Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Alcar with ALA Capsules Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND One of the most popular products here at Invite Health has always been our Alcar with ALA formula. If you have been using Invite’s Alcar with ALA you may notice some changes to it! Now the …
From a Naturopathic Point of View
Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND
Throughout this series I will be reviewing certain health topics that I find tend to be the least well understood. I especially want to focus on a holistic point of view. The fist topic that I want to address starts simply with 1 word, control. What in the world do I mean by that? Well one of the most important things you can do for your overall health is to keep control of any chronic disease that you may have.
One example of a chronic disease that it is important to keep control of is diabetes. In my clinical experience having diabetes that is not well controlled is one of the biggest risk factors for complications. I’m going to be rather blunt here but honest. If you’re having complications from uncontrolled diabetes you have to address the underlying cause, the uncontrolled diabetes to really see results. For example a common complication of diabetes is neuropathy. To really control neuropathy it is critical that blood sugar be controlled. One way I describe the situation is as follows. If you have neuropathy with uncontrolled diabetes it’s like trying to fill a bucket that has a small hole in it. You may make some progress but until you fix the hole it will never be filled. In this case until you get the blood sugar controlled there is a limit to how much progress you can have with the symptoms of neuropathy. There are many possible complications to having diabetes. The most common complications include heart disease, kidney disease and neuropathy. Additionally complications can include diabetic retinopathy or damage to the eyes. Type 2 diabetes can also increase the risk of dementia and depression. Having trouble with hearing is also more common in diabetics. Lastly diabetes can also affect our skin and mouth. Unfortunately the less controlled your blood sugar the higher the risk of these complications. How do you know if your diabetes is well controlled? One of the best things you can do is to do any blood tests your doctor may recommend. For example A1C is a common test used to monitor your blood sugar. (1)
Another chronic disease that can have dangerous complications if not well controlled is blood pressure. There’s a good reason why high blood pressure is called the silent killer. Uncontrolled blood pressure is frankly very dangerous. It is often asymptomatic. Having uncontrolled blood pressure is a huge risk for a heart attack or stroke. (2) If you have high blood pressure it is imperative that you listen to any recommendations form your doctor. While I understand the concerns that medications can generate having uncontrolled blood pressure can cause complications that are life changing. I am not going to sugar coat this. Having a heart attack or stroke can lead to life changing complications that often times permanently change your life due to the damage that results.
Another concern that people seem to brush off is cholesterol. For some reason lately there’s been a rumor that having high cholesterol isn’t all that bad or dangerous. However this is not the case. Having high cholesterol greatly increases your risk of heart attack or stroke. (3)
Overall in my Clinical experience having uncontrolled diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol all increase the risk of very dangerous complications. So what can you do? Well it’s important to talk to your doctor and ask an Invite Nutritionist if the following are right for you:
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Sources
Written by: Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND For further questions or concerns email me at [email protected] Blood sugar concerns can range from pre-diabetes to full blown diabetes. Even those with healthy blood sugar may want to monitor their blood sugar if they have a family history …
Diabetes type 1 Written by: Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND For further questions or concerns email me at [email protected]† Diabetes type 1 is a type of diabetes that is commonly found in children. In fact it used to be called juvenile diabetes. But what is diabetes type …
The physiology of Diabetes
Written by: Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND
For further questions or concerns email me at [email protected]†
One of the most common questions people call or ask about is regarding blood sugar. Statistics for diabetes are quite alarming. In the United States alone there is an estimated 26.9 million people diagnosed with diabetes. That would be approximately 8.2 percent of the population! There are also approximately an additional 7.3 million un-diagnosed diabetics in the United States. (1) Given the severe consequences of diabetes both controlled and uncontrolled this is very alarming. But what is diabetes? How is it diagnosed? What are the types of diabetes? In this series we will explore all these questions!†
