Month: January 2009

(NaturalNews) For most of us who live in developed nations, the taps in our homes bring potable water right to our cups. But if you or your family has the habit of drinking water direct from the tap without additional filtering, then there is mounting evidence to make you reconsider such a routine. In a United States Geological Survey (USGS) study conducted last year, it was revealed that low levels of certain man-made chemicals remain in drinking water supplies even after the necessary treatment processes.

For the study, water samples were examined for the presence of about 260 commonly used chemicals. To obtain a nationally representative sample of water systems across the US, water from nine sites in Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon and Texas were tested.

Some 130 different chemicals, which include pesticides, gasoline hydrocarbons, household-use products and solvents, were found in rivers and streams before cleanup at public water treatment plants.

The assumption many of us would have is that the water treatment process would remove most, if not all, of these chemicals. That, however, as found by the study, is quite far from the truth, as about two out of every three of the 130 chemicals remained in the water post-treatment. According to the study team, many of these substances were concentrated at levels roughly equal to one thimble of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Impact on Human Health

The study report said that most of the detected concentrations of the various chemicals were below levels which would harm humans. But that is hardly a reassuring assertion, considering that these chemicals have not been proven to be safe, but are instead assumed to be not that dangerous due to lack of information.

"We are concerned that they have been detected, but at this point there is insufficient information to really judge anything. Because there are no standards set for most of the compounds, there isn`t a basis for whether there is a health effect," said Tom Schrempp, director of production at Water District No. 1 of Johnson County.

"Most of the man-made chemicals assessed in the USGS study are unregulated in drinking water and not required to be monitored or removed," Tom Jacobus, general manager of the Washington, D.C., Aqueduct, which was one of the water systems assessed in the study, also said.

The fact that many of these manufactured chemicals are not even regulated by authorities should be raising alarm bells in the consumer, in particular because many things which were once assumed to be safe were one day shown to have undesirable effects. The example of E. coli, a type of bacteria, was raised by Ken Midkiff, a water-quality expert. According to him, E. coli in water was not regulated before 1980. "What is deemed as harmless today may be viewed as toxic in the future," he said.

And the greater danger lies in the potential synergistic effects, but in a negative sense, that these chemicals could have. "The biggest concern is the stew effect. Trace amounts of this mixed with trace amounts of that can equal what? We don`t know," said Scott Dye, director of Sierra Club`s Water Sentinel program. This is something which the study report noted, and further research is definitely necessary.

What We Can Do

In the meantime, do you want to continue taking chances? If you have not already done so, installing a water filter in your home, or getting a water distiller, would be a great and possibly essential idea. Many agree that distilled water and reverse osmosis (RO) water are two of the best types of pure water drinking.

In addition, one more lesson for us is the environmental impact we can have when we dump chemicals down drains and toilets. Water treatment does not seem to be able to remove all of these substances, and many of them linger in the environment, for goodness knows how long.

"This is really a learning moment for folks. We all need to work harder on what`s going into wastewater, because these things are persistent in the environment," said Dye.

Possible measure we can take? Start using all-natural soaps, shampoos, detergents and other agents in place of the toxic commercial ones which most people use.

This week the House is expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus package.  In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess.   As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate.  So much for change.  This is déjà vu.  We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc.  These promises are worthless.  This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print.  There a many red flags that I have found in this bill.

 $79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.  

$200 million expands Americorps.  $100 million goes to “faith-and-community” based organizations for social services, which will further insinuate the government into charity and community service.  Private charities are much more efficient and effective because they are directly accountable to donors, while public programs tend to get rewarded for failure. With its money, the Federal Government brings its incompetence and its whims, while creating foolish dependence.  This is sad to see.

Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects.  $4 billion for job training, much of which will be used to direct workers into “green jobs”.  $200 million to “encourage” electric cars, $2 billion to support US manufacturers of advanced batteries and battery systems, which is yet another function of government I can’t find in the Constitution. Not to mention $500 million for energy efficient manufacturing demonstration projects, $70 million for a Technology Innovation Program for “research in potentially revolutionary technologies” in which government, not supply and demand, will pick winners and losers.  $746 million for afterschool snacks, $6.75 billion for the Department of Commerce, including $1 billion for a census.

This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.

There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill – that is, of government.  Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people.  Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment.  Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.

(NaturalNews) Influenza vaccination has no significant effect on death rates among the elderly, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Alberta, Canada.

"Over the last two decades in the United Sates, even while [flu] vaccination rates among the elderly have increased from 15 to 65 percent, there has been no commensurate decrease in hospital admissions or all-cause mortality," researcher Dean T. Eurich said. "Further, only about 10 percent of winter-time deaths in the United States are attributable to influenza, thus to suggest that the vaccine can reduce 50 percent of deaths from all causes is implausible in our opinion."

Researchers compared rates of influenza, pneumonia and death among 700 people, 85 percent of them over the age of 64. Half the participants were given a flu shot, while half were not.

The researchers found that prior to adjusting for any confounding factors, 15 percent of those in the unvaccinated group died, compared with only 8 percent of those in the unvaccinated group – consistent with the previously reported 50 percent mortality reduction. However, once researchers adjusted for other predictors of mortality such as overall health and socioeconomic status, the difference between the two groups disappeared.

