Diabetes
rises steeply in all western countries. About 5 per cent
of the population are diagnosed as having diabetes and many
more are not yet aware that they have it. It increases at
a rate of about 6 per cent per year, with this the number
of diabetics in a country doubles in about 15 years.
If
you did not develop diabetes as a child or adolescent, you
will have another chance to become diabetic when you are
over forty. In younger years we contract insulin-dependent
or Type I diabetes and in older years Type 2 diabetes with
sufficient insulin but with increasing inability to use
it for blood sugar regulation. However, now a new form of
diabetes is emerging called Type 3 diabetes combining the
traits of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes
is commonly regarded as incurable and all effort is directed
at controlling or managing it. However, I believe not only
that most cases are curable but that early diabetes 1 and
all diabetes 2 are relatively easy to cure with a suitable
diet. In other words, drastic diet changes are required
to adopt as much as possible a more natural diet. For some
this is easy and a small price to pay for regaining health,
while for others it is not worth living without their favourite
foods, and for these the accepted medical treatment will
be best.
SOME
FACTS AND FIGURES
Types
1 and 2 diabetes are commonly regarded as two different
diseases. Both types are medically called diabetes mellitus
or 'honey diabetes' from its most obvious symptom, a honey-sweet
urine. In Type 1 diabetes the insulin-producing beta cells
in the pancreas are increasingly destroyed, while insulin
production remains more or less normal with Type 2 diabetes,
although sometimes insulin release into the bloodstream
is blocked by a tumour of the pancreas. The problem is increasing
resistance to the insulin present in the blood.
The
discovery of insulin in 1922 was hailed as the saving grace
for diabetics. Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas
in response to a rising blood sugar level. It is required
to channel glucose into muscle cells for energy production.
The liver and brain, on the other hand, can function without
insulin.
To
test for diabetes a glucose tolerance test is performed
with 100 g of glucose in 300 ml of water ingested after
an overnight fast. Normally fasting glucose levels are 70-100
mg/100 ml of blood or 3.9-5.6 mmol/l, and one hour after
a meal or a glucose load less than 160 mg/ml or 9.0 mmol/l.
Measurements expressed in mmol/l have in recent years replaced
the earlier mg/100 ml. If test results are considerably
higher than normal, diabetes is diagnosed.
The
most obvious effect of abnormally high blood sugar levels
is the discharge of glucose with the urine. This leads to
frequent urination that then requires much drinking to replace
the lost fluids. The muscles are starved of energy and that
causes fatigue and eventually shrinking of the muscles as
their proteins are increasingly used for energy production.
This is the picture of the untreated type I diabetic.
The
Type 2 diabetic, in contrast, tends to be overweight or
obese. This is because the high insulin levels, unable to
channel glucose into muscle cells, now convert glucose into
fat and cholesterol. The result is not only obesity, but
also atherosclerosis with heart disease, poor blood circulation
in the legs and eye diseases. While the medical treatment
of Type 1 diabetes is with insulin injections, Type 2 diabetics
commonly use glucose-lowering drugs.
However,
all is not well with these medical treatments. You might
naively assume that diabetes death rates were greatly reduced
after the introduction of insulin in the mid 1920s, but
that was not so. Before insulin treatment became widespread
in England the death rate per 1 million of the population
between 1920 and 1925 varied from 100-119.
In
the years after the introduction of insulin the death rate
started climbing each year from 115 in 1926 to 145 in 1931.
There are several explanations for this seeming paradox.
Formerly diabetics were treated with a reasonably effective
diet high in legumes and low in sugars and starches. With
the advent of insulin this traditional diet was discarded
and patients could now eat anything they liked with unfortunate
long-term consequences.
Another
factor is the toxicity of injected insulin. All diabetics
develop immune reactions against injected insulin and may
become more or less allergic against it. Life-threatening
reactions are now rare but were more common with the impure
products used initially. Presently a new danger arises because
the animal-based insulin is being phased out in favour of
synthetic human insulin. While this is an advantage for
some, others who become allergic against it have no alternative
medication.