The body controls the amount of sugar in the blood stream by either raising or lowering the amount found in the blood stream at any given time. Glucose or “sugar” is stored in both the skeletal muscles and the liver cells as a molecule called glycogen. This glucose storage or glycogen can be used to increase blood sugar if it gets too low or the body will add to this storage by changing glucose to glycogen. (2) Basically there are little islands of cells in the pancreas called the pancreatic islets or the islets of Langerhans. These regions are hormone producing cells. Please see picture! †(3)
There are 5 types of cells in these region and they are responsible for producing different types of hormones. The Alpha cells produce glucagon, the beta cells produce both insulin and amylin. Other cells called delta cells produce somatostatin, epsilon cells produce Ghrelin and last but not least PP cells produce pancreatic polypeptide. Other hormones that help to control blood sugar are cortisol and catecholamines. These 2 are not produced by the pancreas.† (4)
Hormones that regulate blood sugar are broken down into two categories. The catabolic hormones increase blood sugar. These hormones include glucagon, cortisol and catecholamines. Anabolic hormones decrease blood sugar and the main hormone in this category is called insulin.†(5)
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Now these hormones all work together to control blood sugar. Basically when blood sugar gets too low the amylin which is normally high when there is a lot of glucose goes down with it. This decrease in amylin allows the alpha cells of the pancreas to start to release glucagon. This hormone will then increase the blood sugar in two ways. First it begins by promoting the formation of new glucose and then by releasing the stored glucose or glycogen stored in the liver and muscles. These process are called Gluconeogenesis and Glycogenolysis. As the glucagon works and the blood sugar becomes normal the body produces less glucagon so that the blood sugar doesn’t get too high. In other words when blood glucose is high amylin is high so the alpha cells don’t make glucagon so glucose isn’t triggered to be made or released. When the blood glucose does go low the amylin goes low as well allowing the glucagon to go to work to normalize blood sugar.† (6)
Now when blood sugar levels get too high the beta cells are signaled to release insulin which basically tells the cells to “vacuum” up or in scientific terms uptake the glucose thus lowering the amount of glucose in the blood stream. Once the glucose is in the cells it is converted to its storage form of glycogen and is available to be used once the blood sugar gets too low.†(7)
Cortisol comes into play because when you are under long term stress the body wants there to be more sugar available for energy. While you may know that the work assignment is work stress not a giant tiger about to eat you, the body doesn’t. All the body knows is that something is very stressful and it might be a tiger so it had best get enough sugar available so you can run away. Hence the reason cortisol or the stress hormones increase blood sugar. Catecholamines which can also be thought of as stress hormones also increase the production of glucose thus increasing the blood sugar.†(8)
Unfortunately this system can get out of balance and that is where health concerns such as diabetes come from. Dysregulation of the blood sugar control system can occur for different reasons. As we go through the different forms of diabetes and blood sugar control dysregulation we will talk more in depth as to the risk factors and how they occur.†
Have questions about diabetes, you can speak to one of Invite Health degreed professional or have questions for Dr.Claire, email her at [email protected]†
SOURCES
1.https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/diabetes-statistics
2.Wasserman DH (January 2009). “Four grams of glucose”. American Journal of Physiology. Endocrinology and Metabolism.296(1):
E11–21. doi:10.1152/ajpendo.90563.2008. PMC 2636990. PMID 18840763.
3. https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/images/1001-pancreas-and-islets-of-langerhans
4.Tortora G (December 2016). Principles Anatomy and Physiology (15 ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. Chapter 18. ISBN 9781119343738.
5.Lehninger A, Nelson D, Cox M (2017). Lehininger Principles of Biochemistry. New York: W.H. Freedom. p. 934. ISBN 9781319117689.
6.Zhang, Xiao-Xi (2016). “Neuroendocrine Hormone Amylin in Diabetes”. World J Diabetes. 7 (9): 189–197. doi:10.4239/wjd.v7.i9.189. PMC4856891. PMID27162583.
7.Stryer L (1995). Biochemistry (Fourth ed.). New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. pp. 773–74. ISBN 0-7167-2009-4.
8.Laycock JF (2013). Integrated endocrinology. Meeran, Karim. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-118-45064-2. OCLC 794973804.
