Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host)
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000225
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00:01 Hello! Today we will be talking about diabetes.
00:05 Diabetes is probably most dreaded because of it's 00:10 complications. 00:11 We'll be talking about some of these complications today 00:14 and also how a person gets Type 2 diabetes. 00:18 We hope you will join our program, 00:20 we think you will find it quite interesting. 00:42 Welcome to Help Yourself to Health 00:44 with Dr. Agatha Thrash, of Uchee Pines Institute, 00:48 and now here is your host Dr. Thrash. 00:52 There are many lifestyle factors 00:53 having to do with the development of diabetes, 00:59 there are also hereditary factors that have to do 01:03 with diabetes, and sometimes damage done to the pancreas, 01:08 by a longtime of maybe lifestyle changes. 01:12 Now I would like to invite you to come with me 01:15 and I will show you some of the ways that people can 01:19 protect themselves from some of the feared complications 01:24 of diabetes. 01:25 One of the feared complications of diabetes is that of gangrene, 01:31 or leg ulcers, or foot ulcers, or loss of the extremities, 01:36 and we know that in the United States, 01:39 diabetes is one of the prominent reasons why people 01:44 loose the feet or the legs. 01:46 I have asked Arianna Heartsfield to be my little guinea pig 01:52 as I show you the daily, or at least weekly 01:56 examination that the person should do. 01:59 So this is Arianna Heartsfield, and she is one of our students 02:05 in our elementary school at Uchee Pines, 02:09 and she and I will show you the kind of examination 02:14 that must occur frequently for the diabetic. 02:17 So I will take your left foot, if you will remove your sock 02:21 we can show the type of examination that needs to be. 02:26 First thing is to see the bottom of the foot, 02:30 now not many people can get the bottom of the foot 02:34 up so that they can look at it, so here is where a hand mirror 02:39 is very good. 02:40 So, you just either have someone else to look at the foot 02:44 or you take a hand mirror and make it so that you can see 02:48 every portion of the foot. 02:49 You need to see the outside, you need to see 02:52 the back of the heel, and you need to run your finger over it 02:56 if you are not actually looking at it, to make certain 03:00 that there are no places that are getting rough 03:02 or that are getting ulcerated. 03:04 Then each toenail must be examined carefully, 03:08 if a fungus begins to grow in a toenail, 03:12 then that must be treated right away, 03:14 and there are some very simple things that can be used 03:17 to treat a toenail fungus. 03:20 Under each toe one must look for something like 03:23 the development of athletes foot, and between the toes 03:28 one must look to make certain there are no blisters or 03:32 anything of this nature. 03:34 Then very carefully look over the top of the foot, 03:38 one of the reasons for doing this is that most people with 03:42 diabetes eventually get so they can't feel very well 03:46 in the lower extremities. 03:48 Once I removed the toenails because they were hanging off 03:53 a diabetic, just remove those without any anesthesia at all. 03:58 I think the procedure hurt me, the woman who had the problem, 04:04 it didn't hurt her at all, I asked her several times, 04:07 no pain, and she had no pain. 04:09 But it was difficult for me to insert the hemostat and 04:14 uncurl her toenails, without having my flesh to crawl 04:21 thinking oh, this must be hurting badly, 04:24 but she felt no pain at all, felt nothing. 04:26 She said that when she walked she felt as if she were walking 04:30 on cushions or walking on a pillow. 04:34 Now if one should find a callous, 04:38 then this kind of device, which is probably made 04:43 of a little stone, it can be used to simply rub 04:48 that callous off, and so if you are a care taker 04:52 for a person with diabetes, then just rub the callous off. 04:57 Be very careful that you do not draw blood, 05:00 when you draw blood from a diabetic, 05:02 then it must so carefully taken care of. 05:05 The wound must be cleansed then, and a bandage must be 05:10 placed on it, and then every day someone must look at that 05:14 wound to make certain that it's progressing nicely. 