Participants: James Marcum & Charles Mills
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP00024A
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00:17 Diabetes, if you don't have it, watch out.
00:20 If you do have it, there's a good chance 00:22 you can get rid of it, really. 00:26 Stay tuned. 00:27 I'm Dr James Marcum. 00:29 Are you interested in discovering the reason why? 00:33 You want solutions to your healthcare problem? 00:35 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:38 Well, you're about to be given the Ultimate Prescription. 00:43 Welcome back to our series 00:44 on the major causes of death on this planet. 00:47 Diabetes is like an unwelcome houseguest 00:50 that moves in and just rearranges everything. 00:53 So you might want to refrain from sending out 00:56 that particular invitation, how? 00:58 Let's talk with Dr. James Marcum 00:59 about what diabetes is and how to recognize it 01:02 when it comes in knocking at your door. 01:04 Dr. Marcum, first, what is it? 01:06 Well, hopefully we won't come knocking 01:09 on your door, Charles. 01:11 You know, we've been talking 01:12 about some serious, serious issues here 01:14 about leading causes of death 01:15 and, you know, its diabetes is scary. 01:19 And the rate of diabetes has been climbing dramatically. 01:22 It's going up all the time. 01:24 Everyone's affected by diabetes. 01:27 And when I think about diabetes, 01:28 I want to make something that everyone can understand. 01:31 And diabetes is really abnormalities in glucose, 01:35 that sugar metabolism, 01:37 abnormalities in glucose metabolism. 01:40 And when this happens, what happens in the body? 01:43 The blood sugar goes up. 01:45 When the blood sugar goes up, the body goes, 01:46 "Oh, man, I got a lot of blood sugar, 01:48 got to do something with it." 01:49 Insulin levels go up. 01:51 And when insulin levels go up, there's some damage 01:54 that occurs to the endothelia, which is the inside lining 01:57 of every blood vessel in the body. 01:59 So when insulin levels go high 02:00 because of this extra blood sugar, 02:03 it causes all sorts of problems. 02:04 Now there's two types of diabetes. 02:07 Well, there's actually more than that, 02:08 but the ones that we want to focus on today is type 1 02:11 and that used to be called juvenile diabetes, 02:14 but now it's called insulin-dependent diabetes. 02:17 In those cases which are the minority of patients 02:19 that have diabetes, the immune system attacks 02:23 these cells in the pancreas called the Islets of Langerhans 02:27 and there's these beta cells that immune system destroys. 02:30 So these patients are dependent on insulin their entire life. 02:34 That's the majority of people. 02:35 Most other people have type 2 diabetes. 02:38 We used to call it adult-onset diabetes. 02:41 But nowadays, we just call it type 2. 02:44 Now that tends to be a diabetes, a lifestyle diabetic situation. 02:49 Now there's other types that you get 02:51 when your pregnancy that's called gestational diabetes. 02:54 There is some that's called by kidneys 02:56 and call that nephrogenic diabetes. 02:58 There's also diabetes insipidus. 03:00 There's bronze diabetes. 03:01 So you're gonna hear many different types. 03:03 But for our viewers today, I want us to focus on type 1, 03:06 which is insulin-dependent, okay? 03:09 The body needs insulin forever 03:10 and that's usually younger people. 03:12 And type 2 diabetes is the kind we get 03:14 because of this abnormal glucose metabolism. 03:17 So a person that has diabetes, the symptoms they might have, 03:21 if you might have it, you get very thirsty, okay. 03:24 Why do you get so thirsty? 03:25 Well, you get thirsty because your blood sugar is really high. 03:28 When the osmoles or the concentration 03:30 of blood's really high, 03:32 you tend to go to the bathroom more. 03:33 So that's another symptom, you go to the bathroom more 03:36 because you're losing fluids 03:37 because of this high concentration of sugar, 03:39 you want to drink more. 03:40 So you're also very thirsty, very-- 03:42 but usually we find it out on routine blood work. 03:45 And so a person that we think might have diabetes, 03:47 you might come to us and there's many different ways 03:49 that might get me a clue. 03:50 One thing is your urine. 