High blood sugar levels lead to faster aging, but the insulin “cure” for high blood glucose is probably just as bad as the problem, as higher insulin levels have been shown to increase cancer.  Now, researchers are targeting insulin resistance in the brain as a precursor to Alzheimer’s Disease.  Some are even calling Alzheimer’s “type III diabetes”.

In this study, they allowed some mice to get really fat and display signs of diabetes.  But they eliminated the ability of the mice to process insulin in their brains.  By doing that, they increased the lifespans of even the fat, diabetic mice by 18%.

The key, said the researchers, is to keep both blood glucose and insulin levels down.  The only consistently known way to do that is with regular cardio/aerobic exercise.  

It seems to me the problem is that we are trying to replace food with non-food.  If you’re used to eating fruit, rather than fruit juice, then your body senses the natural limits of what you should eat.  Ever eaten two apples at once? Hardly anybody does, and it’s not just because that’s the end of one apple.  The next time you do eat an apple - maybe right now - see how you feel afterward.  You feel satisfied by that one apple.  However, if you have 16 oz. of apple juice, chances are that you’ll actually want more, because the natural fiber and texture has been removed, revealing only taste and calories.  Not good.

If you want your children to eat well, feed them real food.  That doesn’t seem very revolutionary, I know, but if natural foods could compete for advertising dollars the same way fake foods do, I bet we wouldn’t have such a problem promoting them to kids.    

In the HRH Program, I explain why this happens, as well as why the assertion that slower exercise is better overall for burning fat.  The reason is the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).  When the PNS is engaged, free fatty acids are increased in the bloodstream.  More free fatty acids in the bloodstream during exercise means burning more fat. 

The study showed that taking a break also increases fat concentrations in the bloodstream, and when these are utilized by moderate exercise, the natural result is more burning more fat. 

In addition to the increased fat metabolism, the exercise with breaks “showed significantly lower values of insulin and glucose.”  For people suffering from insulin resistance and pre-diabetes, that’s hugely important.  Indeed, producing less insulin and glucose means you’re not putting pressure on your liver to overperform.     

So, if you haven’t done so already, check out more fat burning tips in the HRH Program e-book.  It’s nice to read about evidence, it’s better to be the evidence.

Remember, with Vioxx, we didn’t see an immediate withdrawal of the drug from the shelves, but the pressure mounted quickly and Merck had to submit. That will likely be the case with GlaxoSmithKline very soon.

Having had this site up for over two years now, I’ve had the chance to chat with many people who suffer from insulin resistance. In many cases, exercise and diet alone hasn’t been sufficient to reverse blood sugar maladies–at least in the short-term.

While other sites say that Type II Diabetes is “easily” reversed with diet and exercise, even the best program (like the HRH Program) will take time to make a difference.

The question is, is avoiding drugs that make an immediate impact on blood sugar more or less harmful than the glycation effects of having high blood sugar? That’s not a question with an easy answer, as glycation is almost exactly equivalent to aging at twice the rate as normal–and, to add to the problem, is currently irreversible.

More to come…

The author notes that depressives produce more cortisol, the stress hormone. The cortisol urges the body to keep blood sugar high, because the body feels the fight or flight response, and prolonged high blood sugar and cortisol can do damage to insulin receptors.

This study was done with men and women over the age of 65, but there’s every reason to suspect the same results would occur with younger subjects. In fact, depression and diabetes go hand in hand in many studies on people of all ages. (Sorry, no time to find the links right now.)

I would add that it’s also possible for their to be an autonomic nervous system connection, but we’ll save that for another time.

As the link above will show, there’s another new test people can spend $500 on to find out if they’re genetically predisposed to Type II Diabetes. It “helps explain” the genetic link that makes one more susceptible to the insulin resistance that causes Diabetes. So, two questions here. One, do you need it? And, two, is this “front page” news?

About the first question. You probably don’t need this test. (Always remember, of course, I’m not a doctor, so if your doctor tells you to get it, listen to them before me.) If you’re thinking about ordering it because you’re starting to pack on the pounds, spend that money first on a heart rate monitor and a gym membership instead. Then, get a fasting blood glucose test, which will almost always be covered by insurance or cost far less than this genetic test. If you’re starting to show a pre-diabetic or diabetic blood sugar level, then you’re likely insulin resistant. If your parents are in the same boat, there may be a genetic link. Use that information to give yourself additional motivation to lose the pounds and eat healthier.

If you’re thin and one of your parents has Diabetes, then get your blood sugar checked regularly. If it’s high, and you’re still thin and active, then you may have the faulty chromosome pair mentioned in the test. The only reason you would want to get the test in this case is if your doctor doesn’t believe your blood sugar should be controlled with a pharmaceutical or natural regimen. The reason to press in this case is that you absolutely need to make sure your blood sugar is controlled, and your doctor should be made aware that you intend to do so.

About the second question, is this “front page” news? I’m just sick about how news agencies (in this case Newsweek and MSNBC) roll out the latest techniques for spending/wasting even more money on healthcare items that don’t actually contribute to making us better. In almost every case of Type II Diabetes caused by insulin resistance, a person can control or prevent the onset of the disease with lifestyle choices.

In the cases that it can’t, a low-cost blood sugar test will do the trick. Now, if they find a test that tells an individual he/she will become diabetic no matter what they do, that’s front page news. This story is trivia, I believe.