05:20 Now you can purchase at a department store, 05:24 a little device, such as this, which can be used 05:28 to electrically remove calluses, 05:33 just the little head of it, usually they come with several 05:38 heads, these can be purchased usually for under $25, 05:42 and these just slip on, and then one turns them on as you 05:47 can see here. 05:48 The little grinding part has been turned on, 05:53 and wherever there is a callous this can be simply used 05:57 to remove the callous, does that tickle? 05:59 - Uh hu! 06:00 - Now this can also be done with the same kind of device 06:07 that I mentioned earlier. 06:08 Then there are these rough fabrics, such as this, 06:12 I found this at a Chinese store selling personal hygiene 06:19 articles, and it has quite a rough surface, 06:24 and this can also be used to scrub the feet, 06:27 if there is excess skin that you need to take off, 06:32 and that can be done after the person has soaked the feet 06:35 in warm water, and notice that I did say warm water, 06:39 that should not be hot water. 06:41 Hot foot baths are not good for the diabetic, 06:45 the reason for that is that the blood vessels 06:48 going to the foot are often constricted because of 06:52 hardening of the arteries, so they cannot deliver more blood 06:57 than they are already delivering. 06:59 If you raise the temperature of the feet, then the metabolism 07:05 of the skin and the deeper tissues will go up, 07:08 making the metabolism rise when the blood supply is not 07:13 adequate to supply the needs of the increased metabolism 07:18 can cause blistering, or even deep death of tissue. 07:23 And a blister on a diabetic caused by some kind of heat 07:29 treatment can set up a situation that can cause the individual 07:35 to loose an extremity. 07:37 So I hope that these very simple things can be helpful 07:42 to you, and Arianna, thank you so much 07:45 for being my guinea pig to show this. 07:48 Thank you so much. 07:50 Now there are a number of things in lifestyle that are 07:56 helpful to know and one of those things has to do with 08:00 such a simple thing, that I'm sure you will say, 08:05 could this possibly help diabetes, but I have asked 08:09 my assistant Rhonda Clark to join me here. 08:12 Rhonda is a member of our staff at Uchee Pines 08:16 and we appreciate your work there, what do you do before you 08:20 came to Uchee Pines. 08:21 - I worked for several years as a registered nurse 08:23 in conventional medicine and different fields. 08:25 - Do you enjoy doing alternative medicine? 08:28 - I do, it's new and I'm still learning, 08:31 really fascinating things, and it's been quite a blessing 08:34 to learn the Lord intended for us to have simple lifestyle 08:37 measures to prevent and to treat illness. 08:39 - What can you tell us about some simple things that can 08:43 help the diabetic. 08:44 - This is so simple you will be amazed. 08:46 I have just recently been reading and interesting book 08:49 called the body's many cries for water, by Dr. Batmanghelidj, 08:53 and in this he tell and interesting important story 08:57 for diabetics. 08:58 One is that insulin's job as it's taking glucose 09:02 into the cell reducing the blood sugar, is also to take 09:06 a little water along with it. 09:08 So in a person who is dehydrated the body will make the cells 09:13 resistant to the action of insulin, is to keep the 09:17 blood volume up to an adequate blood level. 09:19 This is important for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics, 09:23 in a Type 1 diabetic you know that it is important 09:25 to be on as low a dose of insulin as possible 09:28 to control your blood sugar, and on a Type 2 diabetic 09:32 the whole principle that is causing the diabetes 09:35 is the fact that the cells are very resistant to insulin. 09:39 Drinking an adequate supply of water every day 09:42 will help your body invite insulin along with the glucose 09:47 into the cells. 09:48 I think such a simple thing Dr. Thrash, and yet so important 09:53 for individuals who have concerns about weight loss 09:57 have concerns about Type 1 diabetes or Type 2. 