03:52 You might be losing sugar in your urine. 03:53 You've probably heard of that before. 03:55 And another thing that we do is we can test your blood. 03:58 And if we measure your blood randomly 04:01 and it's greater than 200, 04:03 you know, we want the sugar in the cell 04:05 where to doing something to make energy. 04:07 We don't want it in the blood. Yes. 04:08 So if it's in the blood that means 04:10 it's not getting into the cells 04:11 and there's a reason why, we're gonna talk about later. 04:13 So if it's not getting in the cells, that's a problem. 04:16 So prolonged exposure to high blood sugar 04:20 and high insulin damages the lining of the blood vessels. 04:23 So if it's over 200, or if it's a fasting, 04:25 if it's greater than 125 twice, now in other countries, 04:29 it's different, I think it's 6 millimoles around the world. 04:33 But if you had those blood sugars, 04:34 then that means that you probably are a diabetic. 04:37 If you get it later in life, 04:38 you will be classified a type 2 diabetic. 04:42 There's another way we measured it 04:44 is we take something called hemoglobin A1c. 04:47 We call that glycosylated hemoglobin. 04:50 Hemoglobin's iron molecule, glycosylated means 04:53 there's glucose molecules tied on to that. 04:55 It won't make sense if hemoglobin is floating 04:57 around the blood and a bunch of sugar jumps on board 04:59 that number's gonna go higher 05:01 'cause we don't want a lot of sugar in the blood. 05:02 Okay, so if that number is greater than 7.5% 05:05 of the hemoglobin, has these extra sugars on it, 05:08 you're a diabetic too. 05:10 Another way, an old fashion way, 05:12 was this glucose tolerance test 05:14 and I don't know if you heard of that. 05:16 We used to drink a lot of cola 05:18 where they had a lot of sugar in it 05:20 and we used to check your blood sugar at certain hours 05:22 and if the blood sugar stayed up 05:23 above a certain level, you had diabetes. 05:26 So that's how we make the diagnosis of diabetes. 05:29 And, unfortunately, in this world, 05:31 most people have type 2 diabetes. 05:34 Why it's such a big problem is 'cause, 05:36 as you know, when we're prolonged exposed 05:38 in our body or bloodstream 05:40 to high levels of insulin and glucose, 05:42 there's metabolic abnormalities that become. 05:45 Now it's okay in the short term if you have it, 05:47 but in the long term, day in and day after, 05:49 we get damage to our organ systems. 05:52 Damage, you know, to the organ systems. 05:53 Everyone's, you know, let's start from the top down. 05:57 One of the worst ones we have is damages 05:59 to the small blood vessels in the eyes. 06:01 Have you heard of that? 06:02 Yeah, well, they call it retinopathy, 06:04 the eyes--the blood vessels of the eye damage. 06:06 The doctor will look in your eyes 06:08 and he can see characteristic changes. 06:09 It's usually in the small blood vessels. 06:12 In fact, the leading cause of blindness 06:15 in the world is due to diabetes. 06:19 And it only makes sense as the diabetes rate goes up, 06:21 there's gonna be more, more people with blindness. 06:24 The body wasn't made to deal with these chemicals 06:26 over a long period of time. 06:28 The second, another complication is 06:31 it hurts the long nerves in the body, 06:33 especially your feet. 06:34 So you always hear about diabetics 06:36 checking their feet to see if there's sores. 06:38 Because you can have a condition called neuropathy. 06:41 The nerves don't function well. 06:42 So you actually don't feel your feet. 06:45 So you can be walking. 