Want to lose weight? Whatever you do, don’t go on a diet. According to this study, the vast majority of people who go on diets end up weighing more after two years than they did before the diet. In fact, they found the number one predictor of weight gain was dieting. And dieting is also a major predictor of future heart disease, Type II Diabetes, stroke, and altered immune function. Yikes!

The researchers concluded the only way to guarantee long-term weight loss was exercising. Hey, that’s what the HRH Program says! (I love it when large, government-funded studies prove the same thing that any man or woman could figure out while exercising in their basement.)

The reason the HRH Program is so successful for people is that the changes are made over the long-term through the “law of mass action”. In my book, that means that anything you do long enough and consistently enough will be the determining factor in your health. Exercising within a specific heart rate zone will change your body into a fat-burning machine that craves the right foods. Doing it consistently will get your body used to the exercise, and it will then operate on auto-pilot, reminding you daily that you need to move around every day.

Nothing drastic is necessary in the HRH Program. The changes are made over time to help you regain a “feel” for how your body was designed to operate in the first place. Insulin resistance, for example, isn’t going to go away in a week or two with a crash diet and running your body into the ground . It’s something that has to be reversed over time. Small steps are what count.

There’s a lot of news to catch up on for the HRH Program. This article presents research that’s at the top of the list for sure. It particularly applies to the HRH Program for depression, even though the article doesn’t specifically mention it.

Exercise has been shown to be as effective (if not more effective) than drug therapy for depression. It helps depressed patients regain some sense of normalcy after about two weeks. Similarly, drug therapy seems to work after about two weeks.

Some researchers suspect that the drugs start working after this period because cells in the hippocampus start to divide again, whereas depression seems to shut down this process. Chronic depression has been shown to actually shrink the hippocampus.

If exercise has the same effect on the hippocampus that drugs have, then that may be one explanation of how it mimics the drugs in effectiveness.

What’s not so clear is how the hippocampus is involved in depression in the first place. It seems likely that there are other brain changes taking place at the same time that have an effect on the nervous system and the neurotransmitters secreted in the brain.

Anyway, this is exciting stuff for all HRH Program users, as the type of exercise recommended in the program is similar to that of the research cited here. It also adds to the story that the brain is not so “set in stone” as scientists once believed. As with other parts of the body, it is constantly “reinventing” itself. Fascinating if you ask me!

I’m not sure how much influence lunch box makers have over policy at the FDA, but this story makes me think we have the wrong people doing the deciding.

Here’s a quote from Julie Vallese, a Consumer Products Safety Commission officer:

“Children would have to rub their lunch box and then lick their hands more than 600 times every day, for about 15-30 days, in order for the lunch box to present a health hazard.”

That doesn’t sound like something a parent of a young child would say. Imagine your child anxiously awaiting lunch, fidgeting by scratching his lunch box on his little desktop. Doesn’t some lead come off in a case like that?

Why is ANY lead allowed in children’s lunch boxes?

Note to Men Only: Don’t let your spouse read this article.

My wife puts a priority on having the kitchen clean in the morning. It’s her fresh palette for mixing and mashing a new masterwork by dinnertime.

Unfortunately, her kitchen maid, her husband, doesn’t share the urgency, and instead thinks of the time after dinner until waking as the time to honor his wife’s creations with still and quiet gestation - with just a dash of primetime television after the kids retire.

The conundrum: my wife rightly wants her creative workspace clear of clutter, and I want to…well, I really just don’t want to do the dishes until right before dinner the next night (at the earliest).

Last night, and many nights prior, however, I found myself compelled the put away all leftovers and clear away the counters before leaving the kitchen. Why? Some sort of reasonable compromise, perhaps? Uh, no. Promises of even more outstanding culinary masterpieces? Ok, now you’re giving me too much credit. I like a good meal like the next guy, but my appreciative capabilities top out well before five-star dining.

No, this was psychological pressure. While reason couldn’t convert me, it turns out that a small family of mice easily defeated my will to sit and do nothing.

To a mouse, our house looks just like cheese. They are instantly attracted. Once in and
established, the mice cleverly climb up through the stove, onto the counter, and find every last crumb of leftover delights.

I’m not easily dissuaded from eating things. If it drops on the floor, I have a very generous 10-second rule: if I can pick it up within 10 seconds of first seeing it, it’s edible, regardless of whether it’s been there for a week and I haven’t seen it yet. If food in the fridge smells OK when I have a cold, it will be fine. My kids call me their garbage disposal and are well aware that any uneaten dinner will disappear forever.

But sharing my foods with rodents is not OK. Don’t they carry the plaque? Or maybe it’s something worse?

So, if I’m not 100% convinced my traps have eliminated every last one (sorry PETA), I’m cleaning the kitchen right away.

These mice are real, but I started to think they wouldn’t have to be for me succumb to the same pressure. If my wife suddenly screamed in the kitchen while making dinner, jumped onto the couch, and told me she saw a mouse on the counter, I’d be on watch from that moment on.

If the mice didn’t appear in the traps, all the better for her, I suppose. The odd success of the Predator movies is probably based on the fact that, to a man, the most dangerous enemy is the one you can’t see. Then, vigilance must be at its highest, and you may need Schwarzenegger.

So, if you want your husband to clean the kitchen right away, “see” a mouse. And guys, if your wife “sees” a mouse, double check that it wasn’t in her imagination. We’ve got our own standards to uphold!