Morgan Freeman’s Diabetes
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, producer, and narrator who has Academy and Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2008, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2011, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2012, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2018. He missed part of his press tour for his upcoming TV series Special Ops: Lioness, in which he stars alongside Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman.
A “Normal” BMI Can Miss The Harmful Effects of Excess Body Fat
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a standard method for assessing body weight. BMI is calculated by dividing a person's weight by the square of his height. A study from Israel found that one third of more than 3000 normal-weight and normal-BMI individuals were still at high risk for diseases caused by obesity, such as diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and kidney damage.
High Rise in Blood Sugar After Meals Increases Risk for Dementia
High blood sugar and high blood pressure are major risk factors for dementia. A study from Johns Hopkins showed that the younger a person develops diabetes or pre-diabetes, the more likely they are to become demented. People who developed diabetes before age 60 were three times more likely to develop dementia than those who did not develop diabetes before age 60. Those who developed diabetes after age 70 were only 23 percent more likely to suffer from dementia, and those who developed diabetes in their 80s or 90s had no increased risk for developing dementia.
Fatty Liver Can Cause Diabetes, Heart Attacks and Cancers
More than 80 million North Americans suffer from a fatty liver and many do not know that they have it because most people with a fatty liver have normal liver function blood tests in the early stages of the disease. The American Association of Clinical Endocrinology, supported by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, has issued guidelines for diagnosing and treating a fatty liver.
Exercise to Help Prevent and Treat Diabetes
About 70 percent of North American adults will suffer from diabetes or prediabetes. The most common cause of diabetes is excess fat in the liver, which prevents your body from responding to insulin to cause high blood sugar levels. When you have high blood sugar, the sugar can stick to and damage the outer membranes of cells, to increase risk for heart attacks, strokes, certain cancers, and dementia.
Exercise Better Than Calorie Restriction to Control a Fatty Liver
Both exercise and calorie restriction reduced liver fat in overweight and obese adults, but only exercise had a dose-dependent effect in reducing liver fat and reducing belly fat. Storing fat in your belly is a stronger risk factor for diabetes than just being overweight, and is arguably the most common cause of Type II diabetes in North America today
Mammal Meat is Associated with Increased Risk for Diabetes
A study from Australia found that middle-aged women who ate meat daily were significantly more likely to be diabetic and have uncontrolled high levels of blood sugar than those who ate a plant-based diet with little or no red meat. The authors conclude that plant-based diets reduce diabetes risk by increasing the body’s response to insulin and reducing body fat.
Most Type II Diabetics Should Lose Weight, Even If They Are Not Overweight
Most type II diabetics are overweight, but about 15 percent are not overweight. A study presented on September 23, 2022 at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Stockholm found that 70 percent of normal-weight type II diabetics went into remission when they lost 10 percent of their body weight.
Lifestyle Changes to Prevent and Treat Diabetes
A healthful plant-based diet can help to cure Type II diabetes if you already have it, or help to protect you from developing diabetes in the first place. People who eat the healthful plant-based foods -- vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and other seeds --are far better protected than those who eat the "unhealthful" plant-derived foods, such as refined grains, fried potatoes and sugar-added foods
Sleeping with Lights on and Not Getting Enough Sleep Both Increase Risk for Diabetes
Sleeping with the lights on or a television set on for just one night raises blood sugar, heart rate and insulin resistance, all risk factors for diabetes. Five to ten percent of the light can actually get through a closed eyelid. An elevated nightly blood sugar, called the "dawn phenomenon," increases risk for heart disease and diabetes
Excess Fat in Your Liver Increases Risk for Heart Attacks, Strokes and Dementia
Having excess fat in your liver is associated with increased risk for a heart attack. A review of 36 studies on 5,802,226 middle-aged individuals with 99,668 cases of heart attacks, in a median follow-up period of 6.5 years, found that those with fatty liver disease had 1.5 times the incidence of heart attacks as the general population.
Pre-Diabetes and Diabetes Increase Heart Attack Risk
One of the definitions of "pre-diabetes" is a high rise in blood sugar after meals, and people with pre-diabetes are at significantly increased risk for suffering a heart attack or stroke.
Treating Type II Diabetes and High Blood Pressure with Diet
Type II Diabetes shortens lives by causing high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks. Diabetics in the DIRECT study in Scotland, who followed a strict 800-calorie-per-day diet and lost a lot of weight, were also able to lower their high blood pressure.
How Pre-Diabetes Increases Risk for Dementia
One of the definitions of pre-diabetes is a high rise in blood sugar after meals, and a recent study suggests that many cases of dementia are linked to these high rises in blood sugar. This study of 3889 adults found that people who suffer from loss of mental function and dementia have much higher levels of Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs) in their skin.
