It's an Epidemic!...a Blood Sugar Epidemic - Part 1

If you’re one of the 1.8 billion adults in the world over 40,  your blood sugar level should be at the top of you health "to do" list!  Healthy blood sugar levels are the difference between life as you know it, and living with diabetes.

In an earlier episode, we talked about LifePharm’s product, Extrim Shape, and how it can help you manage your weight and positively impact that frustrating weight-loss plateau. In today's Part 1 episode with guest experts PROFESSOR KIMBERLY LLOYD and DR. SAMINA AHMAD, we learn all about blood sugar levels and how they effect the body.

Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon, when Kimberly and Dr. Samina return to continue the discussion and talk about a new study that focuses on LifePharm's Extrim Shape, and how this revolutionary product not only helps bust the weight-loss plateau, but can also help keep your blood-sugar levels in check.

Together, we'll build Healthy Cells, and a Healthy You!

Transcript

Janet Walker  00:07

You're waiting with great anticipation to find out what that all important test result is and what it will mean to the greater scope of the rest of your life. What is it? an SAT exam result, a pregnancy test result? Well if you're one of the 1.8 billion adults in the world over 40, that all important test result that could change the rest of your life is your blood sugar count. That's right, the difference between life as you know it, and living with diabetes. In an earlier episode, we talked about LifePharm’s product Extrim Shape, and how it can help you manage your weight and positively impact that frustrating weight loss plateau. A new study shows that Extrim Shape can also help keep those blood sugar levels in check. 

 Welcome, everyone, to Healthy Cells Healthy You. I'm your host, Janet Walker. I've been working in the health care community for 30 years and for 16 of those years, I've been a writer and producer for the award-winning national PBS Health Information Programs, American Health Journal, and Innovations in Medicine. We've interviewed thousands of doctors, scientists and researchers on every topic related to health medicine and medical technology. You can watch current episodes of Innovations in Medicine on your local PBS channel or you can stream our programs on the American Health Journal channel, the Better Health Channel, and TV Healthy Kids. This podcast is sponsored by the good folks at LifePharm Incorporated, a company whose innovative cellular repair products are backed by extensive science, research and clinical studies. As part of a special two part episode treat today I'm welcoming back Professor Kimberly Lloyd and Dr. Samina Ahmed. Both are Scientific Advisory Board members for LifePharm and experts in the area of nutrition and supplementation. In our next episode, we're going to dive into that study and talk about Extrim Shape. But today, I'd like for our listeners to learn about blood sugar levels, how they impact our health, and start to talk about the ways we can manage our blood sugar levels. Welcome back, Dr. Kimberly and Dr. Samina. Thanks so much for being here.

Samina Ahmad  02:22

Thank you for having us, Janet.

Kimberly Lloyd  02:24

Yes, it's so good to be with you again, Janet, and to discuss these topics today.

Janet Walker  02:31

So today, we're talking about something really important that affects so many lives and is one of the key benchmarks to health. And that's blood sugar. We hear so much about high blood sugar these days. Kimberly, let me start by asking, what's the main risk factor for high blood sugar? And how prevalent is it in our populations?

Kimberly Lloyd  02:53

Well, to the prevalence question, it affects 439 million adults from the ages of 20 to 79 years old. And this is close to 8% of the global population. This is a global figure in about 2019. And what causes you know, what has become this issue is kind of a modern day problem. As far as the history of medicine and high blood sugar, I know many people that over ate in the cultures in the old days, you know could have suffered, of course from high blood sugar. But today we see it as an epidemic in a lot of our societies because we have this lovely technology we have. We can eat food out in the western societies and we have stores to buy goods and fresh fruits and vegetables, hopefully. But we're also tempted by the bakery items, the pasta, the rice, and we're on the go and we don't pay as much attention when we're handling our busy lives as to what we're eating. And we make we eat two pieces of bread when we eat a sandwich, you know, or we have a serving of pasta or all those lovely sweets, pies and cakes and pastries and candies. So what we're doing is we're ingesting too much simple sugar. And this becomes a poison in a way to our body. Because our body is only regulated to handle a certain level and then when you get too much sugar it either floats around in the bloodstream or it gets stored is bad. The body's trying to do all kinds of things to help get too much sugar out of the system because it can become damaging to the blood vessel wall and such. So those are, you know, some of the issues around this.

Janet Walker  05:09

It's interesting that you that you quoted the statistics on a global scale. So I thought that high blood sugar was really a Western problem more than anywhere else. But it sounds like maybe it's just the changes that are happening. In our modern world, it sounds like people all over the world are suffering from high blood sugar issues.

Kimberly Lloyd  05:35

That's a good point to realize that yes, indeed, what's happening globally, in nutrition, and not optimal nutrition.

Janet Walker  05:45

Dr. Samina, I imagine you've seen a lot of patients that have suffered the effects of sustained high blood sugar, what happens when a person has consistently untreated high blood sugar.