Furthermore,
insulin injections carry the danger of causing insulin shock
with coma from extremely low blood sugar levels. However,
the main reason for the increasing death rate in recent
years is most likely the steady increase in the incidence
of both types of diabetes, combined with the devastating
effects of the medical treatment. In both types most of
the damage comes from high amounts of glucose being converted
into saturated fats and cholesterol. In Type 1 diabetics
this is due to injecting increasing or high amounts of insulin
in combination with a diet high in carbohydrates, while
in Type 2 diabetics the already high fat production may
be further increased by glucose-lowering drugs. The treatment
for both types converges in the development of Type 3-diabetes
in which Type 1 diabetics become increasingly insulin-resistant,
and Type 2 diabetics exhaust the insulin-producing capacity
of their pancreas.
In
order to find effective treatments, we must look at the
basic causes of this disease, which of course are different
for both types.
Destroyed
Beta Cells
The
main factor in type 1 diabetes is clearly the destruction
of the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, which
is due to an inflammatory autoimmune reaction. Diabetes
may manifest only after 90 per cent of the beta cells have
been destroyed. The reason for this abnormal immune response
is not well understood in medical circles.
Nevertheless,
there are several important clues. Food allergy is one of
them, dysbiosis or overgrowth of the intestines with pathogenic
microbes another, while a third clue is vitamin B6 deficiency.
The
diabetic pancreas shows a greatly increased number of white
blood cells of a type associated with allergies. When Type
I diabetics are fasted in an appropriate way, their blood
sugar levels often return to normal and may remain normal
as long as only selected non-allergenic foods are used.
With other foods, however, blood sugar levels may immediately
go very high.
However,
the question remains why an allergic reaction targets specifically
the pancreas when usually other types of allergic reactions
occur. It is here that the other two clues may provide the
answer. When the normal protective gut bacteria are under
stress, pathogenic microbes will take over. This is now
very common but usually they remain further down towards
the large intestine. Should they, however, invade the duodenum,
the upper part of the small intestine, then pancreatitis
or inflammation of the pancreas may result. This has been
demonstrated experimentally. It is not even necessary for
microbes to invade the pancreas itself as their breakdown
products or endotoxins do most of the damage.
Clearly,
a low-grade chronic inflammation of the pancreas makes it
a primary target organ for any allergic reaction. Alternatively
or in addition, vitamin B6 deficiency has been shown to
damage the insulin-producing beta cells.
Even
with a mild vitamin B6 deficiency, the amino acid tryptophan
cannot be properly metabolised, part of which is normally
converted to niacin or nicotinamide. Instead, an abnormal
metabolite, xanthurenic acid, accumulates. High levels of
this have been shown in animal experiments to damage the
beta cells and within days such animals developed diabetes.
The sooner the missing vitamin was supplied in high doses,
the easier the blood sugar regulation could be normalised
again.
Individuals
who are even mildly deficient in vitamin B6 excrete xanthurenic
acid in the urine. This is used as a laboratory test for
vitamin B6 deficiency. Insulin-dependent diabetics generally
excrete large amounts of xanthurenic acid, especially those
with retinopathies (damaged retina). Magnesium and zinc
supplements reduce the formation of xanthurenic acid. Both
minerals are deficient in diabetics. A study found the diabetes
death rate four times higher in areas with low water magnesium
levels than in high magnesium areas.
Another
interesting facet is that high doses of nicotinamide can
postpone the need for insulin injections in newly diagnosed
Type I diabetics for months and even years. The explanation:
a high level of this B vitamin in the blood inhibits the
formation of xanthurenic acid from tryptophan in addition
to protecting beta cells from autoimmune attack.
THE
MILK AND GLUTEN CONNECTIONS
However,
now comes the really important bit of information that ties
together all of the foregoing parts. A study of several
hundred newly diagnosed diabetic children revealed an immune
response to a fragment of cows' milk protein in all of them.
What is more, this protein fragment has the same composition
as one called P69 on the beta cells.