06:46 Let's say you're walking on a hike 06:47 and get a rock in your shoe 06:49 and it can actually bore in your foot 06:51 and it can cause bleeding and you won't even feel it. 06:54 This is a sad disease. 06:56 Yes, it is a sad disease. 06:57 So that's another thing, it can cause neuropathy 07:00 you don't feel and sometimes 07:01 even in the hands because those are long nerves 07:03 and it has to do with the blood supply, 07:05 the insulin, the same things we've been talking about. 07:08 But sometimes also you can get infections 07:10 that you don't even know about. 07:12 The immune system is actually damaged by diabetics. 07:15 Diabetics are much more prone to infection 07:18 because these high levels of this abnormal 07:20 glucose metabolism damages our killer cells, 07:24 the white blood cell count. 07:25 So we're more prone to infections 07:27 and everyone hears about diabetics, 07:28 you know, you're more prone 07:30 to getting this infection or that infection. 07:33 So other organ systems, of course, the heart. 07:35 You know, 80% of diabetics die 07:38 from a heart attack, heart disease 80%. 07:41 It damages not only the blood vessels in the eyes, 07:44 but it damages the blood vessels in the heart. 07:47 It causes a lot of problems 07:48 within the heart so the heart disease. 07:49 It also damages the blood vessels in the legs, 07:52 also damages the blood vessels in the brain. 07:54 So stroke rates, peripheral vascular, 07:56 all that increases in diabetics. 07:58 It's not too uncommon to hear diabetics 08:01 getting amputations because of this damage long term. 08:05 One of the most common organs it damages is kidneys. 08:08 Kidneys are damaged from diabetes. 08:10 In fact, the number one cause, the number one cause 08:14 of dialysis is long-term diabetes effects on the kidneys. 08:19 So it involves major organ system. 08:21 Now if this doesn't get it, 08:22 you know, I'm talking to people that had these diagnoses 08:25 and say listen, it damages your entire body 08:28 through this abnormal glucose metabolism, 08:30 but what's even worse, 08:32 you know, some people say listen, 08:33 you know, when you talk to a man 08:35 about the big one the impotence, 08:37 you know, it can cause impotence 08:39 and this is a major issue in men. 08:41 I say, listen, the diabetes can cause impotence. 08:43 And that all of a sudden gets our attention. 08:45 And I say, "Listen, I don't want 08:47 any more end-organ damage here, 08:50 but left unchecked, diabetes damages the body." 08:54 In fact, a study was done not too long ago 08:57 about treatments for diabetes and they found out that, 09:00 you know, even if your blood sugar 09:01 is under good control in a diabetic person, 09:04 you still lose about 10 years of life. 09:08 So you want to cure type 2 diabetes 09:11 and in our next program, we're gonna talk 09:13 about specific ways to cure it, 09:14 but right now we want to focus on all the bad things 09:16 that happen in diabetes. 09:19 I was just remembering a case not too long ago 09:23 where a young girl with type 1 diabetes, 09:25 insulin-dependent, came to the emergency room 09:28 and what happens in diabetes, Charles, 09:30 is any type of stress on the body 09:33 because it's gonna-- you know, 09:34 when you fight or flight guess 09:36 what happens to your blood sugar? 09:37 It goes up even more, okay, 09:39 and when it goes up even more guess what happens? 09:42 They don't have insulin. 09:43 So they can't keep up with all this blood sugar. 09:45 So they literally don't get blood sugar 09:47 to use into their cell for energy. 09:49 So the stress they have to breakdown fats 09:52 and other things for energy. 09:54 And when they breakdown a lot of fats, 09:55 it makes a lot of acid production. 09:57 And when the acid starts being producing, 09:59 it damages the body. 10:01 We call it diabetic ketoacidosis. 10:03 Ketones are formed, become acids, 10:05 a very dangerous situation. 10:07 So we start putting insulin into the body 10:09 so we can get some blood sugar into the cells. 