This suggests, the researchers said, that the previously observed decreases in mortality from flu vaccination merely come from the so-called "healthy-user effect" and have nothing to do with the vaccine itself.

"The healthy-user effect," said lead researcher Sumit Majumdar, "is seen in what doctors often refer to as their 'good' patients – patients who are well-informed about their health, who exercise regularly, do not smoke or have quit, drink only in moderation, watch what they eat, come in regularly for health maintenance visits and disease screenings, take their medications exactly as prescribed, and quite religiously get vaccinated each year so as to stay healthy."

It is thus the healthy habits that reduce the risk of death, the researchers suggested, and not the flu vaccine.

(NaturalNews) Smoking cigarettes and reading Natural News are two very incompatible notions. But Natural News readers are people after all, and thus not totally perfect. Besides, even the most fastidious raw foodist probably knows or even loves someone who occasionally takes a puff. For them, research on a substance that appears to reverse the health harming effects of smoking may have the ring of good news. Inositol, a compound found in many foods, seems to stop the threat of lung cancer from cigarettes dead in its tracks.

Inositol is found in a variety of foods such as nuts, seeds, oats, rice, beans, corn, chickpeas, liver, pork, veal, whole grains, cantaloupe, most citrus fruits, lecithin granules, and wheat germ. It is available as a supplement in capsule or powdered form. Jarrow Formulas makes a powdered form that is readily available from online health retailers. There are others. Inositol powder has a delicious sweet, creamy taste and is a fabulous addition to smoothies.

Two famous researchers discovered inositol prevents cancer

Dr. Lee Wattenberg, known as the Father of Chemoprevention, searched for several decades starting in the 1970`s to find naturally occurring compounds that could theoretically prevent cancer and then applied scientific methodologies to research his discoveries. After testing several molecules, he found inositol to have great potential. Using various study models he was able to demonstrate that inositol could prevent lung cancer. It had previously been documented that a poor diet increased the chances for cancer to occur, but Dr. Wattenberg was among the first to show that a common nutrient could actually prevent cancer, a truly empowering discovery.

A few years after Dr. Wattenberg, Dr. Abdul Kalam Shamsuddin, known as the Father of IP6 (inositol hexaphosphate), also showed that inositol was able to prevent cancer, demonstrating the preventive value of the compound with colon cancer. Research by Dr. Shamsuddin revealed that inositol affects health in several ways, largely because it is in all human cells and is a major component of cell linings or membranes where it facilitates communication between the various organelles and molecules in a process known as cell signaling.

Why don`t cigarette companies hand out a bottle of inositol with each carton of cigarettes?

Some bright young executive at one of the major tobacco companies may have had the idea to boost sales by telling everybody that inositol, an inexpensive supplement, prevented lung cancer. But for the cigarette companies to buy into the idea would mean an acknowledgement that cigarettes cause cancer. Such an acknowledgement would create immense legal liability for any company making and selling cigarettes.

Inositol provides many other benefits in to the body

Inositol is a critical nutrient for hair growth. It helps prevent hardening of the arteries and is important in the formation of lecithin and the metabolism of fat and cholesterol. It helps remove fats from the liver. Inositol has a calming effect on the brain and has been used successfully at high doses as a treatment for psychiatric disorders such as depression, bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and panic. Inositol is also used for insomnia, retinopathy, and bulimia nervosa and binge eating. It is beneficial for diabetic neuropathy, brain seizures, and for normalizing cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

Symptoms of deficiency are arteriosclerosis, constipation, hair loss, high blood cholesterol, irritability, mood swings, and skin eruptions. The consumption of large amounts of caffeine usually results in inositol deficiency. As coffee consumption was often accompanied by cigarette smoking, this shortage of inositol may have been a critical factor in the cases of smoking induced lung cancer so prevalent during the time when smoking was in style.

Research continues to refine knowledge of the mechanisms by which inositol works

Being a natural compound, there is little incentive for drug companies to research inositol. Natural compounds are not patentable. However, some dedicated researchers are continuing to study the effects of inositol, trying to determine the specific mechanisms by which it prevents lung cancer in cigarette smokers. Here are summaries of the abstracts from the most recent research. It is truly amazing, or maybe criminal is a better word, that the smoking public has not been made aware of these results which date back steadily to the time of Drs. Watterberg and Shamsuddin.

Study results

The phosphatidyl-inositol-3-kinase-AKT pathway is emerging as an important regulator of tumor cell survival. Substances that inhibit this pathway have enormous potential in cancer treatment. In Biochemical Pharmacology, December, 2008, researchers report myo-inositol potentiating appropriate cell death. This effect correlated with down-regulation of various gene products that mediate cell survival, proliferation, metastasis, and invasion, all known to be regulated by NF-kappaB. The inositol compound blocked NF-kappaB activation induced by cigarette smoke.

Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, August 2006, reported a clinical study conducted to assess the safety, tolerability, maximum tolerated dose, and potential chemopreventive effects of myo-inositol in smokers with bronchial abnormal cell development. Smokers between the ages of 40 and 74 participated in dose escalation ranging from 12 to 30 grams per day of myo-inositol for a month to determine the maximum dose tolerated, which turned out to be 18 grams per day. Ten new subjects were then enrolled to take the maximum tolerated dose for 3 months. Side effects, when present, were mild and mainly gastrointestinal in nature. A significant rate of reduction in abnormal cells was observed (91% compared to 48% in the controls). A significant reduction in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure by an average of 10mm Hg was observed after taking 18 grams per day of inositol for a month or more.

Researchers reported that cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Nicotine has been shown to alter gene expression. In a study reported in Physiological Genomics, April, 2001, researchers sought to identify distinct pathways through which alteration of genes took place. They ascertained the expression of over 4,000 genes in human coronary artery endothelial cells and identified a number of nicotine-modulated genes encoding a protein involved in signal transduction or transcriptional regulation. Among these were genes regulating the inositol phospholipids pathway.

The journal Experimental Lung Research, December, 2000, reports mice undergoing whole body exposure for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 5 months to a mixture of cigarette sidestream and mainstream smoke, then kept for another 4 months in a controlled air environment before being scored for lung tumors. In 7 independent experiments, the amount of lung tumors was significantly increased in each experiment, and lung tumor incidence was increased in 5 of the experiments. Several compounds were evaluated for their ability against these tumors, but none of them reduced lung tumor incidence or multiplicity. However, the dietary mixture of myo-inositol and dexamethasone (a synthetic steroid hormone that acts as an anti-inflammatory and immune system suppressant) was effective at reducing lung tumor incidence and multiplicity compared to the controls. This effect was also seen when the animals were fed the myo-inolitol-dexamethasone mixture once they were removed from smoke. The researchers concluded that people who have recently quit smoking might benefit from this compound.

Researchers acknowledged that chronic exposure of mice and rats to cigarette smoke affects T-cell responsiveness which may account for the decreased T-cell proliferative and T-dependent antibody responses in humans and animals exposed to cigarette smoke. In a study reported in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, April, 2000, researchers sought to discover the mechanism by which cigarette smoke affects T cell function. They found that spleen cells from animals with chronic nicotine exposure have depleted inositol stores and a decreased ability to raise intracellular calcium levels. Their results suggest that chronic smoking causes T cell energy reduction and inactivity by impairing pathways and depleting stored inositol resulting in a diminished level of inositol-sensitive calcium.

Mice were fed a diet supplemented with myo-inositol and exposed for 5 months to a mixture of sidestream and mainstream cigarette smoke, in a study reported in Carcinogenesis, July, 1999. In the animals fed the control diet alone, the average number of manifest lung tumors was 2.1. In the animals given the control diet plus an inositol mixture, the number of manifest lung tumors was 1.0. Researchers concluded that the mixture constitutes an effective prevention regimen against the initiation of tobacco induced lung tumors.

In a study reported in the Journal Immunology, April, 1996, both T and B lymphocytes from animals chronically treated with nicotine exhibited decreased ability to mobilize intracellular calcium and inability to complete the cell cycle. Nicotine treated cells significantly lost their ability to up-regulate inositol synthesis. This response continued for at least 2 weeks after nicotine treatment was discontinued. The researchers concluded that chronic in vivo exposure to nicotine leads to T cell energy loss and inactivity and may contribute to nicotine/cigarette smoke-induced suppression of the immune system.

A high percentage of chronic degenerative diseases may actually originate from root canals. The most common diseases are circulatory and heart disease. The next common diseases are those involving joints and arthritis.

The allegation is that there was a series of events that led to important information being hidden about seventy years ago by a group of doctors who didn't fully understand the "focal infection theory."
What is the focal infection theory…and how is it connected to root canals?

The focal infection theory says that germs from a central focal infection (decaying teeth, roots, inflamed gum tissues, and tonsils, can metastasize to the heart, eyes, kidneys, lungs, or other organs and tissues. This then spreads the same infection to these new areas. This theory has been proven extensively and is regarded as fact.

Focal infection states that the bacteria can move into surrounding tissues and travel to other locations in the body through the bloodstream. This new location may be an organ or tissue and the new colony will be a new infection for the body.

Currently, however, patients and doctors have been led into complacency by believing that infections are not as serious because of antibiotics. This is simply not true. In the situation of root-filled teeth, the no longer alive tooth does not have blood being supplied to its interior. This means that antibiotics will not reach this area and will not fight any bacteria that exist there.

Dr. Price performed many experiments while conducting his research. One such experiment involved removing an infected tooth from a woman who had severe arthritis. Dr. Price took the infected tooth and implanted it under the skin of a healthy rabbit. Incredibly, within 48 hours the rabbit had severe arthritis as well.

The claim is that all root-filled teeth contain bacteria or other infective agents. It doesn't matter what technique is used or what material is used.

Another important point is that the main part of teeth that appear solid is called "dentin." While this appears solid, it is actually made up of tiny "tubules." In healthy teeth, these tubules will transport a fluid that nourishes the inside of the tooth. A root-filled tooth does not have any fluid circulating through it anymore, but the tubules remain. The bacteria that are present in this area of the root-filled tooth seem to be out of reach of antibiotics. The tiny organisms hiding in the tubules move further in to the interior of the tooth to stay and then multiply.

