Allies Voice: Does a leaky gut cause autoimmune diabetes?
It's amazing how little respect we give our bowels. An interesting report surfaced from the American Colon Therapy Association that inadvertently may explain a qualifying event to develop autoimmune diabetes. The article explains the ever-popular (but secret operation) of Hollywood's love affair with colonics or Colon Therapy.
Do you need more science behind the inclination for a flush? (No pun intended, of course). A healthy colon is essential for the absorption of vital nutrients and the natural elimination of bodily waste and toxins. Colon therapy promotes healthy colon function and can ease a range of problems from headache and backache to arthritis and hypertension. One reason I thought this blog might be quazi appropriate for "Allies Voice" is the fact that over time - the gut of a person with diabetes can fall prey to a condition called gastroparesis. This is when the gut becomes weaker and cannot digest food as spy as it once did. This phenomenon creates a collaboration of symptoms undesirable for a healthy digestive system.
Research has been focusing more attention on the possibility that a "leaky guy" caused by undigested food molecules act as antigens, foreign substances that provoke an immune reaction, often leading to degenerative diseases - diabetes quite possibly among them. In all fairness - it makes a lot of sense. Toxic matter and undigested food collect in the intestines as a result of bowel toxemia. This toxic matter and undigested food is then absorbed from the bowels into the bloodstream, Presto - "leaky gut". And what does a poor, little hyperactive immune system have to do? Well somebody's got to break-down these undigested proteins!
The undigested food molecules act as antigens, foreign substances that provoke an immune reaction. Many of these antigens are similar in structure to normal body components, and the antibodies produced to fight them can destroy healthy tissues.
Since we're on the topic - I've been waiting for an opportunity to talk about this soldier of sustenance I saw on The Discovery Channel this past New Years Eve. I was amazed when I saw this show where an upbeat dietician would analyze the poo of her clients. (Sorry America - she only examined poo in the UK). Her name is Gillian McKeith, and she's given new meaning to the phrase "you are what you eat". Some people love her and some hate her - referring to her as the "Awful Poo Lady". All kidding aside - the beauty of her craft is that she can actually tell you, based on the consistency and aesthetics of what you void - what you're missing (or overindulging) in your diets. If it's any consolation to the US - you can become a virtual client on her website.
Question: to complete the online profile - would you submit a virtual poo sample? Forgive the potty humor. However, I'd like to know anything anybody knows about this colon therapy business. It's definitely not sexy conversataion - but we could be exploring a new route to nip a proverbial weed for diabetes here, people!
I may be unpopular here, but I have not had a good experience with colonics. I now believe that colonics can wash out even more of the beneficial enzymes than you started with. A much better approach is taking mega enzymes and probiotics..and raw veggis. You'll digest well,flush more and create a healthier colon than by using water.
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A large-scale Danish study recently found that 4% of type 1 diabetics have celiac disease, so there is certainly a higher than normal incidence of intestinal problems in the diabetic population.
Diabetic gastroparesis is of course an effect rather than a cause of diabetes, but it represents a topic worth exploring in itself. It used to be treated quite effectively by a drug, Propulsid, which correlated with some slight increase in the expected rate of heart attacks in the population taking it, so it was withdrawn from the US market. As a result, many US diabetics now either have to smuggle the drug into the US through the Caribbean, or have to endure a life of constant nausea, vomiting, and potentially lethal weight loss. In Canada the perfectly safe drug Domperidone is used to treat gastroparesis, though this is done off-label, since its proper use is to promote lactation in pregnant women. The only side-effect Domperidone has is that it can cause men to grow smallish breasts and can generate excess estrogen, which is no help to the libido of either gender.
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After having this condition for over 30 years and switching from natural to analog back to natural I agree with your conclusion. I became ill with a stomach condition a couple of weeks ago and did not have to go to the hospital but did miss a couple of days of work and had to go back to work sick as I do not get paid unless I am at work and refuse to allow my doctor or any doctor do things to me because I have diabetes. My doctor tells me I should switch to analog even with an A1C of 5.8 telling me his average for all but a handful is 7.8. My question to him was WHY. It is an outrage and just because you have diabetes don't let these doctors convince you to have tests or anything you do not feel is necessary just because you have the condition. They will blame everything on your diabetes and run test and tell you to do this and do that. If you are feeling good doing what it is you do then continue because doctor BOZO is not in your corner to begin with. They will blame everything on your diabetes it is the easy why out for them. If you die it was the diabetes, if your sick it's because of diabetes. It is the perfect blame game for them and the easy why out. My advice to anyone is take care of yourself and only go to the doctor if you really need to go and you will know this with or without diabetes. Only you can be your best doctor because the one's out there only blame your condition and nothing else. ITS EASY for them. Just remember natural is the only way to go.
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Elliot P. Joslin, in his famous 'Manual of Diabetes,' which went through many editions from the early 20th century to recent years, wrote that a doctor should pay serious attention to any diabetic who came before him after keeping himself intact for 20 years or more, because the patient probably knew what was best for him. If only diabetes 'experts' paid attention to that wisdom today.
If the average type 1 diabetic who had had the disease for a number of years were to attend the classes taught at medical school about diabetes, he would either burst out laughing or weeping, since this instruction is so dogmatic, simple-minded, and flooded with an idiotic 'blame the patient' ideology that it is a wonder how any doctors ever emerge from that experience able to deal with their diabetic patients. Not long ago I told two endocrinologist friends of mine that if they did not have type 1 diabetes themselves, they could never give any worthwhile advice on managing the disease. One just sat there with her mouth open, while the other burst out laughing.
