A weight loss program can lead to type 2 diabetes remission, even in individuals with a normal body mass index (BMI), via loss of body fat, particularly in the liver and pancreas, shows a UK study.
The title of this post is a direct quote from an Endocrinologist who at the time was practicing in Dallas Texas. I asked if he had any advice for me to reduce my risk of developing diabetes.
One of the most rewarding things I do in my clinic happens on my iPhone. When I sit down with a middle aged patient to talk about their cardiovascular risk, I open the risk calculator created by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. I talk my way through as I enter […]
The risk calculator is quite useful but I re-blogged this post for its link to the Hale study, which was news to me. This study published in 2004 showed older people between the ages of 70 and 90 who followed a Mediterranean diet have 50% lower rate of all-cause and cause-specific mortality than people who dine on the SAD Western diet. The four primary risk factors were diet, moderate alcohol intake, physical activity, and non-smoking.
Poor metabolic health and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors have been associated with higher risk and severity of COVID-19.
A dietary pattern characterized by healthy plant-based foods was associated with lower risk and severity of COVID-19.
We found evidence of a synergistic association of poor diet and increased socioeconomic deprivation with COVID-19 risk that was higher than the sum of the risk associated with each factor alone.
Merino J, Joshi AD, Nguyen LH, et al Diet quality and risk and severity of COVID-19: a prospective cohort study Gut 2021;70:2096-2104. — https://gut.bmj.com/content/70/11/2096
In six countries, plant-based diets or pescatarian diets were associated with lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19. These dietary patterns may be considered for protection against severe COVID-19 In 2884 front-line healthcare workers from six countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, USA), individuals who reported following plant-based diets and plant-based diets or pescatarian diets that were higher in vegetables, legumes and nuts, and lower in poultry and red and processed meats, had 73% and 59% lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19, respectively.
Kim H, Rebholz CM, Hegde S, et al. Plant-based diets, pescatarian diets and COVID-19 severity: a population-based case–control study in six countries BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health 2021;4:doi: 10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000272 — https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/4/1/257
“The first thing we noticed was that the small intestine increases greatly in size on the high-calorie diet,” says study leader Anika Böttcher. “Together with Fabian Theis’ team of computational biologists at Helmholtz Munich, we then profiled 27,000 intestinal cells from control diet and high fat/high sugar diet-fed mice. Using new machine learning techniques, we thus found that intestinal stem cells divide and differentiate significantly faster in the mice on an unhealthy diet.” The researchers hypothesize that this is due to an upregulation of the relevant signaling pathways, which is associated with an acceleration of tumor growth in many cancers. “This could be an important link: Diet influences metabolic signaling, which leads to excessive growth of intestinal stem cells and ultimately to an increased risk of gastrointestinal cancer,” says Böttcher.
Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health. “New link between diet, intestinal stem cells and disease discovered.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211119155604.htm (accessed November 27, 2021).
I wonder what Dr. Lustig would say about this study?
MIND diet is associated with better cognitive functioning independently of brain pathology, suggesting that the MIND diet may contribute to cognitive resilience in older adults.
The traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern includes mainly whole, minimally processed plant foods including cereal grains, legumes, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and fish with small amounts of meat, milk, and dairy products and a regular modest amount of alcohol.4 The DASH diet emphasizes fruit, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products and includes whole grains, poultry, fish, and nuts, and is reduced in fats, red meat, sweets, and sugar-containing beverages.4 Combining the two diets, the MIND diet emphasizes natural, plant-based foods, specifically promoting an increase in the consumption of berries and green leafy vegetables, with limited intakes of animal-based and high saturated fat foods.
Jonas DE, Crotty K, Yun JDY, et al. Screening for Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes: Updated Evidence Report and Systematic Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force. JAMA. 2021;326(8):744–760. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.10403
These findings show that the prevalence of food insecurity in the U.S. is highest among Americans for whom a healthy diet is especially critical—Medicaid enrollees with insulin-dependent diabetes and diabetes-related eye or kidney complications (over 40% were food insecure). The problem of co-occurring food insecurity and diabetes among the nation’s disadvantaged has likely worsened during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
The Prevalence of Food Insecurity Is Highest Among Americans for Whom Diet Is Most Critical to Health — Diabetes Care 2021 Jun; 44(6): e131-e132. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-3116
In patients with newly diagnosed T2DM, alcohol abstinence was associated with a low risk of AF development. Lifestyle modifications, such as alcohol abstinence, in patients newly diagnosed with T2DM should be recommended to reduce the risk of AF.
New research published in Diabetologia has shown that if people achieve and maintain substantial weight loss to manage their type 2 diabetes, many can also effectively control their high blood pressure and stop or cut down on their anti-hypertensive medication.
During Pandemic Year One I lost 25 pounds. My PCP was impressed but when I told her how my diet changed she put her “doctor face” on, looked me straight in the eyes and said,
“I can’t wait to see your blood test results.”
Due to my family history my risk of developing DM2 is approximately 25% higher than the average underwriter. When I asked a prominent Endocrinologist for some advice many years ago he too put on his “doctor face” looked me straight in the eyes and said,
“Stay as thin as you can as long as you can.”
Yesterday I went to see Kevin and got a fresh flattop. The first question he asked was,
“Did you lose more weight?”
No, I haven’t. But my face definitely looks thinner without a mask.
BTW my blood work was about the same as last year even with my change in diet.
Conclusion All NAFLD histological stages were associated with significantly increased overall mortality, and this risk increased progressively with worsening NAFLD histology. Most of this excess mortality was from extrahepatic cancer and cirrhosis, while in contrast, the contributions of cardiovascular disease and HCC were modest.
Older people with prediabetes who followed a diet rich in sardines for 1 year show significant reductions in risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with those placed on a similarly healthy diet but without the sardines, results from a new randomized trial show.
“A 1-year, sardine-enriched type 2 diabetes-preventive diet in an elderly population with prediabetes exerts a greater protective effect against developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular events, by improving anthropometric parameters, blood chemistry profile, lipid composition in erythrocytes membranes, and metabolomics data,” report the authors in research published in Clinical Nutrition by Diana Díaz-Rizzolo, PhD, of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues.
When the researchers looked at the functions of the genes in the three sample types, they found that the ancient and non-industrial groups contained a diverse array of genes linked with the breakdown of starches. This indicates that the diets of the ancient and non-industrialised populations were high in complex carbohydrates, like vegetables and grains.
I’m not quite sure what this research tells us other than eat more complex carbohydrates, the Paleo Diet and low-carb people are wrong, and the vegans of the world just might be onto something.
AND I think I missed my calling in life. Studying and researching ancient shit sounds like cool work.
Here’s the mortality aspect from a different research study.
Salosensaari, A., Laitinen, V., Havulinna, A.S. et al. Taxonomic signatures of cause-specific mortality risk in human gut microbiome. Nat Commun12, 2671 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22962-y
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