One more factor that plays an important role in this situation is the fact that large bacteria are common in the mouth. These bacteria will change and adapt to changing conditions. They can shrink to fit small areas and they can also survive on small amounts of food. The organisms that must have oxygen are able to mutate and then survive without oxygen. Because of this adaptation, these organisms can become pathogenic and are able to produce serious disease.

Today's scientists are able to confirm the research conducted by Dr. Price all those years ago. Recent research has shown strains of "streptococcus," "staphylococcus," and "spirochetes" existing in root canals.

Root canals will not make everyone sick. However, current belief is that every root canal filling will leak and this leakage will allow bacteria to invade the structure. The variable between those who become sick with a degenerative disease and those who do not seems to be the strength of a person's immune system. People who are in good health will be able to control the organisms that escape from their teeth and infiltrate other areas of the body.

This is because the white blood cells and other fighters are not constantly busy with other diseases. The immune system is able to prevent new bacterial colonies from taking over other tissues in the body. Over time, however, most people who have had root canals seem to develop various types of systemic symptoms that were not previously present.

If an extraction is necessary, it is now apparent that merely extracting the tooth is not enough. It has been determined that bacteria are present in the tissues and bone just adjacent to a tooth's root. The new recommendation is slow-speed drilling with a burr to remove 1 millimeter of the entire bony socket.

If the tooth is dead and can't be saved, then the best course of action would be to have a root canal with a material called "Biocalex." "Biocalex" eliminates many of the dangerous bacteria and will cause fewer complications. If this fails, it may be necessary to extract the tooth. It would be best to find a biological dentist for this procedure. Many biological dentists have alternative methods that can save a tooth in some cases.

(NaturalNews) Type II diabetes is a difficult metabolic problem. It is a national embarrassment that so many of our young people are becoming type II diabetic. It is a national disgrace that millions of type II diabetic patients are being injured with commonly used diabetic medications that are known to make their metabolic situation worse.

However, the Big Pharma blood-sugar remedies turn out to be really bad for health – and actually complicate rather than improve the patient's health. Even when the drugs aren't directly damaging in a major way, they fail to address the actual reasons for diabetes and typically have the net result of making the factors causing diabetes worse. I know that may seem hard to believe – but it is true, and I will explain it shortly.

On December 17, 2008 the New England Journal of Medicine put the nail in the coffin on another dismal year for the theory of drugs to treat disease, reporting that aggressive use of blood-sugar-lowering medication to prevent heart disease was a complete failure. Its not that lowering blood sugar in this patient population didn't do anything: it made the patients heavier and more hypoglycemic. This newer study followed equally dismal results from the ACCORD trial (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes), which earlier in 2008 found a 22% increased rate of death in diabetic patients who were aggressively treated with medications.

Some of the newer diabetes medications like Avandia are quite deadly and likely to injure in multiple ways (such as doubling the risk for bone fractures). Scientists at the FDA were so concerned this drug would cause heart failure that they wanted a black box warning on it from the start. However, Von Eschenbach and his band of FDA management goons forced FDA scientists to not warn anyone! As Avandia-treated bodies starting showing up on the doorsteps of morgues around the country, Congress started asking questions. Eventually scientists reported a 43% increase in the risk for heart failure from Avandia; however, the FDA had this data from the start and didn't tell anyone. The FDA allowed Avandia sales to reach 3.2 billion per year – while killing and injuring a lot of patients. Even when the high-profile type II diabetic Tim Russert keeled over dead from a heart attack, nobody in the media seemed interested to know if he was taking Avandia.

At the same time that the FDA was helping to create a market for deadly Avandia sales, they sent out twenty-four warning letters to small dietary supplement companies telling them that their promotion of various products to lower blood sugar, correct insulin resistance, or improve diabetes is against the law. Against whose law? Certainly not the first amendment.

The Blood Sugar Con Job
The FDA and Big Pharma get away with this nonsense because they set the standard for drug effectiveness on a surrogate endpoint or biomarker, in this case the blood sugar level. Their logic is that if blood sugar levels are better than health must be better. This means that any drug that takes a toxic sledgehammer to blood sugar levels, knocking them down, is just fine in the eyes of the FDA even though the drug leaves a trail of damage around the body – even killing the person!

On a lesser scale, but using similar logic, doctors think that any medication that helps lower blood sugar is doing the patient a favor. Never do they ask the most obvious question: If you are lowering blood sugar with a drug where is the sugar going? The answer is: most often to stored fat. Or the sugar is simply forced into cells and kills them because the cells couldn't use the sugar.

What is a diabetes patient to do? And how does anyone whose blood sugar is beginning to rise get the problem under control? Answering these questions requires that you understand something about the subject, as it is rather obvious most doctors, even those who treat diabetes patients as their primary business, don't have adequate practical knowledge to fix the great majority of people coming to them for help.

