The diabetes epidemic is comparable and has a lot in common with thyroid disease: millions have it and even more people remain undiagnosed.
Both hypothyroidism and diabetes are growing at an alarming rate and with the current state of medical care that only manages the symptoms and doesn’t offer a cure, the situation only gets worse.
The truth is that there are many doctors and medical professionals who successfully reverse diabetes using alternative nutritional treatments that work for up to 90% of diabetics.
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Why Hypothyroidism Is A Risk Factor For Diabetes
There are some risk factors such as age, heredity and ethnicity that can make you more prone to diabetes. However, regardless of the risk factors, complications of diabetes can be very dangerous and include heart and kidney disease, blindness, nerve damage, gastroparesis, infections, ulcers, teeth and gum disease.
What many people don’t know is that hypothyroidism affects how we process carbohydrates and predisposes us for diabetes and other blood sugar related health conditions such as pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome X and insulin resistance. All these conditions result in blood glucose levels that are higher than normal and contribute to the stubborn weight gain and inability to lose weight in hypothyroid patients.
Many thyroid patients are surprised and even angry when they hear that lack of thyroid hormones contribute only to 10% of body weight and most of it due to salt and water retention.
Where does all this extra weight come from?
The answer is insulin resistance and other more advanced blood sugar imbalances.
Undiagnosed, untreated, undertreated and subclinical hypothyroidism causes insulin resistance and carbohydrate metabolism disorders which are responsible for most of the weight gain in thyroid patients.
Thyroid hormones directly control insulin secretion and both hyper- and hypothyroidism impair carbohydrate metabolism. According to a study conducted by the Endokrinology and Diabetology Depatment of Collegium Medicum University, Poland on patients with Hashimoto’s disease, advanced carbohydrate metabolism disorders such as type 1 and type 2 diabetes were confirmed in half of Hashimoto’s patients.
If you are hypothyroid and don’t get an optimal thyroid treatment you are setting yourself up for blood sugar related health problems in the future such as diabetes, weight gain and heart disease. They will develop slowly and eventually kill you.
Your first step to improve your carbohydrate metabolism and prevent more weight gain is to get a proper thyroid diagnosis and optimize your thyroid labs for TSH around 1.0 and free T4 and T3 at high normal.
5 Types Of Carbohydrate Metabolism Disorders
Disorders of carbohydrate metabolism occur in many forms and most of them are associated with hypothyroidism:
Type 1 diabetes is an associated disease with Hashimoto’s disease which is the main cause of hypothyroidism in industrialized countries. It often occurs as a part of Polygrandular syndrome type II or Schmidt’s syndrome which is a combination of adrenal insufficiency, Hashimoto’s disease and type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is a deficiency of the pancreas when the beta cells of the pancreas get damaged as the result of an autoimmune attack and can no longer produce insulin. The insulin is required to help glucose get from the blood stream into the cells to provide them with nourishment and keep the blood glucose levels within a normal range.
In Type 2 diabetes as opposed to type 1 diabetes, the pancreas works in overdrive producing the insulin to compensate high glucose levels in the blood. High insulin levels make you store body fat faster than you can burn it and are one of the main factors of weight gain in people with hypothyroidism.
This metabolic shift doesn’t occur overnight. It develops slowly and starts on the cellular level with insulin resistance that can continue for many years. During this time both your weight and fasting glucose levels gradually increase as the condition progresses to metabolic syndrome X, pre-diabetes and diabetes.
Weight gain often is the only indicator of metabolic imbalance because the blood sugar begins to rise only after the pancreas cannot keep up and override the cellular resistance to insulin.
As per guidelines of the American Heart Association (AHA), Metabolic syndrome X is confirmed when an individual meets any 3 of the following criteria:
- A waist circumference is greater than 102 cm (40 in) in men and 88 cm (35 inches) in women.
- Fasting blood glucose is above100 mg/dl.
- Blood pressure is higher than 130/85.
- HDL cholesterol is lower than 40mg/dl in men and 50mg/dl in women.
- Serum triglycerides are above 150 mg/dl.
People are considered to have pre-diabetes when their blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet as high as 126 mg/dl in those type 2 diabetes.
The good news is that there is a new diabetes treatment where the same principles apply to the reversing of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome X, pre-diabetes and diabetes type 1 and 2.
Conventional Diabetes Treatment
As of today conventional medicine doesn’t offer a cure for diabetes and sets the main goal of the treatment to keep blood sugar levels in the normal range to prevent any possible complications.
It is recommended to monitor blood sugar levels, exercise regularly and follow a special diet:
- low fat
- low sugar
- low salt
- low carbohydrates
- high fiber content
- lots of vegetables, whole grains and fruits
- 3 meals, 2-3 snacks in between of the meals and never skip the meal to prevent hypoglycemia or low blood sugar levels.