Samina Ahmad  05:57

So I have to say, you know, in my practice, most of the patients I've seen have had, you know, unhealthy lifestyles. And with my experience in Ayurveda, as well, I always tell my patients that diseases are created by us, they don't just arrive. And it's usually how we handle our lives, whether it is stress management, whether it's your diet, whether you are leading a sedentary life, these are actions that you take, and then that causes us to go in different directions. And with diabetes, the two things that I've seen which really cause trouble are a sedentary lifestyle, and also eating habits which are not conducive to a healthy body. And like you and Kimberly, were discussing these issues have become global. Because guess what, now it's more like a butterfly effect of like, what happens in one place causes a stir in the other. And then we have the social media, where people will probably start following a particular diet, and then everybody will join the bandwagon without even any, you know, consideration. It's like, okay, they're doing it, my friends doing it, let me do it, too. And then, you know, that's where, without realizing, you start developing certain issues, and many people I feel are not even aware of the symptoms, you see, how does something go out of control, if you don't check it, so many people don't get their annual checkups done. And they might have all the symptoms, like having excessive urination, or eating too much food.  When there is unawareness, the problems persist, and I feel people need to become more aware. And I'm really excited about your podcast, because I feel it's giving me a platform, me and Kimberly a platform to increase that awareness, you know, which people need to have, when you do not take care of the problem, especially blood sugar, that means there's a lot of glucose circulating in the body, which is not being properly utilized by the cells, it starts damaging capillaries, the small blood vessels, the large blood vessels, now, when smaller blood vessels are going to be continuously again, you know, getting stressed out and have the brunt of this high blood sugar what will happen I side can you know get affected people go blind, the vision problems are there, kidneys are the you know, that's an organ that really takes the brunt of it. And I have seen people having skin issues as well. But when the bigger size blood vessels get, you know, affected because of the sustained blood sugar that nobody's taking into consideration or doing anything about, then people can suffer cardiac problems. They can be heart attacks, they can be strokes, they can be, you know, affected, the blood circulation gets affected, and people have a problem with healing. The wounds are not healing. And I think those are all the different things that we need to be aware of. If you start seeing those things in your body, you start feeling that way you need to get tested.

Janet Walker  09:23

That's interesting. Kimberly, I want to ask a question that is not on our list. But something I just thought about after what Samina just mentioned, all of these issues that you mentioned that arise from high blood sugar. When Kimberly and I were talking about the immune system, it seems like they were a lot of the same issues due to you know, inflammation. Is there a link between inflammation and the immune system and high blood sugar? 

Kimberly Lloyd  09:53

Well, that's, you know, a very good point. And you know, as we studied the biochemistry of everything, it's all More and more are linked together. You know, it's like a big Symphony your body. But if you're going to do a symphony, you need an orchestra that can play every instrument. And every note, you know, has been previously written into the music. So you, but it all has to blend together. So one chemical over maybe functioning in the brain doing a similar function is is doing in the bone cells. You have chemicals that criss cross and insulin is one of them. Insulin does not just affect the door that lets in the sugar to the cell, and is also involved in other hormonal type regulatory reactions. So there is a link in what you're talking about.

Janet Walker  10:58

Interesting. And by the way, Dr. Samina, thank you so much for the shout out on the podcast. I feel the same way about bringing this information to people and people are very receptive. We now have over 1000 listeners to the podcast just since we launched in January. Yeah. So it's, it's really striking a chord with listeners that's making me really happy.

Samina Ahmad  11:21

That's amazing. Congratulations. 

Janet Walker  11:24

Well, thank you. It's all due to these wonderful guests I have. So thank you so much. Alright, so let's get back here. Now, in talking about diabetes, and I'm guessing that diabetes is really one of the major problems that arise from high blood sugar. Are there other problems outside of diabetes that we have to worry about with high blood sugar? Those issues that you were just talking about with the, with the eyes and the skin and the kidneys? Is that specific to diabetes? or can that be even outside of a person develop developing diabetes?