Blood Sugar 101
First off, your blood is not a very sweet beverage. Normal fasting blood sugar is slightly less than one teaspoon of sugar in your five or so quarts of blood. What happens when you drink a sugar-sweetened Coke that contains ten teaspoons of sugar?

When you eat any food, even fat, your insulin level will rise. Higher amounts of refined carbohydrates or simple sugars will raise your insulin faster and in higher amounts. The greater the fiber content of your diet, the slower insulin is raised and the more controlled the process. When you eat a large meal, regardless of the type of calories, it causes a large and difficult to manage surge in insulin.

Insulin is a taxicab for calories. Its goal is to take blood sugar, as its passenger, to various locations in your body that want it. It helps if you are active, as some of the sugar is more likely to be wanted by cells in your body, including your many muscle cells.

Blood sugar is fuel, like gasoline is to a car. Your brain must have a regular supply or your head conks out. Thus, following a meal your insulin taxis are busy transporting sugar through your circulation and out to your cells, hoping to find cells that need some sugar.

In a healthy person, insulin drops off a whopping sixty percent of the sugar at your liver – which acts as a warehouse, converting the blood sugar to glycogen for storage.

Insulin is released by your pancreas in two phases. The first phase is from insulin that is already made and stored in your pancreas, which is just waiting for some food to come along. This is your first wave of taxis coming to pick up the first set of blood-sugar passengers. The release of this insulin triggers your pancreas's beta cells to start making more insulin to deal with the rest of the meal.

As you are eating, some of the insulin transports blood sugar to your white adipose tissue or stored fat. The blood sugar is taken up by fat cells, activating their metabolism, in turn producing the hormone leptin. Leptin now enters your blood and begins traveling up to your brain. The more you eat, the more insulin you make, and the more leptin you make.

When leptin levels get high enough, meaning you have eaten enough, then leptin permeates into your brain and tells your subconscious brain you are full. At the same time the higher levels of leptin are also telling your pancreas that you are full, which turns off the beta cell production of insulin, as no more taxis are needed.

If you ate the right amount of food for your physical activity level then blood sugar always has some place healthy to go, insulin rises and falls in a controlled manner, as does leptin.

When insulin has too many blood sugar passengers and cells don't need any sugar, then insulin stimulates the production of triglycerides (which can become stored fat). This is how you gain weight. Unfortunately, as triglycerides elevate in your blood they get in the way of leptin getting into your brain. This keeps you eating more than you need to because you don't have a full signal yet, a problem called leptin resistance. This encourages even further insulin-driven triglyceride formation, making it more likely you will gain weight.

If you stop eating so much and start exercising more, then this simple-case issue can improve and will often bounce back to normal function – thus the basic idea of eating less and exercising more to lose weight.

If you continually eat too much and are gaining weight, then cells get tired of seeing insulin taxis driving up. In fact, they shutter their windows and lock their doors, insulin becomes persona non grata. The reason for this rejection of insulin is rather simple – if the cells took in blood sugar when they can't use it, because they already have enough, then the extra sugar will caramelize and kill the cell. Rejecting insulin is a self defense measure. This is the mechanism behind basic insulin resistance at the cellular level.

If this problem keeps going, blood sugar levels continue to rise, insulin resistance gets worse, leptin resistance gets worse, cholesterol levels go up, blood pressure goes up, triglyceride levels go up, and inflammation really starts heating up. Eventually this leads to type II diabetes, along with many risk factors for heart disease, and then heart and kidney disease lock into place.

The problem for any kind of blood sugar medication is that it only addresses one of many mechanisms that aren't working right, while creating its own side effect complications. At best, it is a temporary solution with a narrow scope of benefit – and does not address the true source of the problem.

Furthermore, when more drugs are added in an effort to more comprehensively address the multiple aspects of the problem, then side effects really pile up in a hurry and injure the patient. This means the risk of multiple drug treatment far outweighs the benefits, even though one or two drugs can't get the job done.

More often, the medication either forces sugar into cells – killing or injuring them or it transfers the sugar into fat, making leptin problems worse that in turn make insulin problems almost impossible to solve. The shortcoming of these medications is openly acknowledged in the scientific literature, yet this is what passes for standard medical care. It is a disgrace.

Basic Diet Adjustments for Insulin Improvement
The absolute worst possible dietary pattern of eating for a type II diabetic IS THE STANDARD DIET ADVICE GIVEN BY DIETICIANS AND DOCTORS ACROSS THIS COUNTRY FOR ALMOST ALL TYPE II DIABETIC PATIENTS, helping to lock in a national epidemic of type II diabetes. They routinely tell individuals to snack in order to maintain their blood sugar levels and to "stoke" their metabolism with fuel.

In normal health, when you haven't eaten for three hours, insulin levels return to a baseline. Now your pancreas makes a different hormone called glucagon. This hormone tells your liver to release the sugar it has stored (glycogen) to sustain your blood sugar levels, and as it does this it turns on your liver's fat burning system. Thus, under the influence of glucagon your liver simultaneously uses sugar and fat to sustain your blood sugar – a true fat burning time that helps to clear up stagnating levels of triglycerides in your blood.

