The Growing Cost of Diabetes

In 2013, the American Diabetes Association published a study that showed that the national cost of diabetes had increased to an estimate of $245 billion, a 41% increase from a study done in 2007.  If this trend remains steady, the national cost of diabetes could be nearing $350 billion by 2018.  Let's give that some perspective:

• $1,100 per person per year in America
• The cost to build 33 Gerald Ford class aircraft carriers (every year)
• The cost to pay the salaries of all US military personnel for 28 months
• The cost to fund the entire national transportation budget for 3.5 years
• 26 years of revenue for the NFL (based on 2016 estimated revenue)

That is a lot of money and this is just for diabetes.  If you were wondering why the cost of your insurance is going up, it is not just price gouging by the medical industry.  It is also due to that national epidemic of people consuming poor quality foods who's profitability is being subsidized by federal agricultural policy and very effective marketing.  

Now for the good news...it would cost individuals with diabetes very little to get most of this money back.  If people make the decision to vote with their dollars (and stomachs), most of this expense could be recovered by simply adopting a low carbohydrate, healthy fat, appropriate protein diet.  Many people, including me, have put their diabetes into remission by simply eliminating most processed foods and refined carbohydrates from their diet and replacing them with mostly whole unprocessed foods.

Kresser Describes Cholesterol on JRE

Chris Kresser describes "Good" vs. "Bad" cholesterol to Joe Rogan.  I think he does a great job explaining what the lipoproteins do and their relationship to the actual cholesterol they transport around your body.  Starts at 2:02:55.

Video Link

Potential Effect of Fasting on LDL-C Measurement

I was recently listening to a "Livin' la Vida Low-Carb" podcast where Jimmy Moore was interviewing Dave Feldman from the Cholesterol Code blog.  Dave is testing a hypothesis that his LDL-C measurement is inversely correlated to the amount of fat he consumes in his diet during a few days prior to his lab work.  He believes that the liver upregulates the production of vLDL in response to the drop of chylomicrons carrying dietary fat in the blood (@ 14m 57s).  During the podcast the idea of the the LDL concentrations in the blood increasing as the length of the fast done before a test is done increases is also discussed.  Jimmy questioned if longer fasts would result in higher LDL concentrations (@ 32m 28s).  Dave speculates that LDL concentration increases would still be seen with fasting periods around 72 hours but that he has not done any testing to support this hypothesis yet.

Coincidentally, a few weeks before I had heard this podcast, I had decided to do a 24 hour fast before my routine lab work to see if that affected any of my tests.  I was shocked to find that my LDL-C had shot up 99 mg/dl in my June testing after it had been testing exactly the same on my two previous rounds of lab work.  After hearing the podcast with Jimmy and Dave, I paid for another lipid profile out of pocket to see if my LDL-C results would come back down after a 14 hour fast.  My LDL-C did drop back down by 67 mg/dl with  a 13 hour fast.  It would be interesting to see how the LDL-C changed day to day during a continuous 7 day water fast.  For now though, I will stick with the 12-14 hour fasting period prior to my lab work.

Here are the results from my blood lipid tests discussed above.  Note that all other measurement stay relatively consistent compared to the large jump in LDL in June after the 24 hour fast:

Cinnamon Paste for Blood Glucose Control and Lower Lipid Concentrations

I heard a reference to taking cinnamon to help control blood glucose in a podcast I was listening to. The research I was able to find was not the best but there appears to be some evidence supporting cinnamon's ability to help increase insulin sensitivity and reduce triglycerides and LDL particles.  Cinnamon seems to be a fairly safe, inexpensive and tasty supplement so I have started a personal experiment to try it out. The dose I decided on was 6g per day based on one study I looked at. I take it 3g in the morning and 3g before bed. There are some forms of cinnamon that have higher concentrations of a liver toxin so you should look into ordering some Ceylon cinnamon or supplement capsules if you plan to try this yourself.  I have only been trying this a few days so it is hard to say what the long term efficacy will be but the first few days I have tried it, I am seeing about a 12% drop in my average daily blood glucose. That could be partially due to many other factors so I will have to monitor my glucose for a few weeks to see if there is a trend. I will also be getting some blood work done in a few weeks to check my lipids. 

