How many times must I post this same story?
Dr. Barrie Weinstein at Mt. Sinai Diabetes Center
This is the 17th time. The folks at the American Diabetes Association still do not seem to know that type 2 diabetes can be easily reversed in 95% of the victims—with nothing more than a simple diet change. But then, what would people like Dr. Barrie Weinstein do for a living? From the New York Daily News on 11-21-12:
An instructor of medicine in the division of endocrinology diabetes and bone disease at Mount Sinai, Dr. Barrie Weinstein specializes in the treatment of diabetes and its complications, as well as general endocrinology. Over 60% of the patients she treats at the Mount Sinai Diabetes Center have type 2 diabetes.
“Thanks to medical advances and our improved understanding of the disease, it’s now possible for most diabetic patients to manage their disease through lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, and by taking medication, if necessary,” says Weinstein.
In her defense, it’s not Dr. Weinstein’s fault. She works in a system that manages disease instead of promoting health. But someday that is going to change—it is inevitable. So, what should you do NOW if you would prefer to GET RID of your type 2 diabetes instead of “managing” it?
Dr. Neal Barnard
Dr. Neal Barnard is your answer. This past week, on 11-20-12, I had the privilege to visit with Neal in his office at the PCRM in Washington D.C. The PCRM is Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, that he founded in 1985.
This special doctor has already made a huge difference for the rest of us in his career—and is best-known for his work in reversing type 2 diabetes with a whole foods, plant-based diet.
Like other enlightened medical doctors, he has proven that that all-too-common disease is entirely reversible—most of the time. So, why is this powerful fact not better known—especially among physicians? Why is this not on the evening news? Not because Dr. Barnard hasn’t done his best to publicize the simple, plant-based cure.
Dr. Neal Barnard wrote an entire book about reversing diabetes—and it’s nothing new.
Most medical doctors have not read his book that was devoted entirely to this topic. Apparently, one of those MDs still in the dark is Dr. Weinstein; from the article, explaining that most doctors don’t understand the cause of diabetes:
While doctors haven’t pinpointed the exact cause of diabetes, it appears to be due to a combination of genetics, lifestyle and environmental factors. “Groups considered at elevated risk are those who are over the age of 45, are overweight and sedentary, or who have a family history of diabetes, high fasting glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol,” says Weinstein.
Dr. Barnard is still trying to spread the word about reversing diabetes, but as he told me last week in his office, his new passion is better understanding Alzheimer’s and teaching people how to prevent it with a near-optimal diet. Apparently, there is a relationship between diabetes and Alzheimer’s. On that topic, check out this earlier blog: Connecting the dots: FOOD . obesity . diabetes . Alzheimer’s!
The Bottom Line. Would you like to help end our nation’s diabetes epidemic? Then send this blog to everyone you know that has diabetes. If they read this blog and the other seven listed below, they should have a pretty good idea what to do.
And if they don’t want to make dietary changes themselves, maybe they should think about the children—two of the last three blogs listed below. Click here to purchase Barnard’s Reversing Diabetes book on Amazon. —My 662nd consecutive daily blog—
- Source article. Type 2 diabetes can be controlled with careful monitoring
- Diabetes. Oklahoma rate up 227% in just fifteen years
- For your friends and family with type 2 diabetes
- Geneticist’s Research Finds His Own Diabetes
- Teenage diabetes rate triples in less than ten years
- Children—Rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes are soaring
- Got Type 2 Diabetes? “Get rid of it,” says Dr. Ornish
Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com
- The movie that’s changing the lives of millions: Forks Over Knives DVD
- Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
- An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell
- Dr. McDougall’s new book, The Starch Solution, with lots of great recipes.
Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com
International. We’re now reaching people in over 100 countries. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or get daily blog notices by “following” us in the top of the right-hand column. For occasional updates, join our periodic mailing list.
To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now
J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.
For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.
Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.
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Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.
—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation
J. Morris Hicks, engineer. writer. big picture guy. 
They are not listening here, either! From this morning’s paper.
—> Let us look at the pros and cons, especially when optimal nutrition cures!