Most people who follow these recommendations also have to take medication to help to control their blood sugar levels:
Insulin shots. Since people with type 1 diabetes don’t produce enough insulin, the use of insulin shots can help lower the blood sugar by moving the sugar from the blood into the cells. Insulin is taken daily at least 30 minutes before each meal.
Oral medication. Different types of pills are prescribed for type 2 diabetes:
- Siguanides prevent the liver from producing too much sugar
- Metformin regulates the blood sugar and helps the person to lose weight
- Sulfonylureas stimulate the pancreas to produce more insulin to lower the blood sugar
- Thiazolidinediones helps the cells to increase the sensitivity to insulin and move more glucose from the blood into the cells
- Meglitinides helps achieve lower blood sugar by forcing the pancreas to produce more insulin immediately after the meal.
All medications for diabetes have their limitations and undesirable side effects.
Alternative Diabetes Treatment Is NOT The Cure
Alternative diabetes treatments are often based on the fact that the intake of carbohydrates and sugars causes higher insulin response and blood glucose levels than eating proteins and fats. All carbohydrates convert into sugars eventually promoting weight gain, high blood sugar and heart disease. A suggested solution to diabetes is a low-carbohydrate diet when the person is recommended to avoid sugars and carbs all together.
Diets low in carbohydrates such as Atkin’s and low-carb version of Paleo diet can provide some great benefits and improvements of carbohydrate metabolism in people who have insulin resistance because this way of eating addresses both glycemic load and satiety. It can work especially well for those who have low insulin output due to the burnout of the beta cells in their pancreas (predisposition to type 1 diabetes).
The basic principle is to treat the weakness by limiting how much glucose enters into the body so that the pancreas doesn’t need to perform at their optimum and the blood sugar doesn’t rise so much.
While this approach works and it can help with weight loss, insulin and glucose management and overall health, it doesn’t fix the main problem and doesn’t provide the ultimate solution or cure for diabetes.
Why low carb diets do NOT provide a long-term blood sugar solution:
For many people low-carbohydrate diets limit their ability to recover because slow metabolism, impaired adrenal function and adaptable glucogenesis (formation of glycogen from glucose in the liver) will develop over time:
- Impaired carbohydrate metabolism doesn’t mean that your body doesn’t need glucose. A shortage of glucose due to low carb intake will result in slow metabolism and make you more insulin resistant over time
- Humans have a highly adaptable glucogenesis and with an absence of carbs in the diet your body starts to convert more protein and fats into sugar to support the brain’s demand in glucose for healthy functioning. Because of this process being on a low-carbohydrate diet over 6-8 months will lead to higher fasting glucose and higher insulin levels
- Any dieting and low-carb diet in particular are stressful for your body and adrenal glands that lead to higher cortisol levels. High cortisol is another major factor that contributes to insulin resistance and low cortisol is a trigger of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
- The diet is difficult to follow long-term because of so many restrictions and
neurotransmitter imbalance in people who were heavily dependent on caffeine, sugar and refined carbohydrates before going low carb. It is not only a trigger for food cravings, but also affects mood and emotions.
Raising blood sugar levels and insulin is a normal physiological response to food that we eat. There is other more healthy and sustainable way to not just improve your carbohydrate tolerance by avoiding carbs but repair and restore your ability to process carbohydrates.
New Alternatives That Change Lives
There is a new scientifically proven diabetes treatment that can help significantly reduce the need for insulin for type 1 diabetics and reverse type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes and insulin resistance.
It works if you were recently diagnosed or have been suffering from diabetes for a long time. It is based on studies that confirmed that this treatment works twice better than metformin as well as doesn’t have any of the side effects or problems.
Please watch the video below to learn how it works:
Or click this direct link to the video
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References:
1. Association between altered thyroid state and insulin resistance. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2012 Apr;3(2):156-60.
2. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and carbohydrate metabolism disorders in patients hospitalised in the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetology of Ludwik Rydygier Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz between 2001 and 2010. Endokrynol Pol. 2012;63(1):14-7.
3. The Relationship between Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Related Thyroid Diseases. J Diabetes Res. 2013;
4. Metabolic syndrome prevalence in subclinic and overt hypothyroid patients and the relation among metabolic syndrome parameters. J Endocrinol Invest. 2011 Jul-Aug;34(7):488-92.
5. Effects of treatment with L-thyroxin on glucose regulation in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism. Med Arh. 2012;66(6):364-8.
6. Insulin sensitivity and counter-regulatory hormones in hypothyroidism and during thyroid hormone replacement therapy. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2005;43(7):715-20.
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