One of my guilty pleasures a few times per week is to watch Oprah while I’m at the gym. Yesterday I got part of a show which I’ll assume was about prevention and reversal of diabetes. For those of you who are new here, part of my mission is to reverse the trend and rates of heart disease and diabetes in midlife women so I paid attention to what the guests–Dr. Oz, Bob Greene, (Oprah’s trainer), and Dr. Ian Smith–had to say. (Art, Oprah’s former chef made a guest appearance as proof that you can reverse diabetes. He’s lost something like 90 pounds and transformed his cooking in the process)
Bob Greene has a new book out, The Best Life Guide to Managing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes. He is co-author along with Dr.Jack Melendrino and Janis Jilbrin MS, RD. I’ve yet to buy the book–I disagree with Bob on many aspects of his programs–but will pick it up. Whether Bob and I see eye to eye over butter vs margarine–he touts it and I say it’s plastic and dangerous–is unimportant if his program and celebrity gets the word out that people can reverse diabetes and/or prevent it. There is one thing he told a group of women, who all looked more than well fed and heading for or suffering from diabetes, and it was this:
Exercise is non negotiable!
Amen to that! Most of you reading this are already believers in the power of movement. If there are any of you who doubt that exercise is a life saving, life extending, cure-what-ails-you kind of thing, I invite you to change your thinking. Even daily walking can change your physiology and contribute to better health.
With diabetes and pre-diabetes it is even more important that you move your muscles, get your heart pumping, and blood flowing. Exercise moves blood sugar where it needs to be which gets it out of your bloodstream. While you are exercising insulin cannot be produced so you give your body a rest from the insulin storm produced by too much blood sugar. Your blood sugar levels go down naturally. If you need to, you will most likely lose weight.
This is not a plug for Bob’s book, as I said, I don’t own it yet. From the reviews I’ve read I know I’ll have other issues outside of some of the foods given the Best Life Seal. Rather, it is a plug, no, a plea, for all of the women reading this to move your parts! I don’t want to have to drag you all kicking and screaming into a long, happy life . And since that’s impractical how about I just beat this subject to a mind numbing pulp by repeating it–you’ve got to move it move it!
I also don’t want to see you too sick to kick and scream. Diabetes is not simply a sugar issue. It is a disease with debilitating and often horrible consequences. By the time a person is diagnosed with diabetes they have had the condition for years. High blood sugar and insulin resistance have been battering your heart, kidney’s, nerves in the eyes and feet. Shall I go on? Drugs come with their own set of complications and who wants to test their sugar 2 – 6 times per day?
Exercise is not the only lifestyle change that must become a regular part of your life to prevent or turn back the diagnosis of diabetes but it is an important one.
As Bob told the church ladies–many of whom were midlife–Exercise is Non-negotiable. Love you Bob, margarine and all, thanks for getting the word out.
Hormones rule, did you know that? I’m not talking just sex hormones though in teenaged boys and middle aged women they are certainly at the top of the pecking order most days.
Everything we eat has a hormonal consequence, some helpful, some down right harmful over the long term.
Insulin is a hormone and is responsible for getting blood sugar somewhere it can be used or stored. Grehlin and leptin are the push me-pull yous of the hunger and satiety dance. These three food related hormones are in direct communication with our other messengers such as glucagon–the fat-burning hormone. Called into action when food is scarce, glucagon converts stored fat into sugar and uses it for energy. These 4 hormones worked in perfect harmony before the introduction of grains and industrial food production when all hormonal hell broke loss. It’s been a steep slide towards disease and women on the verge ever since.
So what can be done? Keep an eye on this blog cause it’s one of missions to let women know about how to eat for hormonal balance, and grab this book if you want some science and some recipes.
Dr. Michael Aziz is an internist with a practice in Manhattan; Midtown Integrative Medicine. Frustrated early on in his medical career that so many young people were coming in with cancers, diabtetes, and allergies that he couldn’t heal as well as all ages of people who had weight issues, he went in search of some answers. What he found was this connection between key hormones and the foods we eat. The main culprits?
Sugar, grains, processed fake foods like margarine, and the endocrine disruptors found in the chemicals used to increase shelf life, texture, color, etc. One of his findings goes along with mine of late–low fat diets are partially at fault in the rise of diabetes, obesity, and hormonal chaos. “The results of the research is clear, eating fat does not make you fat. Rather it’s the lack of natural fats in your diet that makes you gain weight” writes Aziz. He continues, “Natural fats are essential for your cells to work properly. Fats slow down the absorption of food, stabilize blood sugar levels, decrease, cravings, and make you feel full.”
And blood sugar levels will make or break our health over the long haul. I’ve included a link to a 2.5 minute video of Dr. Aziz live, he explains his philosophy and his book a bit more. His solution is an easy, delicious way of eating, protein, fat and fresh fruits, veggies, beans and legumes pretty much.
It’s becoming harder and harder to hide from the latest message on food as medicine–eat what’s natural, eat foods you can recognize as such, don’t fear the fat, and eat organic (meats and dairy) and grass fed (meats) when you can. In case you don’t remember how delicious a dollop of half and half is in your coffee or whole egg poached or fried–it’s The Yumm Factor to the 10s. You may have to let go of some long held beliefs to take on these new ideas but if you find hormonal heaven vs a daily roller coaster from hell, wouldn’t it be worth it?