10:00 - Now water is a very simple thing, 10:03 but there are some other very simple things too. 10:06 I'm sure that such things as exercise and sleep and rest, 10:12 and perhaps naps, what can you tell us about that? 10:15 - Well I did also want to mention something about sleep. 10:18 There was a study in Japan just a few years ago, 10:21 that showed in individuals who had sleep disturbances 10:23 they had problems metabolizing carbohydrates, 10:26 they had glucose intolerance. 10:29 A professor and physician at the University of Chicago 10:33 doing ongoing research on this, Dr. Eve Van Cauter 10:36 and they are finding that individuals with sleep problems 10:39 do indeed have a higher risk for diabetes. 10:42 Dr. Van Cauter took a group of students from the 10:45 University of Chicago and divided them into two groups 10:48 there was a group that got six hours or fewer of sleep 10:52 every night, and those who had seven to eight hours 10:56 of sleep every night. 10:57 In the ones that were six hours or less, she called them 11:00 short sleepers, the seven to eight hours per night were 11:04 normal sleepers. 11:06 The short sleepers were found to have much greater difficulty 11:10 metabolizing carbohydrate, and the likelihood of being 11:15 more obese, which is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes. 11:18 So getting an adequate amount of sleep every night is a 11:21 very important part of having a normal carbohydrate metabolism. 11:26 - Now tell me, can you sleep to much? 11:29 - Indeed, you don't metabolize carbohydrates better and better 11:33 and better as the hours of sleep increase. 11:35 And it's an interesting fact that we produce serotonin, 11:40 a hormone in our brain that helps us feel calm and happy 11:43 during the hours of wakefulness. 11:45 If we sleep to much, we can become deficient in serotonin, 11:49 serotonin deficiency leads to food cravings, 11:52 and people craving especially carbohydrate foods, 11:55 which are the wrong things you want to be binging on, 11:58 or overeating on, if you are concerned about diabetes, 12:01 so we do have to be careful of the hours of sleep. 12:05 - Now what if somebody follows all that they know in lifestyle 12:10 they get plenty of sleep, they do a lot of things, 12:13 and they still have this thing of insulin resistance. 12:17 Now insulin resistance we know, is that the cell does not have 12:22 mouths or doors or ports in adequate numbers for the insulin 12:29 to get into the port, and the insulin we say is attached 12:33 to glucose to bring it into the cell, so in the person 12:38 with the genetic pre-disposition to get diabetes. 12:43 These individuals do not have adequate numbers of these 12:47 doors or mouths or ports, and so they cannot bring glucose 12:53 out of the blood and into the cell where it's needed, 12:56 so the cells are starving and the blood is having to much. 12:59 So let's say a person is doing everything they know 13:02 in lifestyle and they still have insulin resistance, 13:05 can you suggest something for them? 13:08 - I can, this is a rather interesting and rather new 13:11 concept, something called the glycemic index. 13:16 This is a measure of carbohydrate rich foods that 13:20 ranks them on a scale from 0- 100, based on how quickly 13:25 they raise the blood sugar level in individuals who have 13:27 eaten them. 13:28 When the first listing of glycemic index came out 13:32 there were some quite serious surprises because many foods 13:36 that we know to be very beneficial and healthful, 13:38 such as a potato, were found to be high on this glycemic index. 13:44 Nevertheless individuals with insulin resistance or 13:48 problems with metabolizing carbohydrates were encouraged 13:51 to select primarily foods that had a score of 55 or lower 13:56 or to combine carbohydrates to make the overall meal 14:01 be 55 or lower in glycemic index. 14:04 I mentioned that this is new and it was a group 14:08 of researchers who also questioned why so many 14:12 healthful foods scored so highly on this who did further 14:15 taking into account the amount of fiber in these 14:18 carbohydrate foods. 