Posts Tagged ‘diabetic’

Type 2 diabetes treatment failure is distressing to say the least. Doctors’ diabetic care seems to accelerate the growth of both the pharmaceutical industry and the medical supply business.

Doctor’s Advice

The doctor’s advice is oddly consistent with the American dietary approach. Eat everything in moderation. That advice hasn’t paid off.  Their solution to the problem is an insulin injection or a pill along with a jab of the finger a few times a day.

Their cash flow isn’t hurt, but the potential for a full recovery isn’t anywhere to be seen. What are the medical community’s benchmarks for successful disease management?  Well it seems the simple trick to success is not to challenge the patient to change their lifestyle, but to just comply with the drug schedule, and adjust medication with glucose monitoring.

The treatment isn’t about science; though that is what it is suppose to be about. The medical system is about care not cure. That is the real problem. Doctors support a system that is about volume, and what works best is maintenance.

Here is some advice from a pediatric endocrinologist and senior scientist in the UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center. For Halloween he gave parents three options.

Counting Carbohydrates

By counting carbohydrates, kids can enjoy some of the treats that Halloween has to offer in moderation. This option allows the child to keep up with how many carbs they are eating: the example is one unit of insulin for every 15 or 20 grams of carbohydrates.

This is the doctor’s quote: “This is an easy option for kids on an insulin pump because they can just dial in an extra dose of insulin to compensate for what they are about to eat. But for kids that take shots, this could prove to be more difficult or inconvenient if they have to go to the school nurse for an extra dose,”

What is wrong with this solution is that everything can be solved with a shot of insulin. This message sets the stage for life, with using insulin as the fix for poor dietary choices. Sometimes you need the insulin, but to use it as a springboard to survival is absurd. The next problem is the quality of the treats and the ingredient list. These treats will deplete the body of its store of vitamins and minerals, which are needed and used by the pancreas, liver, and all systems that support the body’s ability to deal with sugar and toxins, such as artificial flavor and colors.

This is considered a proactive approach by both the parents and physician. The child needs to feel part of the crowd, and enjoy the American past time of eating poor quality fuel for the body.

Exchanging Candy

The second solution suggested is that the parents can trade the child a gift, money, or low carb snack for their candy. Parents can also provide a substitute snack for their child if the class is holding a Halloween party at school.

I know as a parent that this sounds good and it may work.  However, to offer cash or a gift makes the candy seem to have a high value. What the problem is this is considered a practical solution, since we live in the real world. This approach doesn’t remove sweet treats but perpetuates its value.

The low carb approach is good and even better if it’s structured to be the desired item by the child. The way to do that isn’t mystical; it’s eating healthy while pregnant, and starting the baby on a good diet. The chances of having diabetes would be lower with this approach.

Dessert

kids can savor their Halloween treats without an extra shot or dose of insulin by having them for dessert after dinner. The quote “By incorporating a sugary treat into meal time, when a child would normally get a dose of insulin, it eliminates the need for adding doses to their regimen.”

Another idea I am not fond of and the reason is there is an aticipation of a reward. It takes sweets and holds them in high esteem. Protecting health and remaining safe from disease is the main goal, not building deals around things that aren’t good for diabetes.

Removal of harmful substances is a necessary tool for the parents of diabetic children. Avoiding the American way of eating will enable diabetic children to achieve a long and healthy life.

There is a study that shows type-2 diabetics have poor impulse control. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal BioPsycho Social Medicine, suggested that neurological changes result in this inability to resist temptation, which in turn exacerbates diabetes.

Hiroaki Kumano, from Waseda University, Japan, worked with a team of researchers to assess response inhibition, a measure of self-control, in 27 patients with type-2 diabetes and 27 healthy controls. He said, “Patients with type 2 diabetes are required to make strict daily decisions; for example, they should resist the temptation of high-fat, high-calorie food, which is frequently cued by specific people, places and events. Appropriate behavior modification thus depends on the patients ability to inhibit impulsive thoughts and actions cued by these environmental stimuli”.

In order to gauge the patients’ ability to resist such impulsive behavior, the researchers used a test in which participants had to quickly press a button in response to the correct signal on a computer screen, while pressing the button in response to the wrong symbol counted against their score. They found that patients with diabetes performed significantly worse at the test, suggesting that they struggled to control the impulse to press the button. Other results showed that the inhibitory failure observed in diabetic patients was mainly explained by cognitive impairment of impulse control, rather than by deficits in motor performance, error monitoring and adjustment. According to Kumano, “This suggests the possibility that the neuropsychological deficits in response inhibition may contribute to the behavioral problems leading to chronic lifestyle-related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes”.

Really

Previous generations did not have all the chronic conditions that American’s face today. These studies are similar to a dog chasing his tale. We are going in circles, without understanding the problem. Any amount of neurological damage can occur because of the poor diet being shoved down our throats.

People who are overweight already have an impulse problem. The most common one stems from poor glucose regulation, and poor nutrition. Cravings are set up by the food giants, and now we can study the effects and blame the victim.

Question

Which came first poor impulse control or a poor diet that changed hormones, cells, gene expression, and brain circuitry. Again, it is a question of which came first the chicken or the egg. Science in the 21^st century is chasing their tail at our expense.

Looking at every and any angle of why type-2 diabetics haven’t enough control in front of food is alright, if you ask the right questions. Extending it to impulse behavior that effects other things would make sense, if the whole population wasn’t heading down the same path.

Then the question becomes why is the entire population at risk, including the very young.

Sense and Cents

These studies really don’t make sense. I really would like to see more productive use of the funds that are being used for this so-called research.

Taking a look at our food supply might be a good start. People in this country are nutrient deficient while on a high calorie diet. A good part of the population is undernourished and overweight. All studies are being conducting on people who are not operating at their optimate level. In that case many functions will be frequently out of whack.

Whack rhymes with quack, and I see quack science searching for all the capabilities lost to an American diet. With all the research the solution remains elusive.