Until recently, doctors thought adult-onset diabetes was the same as childhood diabetes—that both were caused by lack of insulin. In the 1980s, scientists made the remarkable discovery that they’re entirely different diseases. Whereas kids with diabetes lack insulin, most adult-onset diabetics make plenty of insulin—often more than normal. The problem is that their bodies lose sensitivity to it. Now doctors refer to the disease that young people get as type 1 diabetes and to the kind that middle-aged adults get as type 2-diabetes. This book is for people with adult-onset, or type 2 diabetes.
In times past, the diagnosis of diabetes had tragic implications. Children and young adults with type 1 diabetes often wasted away and died from it. Insulin, when it came along in the 1920s, was the miracle drug for these patients. It allowed them to live normal lives. In those days, the troubles of middle-aged and older folks with type 2 diabetes seemed minor compared with young people with type 1 diabetes. Adult-onset diabetics could live for years with hardly any treatment at all. They could usually get their blood sugar down to reasonable levels by just taking some pills and watching their diet. Doctors rarely prescribed insulin for these patients; they fi gured it wasn’t worth the trouble.
In the 1990s, new research showed that while patients with type 2 diabetes rarely died as a direct result of their diabetes, their mildly elevated blood sugar levels—if these went on long enough—could result in damage to their eyes, kidneys, and blood vessels, and the attendant increase in heart attack rate was alarming. As a result, doctors started taking adult-onset diabetes more seriously, treating it as they would type 1 diabetes, using stronger pills and insulin when necessary to get blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible.
In 2008, researchers released the results of two large studies on the effects of this more vigorous approach to treating adult-onset diabetes. The results were disappointing. Heavier doses of insulin helped patients avoid eye and kidney damage but did little to reduce the rate of heart attacks. What worked for patients with juvenile diabetes didn’t work as well for people with adult-onset diabetes. Those results are not really surprising, considering that type 2 diabetes is a completely different disease from type 1. It has different causes, results in different complications, and requires a different approach to treatment. The goal of treating type 1 diabetes is simple: replace the missing insulin. Type 2 diabetes is more complicated. The body becomes resistant to the effects of insulin, which not only raises blood sugar but brings on cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight problems that cause as much trouble as the high blood sugar does. This often requires a multipronged approach to treatment.
The good news is that you can live to a ripe old age without suffering any health problems from your type 2 diabetes. When the nineteenth-century sage George Bernard Shaw said the secret to good health is to get a chronic disease and take good care of it, he might as well have been talking about adult-onset diabetes. When you do what you need to do to treat it, you reverse many of our modern lifestyle’s harmful effects on your health and general well-being. Indeed, you might find yourself feeling better than you have for years.
This book will give you six simple steps to follow that should give you excellent control of your type 2 diabetes. First, however, it is important to understand the logic behind its treatment. Once you see what brought on your condition, you will know exactly what you need to do to reverse it.
Key Features
- An innovative program that challenges current ADA guidelines—not available in any other book.
- Tips on starch-free cooking and easy-to-make low-starch recipes by Dana Carpender, author of the bestselling 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes.
- A seven-day, easy-to-follow menu plan.
- A way to lose weight, regain vitality, and reduce medication.
Contents
Part One: The Toxin
- Chapter 1: A Gift From the Mediterranean
- Chapter 2: Lowering Blood Sugar the Old-Fashioned Way
- Chapter 3: Glycemic Load: The New Old Way
- Chapter 4: The Culprit
- Chapter 5: What Starch Does to Your Body
- Chapter 6: Starch's Slippery Mimic
- Chapter 7: The Starch-Vulnerable Individual: Insulin Resistance
- Chapter 8: Things That Get Better When You Eliminate Starch
- Chapter 9: Why We Are Addicted
Part Two: Six Steps to Optimal Control
- Chapter 10: Step One: Eliminate Starch
- Chapter 11: Step Two: Inhibit Starch Absorption
- Chapter 12: Step Three: Sensitize Your Muscles to Insulin
- Chapter 13: Step Four: Sensitize Your Liver to Insulin
- Chapter 14: Step Five: Make Up Any Insulin Deficit With Insulin
- Chapter 15: Step Six: Optimize Your Cholesterol and Blood Pressure
Part Three: Part 3 Low-Starch Cuisine: Discovering a Tastier Way to Eat
- Chapter 16: Starch Substitutes That Taste Better Than Starch
- Chapter 17: The Art of Baking With Starch-Free Flours
- Chapter 18: 7 Days of Low-Starch Menus
Appendices
- Appendix A: Metric Conversion Factors
- Appendix B: References
- Appendix C: Websites and Suggested Reading
Index
About the Author
- Rob Thompson, M.D. (Seattle, WA) is a board-certified cardiologist in private practice who has counseled patients with high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease for more than 25 years. He is on staff at Swedish Hospital Medical Center in Seattle and is the author of The New Low-Carb Way of Life as well as The Glycemic-Load Diet.
Product Details
- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (October 1, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0071621504
- ISBN-13: 978-0071621502
- Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
List Price: $16.95