:::::: ARTICLE LINK:
Dignity Health opens weight loss surgery center
http://santamariatimes.com/news/local/dignity-health-opens-weight-loss-surgery-center/article_
5d51682a-3929-11e2-a8e5-0019bb2963f4.html
Dr. David Maccabee performs surgery Tuesday at Marian Regional Medical Center. Maccabee is heading up the new Weight Loss Surgery Institute of the Central Coast.
More than 149 million American adults are overweight or obese, according to a 2012 study by the American Heart Association. Of that number, approximately half are obese or morbidly obese. Among American men 20 and older, 32 percent of whites, 37 percent of African Americans and 31 percent of Hispanics are obese.
A Santa Barbara County, CA, survey in 2009 showed more than half of adults (54.3 percent) and one-third of teens (34.4 percent) were overweight or obese. Those numbers jump to 73 percent of Latino adults.
With numbers like those — most of them on the rise — and the closest bariatric surgery centers in Bakersfield and Fresno, Dignity Health has opened the Weight Loss Surgery Institute of the Central Coast.
. . . . . . Etc. . . .
::::::
I Goggled “Pros And Cons Of Bariatric Surgery”
Here is one link:
http://www.allaboutlifechallenges.org/pros-and-cons-ofgastric-bypass-surgery-faq.htm
What are the pros and cons of gastric bypass surgery?
As with any major life changing surgery there are many pros and cons and all should be thoroughly explored and discussed with your doctor and family before undergoing the procedure. None of these are an absolute. They may or may not happen —
both pro and con. Be prepared for these possibilities.
– – – – – – – –
Cons:
Urinary Tract Infection
Bowel Obstruction
Obstruction of the stomach outlet: the outlet post surgery is about the size of the tip of your pinky finger. You have to
learn to chew everything you swallow to be less than that! You will not have stomach acid in the pouch; consequently, if
you swallow anything bigger it’s stuck.
Chronic nutritional problems
Protein deficiency
Vitamin deficiency
Mineral deficiency
Nausea
Food Intolerances such as: Sugar, Milk and Milk Sugar, and Red Meats.
Changed Bowel Habits
Transient Hair Loss: During the rapid weight loss following the surgery you will probably lose much of your hair. It will
grow back. My doctor told me to invest in some nice hats for the duration.
Loss of muscle mass
– – – – – – – –
Pros:
Loss of high blood pressure: 70% of patients are able to go off all blood pressure medications post-op.
Loss of high blood cholesterol: 80% of patients develop normal cholesterol levels within 2-3 months after surgery.
Reduced risk of heart disease
Increased probability of reducing all need for medication in a diagnosed Type II Diabetes patient.
Reversal of borderline diabetes
Reduced asthma attacks, and in some cases a total discontinuation.
Reduced Respiratory Insufficiency: Many patients find that within just months of the surgery they have almost no respiratory problems at all and can participate in normal activities they have missed out on for years.
Relief of Sleep Apnea Syndrome
Relief from Acid Reflux Disease
==================================
I ADDED THIS AT THE END OF MY “COMMENT” —
Learn to lose the weight via changing your foods to “PLANT-BASED, WHOLE FOODS DIET” per http://drmcdougall.com — get his new book: “The Starch Solution” — and per Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s “Eat to Live” book, revised recently.
This is not Rocket Science! You can cure most chronic diseases — that are “Food-Borne illnesses” such as Type 2 Diabetes and high blood pressure.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/simply_raw_reversing_diabetes_in_30_days/
We have conducted five “grassroots” ~ 10-sessions “Healthy Lifestyle Education & Support Program” over the last 6 years and people get well and are not hungry. Some of my ed. files are at http://chinaoneorcutt.com
Change your diet way before you consider such drastic surgeries!!
Yesterday I got tied up for 20 min on the phone with a registered nurse – this is a nurse that our health insurance provides to call and check how my husband –who was pre-diabetic – is doing. very frustrating call. she kept trying to tell me starches are not good for
people who are trying to reverse diabetes. I told her we do not eat refined starch or carbs that are refined or simple carbs like cornflakes or donuts. I said we eat whole unprocessed starches like oatmeal, beans, brown rice, corn and potatoes with no butter fat or cheese on the potatoes. she is supposed to be helping people with diabetes and yet she had never heard of dr john mc dougall or the starch based diet. i said dr mc dougall is an internist who has written books and been practicing medicine for over 30 years. he gets hundreds of diabetics off insulin & reverses heart disease with his starch based diet plan.