Juvenile
diabetes is much higher in those who have been bottle-fed
rather than breast-fed, and it is lower in communities that
consume fewer cows' milk products. However, it appears that
this protein fragment is only a problem with milk from Friesian
cows (called A1 milk) but not with milk from other, lower-yielding,
breeds that produce A2 milk. Most of presently consumed
milk is A1 milk.
P69
is usually protected inside the beta cells and comes only
to the surface during microbial and especially viral infections.
At that time the immune system can mistake it for cows'
milk protein, attack it, and destroy the beta cell in the
process. The problem is that bottle-fed infants are very
susceptible to colds, respiratory and gastrointestinal infections.
It is regarded as normal for them to have six and more infections
a year, while these are rare with breast-fed infants.
But
it does not end there. Bottle-fed infants also frequently
receive antibiotics that then encourage overgrowth of the
intestines with undesirable microbes, and a tendency to
chronic pancreatitis. One type of E. coli bacteria is harmless
in the large intestines, but it has the potential for causing
great damage in the small intestine. That is because it
produces a molecule that is very similar to insulin. When
the immune system becomes activated against this molecule,
it may then also direct its attack against related features
at the beta cells.
This
shows that a combination of two factors is required to trigger
an attack on the insulin-producing beta cells: one factor
that brings P69 to the surface of the beta cells, and another
factor that activates the immune system to attack them.
As the first factor we may have high concentrations of xanthurenic
acid or frequent colds of bottle-fed babies, and if antibiotics
are used, then this also promotes overgrowth of the small
intestines with pathogenic microbes, including E. coli as
the second factor. This is reinforced when ingesting cow’s
milk, which intensifies the attack on the beta cells.
More
recently it has also been shown that an autoimmune attack
on the pancreas can be triggered by a “leaky gut” or increased
intestinal permeability. This has been shown to be triggered
by gluten ingestion, especially from wheat.
Nitrosamine
is a chemical especially high in preserved small goods,
but it may also be formed from the high nitrate content
of chemically fertilised produce. A significant association
between nitrosamine and type I diabetes has been found,
although it may only act indirectly by causing dysbiosis
like so many other chemicals.
A
Case History
My
very first patient was a Type 1 diabetic. Earlier I had
worked mainly in medical university departments but at that
time I was just writing with no intention of becoming a
natural therapist. Unexpectedly a young man who was my friend
was found to be diabetic when he was admitted to a hospital
with symptoms close to diabetic coma. After being released
with two daily insulin injections he asked me for help.
Immediately
he stopped using insulin and went on an apple diet instead,
followed by an organic raw-food diet including fermented
goats' milk, but no vitamin or mineral supplements, herbs
or other remedies. On the first day of this regimen his
blood sugar level was 210 mg% or 11.8 mmol/l. Ten days later
it was normal and remained normal even after the introduction
of a normal mixed and cooked diet, and also the glucose
tolerance test performed on the 24th day at the hospital
was normal.
This
diet was successful because it addressed the two most important
factors in his condition: it eliminated foods and chemicals
that have been allergenic or incompatible and it also sanitised
the intestine by establishing a healthy micro-flora. However,
the longer the condition is just 'managed' with insulin,
the more of the beta cells become destroyed and the longer
may be the road to recovery.
Nevertheless,
even in advanced conditions it should frequently be possible
to phase insulin out as a diet can be devised to regulate
the blood sugar level. At the same time, with the elimination
of the conditions that lead to the destruction of the beta
cells, these have a chance to regenerate, with the internal
blood sugar regulation becoming more effective in time so
that the initially very strict diet can gradually been relaxed.
The
Sweet Connection
The
great majority of diabetics have Type 2-diabetes. It used
to be called maturity-onset diabetes because it commonly
started after the age of forty. However, now it is also
common in overweight children. It is mainly due to the reduced
effectiveness of otherwise normal levels of insulin. Type
2 diabetics are generally treated with tablets to lower
blood glucose levels.
As
with insulin, also these hypoglycaemic drugs do not protect
the patients against the various harmful effects of long-term
diabetes. These include degenerative eye changes especially
involving the retina, degeneration of the peripheral nervous
system and atherosclerosis especially affecting the legs
and heart. On the contrary, studies seem to indicate that
these drugs accelerate such degenerative changes.
