The Vlog

Cognitive impairement is more common in elderly women with diabetes than in women without it. A new study (1) examined exercise to see if it had any effect on attenuating cognitive impairement. It didn’t. Why am I reporting this? Because it is only one variable and one shouldn’t put all of their eggs in one basket. If the researchers had studied diet plus exercise, I would bet that it would have had a positive effect. This is why I emphasize both diet and exercise for my clients.

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1. Devore EE, Kang JH, Okereke O, Grodstein F. Physical activity levels and cognition in women with type 2 diabetes. Am J Epidemiol. 2009 Oct 15;170(8):1040-7. Epub 2009 Sep 3.

Some people just like walking. Some people just like lifting weights. Some people do both. And it’s the people who do both who get the most benefits. In a recent study (1) on diabetics, indviduals who did both resistance training and aerobic exercise obtained the same benefits as the aerobic-only group plus the additional benefits of weight loss as well as getting “toned up.” The resistance training group actually gained lean muscle mass tissue while still losing fat!

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1. Marcus RL, Smith S, et al. Comparison of combined aerobic and high-force eccentric resistance exercise with aerobic exercise only for people with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Phys Ther. 2008 Nov;88(11):1345-54. Epub 2008 Sep 18. Erratum in: Phys Ther. 2009 Jan;89(1):103.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18801851?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=12

A new study (1) has showed resistance training or aerobic exercise in type-2 diabetics reduced HbA1c levels, triglycerides, heart rate, and systolic blood pressure. One important thing which the resistance training group did significantly better than the aerobic training group in was reducing LDL cholesterol. Importantly, this study was done on type-2 diabetics and was only done for 8 weeks! It gets even better. The resistance training group only trained twice per week. But I’m not done yet, the aerobic training was actually waking three times a week for only a half an hour! This was a huge improvement for the participants. I can’t imagine what the effects would be if the participants did both resistance and aerobic training and ate better.

1. Ekta Arora, Shweta Shenoy & J.S. Sandhu. Effects of resistance training on metabolic profile of adults with type 2 diabetes. Indian J Med Res. 2009 May;129(5):515-9.
http://www.icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2009/MAY/0506.pdf

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A new study published (1) just showed that cardiovascular fitness was a predictor of mortality (or death) while body mass index appeared insignificant. This study was carried out on pre-diabetic and diabetic women. It basically showed that the more cardiovascaular fit a person is, the longer they will live. Now this doesn’t mean that weight loss isn’t valuable, but if you recall from two posts ago, weight loss reduces the risk of cardiovascaular disease. However, if one is having a hard time losing weight and let’s face it, some individuals are not going to lose weight, you can still help. Encouraging loved one’s to walk or even walking with them is going to help in keeping them here a little bit longer (or a lot).

1. Lyerly GW, Sui X, Lavie CJ, et al. The association between cardiorespiratory fitness and risk of all-cause mortality among women with impaired fasting glucose or undiagnosed diabetes mellitus. Mayo Clin Proc. 2009 Sep;84(9):780-6.

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Most potential clients I talk with if not all already know that exercise can help reduce blood sugars (which is a great benefit unto itself). However, I would say not many would be aware of the fact that exercise also helps in beta cell function. If you are not a type-1 diabetic, this is great news because not only do you directly lower your blood sugar, but you also help your pancreas out. In one study, high, moderate, and even low-intensity exercise helped. If exercise were a medication, the drug companies would make trillions from it because these are only a few of the benefits exercise has to offers (and not just to diabetics).

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Many people talk about individual risk factors for heart disease. But not a lot of people talk about what happens when you have combinations of them. The risk factors of heart disease include total and HDL-C levels, triglyceride levels, systolic blood pressure, BMI, and blood glucose levels. People are actually 5 times more likely to have heart disease when 3 or more of these risk factors are present. The funny thing is that your weight greatly influences your odds of you having any these risk factors. If you weigh more, chances are you’ll have three or more. However, if you lose weight, you decrease the chances of having these risk factors. What’s the bottom line? Losing weight pays off!

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I never promise to my clients that they will get off insulin. However, I see it happen. The fastest ways to make that happen (assuming it is possible for your body) is to lose weight and to go on a low-carb diet. The weight loss results in less insulin for your body to use since there just isn’t as much of your body in need of it anymore. The low-carb diet results in less blood sugars because fewer carbohydrates equals lower blood sugar which equals less insulin. I’ve seen individuals enthralled to be off of insulin, however, the real benefits are decreased risk of mortality, heart disease, and the terrible effects off diabetes.

“Findings showed that FBS [fasting blood sugar], TG [triglycerides] and VLDL-C [LDL cholesterol] decreased significantly (25 %, 30 % and 30.6 % respectively).” This study showed a particular treatment for type 2 diabetics after 8 weeks. Other studies found similar findings with the same treatment. The interesting thing about this study was that these results were produced from a “all-natural” treatment – in essence, it came from food. You would hardly hear about this food or this study simply because there is no industry to promote. But the results are very real. The food it comes from are fenugreek seeds. They can be taken as a supplement (capsules), or as I recommend, soaked overnight in water.

People fear going on dialysis and they should. Dialysis sucks and I’ve seen it firsthand with having a close family friend suffer and finally succumb to Kidney failure. The good news is that thiamin has been shown to help considerably in the treatment of kidney function including kidney proteinuria in diabetics. In one study (http://www.springerlink.com/content/51l034044218455j/?p=c5bea8fb1ebd4a62bedc8ac4726e797f&pi=3), 300 mg of thiamin (Vitamin B1) a day regressed microalbuminuria to normal kidney function in 35% of the diabetics with microalbuminuria. If you have microalbuminuria and health insurance, you can consider taking benfotiamine (a form of thiamin). Either way, the cheap benefits of thiamin are real!

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I know individuals who have had great experiences with a dietician and not so good. I’ve already touched on what to look for in a doctor, so what about a dietician? You want to look for individualization. Remember, the nutritional plan you receive must be practical for you, so can ask the dietician if they take into account whether you cook, what cookware you possess, what foods you like (and don’t like), what to do about cheating, and whatever other questions you think would be valuable for you to actually succeed with a plan. Ultimately, you want to be consistent with the plan which should produce the results you seek.

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