But doctors are worse than stupid when managing diabetes, since they approach the problem with a know-it-all attitude and then, armed with their supreme ignorance, proceed to order drastic interventions whose effect they simply cannot imagine. The only solution is for each patient to be his own doctor.
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But Sanktpauli--I understand (most) MD's take a course in nutrition. Don't you find it comforting to know that their superior intelligence enables them to absorb and understand in less than 4 months what stupid diabetics spend a lifetime comprehending, tweaking, dealing with? Of course, they ignore almost totally nutritional supplements . . . but then, how important can vitamins and minerals be?
I still contend that despite their godlike omniscience, most seem to suffer from hearing impairments that leave them unable to listen to patients. I would say to them, "Physician, heal thyself . . . if you get that hearing deficiency corrected (learn to listen), you may be better able to heal your patients."
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Allie—
It looks like you may have exposed a piece of the diabetes puzzle, albeit one that is rather ignored for discussion in polite company. In passing it might be well to point out an anti-inflammatory response by the body may be endogenous, come from the environment or even from a disease-causing entity in the environment.
With this in mind, please consider if you’ve ever been to an allergist, you might see that the results are always tainted by the next change in the environment. In other words, the milk you are allergic to today, becomes your friend tomorrow, supplanted by an allergic response to apples or wheat or man’s best friend. The science of antibody response/inflammatory disease is so non-defined at the present time, that even a computer that can add ‘intelligence’ to millions of variables would be hard-pressed to come up with a specific answer.
If we look at a diabetic, and think about the total inflammatory response/environment, I would dare say any one of us becomes diabetic because our total ‘load’ of inflammatory stimuli has exceeded the capacity of the body to maintain normalcy. In our case, the pancreatic beta cells ended up being the Achilles’ heel. Just to point out an example of what I mean: people with celiac disease, who have a severe allergy to gluten in grains, will end up with high white cell counts, serious gastroparesis, and a whole host of inflammatory expressions. Eliminating that single inflammatory trigger, which overwhelms the body (early after diagnosis of a chronic disease) could possibly affect the final outcome of permanency.
Anyone wanting to read an interesting perspective on toxic overload may want to check out Dr. Sherry Roger’s book, Detoxify or Die. Most of our present-day diseases are probably the result of what the chemical world has spewed into our foods, water and air.
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Having read other comments here, think about the commonality here--we all share T1DM and have collectively visited hundreds of all-knowing, godlike MD’s. If you are an MD reading this, you may excuse yourself ‘if the shoe doesn’t fit’ because there ARE some very good MD’s. Unfortunately, not many of them are in the field of diabetes.
While I was in graduate school, I saw several MD’s because my problems did not go away. At that time, I had diagnoses of visceral neuropathy, irritable bowel syndrome, or gastroparesis, and the worst part of these diagnoses was that almost 40 years ago, the bowel-emptying process raised hell with bG levels. There were no answers; treatments involved TUMS, smaller meals, etc.
The interesting fact became apparent after oral exams (for grad work), written exams, extended laboratory work to wrap up research, and completion of job-hunting process were completed. The above diagnoses were “cured” as I settled into a new job, became more comfortable with my cohorts, and found a new doctor who LISTENED. One other thing most of us never consider in this physical environment is the impact of emotions/brain activity on this whole process. BTW, these same diagnoses have come-and-gone over the years, depending on the ebb-and-flow of emotional and intellectual ‘realities.’
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Hi Allie,
I'm responding to your comments asking for feedback from people with long-time diabetes. That's me -- I've had it for about 40 years and have given up trying to figure out why some people develop complications and others don't. I think that the tools we had in the 60s, 70s and 80s were better even though they weren't high tech. I'm not as great a fan of the new technology as you are. I began using a glucose monitor (which cost ~$300 in those days) because I was climbing mountains in very high altitudes which can obscure some of the more subtle senses of blood sugar (and other things). That was convenient but it quickly became an essential with the introduction of biosynthetic insulin which completely stripped me of awareness and also ended my climbing days). I believe it is much harder for people nowadays to achieve a good quality of life because everything is geared towards a surrogate marker (HbA1c) instead of towards more tangible endpoints like morbidity and mortality and quality of life. When I was younger, these latter factors were all-important, those were our goals, not a blood test.
Anyway, I think our biggest problem is that diabetes has been transformed from a disease to a business and we are simply a source of revenue for the entire range of companies that make a buck from our needs. I also think they are guilty of conjuring up things we may not need but which give us hope so we buy them. Home glucose monitoring might fall in to this category, I don't know. I do think there's something wrong with poking your fingers 12 times a day to protect yourself from blacking out is a problem (with the insulin probably), or that telling people with Type 2 diabetes they should test themselves constantly is just a snow job. These things undermine one's quality of life to achieve a goal that is short of living longer without complications.
My basic view is that big business should be pushed out of at least the manufacture of insulin . I can hear the gasps and heart palpitations, but in most countries around the world insulin was manufactured by publicly-owned domestic companies for a price that was fair and affordable. Now it is produced by multinationals who are unaccountable -- even Canada, where I live, is dependent on foreign corporations for insulin which is an outrage.
Sorry to have wandered all over the place here. Your questions are very important ones and thank you for asking. I hope I don't sound like a Luddite -- I'm not, but I do think we are missing the mark by focusing on surrogate markers instead of real goals.
What's happening on the Faustman front??
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Sorry. Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing.
I am from Tome and now teach English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Drew stauffer - design, development and seo solutions blog.Online seo advice from an seo consultant."
Thank you very much
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good post
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