Doctors
W.A. Philpott and D.K. Kalita point out in their book 'Victory
Over Diabetes' (Keats, 1983) that the overwhelming evidence
of recent studies shows a shortened life expectancy and
more serious complications from using diabetic drugs. In
fact, the death rate actually doubled in those taking oral
diabetic drugs. Most of these same drugs are still in use
now.
From
a biochemical point of view this is only logical and to
be expected because if sugar levels are lowered without
converting them into energy, then they will be converted
into fat and cholesterol that then cause many of these problems.
When
the liver and bloodstream are already loaded with lipids
then it is difficult to convert excess glucose into more
lipids. Therefore, obese or overweight individuals have
greatly decreased insulin sensitivity, while insulin becomes
much more effective if they lose weight. Other studies show
that the blood sugar regulation is best maintained with
a diet high in vegetable fibre, especially from legumes,
while a high intake of simple carbohydrates or sugars tends
to make insulin less sensitive.
Sugar
added to the diet of research animals or increased in the
diet of healthy volunteers has been reported to disturb
the glucose metabolism and cause diseases of the eyes, kidneys
and blood vessels. Even if combined with a high-fibre low-fat
diet, added sugar still adversely affects the glucose tolerance.
However,
short-term studies may not show the harmful long-term effects
of sugar in the development of Type 2 diabetes. This is
because household sugar or sucrose consists of one molecule
of glucose and fructose. Only glucose elevates the sugar
level in the normal way while fructose affects it only slightly.
Therefore, in the glycaemic index, which measures the effect
of different foods on the blood glucose level, sucrose is
listed as a good food.
Instead,
the danger of fructose lies in causing an exaggerated insulin
response, mainly when it is together with glucose in the
same meal, be it from sucrose, honey or even starches, but
to some degree even when ingested on its own as a sweetener.
However, fructose in whole fruits is generally fine, provided
it is not ingested close to a meal containing starches.
Lets
look at the common habit of eating sweetened starches as
in bread with jam, marmalade or honey, cakes, biscuits,
muesli or breakfast cereals. The fructose contained in the
meal causes a strong rise in the blood insulin level. At
the same time a large amount of glucose from the breakdown
of starches enters the bloodstream. The excess of insulin
quickly channels the glucose inside muscle cells, which
are now overloaded with glucose. Only a small amount is
needed for energy production, the rest may be converted
to lactic acid, causing overacidity, or to body fat. Gradually
cells learn to protect themselves by becoming less responsive
to insulin and making it harder for glucose to enter.
Until
1980 the rate of obesity and type 2 diabetes was fairly
stable. However, when the health authorities in the U.S.A.
started vilifying foods containing fats and cholesterol
and recommend eating carbohydrates instead, obesity increased
from 13 to 14% of the adult U.S. population to 25% within
one decade and continues to rise. Type 2 diabetes became
an epidemic as well. In addition, for the first time in
history a large number of obese children developed Type
2 diabetes. Since then it is no longer called maturity-onset
diabetes.
While
an exaggerated insulin response and resulting loss of insulin
sensitivity is most pronounced in obese individuals, it
gradually develops also in others after prolonged use of
sucrose. The damage is the greater the more sucrose is eaten
in a gorging pattern instead of in small, spaced out meals.
Surprisingly,
sucrose has a worse effect than eating its two components,
glucose and fructose, at the same meal. This is called the
'disaccharide effect' and applies also to other sugars with
two components, such as maltose with two glucose molecules.
A hormone in the duodenum (G.P.I.) releases more insulin
after ingestion of disaccharides than after monosaccharides,
such as glucose or fructose.
While
naturally increased insulin levels are desirable for Type
I diabetics, with Type 2 diabetes they just mean more glucose
is converted into fat and cholesterol. However, there is
a way to increase insulin sensitivity of muscle cells naturally
- with regular aerobic exercise.
The
Stress Connection
Stress
causes the diabetic blood sugar regulation to deteriorate.