If you snack on anything surpassing thirty calories you will raise insulin, which automatically turns off glucagon, causes fat burning to stop, and blunts the use of sugar that has been stored in your liver. However, since you haven't used the stored sugar in your liver, then insulin can't put more sugar back in your liver as it normally would, meaning it will readily turn blood sugar into fat (even if you snacked on something with no fat).

You are supposed to get a snack between meals – but it is supposed to come from your liver, not from eating.

The worst things for leptin and insulin are eating between meals, eating large meals, eating low fiber, eating high refined sugar or refined carbohydrates, not eating enough quality protein, and not exercising.

If you eat anything after dinner you make matters even worse, because now you reduce the optimal access into your stored fat during sleep, a prime opportunity to burn fat.

When this system is abused and weight is gained, then fat begins to accumulate in excess in your liver. The fat clogs your liver's metabolism and reduces the ability of sugar to store in your liver following a meal. This is liver insulin resistance caused by fatty build up. This means that you are much more likely to become hypoglycemic or low blood sugar between meals – as you don't have enough sugar in your warehouse to use for blood sugar between meals.

This same fatty liver problem also gets in the way of how glucagon would burn fat between meals, causing glucagon to synthesize sugar in an inappropriate and out-of-control manner, making blood sugar go high even though you haven't eaten. This is why diabetics wake up with very high fasting blood sugar levels. These are complicated metabolic problems that are more difficult to fix than simple case insulin resistance.

Furthermore, your pancreas starts to tune out leptin, meaning that leptin resistance is occurring at the level of beta cells and the beta cells aren't getting the leptin message to stop making insulin in a timely manner. This causes extra insulin to be made, which excessively lowers blood sugar by turning sugar to fat, while simultaneously inducing hypoglycemia or low blood sugar symptoms. This makes a person want to eat again two to three hours after the previous meal, in turn making the whole problem worse.

And it's about this time, with metabolism clogged and broken, that a young overweight person goes to the doctor and finds out he or she is type II diabetic.

If the problem continues, then inflammation begins to damage the insulin-secreting beta cells. Not only are these beta cells now leptin resistant, causing them to overproduce insulin and get tired out, but they are getting damaged and their numbers are declining – meaning now they can't make insulin either. This sends a person down a path of a mixture of type I and type II diabetes – with an autoimmune component sometimes thrown in for good measure, a problem that is seen progressively more often in today's older type II diabetics.

The Complexity of Insulin and Leptin Problems
Well, if you thought that was hard to understand, then realize that the previous description was the rather simple explanation of the problem (and worth reading over again until you understand it). The metabolic problems of a diabetic patient are actually far more complex. To prevent yourself from becoming diabetic or to get over the problem, it is very important to understand even more information.

As your fat cells expand and cram into each other, a highly inflammatory state occurs within your white adipose tissue. These inflammatory signals aggravate and lock in the various problems discussed in previous sections. Another hormone made in fat, adiponectin, is a major player in this equation.

In health, leptin and adiponectin elevate in harmony, side by side. When leptin resistance occurs, which is common anytime someone starts gaining weight, then adiponectin levels begin to fall. The fall in adiponectin is caused by the inflammation in white adipose tissue. Interestingly, adiponectin is a primary anti-inflammatory hormone within white adipose tissue. Thus, the inflammation of progressive weight gain eventually overwhelms adiponectin, at which point serious problems really set in.

Once adiponectin levels fall too much, then inflammation in fat cells really ramps up. The greater the weight gain and leptin resistance, the farther adiponectin levels fall. When adiponectin levels fall your liver's ability to process sugar and insulin dramatically worsen, and your muscles become resistant to insulin – speeding the onset of type II diabetes.

And that's not all – your brain becomes insulin resistant which is actually caused by the leptin resistance, and this problem is now found to lock in all problems of insulin resistance around your body. A great deal of research indicates that the failure of insulin and leptin to register properly in your brain, along with falling adiponectin levels, creates a highly inflammatory state of affairs that is the prime cause of worsening blood sugar regulation and eventual type II diabetes.

Diabetic medication does not address these issues, and often makes them worse over time – even if blood sugar numbers appear better for a period of time. Treating blood sugar numbers is not treating the cause of anything. It's like saying the cause of a house fire is because the Fire Department didn't show up fast enough – so now let's put a fire hydrant in everyone's house so we can put out fires faster. That is an accurate analogy of how the Big Pharma-trained medical profession manages the type II diabetic population in our country. Even worse, their monopoly and inept care is sanctioned by the FDA and FTC as law, who act as police force bullies to stamp out any competing interests.

How to Solve the Diabetes Problem
There is no quick fix for type II diabetes, or even fasting blood sugar levels that are on the rise. To be healthy, your fasting blood sugar should never be above 90. However, real health is determined by achieving this number because your body is working properly.

There is no vitamin, mineral, or miracle pill that can automatically prevent or treat diabetes. What you are trying to do is create a nutritional environment that supports your body working normally.

Individuals with simple-case insulin and leptin resistance, who cut back on junk, exercise more, make appropriate dietary adjustments, and use some basic dietary supplement support can typically bring these smaller problems in line relatively quickly.

