Notes on "The Park Avenue Diet Show: Diabetes Mellitus"; November 7, 2010

Diabetes Mellitus has been recognized throughout virtually all of recorded history. Scholars and physicians from ancient Greece, Rome, India, Japan, and China had their own names for the disease, explanations of its causes, and ineffective remedies.

Diabetes has had a tumultuous history even within the past forty years. I was taught about Adult Onset Diabetes Mellitus in medical school. This term no longer exists since the exact same problem occurs now in teenagers and young adults.

Even the more scientific-sounding term "non-insulin dependent diabetes" which replaced AODM is somewhat misleading. It is now thought that virtually 100% of diabetics will eventually need injections of this pancreatic hormone. Strictly speaking, NIDDM means that a given patient will not develop ketoacidosis within 48 hours if he or she does not take insulin.

"Juvenile diabetes", another antiquated term is an auto-immune disease that results in total and permanent absence of insulin. People with NIDDM may be taking insulin every day, but they will not die suddenly without it.

Most people who have diabetes in 2010 have the more "benign" form. And 95 or more percent of these individuals have overweight or obesity provoking or complicating this disease. As modern medical research shows, diabetes actually exists in a hidden form in these individuals for up to ten years before a blood sugar rise is noted by the patient or a physician.

I'm sure you would not like to have the flu for ten years in a hidden form before you start coughing and sneezing and realizing you are sick. Diabetes is hundreds of times worse than that and potentially debilitating or fatal.

While it is true that modern pharmaceuticals can immediately correct blood sugar abnormalities, they have little effect on pancreatic exhaustion and death of the beta cells of the Islets of Langerhans where insulin is produced. Simply put if you are a diabetic who has not corrected their diet or achieved a normal weight, your diabetes will worsen with the years, requiring even more medicine, repeated doctor visits, and protection against numerous emergencies.

The next time you go to the supermarket, take a peek at some of those diabetic cookbooks or magazines. They feature lascivious pictures of chocolate cake, creme brulee, brownies, cupcakes, cheesecake, etc. If you were a recovering alcoholic, would you want the newsletter for Alcoholics Anonymous to be strewn with ads for vodka, beer, or wine? If you are a member of PETA and idealistically are committed to protecting all living creatures, what would you think if the PETA journals featured pictures of shotguns, bows and arrows, or animal traps? This is how I view those horrid magazines that tempt diabetics with seemingly forbidden pleasures.

Diabetes is not an incurable illness like pancreatic cancer. Its prevalence reflects the prevalence of obesity, which is most certainly a self-inflicted wound. While obesity does not strike many as inherently unhealthy, diabetes has frightened scholars and physicians for over 2000 years. In an era where we are reminded often to treat "root causes", please consider diabetes a "clear and present danger", and do your best to erase it from your life.