Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
This is Part 3 of Living A Healthy Life with Diabetes, where Amanda discusses specific omega-3 fatty acids and herbal extracts and how they provide additional support to enhance insulin sensitivity and regulate blood glucose levels.
In Episode 9, Amanda Williams, MPH delves into diabetes and breaks down what to do with your diet, as well as nutrients that can be very beneficial.
Researchers at The Ohio State University wanted to know what happens to obese individuals with metabolic syndrome – a precursor to diabetes – when they eat a diet low in carbohydrates but don’t shed any pounds.
A low-carb diet is a diet that restricts carbohydrates, such as those found in sugar foods like pasta and bread. It is high in protein, fat and healthy vegetables. Foods on a low-carb diet include meat, fish, eggs, fish, nuts, high-fat dairy, fats, and healthy oils. Foods to avoid on a low-carb diet include sugar, wheat, trans fat, low-fat products and highly processed foods.
The study’s senior author, Jeff Volek, a professor of human sciences at Ohio State reports that previous work has shown that low-carb diets can be beneficial for people with metabolic syndrome and diabetes, but nutrition scientists and others have debated “whether that’s a product of the diet or a product of the weight loss typically seen when people reduce carbs.”
The small study included 16 men and women with metabolic syndrome, which includes conditions like high blood pressure, high blood sugar and excess body fat around the waist. After eating a low-carb diet, more than half of the participants – five men and four women – saw their metabolic syndrome reverse even though they were fed diets that intentionally contained enough calories to keep your weight stable.
Over about four months, each study participant ate three month-long randomly assigned, controlled diets – high-carb, moderate-carb and low-carb – with a two week break between diets.
Researchers report that, after eating the low-carb diet, participants had a variety of significantly improves health measures, particularly “lower triglycerides and improved cholesterol readings.” Further, “despite the fact that the low-carb diet contained 2.5 times more saturated fat than the high-carb diet, it decrease saturated fat in the bloodstream and was associated with an increase in the risk of cholesterol particles in the blood, which decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease.”
The researchers also report evidence of increased fat-burning efficiency after a low-carb diet and an improvement in blood sugar. They did not see statistically significant improvements in blood pressure or insulin resistance.
Three participants no longer had metabolic syndrome after the moderate-carbohydrate diet and one no longer had the syndrome after the high-carb diet.
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According to a new study, outdoor air pollution (even at levels deemed safe) is linked to an increased risk of diabetes globally.
Diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases, especially in the United States, affecting more than 420 million people worldwide and 30 million Americans. The causes of this disease are due to individuals following an unhealthy diet and lifestyle, but new research indicates outdoor air pollution plays a role. This suggests health-conscious individuals may want to consider using dust masks to help avoid inhalation of toxic air.
Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, the study’s senior author and an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University reports, “Our research shows a significant link between air pollution and diabetes globally. We found an increased risk, even at low levels of air pollution currently considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). This is important because many industry lobbying groups argue that current levels are too stringent and should be relaxed. Evidence shows that current levels are still not sufficiently safe and need to be tightened.”
To evaluate outdoor air pollution, researchers studied particulate matter – airborne microscopic pieces of dust, smoke, soot and liquid droplets. Previous studies have found that such particles can enter the lungs and invade the bloodstream, contributing to major health conditions, including heart disease and cancer, according to the study.
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The Washington University team, along with scientists at the Veterans Affairs’ Clinical Epidemiology Center, examined the relationship between particulate matter and the risk of diabetes by first analyzing data from 1.7 million U.S. veterans who were followed for a median of 8.5 years. The veterans did not have a history of diabetes. This data was paired with NASA’s land-based air statistical models, which tested the validity against controls like air sodium concentrations. Researchers then devised a model to evaluate diabetes risk across various pollution levels.
The researchers estimated that pollution contributed to 3.2 million new diabetes cases globally in 2016, which represents about 14% of all new diabetes cases globally that year. They also estimated that 8.2 million years of healthy life were lost in 2016 due to pollution-linked diabetes, representing about 14% of all years of healthy life lost due to diabetes from any cause.
In the U.S., the study attributed 150,000 new cases of diabetes per year to air pollution and 350,000 years of healthy life lost annually.