If you are going to try this you have the option to take it in pill form or as a loose powder. Powder is much less expensive so that is my preferred option. One problem is that cinnimon is not really soluble in liquids and tends to create a protective shell when you pour something over it. Anyone who has seen anyone take the "Cinnamon Challenge" is familiar with this phenomenon.  If you are following a high fat diet and you are not sensitive to dairy, you can try my cinnimon paste recipe. It is fairly tasty and effective.  I also add cocoa powder, which has its own potential health benefits, however I am am using it in this recipe to help thicken the paste and to improve the flavor.

Dave's Cinnamon Paste:

Ingredients (includes affiliate links)

• 3g (roughly 0.5 tbls) Ceylon Cinnamon 
• 3g (roughly 0.5 tbls) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 30g (roughly 1 floz) Heavy Whipping Cream

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients to a small container
2. Slowly begin to mix the dry powders with the cream using a small whisk or spoon.  (You do not want to mix too aggressively until all the cinnimon is suspended in the cream or you might start to see puffs of dust coming out of the container)
3. Continue mixing more vigorously until you achieve a thick consistency.  (You may need to add a little more coco powder to thicken your paste up)
4. Enjoy your paste slowly using a spoon 

-THE SCIENCE- 

Article:  Cinnamon and Diabetes: An Update
              "Cinnamon may indeed be effective, at least for some people, in lowering blood sugar levels. Yet many diabetes medicines do a better job."

Study:  Cinnamon improves glucose and lipids of people with type 2 diabetes
              "intake of 1, 3, or 6 g of cinnamon per day reduces serum glucose, triglyceride, LDL cholesterol, and total cholesterol in people with type 2 diabetes"

Study:  Cinnamon Use in Type 2 Diabetes: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
              "The consumption of cinnamon is associated with a statistically significant decrease in levels of fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol, LDL-C, and triglyceride levels, and an increase in HDL-C levels"

Reading Essential - A Sweet Conspiracy

"If everyone began burning more body fat, which can literally happen overnight by eliminating sugar from the diet, the world would be more than a better place, eventually." ~ Dr. Phil Maffetone

In this article, Dr. Mafetone lays out why changing the sugar economy will probably never happen from the top down and how we can only change it through taking personal responsibility for what we put in our bodies.

Text

Healthy Meal Idea: Sausage, Salad, Olives, & Cheese

Menu:

• Salad
• 100 g. Power Greens Mix
• 30 g. Asiago (fresh grated)
• 1 tbls. Avocado Oil
• 0.5 tbls. Balsamic Vinegar
• Entree
• 6 oz. Pork Sausage
• 1.5 tbls.  Mayo/Mustard Sauce
• Sides
• 4 oz. Brie 
• 5 Kalamata Olives
• 3 Jalapeno Stuffed Green Olives
• 2 Banana Pepers

Nutritional Breakdown:

My Current List of Supplements and Prescriptions

This is not intended to be a recommendation of anything you should do.  I just want to share what I have developed for my personal treatment so that you can be inspired to look into what you may need.  I recommend that you search for studies that support any supplement you may be considering and then discuss it with your primary healthcare provider.  I will try to publish links to the studies I have found for anything I am taking in the future.  I am including links or affiliate links for all the products I am using.  These links are for your convenience but they should not be considered an endorsement of any of the products.  I will often change brands for price, availability or reputation purposes.  The prices were good as of 5/26/2016:

Taken	Pill / Product	Quantity	Cost
AM	Vitamin C	2	$0.12
	Test Strip	1	$0.16
	Probiotics	1	$0.17
	SAM-e	1	$0.53
	Creatine M.	5	$0.09
Lunch	Lancet	1	$0.03
	Test Strip	2	$0.16
Dinner	Fish Oil	4	$0.52
	Glucosamine/MSM	1	$0.06
	Turmeric / Curcumin	1	$0.16
	Test Strip	1	$0.16
	Vitamin C	2	$0.12
	Creatine M.	5	$0.09
	B50 Complex	1	$0.07
Bed	Pure Vitamin Club Magnesium	1	$0.28
	Vitamin D3	0.20	$0.06
	Pure Vitamin Club Multicap	1	$0.28
	Test Strip	1	$0.16
	Magnesium L-Threonate	1	$0.17
	Phosphatidyl Serine	1	$0.39
Totals	Daily>>	33	$3.80