My learning about the ‘Problem with the Current Treatment of Diabetes’ from a video lecture by Dr. S. Vijayaraghavan
Source: YouTube channel – Goodbye Diabetes, Website – Goodbye Diabetes
There are 3 lies about diabetes
- It is a progressive disorder
- Treat the sugar
- Control the sugar with insulin
When a diabetic patient goes to a doctor, the doctor suggests ‘lifestyle modification’ with changes to ‘diet’ and exercise’. Neither the doctor nor the patient know how to do that. After a while, the patient does not succeed in losing weight or reducing blood sugars over the long term. Then the doctor prescribes mild drugs, then stronger drugs, then insulin, then more insulin… and the cycle goes on.
We should understand that basic concept that all diseases (including diabetes) are the body’s intelligent response to a threat (physical, chemical or emotional). So, increase in blood sugar is a response to a threat. We try to suppress the blood sugar with chemicals, but the body responds to our abuse and neglect (by the food we feed it) by further increasing blood sugar levels.
Root cause vs symptom
Conventional treatment is oriented towards the blood sugar, whereas the real culprit is insulin resistance. When a patient comes to me with fever, and I diagnose that he has typhoid, I have to give him treatment to cure the typhoid, not just the fever.
In the case of diabetes, insulin resistance is the disease, blood sugar is only the symptom.
2 approaches:
Approach 1 – Treat the symptom
If you aim to treat the sugar, the only treatment is medicines – tablets or medicines or both.
Approach 2 – Treat the root cause
If you aim to treat the insulin resistance, the only treatment is diet.
In approach 1, by giving medicines to the patient, the blood sugar will come down for some time, then it will go up again. Medicine is attached to money. The manufacturing and selling of medicines makes money.
In approach 2, the blood insulin and the blood sugar come down and stay down. There is no money involved.
Now you may be able to understand why the conventional treatment of diabetes has taken approach 1.
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The right approach to treating diabetes should be approach 2.
Type 2 diabetes is a dietary disorder, it should not be treated with medicines; it should be treated by changing the way of eating.
The culprit of diabetes is insulin resistance.
The problem – high level of insulin
The solution – eat food that does not stimulate insulin.
- Carbohydrate creates highest secretion of insulin. (Especially refined and unhealthy carbs)
- Protein creates moderate secretion of insulin
- Fat creates negligible secretion of insulin.
LCHF – low carbohydrate, high fat with moderate intake of protein is the solution to diabetes. On the LCHF diet, the level of insulin secreted comes down. Insulin resistance comes down. Therefore, blood sugar level comes down.
On a high-carb diet, the body is always energy deficient (even as it increases its fat storage). That’s why a person on a high-carb diet is always hungry.
Conventional treatment of diabetes is similar to pinching the baby and rocking the cradle – advising a diet that increases your blood sugar and prescribing medicines to bring the blood sugar down.
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The science is simple. The journey may be difficult. But just like a rocket uses boosters to escape the force of gravity of the earth, we need to empower ourselves with knowledge and launch out of the faulty beliefs that are holding us down. Once we launch out, we’ll be in a different zone.