Meat Increases Risk for Type II Diabetes
A review of 28 studies found that risk for type II diabetes was increased by 36 percent for every 100 grams of meat from mammals or 50 grams of processed meat eaten each day. This increased risk was associated with higher blood levels of TMAO from the choline and lecithin in meat.
Prevent Diabetes with Exercise and a Plant-Based Diet
Two new studies show that you can help to prevent diabetes by following a regular exercise program and by eating a plant-based diet that avoids foods that cause a high rise in blood sugar.
Beat Diabetes By Getting Fat Out of Your Liver and Muscles
Almost 50 percent of North Americans will eventually develop diabetes or pre-diabetes, because we eat too much and exercise too little. This is sad because you can prevent and treat most cases of type II diabetes (insulin-resistant diabetes) by getting fat out of your liver and muscles, and increasing the size of your muscles with resistance exercise.
High Blood Sugar After Meals Predicts Heart Attacks
A review of 129 studies found that tests for a high rise in blood sugar after meals were better than tests of fasting blood sugar levels as a predictor of coronary heart disease, strokes, or death from any cause.
Diabetes is Often Missed
U.S. government data shows that the number of newly diagnosed diabetics dropped from 1.7 million in 2009 to 1.3 million in 2017, but huge numbers of diabetics have not been diagnosed, so they do not know that they have the disease..
Excess Fat in the Liver Causes Type II Diabetes
More than seventy percent of North Americans adults will become diabetic or prediabetic; diseases that are curable with lifestyle changes and not curable by drugs. Insulin insensitivity (failure to respond to insulin) causes the majority of all cases of type II diabetes and prediabetes.
Diabetes Caused by Both Excess Fat and Excess Sugar
Diabetes can be caused by repeatedly high levels of insulin from exposing the pancreas to too much fat. Insulin-resistant diabetes can come from eating too much fat as well as from too much sugar.
Belly Fat Predicts Fatty Liver and Diabetes
If you have excess fat in your liver, you can be at great risk for diabetes, even if you are not overweight. Most people you see with a large belly and small buttocks already have high blood sugar levels.
Fasting Blood Sugar Can Be Too Low
A low fasting blood sugar or an abnormally low HbA1C (a test of the amount of sugar stuck on cells) may increase risk for heart attacks. Researchers followed almost 5000 people for 13 years and found that having a very low fasting blood sugar (<80 mg/dL) and very low HbA1c (<5.0 percent) is strongly associated with increased risk for heart attacks and premature death.
More Vegetables, Less Diabetes
Data from nine studies of 307,099 middle-aged people followed for up to 28 years shows that those who ate lots of plant-based foods and restricted meat had a 23 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and those who ate the most vegetables had a 30 percent lower risk of developing diabetes than...
New Studies on Fatty Liver
A liver full of fat can be caused by anything that damages the liver. Doctors used to separate liver damage into that caused by alcohol and that not caused by alcohol (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD). Now we know that a liver damaged by excess alcohol has the same harmful consequences as a...
Best Diet to Prevent and Treat Diabetes
More than 30 million adults in North America suffer from diabetes and another 85 million have pre-diabetes that is likely to become full-blown diabetes within five years. Research papers published this month suggest that people who are diabetic or likely to become diabetic should eat a very large amount of plant fiber and restrict animal products, particularly red meat and processed meats.
Most Type II Diabetics Could Be Cured with Lifestyle Changes
Today, more than 29 million people in North America are diagnosed as being diabetic, another 86 million have pre-diabetes, and most diabetics have not even been diagnosed. More than 88 percent of North American adults have their blood sugar levels rise too high after they eat.
Replacing Meat with Poultry or Fish Reduces Diabetes Risk
Most people know that eating a diet that includes a lot of added sugar markedly increases risk for diabetes, but a diet that includes regular portions of red meat also increases risk for diabetes, and if you already have diabetes, it can drive blood sugar levels even higher. Insulin drives sugar into cells, and it also drives the building blocks of protein (amino acids) into cells.
Fatty Liver Disease and Diabetes
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease occurs when excess fat is stored in your liver. The most common cause of liver disease used to be alcohol, but now it is far more likely to be caused by eating sugar-added foods and drinking anything with sugar in it. Up to 12 percent of people with fatty livers keep on adding fat to their livers to develop Non-Alcoholic Steato Hepatitis (NASH), which is liver inflammation and permanent liver damage called cirrhosis and can cause liver cancer .
Inactivity Increases Risk for Diabetes
Being inactive for as little as a few days makes muscles weaker and smaller, but that is not all you lose. Two new studies show that just two weeks of decreased physical activity brings you closer to becoming diabetic by decreasing your body's response to insulin, raising blood sugar levels after meals and making you fatter.