I said we both follow an unrefined, unprocessed, high carbohydrate, lower fat, very high fiber, and plant based diet & we have much better health. I said our diet is based on fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, “intact” whole grains, starchy vegetables and legumes. It is not only very healthy; it is also very effective for weight loss/management, diabetes and heart disease. It is low in calorie density so if you eat this way you can fill up without overeating and not worry about being hungry. In addition, it is very high in nutrient density, so you will be optimizing your nutrient intake at the same time. I don’t need to worry about weight like my husband does so I can eat more nuts, bread, pasta and avocados than he can. I told her my husband lost 40 pounds, got his blood sugars controlled and has a 145 cholesterol and is off statin drugs and BP meds. She almost did not know what to say.
I can only imagine your frustration at the end of the conversation. My suggestion – give her a copy of either Dr. Neal Barnard’s book, “Prevent and Reverse Diabetes”, or Dr. McDougall’s, “Starch Solution”. I wonder if she’d read either. Tragic, isn’t it? We’re all like sheep being led to the slaughter by the misinformed and highly educated ‘uneducated’!
In answer to your question “what would people like Dr Barrie Weinstein do for a living?” I would like to refurbish and recycle my comment on “Doctor Shortage” post in Aug. She could hone her diagnostic skills and get to work on the millions of people who have no satisfactory diagnosis yet.
I’ve been there myself, know others who have too, and have heard of many, many more. So I don’t
want doctors to worry, between residuals and that huge backlog, they’re going to be busy for decades, even if everyone went plant-based this afternoon! And its early days yet.
Thanks again for the very steady supply of interesting and informative articles. ab
I am extremely grateful for my personal physician on Cape Cod who practices lifestyle medicine. He’s part of the largest internal medical practice on the Cape – Emerald Physicians – and with its 11 offices, each staff member of this unique practice is making an impact on the entire Cape community. My doctor often lectures – gratis – on Saturdays, and spreads the message about the healing benefits of plant based foods. He is whole foods,plant based, a physician who walks the talk! Imagine that!!! Every year the practice sponsors a VivaPalooza Health Fest with speakers, vendors, food, etc. In 2008 Dr. Esselstyn was the Health Fest’s keynote speaker.
Still, there are those physicians, down the street, who continue to practice medicine in the dark. A friend who was eating ‘healthy’ for a few months went to his physician on the Cape, and the doctor wanted to know what lifestyle changes he made since his BP and cholesterol were remarkably lower. This elder friend responded that he was eating ‘vegan’. His doctor, reportedly, was aghast and told him not to indulge in that; that ‘those people’ are sickly. Well, you can imagine the rest of the story.
Our friend returned home, told his honey that he was no longer going to eat ‘twigs and nuts’, and that he wanted a steak. Can you guess how his health is today?
This should be a paradigm shift that sweeps across the country like the Santa Ana winds. It’s blowing, not gale force, as yet, but change is happening. With physicians like those in our family (you know who they are), word is spreading.
So, Jim, you are a light in this crusade. Bless you for your fortitude, faith, tenacity, and truth telling. Keep it up. You are appreciated!
I gave my brother, who suffers from type-2 diabetes, a copy of Dr. Barnard’s book last summer. My follow up question was:
“Have you read Barnard’s book?”
“No. I know how to cure type-2 diabetes.”
“Do you still have diabetes?”
“Yes.” Plus a host of other issues such as heart bypass surgery three years ago, urinary tract infection number fifty-four and eight medications with their own competing complications.
I understand Weinstein’s desire to preserve her work because “managing” has a whole lot more job security than does “cure,” but my brother is a retired orthopedic surgeon, who reads the BMJ regularly and notes increasing reference to the impact of diet on disease.
You really have to wonder about how effective our doctors are at keeping us healthy.