14:20 They have recently published a list called glycemic load 14:24 they look at serving size of carbohydrate food and 14:27 the amount of fiber calculating that with the glycemic index, 14:32 and it was interesting Dr. Thrash, some of the foods 14:34 we know to be beneficial, like popcorn which scored very high 14:38 on the glycemic index, something along the line of 72. 14:41 When they calculated based on glycemic load was 7. 14:46 - Oh, that's great, I'm happy to know that, because popcorn 14:49 is one of my very favorite grains. 14:51 - And the glycemic load recommendation is 14:55 a glycemic load level of 10 or lower, and many of the foods 14:59 that scored high on glycemic index such as 15:01 rye crisp crackers you may be familiar with, which scored 15:05 something around 60, were again found to be below 10. 15:08 Corn meal, and I love cornmeal porridge as a breakfast food 15:13 that had scored also very high over 60 on the glycemic index, 15:18 but was a very reasonable 11 on the glycemic load. 15:22 If you would like more information about glycemic index 15:25 and glycemic load, there are two web pages that I can 15:28 recommend, that I happened across in my research on this, 15:31 one is easy to remember, it is www. glycemicindex. com, 15:39 the other is the personal web page of a gentleman 15:43 with diabetes who has tried to stay on top of research 15:45 his site is www. mendosa. com, and so I appreciate the 15:53 opportunity to share this. 15:54 - Very good! I'm glad that this new research is focusing on 16:00 this problem, while I know there must be some other answer 16:05 to such good foods as potatoes and popcorn, 16:09 I'm so glad to find that the glucose load is low on that. 16:14 Thank you so much, that's very helpful. 16:17 - Again, for those who are still continuing to have problems 16:20 if they can identify those foods that are scoring lower 16:24 on glycemic load and make their diet more rich in those. 16:27 That is my recommendation. 16:28 - Very good! thank you so much, I appreciate all of this 16:31 good research. 16:32 Now we know that there are certain hereditary things 16:38 that can be a factor in causing the person to get 16:44 insulin resistance or diabetes, and one of those is the 16:48 distribution of the fat in the body. 16:51 You have been aware that there are some people who get 16:55 their fat in the chest, or they may have a large bay window, 17:00 or they may have huge arms and legs, but not be so thick 17:04 in the middle. 17:06 There is something there about the distribution of fat 17:10 that can make the difference, and I have asked Dr. Don Miller 17:13 to discuss this matter Dr. Miller, thank you for 17:16 joining our program, and you have just returned from 17:21 some trips over seas. - Yes! 17:24 - What were you doing there? 17:25 I teach basically health where ever I go, 17:29 but I've been in Eastern Europe a lot, but I go to India, 17:31 and I go to Africa, and I go to the far east, 17:34 so I usually teach health. 17:36 - Sometimes in Germany, and sometimes in Austria, 17:39 and sometimes in Canada. 17:40 - Mostly eastern Europe, when I go to the Europe side, 17:42 I used to go do a lot in Austria, now it's in Russia, 17:45 and Ukraine, and Moldova, and Romania, and Hungary. 17:48 - Do you leave any permanent evidence 17:51 that you have been there? 17:52 Other than just that you have taught students, 17:55 and you hope that they have changed their lifestyles. 17:57 Well, it's not so much that they changed their lifestyle 18:00 as many of them do, but they go on and change other people's 18:02 lifestyles, and so I think the permanency is certainly there 18:05 because it's like a snowball rolling down the hill. 18:08 You teach one, they teach one, and they teach one, 18:11 and pretty soon you've got a large group of people. 18:13 As I go back to these places, like the apostle Paul did, 18:17 and see how things are going It's amazing to see how 18:20 people have really changed their lives. 18:21 - Yes, and that whole community can also change. 18:25 - Absolutely! 18:26 - Well tell us some things about the distribution of fat 18:28 on the body, and what it means in terms of personal health. 18:32 Ok, well you know many people have a problem with 18:34 their distribution of fat in the body, and it's the trunkal 18:38 obesity where we have the most problem with diabetes. 