrients and add the nutrients, which generate healthy blood. Both can be accomplished with whole foods.

Rheumatic and Arthritic conditions are suffered by twenty three million Americans. Rheumatism is characterized by pain in the bones, joints, muscles, tendons or nerves, mostly in the hands, feet and arms. It is described as an autoimmune disease in which one part of the body attacks another. This includes such disorders as rheumatoid arthritis, gout, bursitis, neuritis, and sciatica. Arthritis is an umbrella term that covers more than 100 joint disorders. Arthritis can affect any joint and symptoms can range from mild aches and stiffness to severe pain and crippling deformity. These conditions are marked by mineral imbalances. Calcium is a good indicator of mineralization in general. It is therefore important to avoid calcium inhibitors: excess meat or protein, intoxicants, refined sugar, too many sweets, and excess salt.

Calcium deficiency problems require a balance of all minerals. Dairy products are sometimes the cause of calcic disorders, and not the cure, due to their high fat content. Foods high in oxalic acid should also be avoided - rhubarb, cranberry, plum, chard, spinach. Nightshade family vegetables - tomato, eggplant, bell peppers, and potato - also often cause problems. To find out what aggravates the problem, eliminate all for six weeks and re-introduce them to your diet one at a time with a few days between each. If symptoms of pain or swelling increase, you know what to avoid. Otherwise, all other whole foods are generally beneficial.

Osteoporosis is a condition in which bones become so weak they can shatter, when the spine compresses and deforms your back, when walking, sitting, lying in bed and even breathing becomes difficult - this is osteoporosis at its worst.

Our skeleton is a dynamic living tissue in a constant state of flux, carefully regulated by a complex orchestration of our internal hormones, our eating habits and gravitational forces. Caucasian women are eight times more likely than men to develop osteoporosis. At age 35 women lose bone tissue three times faster. Female athletes run an equivalent risk at any age. The culprit is malabsorption of calcium. Here's what you need to do. Get sufficient vitamin D from sunshine. Ideally 20% of your skin needs to be exposed for 20 to 30 minutes daily. Eat calcium, magnesium, chlorophyll, and mineral rich foods - grains legumes, leafy greens, and sea vegetables. Exercise regularly to halt calcium loss and increase bone mass. (Convalescent people need to walk or stand daily if possible.) If you're in bad shape and your diet is poor, take calcium supplements and include plenty of green vegetables in your diet to maximize assimilation. (Note: Consult you doctor before taking supplements, especially with a history of kidney stones.)

Alzheimer's is the disease that robs us of our experiences, our memories, even who we are. The prevalence of Alzheimer's, as with many other diseases, is increasing at an alarming rate and appears to be increasing faster than our population is aging. Think about these statistics: In 1985 there were 2.5 million cases of Alzheimer's in the United States. This number was ten times greater than in 1975. By 1993, four million Americans had the disease. Estimates report a conservative figure of 400,000 new cases diagnosed annually. This is a disease in which little is known. It is not known if a virus or a toxin or a deficiency causes it. It is not known what triggers it or how to treat it, how to prevent it or how to slow it down once it starts its destructive course. The hope for understanding, preventing or treating it lies in demystifying the mysteries of the brain. What is believed is that the problem is biological, not psychological, most likely not a virus but a dysfunction, like cancer. Nutrient deficiencies, toxins and excesses are being investigated.

Prevention, relief, and/or cures are possible for many diseases and disorders through sound nutrition. Eat well to be well. See a qualified nutritionist for help in any of the areas mentioned as well as for asthma, aids, multiple sclerosis, ulcers, skin diseases, schizophrenia, colitis, enteritis, deverticulosis, blood deficiencies, chronic fatigue syndrome, Epstein-Barr virus, menstrual disorders, menopausal problems, herpes, hemorrhaging, kidney failure, hemorrhoids, cysts, tumors, alcoholism, as well as many more.

Let's discuss the importance of proper digestion next...

Diseases of Excess and Deficiency