When problems are more serious they are complicated by the fact that the liver, pancreas, white adipose tissue, circulatory system, and subconscious brain have been irritated and even damaged by inflammatory compounds. This fact alone takes time to heal – it is not a simple nutritional deficiency – it is more like a badly sprained ankle.

Additionally, the liver, muscles, and circulation are clogged with accumulating fat. This is like trying to cook a meal in a filthy kitchen, it is going to be challenging. This problem will only gradually improve as weight is lost, it never improves until the weight is lost, and it is always getting worse if weight is being gained.

The solution is to create a pattern of health, rooted in a good diet and exercise, wherein these more advanced problems can begin to correct themselves. Type II diabetes is completely reversible for almost everyone – if only diabetics knew what to do.

Dietary Basics to Correct Type II Diabetes
Dietary fiber, especially soluble fiber, is critical for the repair of blood sugar problems. Soluble fiber is vital for slowing the rate at which sugar enters your blood, thus enabling your insulin system to function with less stress. It also helps you maintain healthier levels of triglycerides and cholesterol. Individuals struggling with blood sugar issues need 35 to 50 grams of fiber per day, much of it as soluble fiber (a higher level than the 25 grams the government recommends for general health). Higher amounts are also very helpful to curb appetite and support weight loss.

A serving of fruit or vegetables or a cup of oatmeal average about 4 grams of soluble fiber per serving. Legumes have about 8 grams of soluble fiber per serving (avoid soy). It is really easy to get higher amounts of soluble fiber with high quality fiber drinks. Pysllium, oat beta glucan concentrates, arabinogalactan, and partially hydrolyzed guar gum are just a few of the many fiber options available for consumers to easily boost soluble fiber intake.

Protein is vital in the repair of blood sugar metabolism. A minimal objective for protein intake is three-fourths of your ideal weight in grams of protein per day. To improve insulin function, the key proteins that help are rich in branch chain amino acids – especially leucine. Unlike any other amino acids, leucine directly communicates to insulin, instructing it to work efficiently in muscle. This not only helps preserve your muscle mass as you lose weight, it helps your muscles use glucose as fuel, in turn supporting healthy insulin function. Whey protein also helps leptin enter your brain more efficiently, supporting normal insulin function in your nervous system.

The highest sources of leucine-containing foods are animal and dairy sources. Cottage cheese and red meat top the list; other sources include milk, cheese, eggs, pork, fish, chicken, legumes, peanuts, nuts, and seeds. If you avoid red meat and dairy products, it is harder it is to get leucine-containing foods in higher amounts – though not impossible. Using whey protein makes it easy. I always recommend individuals stay away from processed soy protein (like soy protein drinks), as it is anti-thyroid in higher amounts.

The key foods to eliminate are refined carbohydrates, refined sugar, and high fructose corn syrup. Complex carbohydrates and fruit should be eaten at meals, several servings of each per day. Saturated fat and cholesterol-containing foods do not need to be avoided – just don't eat them in excess. A bite or two of dessert is permissible at a dinner meal, but never between meals or as a snack. Avoid adding any sweetener to food, whether natural or artificial, as they skew your taste buds to be addicted to food in larger amounts than you truly need. Soda drinks should be completely avoided. Coffee or tea in moderation. Eat organic whenever possible. Raw foods and vegetable juicing is great – go easy on the carrots and apples/fruit.
The Five Rules of the Leptin Diet

As I have explained in my books, Mastering Leptin and The Leptin Diet, there are five basic rules for eating that help correct leptin and insulin problems. They are:

Rule 1: Never eat after dinner.
Rule 2: Eat three meals a day (do not snack).
Rule 3: Do not eat large meals.
Rule 4: Eat a breakfast containing protein.
Rule 5: Reduce the amount of carbohydrates eaten.

While these rules are fairly simple, they are backed by considerable cutting-edge science. They help you extract more energy from less food. They form the foundation for a healthy style of eating that you can follow for a lifetime without any feeling of deprivation.

Some individuals who are type II diabetic may struggle a bit to go five hours between meals or make it through the night. This does not mean the rules are wrong, it simply means that liver and pancreatic fitness need to be restored. You can eat four smaller meals four hours apart to get started, or gradually implement rules until you can do them all. As you improve, work towards the three meals a day. You will be surprised how easy and effective it actually is. Numerous type II diabetic patients have made dramatic improvement by following the Leptin Diet.

How Dietary Supplements Can Help Correct Type II Diabetes
Many people will be able to correct type II diabetes simply by increasing exercise, following the Five Rules of The Leptin Diet, and improving the quality of food they are eating. Because type II diabetic patients have significant issues with inflammatory tissue damage and fat that is accumulating in all the wrong places, dietary supplements generally make the process of improvement easier. For some people they make the process possible. Choose a level of supplement support that makes sense to you. Add to it, or adjust it, so as to help yourself stay on track. It is the consistency of your entire program over a number of months that is your path to getting better.

The following list of supplement ingredients is by no means complete, as many other nutrients positively influence blood sugar and insulin. These are nutrients I have used in clinical nutrition practice with outstanding results. My point is to illustrate the many options and ways nutrition can help support healthy blood sugar metabolism.