10:11 We try to figure out what triggered it. 10:13 And, frequently, in this young girl, 10:15 even though she was in her early 30s, 10:17 what triggered her event was a heart attack. 10:19 The heart attack caused the stress. 10:22 The stress made her to go in diabetic ketoacidosis. 10:24 And, unfortunately, in diabetics, 10:26 the blood vessels of the heart tend to be very small 10:29 because of the damage that's done by this terrible disease. 10:33 And there wasn't a lot we could do to help her heart. 10:35 So this is a devastating disease, Charles, 10:38 that effects it, and one thing 10:39 we want to let all people know is, 10:41 you know, if you're having, you know, high blood sugar, 10:44 it needs to be screened for. 10:45 And especially if you're having symptoms, 10:47 if you're thirsty, going to the bathroom all the time, 10:50 carry some extra weight, 10:52 feeling a little bit fatigued and tired, 10:54 you need to get checked by one of these ways to see 10:57 if you have diabetes because there's lots of things 10:59 we can do to cure diabetes at least type 2 diabetes. 11:03 Type 1, we can't really cure that, 11:06 but type 2, we can cure that doing a lot of things for it. 11:09 You know, when you give that description, 11:13 you would think that this would be something 11:17 that everyone would work really hard 11:20 and do whatever necessary to eradicate, 11:23 yet diabetes is on the rise 11:27 and becoming epidemic in this country. 11:29 What don't we know? 11:30 What message is not getting out there? 11:32 Yeah, and again, we've talked 11:34 about all of these diseases that are killing us, 11:36 we wanted to keep these two words. 11:38 What was the original plan in our lives 11:41 and what's the chronic exposure? 11:43 Long-term exposure. What's the long-term exposure? 11:45 And we're gonna find out as we talk more 11:47 the problem with type 2 diabetes is fat, too much fat, 11:54 too much fat in the diet, too much fat in you. 11:58 And when you have too much fat in you, 12:00 the fat goes into the cell. 12:02 When the fat goes into the cell, 12:04 it makes it much harder for the insulin receptors 12:07 and the blood sugar to go in the cell. 12:09 So it changes our entire metabolism. 12:11 This is a physical thing then. Yes, this is a-- 12:13 Physical presence of fat in the cell-- 12:15 Fat in the cells as well as fat in the body, 12:18 it changes all this. 12:20 And, you know, we've done studies 12:22 and we know if people can get fat out of their cells, 12:24 fat out of their diets, they can actually cure type 2 diabetes. 12:29 And we want to cure it 'cause as we're gonna find out 12:31 in our next program, the medicines that are involved 12:33 have some bad side effects. 12:35 So the problem with type 2 diabetes 12:37 the way I see it is it's a fat problem. 12:40 And, unfortunately, nowadays, 12:42 now follow me here 12:44 today just 1/3rd of people in the United States 12:46 are considered obese, 60% overweight. 12:50 Overweight usually carry extra fat. 12:53 Extra fat grows, you're gonna have abnormal insulin receptors, 12:56 abnormal insulin levels. 12:58 The glucose metabolism is gonna change. 13:00 We're not gonna be able to get glucose into the cell 13:02 because of all the fats. 13:03 We're gonna have this high blood sugar. 13:04 We're gonna see all this damage 13:06 that begins to occur in the body. 13:08 Again, it's a chronic exposure to fat 13:11 that we weren't really designed to have. 13:13 So just like we've talked about whether heart disease, 13:16 whether it be stress, 13:17 we talked about cancer exposures, 13:19 now we're putting our body, 13:20 we were never designed to eat a high-fat diet. 13:24 This has just occurred over years and years. 13:26 I heard one professional call this 13:28 a food borne illness diabetes-- Type 2. 13:31 Type 2. That's correct. Exactly, okay. 13:34 We'll take a short break and when we come back, 13:35 we'll answer your questions 13:37 from heartwiseministries.org on this topic. 13:39 So stay tuned. |
Revised 2014-12-17