Dr. Michael Aziz
Who knew such a thing even existed? Thanks to one of the daily nutrition digests I get online, I now do. Unsure what to do with this information I went to the International Diabetes Foundation website to learn something. I was happy to find out that their mission is “Promoting diabetes care, prevention and a cure worldwide.” My personal mission aligns with theirs, (To reverse the rates of heart disease and diabetes in midlife women) so I did some research on their site. What I found makes me sad but even more dedicated to my mission than ever.
Consider these facts: “In virtually every high-income country, diabetes is ranked among the leading causes of blindness, renal failure and lower limb amputation. Diabetes is also now one of the leading causes of death, largely because of a markedly increased risk of coronary heart disease and stroke (cardiovascular disease).”
One of the reasons I’m so hot on people knowing their numbers–fasting blood sugar, waist size, and other markers of predicting health challenges–is that aging increases our risk for these non-communicable diseases. Aging in addition to what you eat and don’t, lack of exercise, weight gain, chronic stress, and family medical history set many midlife women up for a diagnosis. Knowing your numbers can give you a heads up early enough to make the reversal process easier.
BUT–there is hope and help. Please read on.
Anyone reading this who has diabetes, has been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, has had a high sugar reading, is way overweight or just worries that they might become diabetic; there are things you can do. If you have the disease, it’s reversible, if you are heading there you can stop the process and regain your health.
Eating and exercise are the weapons of choice–to keep the popular “war” on diabetes metaphor going.
If that sounds simplistic it’s not. I have worked with women who have done it, books are written on the subject, doctors around the world who have the time to learn about lifestyle influences on the diseases of affluence agree–modifying your day to day lifestyle habits can improve your health and reverse this set of symptoms.
The World Health Organization–regardless of your position on them–has adopted the idea that physical exercise and proper nutrition is key to disease prevention and reversal of ill health. That’s saying a lot as they are a very conservative organization with a global responsibility.
Dr. Julian Whitaker’s book, Reversing Diabetes: Reduce or Even Eliminate Your Dependence on Insulin or Oral Drugs is a must have paperback for anyone who wants to learn more about what it takes. His cookbook, Reversing Diabetes Cookbook: More Than 200 Delicious, Healthy Recipes has delicious recipes that a friend cooks out of daily and loves. (I recommended this book to her when she was diagnosed. Along with a few other tweaks to her lifestyle she lost 25 pounds-and counting- in 6 weeks and her numbers are now normal.)
There are plenty of other programs by doctors out there if you start to look. The bottom line is this, diabetes does not have to be your experience. If you don’t want to go on meds, ask your doctor for 6 weeks before starting them. During that time find a coach who specializes in helping people do what they need to do safely and successfully. Or grab a book and give the process a try.
Even if you are on insulin or other medications and you don’t want to do that for the rest of your life, don’t give up. Changing what you eat and how much you move can begin with small steps. Over time you’ll get the result you are looking for and boy will you feel good.
You will not be facing the more life threatening aspects of a disease like diabetes, you’ll have more energy, and you’ll just plain feel better. If there is anything I can do to help you get help, drop me an email.
What the heck does that mean you may be asking and what has it got to do with midlife?
Science has discovered that the genes we are born with are not a static bunch of cells that doom or bless us with our height, health, disease, and jean size. Far from it. And that includes the idea that at the very least genes determine height, frame, eye color. Science cannot explain from a genetic point of view why tall kids are born to short parents. The assumption that it’s better diet has been ruled only one possibility as the younger generation of Phillipinos is growing shorter despite better economic conditions.
In truth there are at least 20 genes that determine height. And science now can’t even decide whether height is 90% gene directed or only 20%!
These facts and so many interesting others come from Deepak Chopra’s newest book, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul.How to Invent a New You. I’ve long been excited by the science of epi-genetic control–the science of genes and how they turn on and off–and Dr. Chopra’s book is full of wonderful examples of how this works in real people’s lives and the science behind it all.
So what’s this got to do with you and midlife? Right around the middle, for many women, our bodies really start to change. Hormone production is erratic, systems that allowed us to beat them up with no consequences are speaking up, and the diseases associated with our lifestyle choices start to show their symptoms. Add to this that many of us have stories that include reasons for our weight, our illnesses, and our levels of happiness or discontent as being “genetic.” Here’s where it gets really good. You don’t have to tell that story–or have results you don’t want–anymore.
When you were born your genes began adapting to how you thought, felt, and acted. The genes of 70 year old twins looked wildly different than they did when they were born–no longer even close to identical. Life–how we think and feel as well as the environment we choose for ourselves–turns genes on and off.
Translation, you don’t have to have diabetes because it “runs in your family.” You don’t have to gain weight at midlife because it happens to all the women in your family.
“Genes are the most complicated thing about the body. Yes there is simple truth behind them, which is this: you can change your genes, and therefore you can improve them. You are talking to your genes when you do simple things like eating and moving” so says Dr. Chopra in chapter 4. Could there be more of an incentive to eat foods that heal and support healthy aging and get some exercise? Not to mention that you feel better when you do but come on people. We have the power to create our second half with a vengeance. We are not victims to the familial gene pool.
If you want an easy to follow version of this science–with some exercises to help– I recommend Deepak’s book. If you want to hear Dr. Bruce Lipton on the subject, he’s sort of the designated voice of epi-genetic control, use this link to see a 6 minute video. It’s just fascinating.
