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Introduction & Insights from a Discussion with Dr. Frank Tortorice, MD - show #2675 There is said to be one hundred million people in America that don't know they are pre-diabetic. 84% of them have no idea that they're on the road to becoming diabetic in five to10 years. That’s a third of the population. So to say this is an epidemic is probably an understatement. Many people with type two diabetes could reverse it if they understood how, especially early on. Before a formal diagnosis of diabetes type 2, the odds are very good. If they’ve had type 2 diabetes for less than a few years, (depending on whether or not they have co-morbidities) the odds are reasonably good. If they've had it for a number of years, it may be a little bit more challenging, but not unreasonable. We are talking about major lifestyle changes and using medicines in a supportive...

All too often a visit to the doctors comes away with a new prescription to address some attained disorder. The conversation goes something like this: Physician: “Your blood sugar is higher than I’d like to see it. It’s continued to rise over the past several months and it’s now in a range that I think we need to get it under control using (insert drug of choice here).” Patient: “Wow that’s surprising! I’ve cut out a LOT of bad foods from my diet and I’m eating “healthier” like you told me to.” Physician: "Yes, well it doesn’t seem to be working. Here’s a prescription. Get it filled and start taking it.” Patient: “Ok…” This dialogue implies that the patient will be on this drug for the rest of his/her life. That’s where the part of the conversation that’s missing should pick up. Physicians should be explaining that drugs in general are...

Olive oil protective against type-2 diabetes in women That’s the conclusion of a recent paper by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health who analyzed data of over 145,000 women from the Nurses’ Health Study I and II. After a 22-year follow-up, it was found that each additional 8 gram intake of olive oil was associated with a 6% reduced risk of developing type-2 diabetes, regardless of whether it was consumed as a salad dressing or added to food or bread. Additionally, replacing 8 grams of stick margarine, butter, or mayonnaise with 8 grams of olive oil was associated with a 5, 8, & 15 % predicted lower risk of T2D, respectively. Is soluble fiber protective against type-1 diabetes? A low-fiber diet has been associated with other inflammatory or autoimmune diseases such as colon cancer and irritable bowel syndrome, so why not type-1 diabetes as well? Soluble fibers may be...

The International Diabetes Federation estimated that over 8.3% of the adult population had type-2 diabetes (T2D) in 2013, with nearly half of them being undiagnosed. Moreover, they estimated that T2D was responsible for 5.1 million deaths, or 8.4% of the global all-cause mortality. In Europe the percentage of all deaths that were attributable to T2D was even higher at 10.2%, and in North America it rose further still to 13.5%. Clearly T2D is taking its toll on our Western population. One potential reason for the increased mortality is poor lifestyle management of the condition. Of the many complications related to T2D, excessive visceral fat (VAT) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are two of the worst. Given the etiology of T2D is commonly related to excessive caloric intake coupled with inactivity, it should come as no surprise that the most effective treatment for T2D is weight loss through diet and exercise....

There is no shortage of observational evidence supporting the relationship between dairy intake, red meat intake, and risk of developing type-2 diabetes. In an exhaustive review of all systematic reviews and meta-analyses published from 1950 to 2013, pooling the results of 29 articles examining the link between common foods groups and risk of developing type-2 diabetes (T2D) revealed dairy to be one of the most protective food groups second only to coffee and nuts. Conversely, red and processed meats were the most detrimental after sweetened beverage intake.

Since this paper’s publication, a recent review of ten randomized controlled trials in which only dairy intake was altered found that four showed a positive effect on insulin sensitivity, five showed no effect, and one showed a negative effect. Conversely, a meta-analysis of three U.S. cohorts with 194,491 persons and 3,984,203 person-years of follow-up found only yogurt consumption to be associated with a lower risk of T2D. Interestingly, the intake of dairy fat is also associated with glucose tolerance and incident of T2D.