The reason for this is the release of additional adrenalin
as a fight or flight response and this counteracts the action
of insulin. More adrenalin means higher blood sugar levels.
While
we are usually aware of external stress, be they work related
or caused by marriage and other relationships, by noise
or heat, we are also exposed to many hidden stresses. The
most common form of hidden stress is probably food allergy
and chemical sensitivity, but it may also simply be a vitamin
or mineral deficiency, electromagnetic stress or any kind
of worry or resentment.
WHAT
TO DO
I
regard Type 2 diabetes as one of the easiest conditions
to cure, at least for those who are happy to adopt a more
natural diet. With this I mean that the blood sugar regulation
can easily be normalised. It is, of course, more difficult
to reverse the degenerated conditions of the eyes, blood
vessels and other organs.
In
such cases I just concentrate on the degenerative condition,
and the blood sugar regulation will come right on its own.
As an example I may mention an elderly lady with failing
eyesight and approaching blindness. She was on blood sugar
lowering drugs. In this case I recommended high doses of
the vitamins and minerals required for her eye condition,
in addition to a non-sweet, low-grain diet. Within three
weeks she had no more problems with her blood sugar regulation,
and her eyesight was greatly improved.
One
mineral that is important for all Type 2 diabetics is chromium.
That is because chromium works closely together with insulin
to channel glucose into cells. The higher the insulin blood
level, the higher is also the chromium level. This causes
increased loss of chromium with the urine after sweet meals.
In some studies 50 percent of diabetics improved with additional
chromium. Deficiency of chromium also raises lipid levels
in the blood, thereby increasing the risk of atherosclerosis.
Western diets are generally very low in chromium, 85 per
cent for instance are lost when making white flour.
The
key to the successful treatment of both types of diabetes
is a diet low in sugars and starches. Legumes, sprouted
and cooked, are the best form of carbohydrates. Besides
avoiding or minimising the indicated causes of both types
of diabetes, the diet should include a high amount of citric
acid in order to eliminate the fatty deposits in blood vessels
and other inappropriate places. Most of the damage of diabetes
is caused by an oversupply of both glucose and insulin,
which then leads to the overproduction of saturated fat
and cholesterol.
Citric
acid reacts with fatty acids to produce energy. As long
as they have enough fat, diabetics can easily live on lemon
juice. This is not fanciful as basically all of our food
is internally converted into citric acid before it is converted
into energy. However, to convert citric acid completely
into energy, it needs to react with the breakdown products
of fatty acids, see The
Cellular Energy Metabolism for a diagram of this process.
The late Dr Carey Reams reputedly cured thousands of diabetics
of both types with a 3-week lemon juice fast. Every hour
or ten times daily patients would drink a glassful with
one part of lemon juice and 9 parts of water, followed after
3 weeks by an allergy-tested natural diet.
It
is regrettable that it is so difficult in our society to
make diabetics aware that a nutritional alternative to drug
treatment exists. Nevertheless, the good news is that it
can be done; diabetes can be overcome, not just managed.
It is up to each individual diabetic to try this way.
Of
course, it is much easier to prevent diabetes than to cure
it.
Here are some simple steps to minimise the likelihood of
developing diabetes:
- Minimise
the intake of cows' milk protein, especially with infants.
- Avoid
gluten with infants and minimise its use later in life.
- If
you cannot breast-feed use goats' milk and almond milk
instead (with the addition of cod liver oil and acidophilus/bifido
cultures).
- Check
for signs of vitamin B6 deficiency, or just give your
children a low-potency multivitamin supplement.
- Take
antibiotics only in serious conditions together with a
fungicide (e.g. garlic) and plenty of live cultures of
lactobacilli.
- Use
only a minimum of sweeteners and sweet fruit juice; eat
whole fruit instead for sweetness.
- Control
your weight by eating your food predominantly raw, use
mainly fresh fruit and vegetables, and minimise grain-based
food.
- Improve
your lifestyle: regularly exercise, and learn meditation
or deep relaxation.
For
treatment see the related article Holistic
Diabetes Treatment.
