The Vita-Nutrient Solutions Part 3

BLOOD SUGAR Imbalances: Diabetes and Hypoglycemia

I consider blood sugar imbalances to be the most important nutrition-based conditions in the Western world. Diabetes is both a major disease in its own right and a major risk factor for coronary heart disease.

The term ‘diabetes’ really applies to two very different illnesses.

• Type I is an acquired autoimmune illness in which the pancreas’s insulin-making capacity is destroyed; insulin must be provided for the victim to survive.
• Type II, the more prevalent form, is characterized by blood sugar elevations due mainly to the body’s inability to use insulin effectively (insulin resistance).

Most Type II diabetics have elevated insulin levels, and providing more insulin, a frequent medical practice, simply accelerates the cardiovascular complications. As many as 40 per cent of those who eat a Western diet have some characteristics for this condition; the most common are high insulin output, insulin resistance, tendency to gain weight and ‘hypoglycemia’, the unstable blood sugar syndrome. Many of the same nutrients can be helpful for all of these conditions. Why? Because the treatment goal is basically the same: to keep your blood sugar within normal ranges by helping the body metabolize it more effectively.

Women who need to shrink uterine fibroids, prevent breast cancer recurrences or deal with endometriosis or fibrocystic breasts should keep supplemental folic acid below 600 meg.

Niacinamide will be the most beneficial to Type I diabetics. DHEA doses should ideally be taken after testing for blood levels, and more than the recommended amount should be taken if blood levels still remain low. Calcium AEP should be taken during the early onset of Type I diabetes (usually intravenously) under a doctor’s supervision. Also, remember that with diabetes, niacin and fish oil supplements should be used only with a doctor’s guidance, as they may cause elevation of blood sugar in some diabetics. Ideally vanadium should also be used with doctor supervision.

OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY

Severe weight gain, America’s most prevalent metabolic disturbance, and an increasing problem in the United Kingdom, is actually a manifestation of insulin resistance.

NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDERS

The coming of the new millennium has fostered widespread interest in ways to improve and maintain brain function with vita-nutrients. Convincing scientific evidence has shown that nutrients are better than drugs at preserving our nerve cells. Clinical tests have also proved their inability to prevent memory loss and overcome Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or mood and psychiatric disorders. Even better, optimal nutrition can improve your memory, concentration, mood and judgment, and will promote the maximum life span of your brain and nerves.

Note: Self-prescribed doses of brain nutrients and antioxidants should never be higher than those listed here without being monitored by a doctor. Although we are dealing with the management of illnesses that are otherwise untreatable, overstimulating the brain could lead to adverse effects. If you are currently taking L-dopa alone, do not take B6 or a В-complex multivitamin that contains B( without discussing it with the doctor who signs your prescription.

Anxiety
We all know the anxiety that is precipitated by life stress and the insecurities that come with it. But, surprisingly, a significant amount of anxiety is related to diet and nutrition. Unstable blood sugary individual food intolerances and overgrowth of the yeast organism Candida albicans tend to increase one’s anxiety level.

Depression
In the treatment of depression, the major goal is to build up the neurotransmitters that keep our moods upbeat.

• One of these is serotonin, which combats our tendency to develop an agitated, anxiety-laden form of depression.
• Another is a group of adrenalinelike compounds, called ‘catecholamines’, which keep us from feeling lethargic, apathetic and depressed.

If we provide our bodies with the building blocks for these neurotransmitters, our bodies will make them, and voila – no more depression.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
If there is a single condition that is purely diet related and not recognized as such, it would be hyperactivity and decreased attention span in children. This problem has become so widespread that sales of the drug Ritalin, supposedly the cure for this disorder, seem to double every three or four years. The diet connection is usually found in the child’s inability to keep blood sugar levels stable after consuming sweets, a dietary staple of too many of our children.

Other sources include allergies to specific foods (often milk or grains) and yeast overgrowth, often the consequence of too many thoughtless antibiotic treatments for recurrent ear infections.

Headaches
As Fve mentioned, determining the cause of various illnesses is a vital part of vita-nutrient therapy. The proper treatment of a headache is to prevent it. This is accomplished by determining its cause and steering clear of it. In general, a good strategy is to check for food allergies, avoid sugar and caffeine, and eliminate the foods to which you may be allergic. You Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) If there is a single condition that is purely diet related and not recognized as such, it would be hyperactivity and decreased attention span in children. This problem has become so widespread that sales of the drug Ritalin, supposedly the cure for this disorder, seem to double every three or four years.

The diet connection is usually found in the child’s inability to keep blood sugar levels stable after consuming sweets, a dietary staple of too many of our children. Other sources include allergies to specific foods (often milk or grains) and yeast overgrowth, often the consequence of too many thoughtless antibiotic treatments for recurrent ear infections.

Note: To adjust die dosages for children, divide the child’s weight by 70 kilograms and multiply the indicated dosage range by the fraction obtained. (Example: The zinc dosage for a 35-kilogram child would be 35/70, or 50 percent, X 50-100 mg, or 25-50 mg.)

Remember though, that painful recurring headaches require medical supervision to rule out serious health problems.