Your Doctor Knows What (S)He's Doing 2

This week, we are going to look at the most common things doctors do to line their wallets and "avoid unnecessary liability risks in diagnosis and prescription of medications." Naturally, these missed diagnoses and faulty advice result in unnecessary prescriptions for people or faulty courses of "corrective action."

In other words, what the doctor says is not always accurate. 

There are two possible reasons the doctors are so inaccurate: either they are voluntarily being insidious for their own gain, or they simply do not know any better. By the way, inaccuracies also come from the nursing community: Registered Nurses and Nurse-Practitioners, as well as Physicians' Assistants will all spout the same Bovine Scatology. But why?

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. - Hanlon's razor
Or... in this case... faulty training. The paradox of why so many medical professionals stick to false knowledge is not easily explained by malice. It is easily explained by inaccurate teaching being done in medical training schools, as well as inaccurate studies being accepted as "science" by the American Medical Association.


Today's topic: DIABETES (TYPE 2)

"Recce Rifleman," you know more about diabetes than I do.
- JF (Nurse Practitioner)
- EV (Medical Doctor)

No, I did not misquote. I quoted two people as having said the exact same thing... because they did.
My dad has had Type 2 for nearly 40 years, and has suffered severe consequences over the year. My mother died in 2012 from a heart attack brought on by complications due to uncontrolled diabetes. I was diagnosed in 2011. I have a dog in this fight. I made it my purpose to learn the truth.

Truth is, most doctors really don't know much about diabetes. Even "diabetic specialists." Most cannot even agree on what blood-glucose (BG) levels constitute diabetic condition or not. Here is a good chart that seems to be about in the middle of generally accepted levels.

And here is why that HbA1c level of greater than 5.4 is not necessarily indicative of diabetes at all:

"This study, for example, shows that red blood cells live longer than average at normal blood sugars. Researchers found that the lifetime of hemoglobin cells of diabetics turned over in as few as 81 days, while they lived as long as 146 days in non-diabetics.
This proves that the assumption that everyone’s red blood cells live for three months is false, and that hemoglobin A1c can’t be relied upon as a blood sugar marker. In a person with normal blood sugar, hemoglobin will be around for a lot longer, which means it will accumulate more sugar. This will drive up the A1c test result – but it doesn’t mean that person had too much sugar in their blood. It just means their hemoglobin lived longer and thus accumulated more sugar. The result is that people with normal blood sugar often test with unexpectedly high A1c levels."

Facts about diabetes:

1. If you eat sugar, grains, and/or starchy vegetables (potato), your BG and insulin-response will be elevated for a significant period of time.
2. If you eat high protein / high fat / low carb (HFLC), your BG will not elevate as much, nor for as long a period of time. 
3. If you are dehydrated, it can elevate your BG by 30 points or more. 
4. Taking diabetic medication can increase insulin levels and/or insulin response... all that means is that you are still storing all that excess carbohydrate (sugar) as fat in your body.
5. Loss of bodyfat is directly related to insulin response. 
6. Fasting BG levels will be elevated if there is still food in your stomach, regardless of length of time. 
7. There is nothing wrong with feeling hungry for a few hours. 
8. Starvation will reduce / eliminate the symptoms of Diabetes. And this has been known for over 100 years. I am not advocating that anybody starve themselves.
9. Weight loss surgery (bariatric surgery) can reduce / eliminate the symptoms of diabetes.
10. High fruit content diets are not associated with the onset of diabetes. However, those already diagnosed with diabetes should limit fruit intake until they lose weight and get BG numbers in line. 

Some of my thoughts:
I would never take diabetic advice from a doctor who advocates eating grains. Including and especially "whole grains."
I would never take diabetic advice from a doctor who advocates against paleo/primal/HFLC/ketogenic diets.
I would never take diabetic advice from a doctor who does not advocate exercise.
I would never take diabetic advice from a doctor who does not test vitamin D levels.
I would never take diabetic advice from a doctor who considers a cholesterol level of 200 to be "high."


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