18:41 Those who carry it on the hips, not quite as big a problem. 18:44 But let me say this at the beginning, 18:46 two things first of all, one is fat is not good any place, 18:51 where you have an excess amount of fat on the body. 18:53 Fat we should try to eliminate as much as possible. 18:56 The second thing I should say is, granted, I have not really 19:00 had the problem with to much fat on my body, but we find that we 19:04 get to a certain point in our lives, we all sort of fight 19:09 the battle of the bulge around the middle, and this is where 19:12 the trunkal obesity, the beach ball shape, 19:15 or the orange shape as some people call it, 19:18 leads to more obesity, and there is a reason for this. 19:21 Abdominal fat is different than other fat in the body, 19:26 and here are some of the reasons why: 19:27 1. It has more blood supply 2. It has more cortisol 19:33 receptors. 19:34 Cortisol is a stress hormone, and where you have more cortisol 19:39 receptors, you have more fat being deposited, 19:42 and so if a person is in a high stress situation 19:45 especially a long term or a chronic stress situation 19:49 like a job they hate, a relationship that is crumbling, 19:53 a long term illness, these things cause stress, 19:57 and this constant level of cortisol will be accumulating 20:01 in these cortisol receptors in the abdomen, 20:05 which will be drawing more fat, which makes a person 20:08 get a little bit larger. 20:10 Along with this, the longer the cortisol is higher, 20:14 it will start damaging some of your brain neurons, 20:17 especially those that are neuro-receptors for things like 20:21 dopamine, and serotonin which are your good mood hormones 20:27 in the brain, which causes a person then to become more 20:29 depressed. 20:30 A person more depressed, is a person who is higher stress, 20:34 therefore they've got more cortisol in the abdomen 20:37 more fat again. 20:38 If they are depressed, many people try to fight their 20:41 depression by eating, they will eat a lot of things that are 20:45 wrong for them, like cookies, lots of refined carbohydrates, 20:48 these in themselves will raise the cortisol levels, 20:52 and raise the insulin levels, now you've got two things 20:55 leading towards diabetes: 20:56 1. Trunkal obesity and 2. Raised insulin levels. 21:01 Now the reason why we have a problem with raised insulin 21:04 levels, is that itself will tend to make the cells less receptive 21:09 to insulin when there is to much of a product in the body. 21:12 The body knows how to take care of it's self, it's a good 21:15 manager and some of the receptors will go away on 21:18 the cells surface. 21:19 Sometimes what we do at Uchee Pines, 21:21 when we have a person come there with diabetes 21:23 the first thing that we do if it's Type 2, is put them 21:26 on a fast which will lower the glucose, lower the insulin, 21:31 and then the cell starts poking out some of those receptors, 21:34 and they say oh, we need some more glucose. 21:37 - Now you mentioned that you would fast a person who has 21:40 Type 2 diabetes, what about Type 1 diabetes, 21:44 the what we used to call the juvenile diabetes? 21:46 - Basically for the juvenile diabetic we say the three meals 21:51 a day is the best way to go for them, because they have 21:54 to have the glucose, they have to have the insulin, 21:56 the body's not producing it, you've got to keep that 21:59 available to the body, but for the non-insulin depending 22:04 diabetic, the Type 2, fasting is one of the best things. 22:09 It goes completely against conventional medicine, 22:12 it used to be six, seven meals a day, last meals at 22:15 11:00 at night, we're seeing that as 22:18 just not the case anymore. 22:20 - It's sort of prolongs the problem keeps the person 22:25 with the disease longer. 22:27 I was very glad to see a couple of years ago, 22:30 that there were some people who were now using a short fast, 22:34 a short term fast, one day, two days, or three days, 22:37 for people with diabetes, and those are good times, 22:41 and one or two days of fasting a week will do most people 22:45 a lot of good. 22:46 - For anything they have, even if someone as thin as myself 22:51 a little bit of fasting does not hurt me, I try to stick with 22:54 the two meal a day plan. 22:55 it helps with your eye sight, your hearing, your memory, 22:59 just so many things are protected plus it saves you 23:02 some money and some time, and I can always do some of that. 23:05 - Thank you Dr. Miller. 