Nutrients that have a positive influence on blood sugar and insulin:

DHA fish oil – It is now clear that patients with higher levels of DHA have lower amounts of insulin resistance. DHA is known to reduce the inflammation associated with blood sugar and insulin problems. It is also clear that DHA directly boosts the production of adiponectin by white adipose tissue, a hormone that may be key to the prevention of type II diabetes.

Cinnamon – Cinnamon is known to improve insulin resistance by activating gene-related metabolic signaling. It individuals with metabolic syndrome it has been shown to have improved fasting blood glucose, systolic blood pressure, percentage body fat and increased lean body mass. Cinnamon directly inhibits excess sugar from caramelizing body cells and tissues (AGEs –advanced glycation end products).

Banaba leaf – The active component in banaba leaf, corosolic acid, has been shown to support weight loss while lowering levels of blood sugar, insulin, and triglycerides. This helped prevent fatty build up in the liver while raising the very important level of diabetes-preventing adiponectin. Banaba is a traditional remedy for diabetes in the Philippines – and new studies are showing it to have a powerfully helpful influence on white adipose tissue – a mechanism unlike any drug.

Coffee berry – Coffee is well known to decrease the incidence of type II diabetes. Green coffee berries contain polyphenols and chlorogenic acid, a nutrient that helps your liver metabolize sugar effectively by modulating the enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase. It has been shown to improve glucose tolerance, while reducing cholesterol and triglycerides. It has also been shown to be effective for reducing mildly elevated blood pressure.

Chromium – Chromium helps blood sugar enter cells by supporting the natural function of insulin at the cell membrane. The nutrient is commonly lacking in individuals with type II diabetes. In type II diabetic patients chromium is found to improve glucose, insulin, cholesterol and Hemoglobin A1c.

Vanadium – Vanadium is a mineral with insulin-like properties that has been found to improve the metabolism of carbohydrates and fats, even in diabetics. It helps promote better blood sugar metabolism in both muscle and liver.

Inula racemosa – Inula has been found to increase the sensitivity of insulin. In combination with Gymnema sylvestre it was found to guard against steroid induced blood sugar problems, indicating that it helps offset the effects of high stress on blood sugar metabolism.

Gymnema sylvestre – Gymnema sylvestre is widely regarded as a top herb to help combat the problem of type II diabetes. This herb has even been shown to boost the number of pancreatic beta cells – a really unique and helpful support nutrient.

Pterocarpus marsupium – Pterocarpus marsupium is a traditional remedy for diabetes from India. It has insulin-like properties and it has a regenerative effect on the beta cells of the pancreas (cells that make insulin).

Bitter melon – Bitter melon is another Eastern traditional remedy for diabetes, showing improved blood sugar and insulin function, improved lipids, protection for beta cells, and reduced oxidative stress.

Grape seed extract – Grape seed extracts also turns down inflammation in fat cells while boosting the highly protective adiponectin. They have been shown to assist blood sugar entry to cells with insulin-like activity. They also directly inhibit the advanced glycation end products (AGEs) that form in the circulatory system from excess sugar.

Resveratrol – Resveratrol activates the SIRT1 gene, turning on other genes that directly influence insulin function and fat burning, leading researchers to conclude it may be helpful for diabetics. It reduces inflammation in fat cells and boosts adiponectin, a key problem for diabetics.

R-Alpha Lipoic Acid – A nutrient that assists in carbohydrate metabolism and insulin sensitivity, while acting as an antioxidant in nerves to help diabetic neuropathy. A lack of ability to make lipoic acid during aging increases inflammation and insulin resistance. Lipoic acid also protects against the formation of AGEs.

Carnosine – Carnosine is a potent reducer of AGEs and can even reduce the glycation of LDL cholesterol, leading researchers to conclude that carnosine may have therapeutic potential in preventing diabetes-induced atherosclerosis.

It is clear that nature's toolbox offers an impressive array of nutrients that support healthy blood glucose and insulin metabolism. While no person should ever consider these as a treatment in and of themselves, they are a potent array of natural options that can be plugged in, as desired, to an overall diet, exercise, and medical treatment plan to help address the very difficult problem of type II diabetes.

Summary
Type II diabetes is at epidemic levels in America, reaching down to teenagers and young adults in startling numbers. This problem signifies that key regulatory systems have lost their natural balance – meaning that homeostasis has been compromised. Unfortunately, this locks in a path to poor quality health, the early onset of many serious disease, and early death. The medical profession, relying on Big Pharma drugs, has not been able to solve this problem and actually makes it worse on a routine basis.

In order to make progress an overall program of lifestyle improvement must be undertaken on a consistent basis. There are no shortcuts. There is little margin for error. Weight must be lost in a gradual and consistent way. Weight gain during any "treatment" means the "treatment" is an utter failure. A healthy program requires making dietary adjustments that have been explained in this article. Consistent exercise is mandatory, the more the better. Dietary supplements can be plugged into an overall program to help the program of recovery go easier – and in some cases may be the key to getting the program on track or keeping it from getting derailed. There are many options. Type II diabetes can be prevented and in many people it can be completely reversed.