If this book must be dedicated to someone, it should be to the occasional man, woman, or child who still can resist the specious authority of food merchants, their lavish advertisements and spectacular television commercials, and retain sufficient intellectual independence to think for themselves.
—Walter L. Voegtlin, M.D., F.A.C.P., in The Stone Age Diet (1975)
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Posted in Quote of the Day
I don’t generally follow lifestyles of the rich and famous, but if you do, here you go.
“Hathaway” always makes me think of the Beverly Hillbillies, which gives you an idea how old I am. The Beverly Hills movie is a good one, too. It’ll teach you how to do the “California howdy.”
My wife and I are going to Hathaway’s latest movie tonight: Interstellar. I hear it’s best in the IMAX format.
Steve
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Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Anne Hathaway, low-carb diet, paleo diet
Who says low-carb paleo diets are mostly meat?
Jimmy Moore posted an interview with Dr. Troy Stapleton and Franziska Spritzler, R.D. These two wouldn’t consider themselves paleo diet gurus by any means. They advocate carbohydrate-restricted diets for management of blood sugars in diabetes, consistent with my approach in the Paleobetic Diet. Dr. Stapleton might argue I allow too many carbohydrates. By the way, he has type 1 diabetes; I’ve written about him before. Franziska is available for consultation either by phone, Skype, or in person.
Steve Parker, M.D.
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Posted in Diabetic Diet, Dietary Carbohydrate, Low-Carb
Tagged carbohydrate restriction, diabetes, diabetic diet, Dr. Troy Stapleton, Franziska Spritzler, low-carb diet, paleo diet, type 1 diabetes
Reduce retinopathy risk with good blood sugar control
David writes:
Two famous studies showed that tight control of glucose did not cause a statistically significant reduction in heart attacks or early death. But roughly 20 years after the studies ended, tight control subjects are living longer and healthier than those who were in the comparison groups.
Those two famous studies, however, did originally show evidence of better eye, nerve, and kidney function via good control.
Steve Parker, M.D.
Diabetes Self-Management has some of the details.
The implication is that the genetically determined physiology of black diabetics is different from whites. There could be other explanations, admittedly.
Here’s why I bring this to your attention. You don’t see me review many scientific articles involving mice, rats, pigs, or rabbits. In fact, I hardly ever read them. I take care of human patients. I suspect there are too many genetic differences between us and them that clinically pertinent studies are rare.
If you read my blogs carefully, you’ll also note I often hesitate to generalize clinical study results from one ethnic group to others. The different black/white responses to metformin validates my approach.
Type 2 diabetes in whites and blacks may not be the same disease, and it could be different in Asians, Australian aborigines, and North American Native Americans. For that matter, Ethiopian black diabetes may not be the South Africa black diabetes.
You may also be starting to understand why there’s so much confusion about which diabetic drugs are the best. We have 12 different classes of drugs now; what’s best for me may not be best for you.
Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: Type 1 diabetes, on the other hand, is probably more homogenous across ethnic and national boundaries.
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Posted in Drugs for Diabetes
Tagged diabetes in blacks, drugs for diabetes, metformin, type 2 diabetes
Click to listen to the recent podcast interview. Dr. Danenberg favors a Mark Sisson-style “primal” paleo diet. Dr. Danenberg attributes most common periodontal and dental problems to our modern diets with their prominent acellular carbohydrates and associated gut microbiome changes.
To find other dentists and dental hygienists who support a paleo diet approach to dental issues, click on “Teeth” in the subject categories in the far right-hand column.
Steve Parker, M.D.
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Posted in Teeth
Tagged Dr. Alvin Danenberg, Jimmy Moore, periodontal disease
Ray Audette is the author of the classic Neanderthin book from 1995. He credited his Paleolithic-style diet with curing his type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
Chris Highcock published an interview with Ray in 2010. The Dallas Observer News published an article about him in 1995.
Steve Parker, M.D.
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Posted in Paleo Diet, Paleo Movement
Tagged interview, Jimmy Moore, Neanderthin, paleo diet, Ray Audette
The NYT’s Well blog has the details. The brain’s hippocampus is a critical center for memory. Alzheimers disease is associated with a gene called apo-E4. Carriers of that gene who exercise regularly have less shrinkage of the hippocampus than non-exercisers.
To PROVE that regular exercise prevents dementia-related shrinkage of the hippocampus, you’d have to force some folks to exercise and stop others who wanted to exercise. A couple years later, scan their brains and compare the two groups. That study may never be done.
Another way to preserve your memory could be to keep your fasting blood sugars closer to the lower end of the normal range, rather than the higher end. That strategy may prevent degeneration of your hippocampus and amygdala.
The Mediterranean diet also seems to prevent or forestall dementia.
Steve Parker, M.D.
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Posted in Dementia
Tagged amygdala, exercise, fasting blood sugar, fasting glucose levels, hippocampus, memory preservation
How about this one?
Well, it’s not really new. It’s our old friend insulin, soon to be available via inhalation with the brand name Afrezza. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it in July, 2014. Click for the package insert.
Who Can Use It?
Adults with either type 1 or 2 diabetes.
Who Should Avoid It Or Not Use It?
Common Side Effects:
Hypoglycemia, cough, throat pain.
What’s the Dose?
It comes in 4 and 8 unit cartridges. See the package insert for dosing details. Afrezza is a rapid-acting insulin taken at the start of meals, so you’re looking at two or three doses a day. Type 1 diabetics still need to take a basal (long-acting) insulin once or twice daily. As far as I can tell, the type 2 diabetics in the pre-approval clinical studies were all taking one or more oral diabetic drugs in addition to the Afrezza; the inhaled insulin was an add-on drug. The average time to maximum effect of the drug is 50 minutes with the 8 unit dose; blood levels of insulin are back to baseline after three hours.
Anything Else Interesting About It?
The manufacturer recommends a test of lung function before starting the drug, to identify folks with lung disease who shouldn’t inhale insulin. The test is called spirometry or FEV-1 (forced expiratory volume in 1 second). Moreover, spirometry should be repeated six months after start of the drug, then yearly thereafter.
Another form of inhaled insulin—Exubera—was on the U.S. market in 2006 and discontinued by the manufacturer the next year. The problem may have been poor sales or a concern about lung cancer.
You can’t get it at your pharmacy yet. Maybe later this year or the next.
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Posted in Drugs for Diabetes
Tagged Afrezza, diabetes drugs, Exubera, inhaled insulin
Not Amby Burfoot
Running guru Amby Burfoot has an article asking, “what is the healthiest diet?” for the general public. His answer comes from the Journal of Nutrition. Looks like there are four winners. A quote from Mr. Burfoot:
They [the four leading contenders for best diet] differ slightly in the degree to which they favor, or disfavor, certain foods and food types, such as the following:
The four tend to favor whole grains and disparage red meat. I doubt the Journal of Nutrition article even considered the paleo diet because we lack similar extent of clinical data to compete with the others.
Comments are open temporarily.
Steve Parker, M.D.
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Diabetic Mediterranean Diet Advanced Mediterranean Life
Paleo Diabetic 