Monthly Archive: December 2023
According to the CDC, about 38 million Americans have diabetes (1 in 10 people), and approximately 90-95% of that number are type 2 diabetics. The average age is about 45 years old. They also say that childhood obesity rates are rising, and so are the rates of type 2 diabetes in youth. They have found that more than 75% of children with type 2 diabetes have a close relative who has it as well. What is diabetes? Insulin is a hormone created in the pancreas that is essential to help transport the sugar over the cell wall. It is the key that opens the door to the cell. There are two primary problems. The pancreas (which creates the hormone Insulin) does not produce enough insulin to move the sugar into the cells. The second issue is the cells do not respond to the insulin available, also known as Insulin Resistance....
To begin, we have to understand what inflammation actually means. The standard definition of inflammation is: If your body encounters an offensive foreign body (chemicals which are toxic to your system, viruses, bacteria, food sensitivity) or you have an injury, the body responds via the immune system. The immune system initially sends out something called inflammatory cells and another thing called cytokines (cytokines are chemical messengers which cause the stimulation of more inflammatory cells). Often we recognize inflammation by pain, bruising, redness or swelling however inflammation can also affect body systems you are unable to see and not even be aware it is happening. Inflammation can be acute, subacute or chronic depending on the duration of the symptoms. Acute inflammatory is commonly seen after some kind of injury, viral or bacterial infections or exposure to some environmental toxin. Usually onset is very fast and can last for several days. Then...
In the last blog, I talked about fighting disease using diet and weight loss. In particular, I talked about fighting cancer. That was only two of the pieces to fighting cancer. It is also important to include exercise (especially when using a Keto diet as an adjunct for cancer treatment or weight loss) and intermittent fasting. Exercise is linked to the immune system. Recent research suggests that cytotoxic T cells (white blood cells that specialize in killing cancer cells) are activated with exercise and improve their ability to attack cancer cells. Regular exercise has an important role in almost every disease. In the Keto diet, it is really important to avoid saturated fats as much as possible and include things like fatty fish, olive oil, avocado oil and coconut oils. Lean proteins such as chicken and some cuts of pork are great choices. To offset the “bad cholesterol”, as when...