23:07 - My pleasure! 23:08 - Now the whole subject of diabetes is also associated 23:15 with all of our other endocrine organs. 23:17 The pancreas which has to do with diabetes, 23:21 is certainly not the only one, and I would like to show you 23:25 a chart, that will help you to understand just how it is 23:28 that we recognize this matter of the endocrine system 23:33 and how it functions. 23:35 Now here we have a chart that shows a variety, it shows all, 23:39 or almost all of our glands and organs that have to do with the 23:45 endocrine system. 23:46 Notice here deep in the brain, here is the brain, 23:50 here is the pineal gland right in here, if you go between 23:57 the hind brain or cerebellum, and the brain stem, 24:01 it's on the outside of the brain, but just under it, then 24:05 in the front side of the brain there is the pituitary, 24:11 which is not just one gland, it's actually two glands 24:15 the anterior lobe and the posterior lobe. 24:19 The Pituitary here has a connection with the Hypothalamus 24:24 and the posterior portion and and the anterior portion, 24:28 function differently, and much more could be said about that. 24:33 Here is the thyroid, it is of course located in the neck, 24:38 right here the pineal, the pituitary and the thyroid. 24:44 Now most people are quite aware of the thyroid, but they have 24:47 no knowledge of the Para-thyroids, 24:50 unless they get a disease that involves the Para-thyroids. 24:55 Here they are next to their small button sized glands 25:02 just on the outside of the thyroid, they Thymus gland 25:06 is deep in the chest, as you can see here, in what is called the 25:10 mediastinum, it's just above the heart, 25:13 and the only time that we know that it gets sick 25:16 or that a person usually knows that it is sick 25:19 is if they get myasthenia gravis 25:22 then that might come into question. 25:24 Here are the adrenal glands and you can see that they are 25:27 just next to the kidneys, and the adrenals are as are all of 25:33 these other glands are involved in diabetes. 25:37 Here is the kidney, most people are not aware that the kidney 25:41 is a part of the endocrine gland, but it has very strong 25:45 endocrine potentials. 25:47 Of course the ovary, we know that the ovary... 25:50 Everyone knows the ovary and the testes are endocrine glands, 25:54 but most people do not know that the placenta 25:57 is an endocrine gland, but it's a big producer 26:02 of various hormones. 26:05 The testes, and here is the pancreas, which is primarily 26:09 what we are looking for when we think about diabetes. 26:13 Again the pancreas functions as more than one gland, 26:19 it is responsible not only for keeping the blood sugar 26:22 from going to high, but it is also responsible for keeping 26:26 it from going to low. 26:28 Glucagon keeps the blood sugar from going to low, 26:31 and insulin keeps the blood sugar from going to high. 26:35 Another organ that most people have no conception is an 26:40 endocrine gland, is the stomach. 26:43 The stomach and the whole gall bladder and liver complex 26:49 all of these are associated with the production 26:53 of various hormones. 26:56 The small intestines secretes a substance called secretin 27:01 and also motilin, and cholecystokinin, 27:06 and many others, and all of these are involved in diabetes. 27:10 When one of these go wrong, the others go wrong as well. 27:14 In all of these, the Jejunum, the ileum, and the stomach, 27:19 they all secrete various kinds of hormones. 27:23 Now if we understand the far reaching influence of the 27:28 endocrine system, it helps us to know that diabetes 27:32 has a major effect on all of our various endocrines, 27:39 and I didn't even mention the brain as an endocrine organ, 27:43 and many of the nerves, but all of these are involved 27:47 in the diabetic process, so it behooves us to find out how 27:51 we can avoid getting this serious disease, Diabetes. |
Revised 2014-12-17