A local doctor's book on diabetes helping

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Dr. Sarfraz Zaidi, MD is a local diabetes specialist, and has a busy practice in Thousand Oaks. These days he not only sees patients in his office but also gets calls from diabetic patients from Texas, Florida and New Zealand. Thanks to the remarkable success of his recently published book on diabetes, Take Charge of Your Diabetes. In this book, Dr.Zaidi describes a new revolutionary treatment strategy for diabetic patients. Instead of merely controlling blood glucose, which is the usual approach to the treatment of diabetes, he focuses on treating the root cause of diabetes, insulin resistance.

Dr.Zaidi implemented this new treatment strategy in his clinical practice about 10 years ago. With this new treatment strategy, his patients not only acieve a good control of their blood glucose, but they also prevent most complications of diabetes including heart attacks, strokes, blindness, leg amputations and kidney failure. Whats more impressive: they do not end up on insulin shots which unfortunately is the typical fate of a patient on the usual treatment for diabetes. Most patients who are already on insulin shots are able to come off these shots with this new treatment approach.

In this book, Dr.Zaidi describes 25 real case histories from his practice to illustrate this new treatment strategy. In the last 10 years, thousands of his diabetic patients have benefited tremendously from this new treatment strategy. And now through this book, he is reaching out to the thousands of diabetic patients around the country and around the world.

Here is an excerpt from his book, "Take Charge of Your Diabetes".

Heart Disease and Diabetes

Heart disease - the number one killer of diabetics?

Believe or not, its true. Compared to non-diabetics, patients with diabetes have a six-fold increased risk for a heart attack.

The reason for this increased risk is a phenomenon called Insulin Resistance, the root cause for Type 2 diabetes, as well as heart attacks and strokes. Thats why now we treat diabetes by treating insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance

Insulin is a chemical produced by the pancreas in our body. One of the main functions of insulin is to drive glucose from the blood into the cells, especially muscle cells, where it is used as a fuel to produce energy.

Think of insulin as the doorman who opens the door for glucose to get into the cell. In individuals prone to Type 2 diabetes, the hinges on the door of the cell are rusty. Consequently, insulin cannot easily open the doors. Now instead of one doorman, you need three or four doorman to pry the door open. This is called insulin resistance.

In response to insulin resistance, the pancreas produces more and more insulin, which keeps blood sugar normal for some time. The large amount of insulin is called Hyperinsulinemia. If insulin resistance is not treated, the pancreas eventually becomes exhausted and insulin production starts to drop. This causes blood sugar to start rising and eventually, a person becomes diabetic.

It takes about one to two decades, yes, 10 to 20 years, of insulin resistance before a person becomes diabetic. During this time, insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia causes many other changes in our body which are quite harmful.

Heart attack & stroke

For example, insulin resistance increases serum triglycerides (the fat in the blood), lowers HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) and changes LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) from type A (less dangerous) to Type B (more dangerous). Hyperinsulinemia increases blood pressure and cause narrowing of the blood vessels in these patients.

In addition, Insulin resistance makes it easier for blood to clot and impairs our bodys natural ability to break down any clots.

All of these abnormalities set the stage for a heart attack and stroke.

Treating Diabetes

Doctors involved in research for treatment of diabetes eventually realized that to effectively treat Type 2 diabetics, insulin resistance must be treated.

Thats why todays treatment for diabetes includes medications which treat insulin resistance at the three levels - the liver, muscle and fat.

Besides controlling blood glucose, these specific diabetes medications also increases HDL cholesterol and re-establishes the bodys ability to break clots and, therefore, reduce the risk for heart attack and stroke.

By reducing insulin resistance, these medications reduce the burden of excessive insulin production by the pancreas. Relieved of the stress of overproduction of insulin, the pancreas begins to work efficiently once again. As a result, patients usually do not have to resort to insulin injections.

Eating right

Diet is an extremely important and often misunderstood part of diabetic treatment. Patients with Type 2 diabetes on oral medications need to eat only three small meals a day.

No snacks. Reduce the amount of bread, pasta and rice. Avoid cereals, donuts, muffins, croissants and other bakery products. Say no to desserts and pizza. Dont drink sodas or juices as they are loaded with sugar.

Fruits are good and bad for us. They provide us with vitamins, but are loaded with natural sugar. Therefore, eat no more than one to two fresh fruit a day. Choose fruits such as apples, blueberries, strawberries, plums, apricots, peaches. Avoid fruits such as bananas, grapes and mangoes. Take a daily multivitamin to keep your vitamins optimized.

An exercise plan

Daily exercise is crucial to the proper management of diabetes. Aerobic exercise for about 30 minutes a day reduces insulin resistance and blood sugar starts decreasing. Start exercise slowly by walking for about 10 minutes. Gradually increase to brisk walking for about 30 minutes a day. Before embarking on any exercise plan, discuss it with your physician.

Manage your Stress

Stress worsens your insulin resistance thru mind body connection. Next time you are getting upset, frustrated or scared, remember you are worsening your insulin resistance and diabetes. You can reduce your stress level by simply letting go and living in the present moment.

For details on diet, exercise, stress management, vitamins and medications, refer to Dr. Zaidis book, Take Charge of Your Diabetes which can be bought at the major book stores, amazon.com or Dr.Zaidis website, www.onlinemedinfo.com

Dr.Zaidi is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA and director of the Jamila Diabetes & Endocrine Medical Center in Thousand Oaks.