Rob Thompson - The Glycemic Load Diabetes Solution: Six Steps to Optimal Control of Your Adult-Onset (Type 2) Diabetes

Copyright 2012 by Rob Thompson, MD. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-179739-9
MHID: 0-07-179739-4

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-179738-2, MHID: 0-07-179738-6.

All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.

McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative please e-mail us at bulksales@mcgraw-hill.com.

The information contained in this book is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subject addressed. It is not intended to serve as a replacement for professional medical advice. Any use of the information in this book is at the readers discretion. The authors and publisher specifically disclaim any and all liability arising directly or indirectly from the use or application of any information contained in this book.

TERMS OF USE

This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (McGraw-Hill) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hills prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms.

THE WORK IS PROVIDED AS IS. McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.

Until recently, doctors thought adult-onset diabetes was the same as childhood diabetesthat both were caused by lack of insulin. Then scientists made a remarkable discovery: the two are entirely different diseases. Whereas kids with diabetes suffer from lack of insulin, most adult-onset diabetics make plenty of insulinusually more than normal. The problem is that their bodies lose sensitivity to it. Now doctors refer to the kind young people get as type 1 diabetes and to the kind that middle-aged adults get as type 2 diabetes. This book is for people with adult-onset, or type 2, diabetes.

In times past, the diagnosis of diabetes had tragic implications. Children and young adults often wasted away and died from it. The troubles of middle-aged adults with type 2 diabetes seemed minor compared to young people with type 1 diabetics. Adult-onset diabetics could live for years with no treatment at all. They could usually get their blood sugar down to reasonable levels by just taking some pills and watching their diet. Doctors rarely prescribed insulin for these patients; they figured it wasnt worth the trouble.

However, in the 1990s, new research showed that while patients with type 2 diabetes rarely died as a direct result of their diabetes, after several years their mildly elevated blood sugar levels could damage their eyes, kidneys, and blood vessels just as type 1 diabetes could. Most alarming, there was a significant increase in heart attacks and strokes among type 2 diabetics. As a result, doctors started taking adult-onset diabetes more seriously. They began treating it as they would type 1 diabetes, using stronger pills and insulin when necessary to get blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible.

In 2008, researchers released the results of two large studies of the effects of this more vigorous approach to treating type 2 diabetes. The results were disappointing. Heavier doses of insulin helped patients avoid eye and kidney damage as it did for patients with type 1 diabetes but did little to reduce the rate of heart attacks and strokes. What worked for patients with juvenile diabetes didnt work as well for folks with adult-onset diabetes.

Those results are not really surprising, considering that type 2 diabetes is a completely different disease than type 1. It has different causes, results in different complications, and requires a different approach to treatment. The goal of treating type 1 diabetes is simple: replace the missing insulin. Type 2 diabetes is more complicated. Loss of sensitivity to insulin brings on cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight problems, which cause as much trouble as the high blood sugar does. This often requires a multipronged approach to treatment.

The good news is that you can live to a ripe old age without suffering any health problems from your type 2 diabetes. When the nineteenth-century sage George Bernard Shaw said the secret to good health is to get a chronic disease and take good care of it, he might as well have been talking about adult-onset diabetes. When you do what you need to do to treat it, you reverse many of our modern lifestyles harmful effects on your health and general well-being. Indeed, you might find yourself feeling better than you have for years.

This book will give you six simple steps to follow that should give you excellent control of your type 2 diabetes and prevent the problems that often come along with it. First, however, its important to understand the logic behind the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Once you see what brought on your condition, you will know exactly what you need to do to reverse it.

A dual epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes has struck America. These problems were much less common as recently as forty years ago, so theyre not programmed into our genes. Something were doing or not doing is causing them. What changed to make us prone to these conditions? To understand, you need to look back further in timemuch further.