Samina Ahmad  12:05

So those particular things I mentioned, and those organs are definitely connected to diabetes, because we were, you know, when we were medical students, and we were studying about these diseases and everything, you know, we're always taught what are the complications of a particular disease, you know, you study the pathology, but you always want to know, what will happen if things go wrong. And these complications are when it's untreated. And like I mentioned, the organs which are mostly affected are the eyes, the kidneys, the skin, the heart. And, you know, I remember, we know many diabetic patients, Janet, where, you know, because the nerves are the different connection between the brain and the nerves is disturbed. People stop feeling sensations, and a lot of times they can't feel their feet, and they will bump into different objects, and then realize, Oh, my God, I have this big sore, you know, toe, or I have this big bruise on my foot what happened? So you have to teach them how to take care of their feet, then they have to wear special shoes, but a lot of times diabetes, that the diagnosis of this disease would be accidental. Somebody can come over to the emergency or come into outpatient department showing a Carbuncle a big boil on the back of their body and say, Doctor, look what I have. It's a skin eruption. And if you know, you know, medicine, you know, what you dealing with, you say, hey, wait a second, have you gotten your sugar checked? And then you find out that this person has high sugar levels, when you do their blood testing, and this is not healing, and it's caused all these carbuncles on the skin. And sometimes I've had patients who come up and say, Doctor, whenever I get a rule, or any trauma or anything like that, it doesn't heal so quickly. What is that about? Right? And eyesight I think I saw so many like connections with high blood sugar and, you know, the vision deteriorating, or blindness and blindness, why blindness, it doesn't have to have to go that direction. Because then if you take early, you know, decisions and you take those actions and find out what you're having a new control it, you don't have to become blind. And I'll never forget the story of this lady who had discoloration of her toes, two or three of them, and she just thought it's nothing. It's just like She hurt herself, or she banged her foot against something and never took care of it. Guess what, it was gangrene. They had to amputate her toes. I have had people who've had to amputate their feet because they didn't take care Proper care of diabetes we have right now enough, you know, counseling enough knowledge to tell people that they don't have to lose a limb, because they didn't know they got this disease.

Janet Walker  15:12

You talked about the importance of early intervention. What about someone who already has high blood sugar? Can they control that and not only prevent some of these things from happening, but actually reverse some of the effects of high blood sugar.

Samina Ahmad  15:29

So here, Janet, I'll have to talk about something which many people don't know, the do different types of diabetes, there's a type one, and there's a type two. And if you don't know which one you have, you don't really know what to do. So a very simply, I don't want to make it complicated. But I want to tell people that the first type has a hereditary or genetic component to it. So what is happening in type one, this is a disease where the immune system of a person has gone haywire. And they are attacking, it's like an autoimmune condition happening in the body with it's attacking the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Now, pancreas is the organ which produces insulin, like Kimberly was mentioning, insulin is so important, it's a hormone, which we need, because it's going to make the glucose in the blood go into the cells, we cannot have excessive glucose in the blood vessels, it needs to be transported to the cell. And that's what insulin does. Now, the people who have type one diabetes, unfortunately, what happens is that their immune system has destroyed the factory where insulin is being produced in the pancreas, so they don't have insulin. So what you can imagine what will happen in their body, they will eat carbohydrate based, let's say they eat a bagel or they'll eat something which has carbs in it, now body will digest that food, and it will get converted to glucose, we all know that carbohydrates will get converted to glucose, it will go in the bloodstream, now it's roaming around, and nothing is being taken back to the cell, this glucose cannot make it to the cell to give energy to that cell. So what will happen is, they will be excessive blood, literally, like sugar levels going high. Glucose is sugar, when that happens, this person will want to, you know, basically, they can't get rid of it because the insulin is not there. So they will be the body will try to get it out of the body by excessive being. So you go run to the bathroom a lot. And that is a symptom, you'll feel Hey, I'm  just paying too much all the time. Now what happens when we pay too much, we lose water from our body. So this person will also feel like drinking a lot of water. When you have excessive thirst, because you've been paying too much, you will be drinking a lot of water, which is called poly dipsea. So we have three P's. And you know, whenever I tried to explain diabetes to people, I said, Remember the three P's, poly dipsea, excessive thirst polyurea, going to the bathroom a lot, you know being a lot, and then polyphase you're eating a lot of food, you become very hungry. So these are the symptoms that will happen. And this is type one, what was what is the treatment, they need to take insulin injections, you have to literally give them insulin because they're not producing it.

Janet Walker  18:40

Before you go on to type two. Let me ask this. Now, type one diabetes oftentimes starts in childhood. Yes, I actually have several friends who had children, healthy, slender, active children who are diagnosed at a very, very young age with type one diabetes. So the things that parents should be looking out for are the three things that you just mentioned excessive thirst, excessive peeing and excessive hunger is that right

 Samina Ahmad  19:13

now interestingly, you are totally correct Janet, but excessive hunger. But when this child is eating food, guess what? The child is still feeling fatigued and tired. You know why? Because the glucose was not metabolized. The glucose never made it to the cells to give them energy. So there's no fuel you know, the basically we run on sugar, we do need sugar, the body needs glucose to do all the processes the the systems in the body need sugar cells need sugar. When the cells are not getting sugar, this child will feel very tired and lethargic and fatigued. So these are the things they need to look out for.

Janet Walker  19:54

Okay, so now going on to type two diabetes, diabetes, tell us about type two diabetes.

Samina Ahmad  19:59

So type two Diabetes. Genet is a metabolic disorder. And what happens here is, we are going to eat a bagel, or we're going to have our carb, it's going to get digested, it gets all broken up and everything. And pancreas, you know, gets that message. Glucose is in the bloodstream, come on, produce the insulin. So insulin comes out of the pancreas into the bloodstream, and now wants to take it to the cell. But guess what, the cell has become stubborn. We call this insulin resistance. Now the cell decides I'm not going to open the door. Sorry, no entry. So in spite of the fact that insulin is being produced by the pancreas, it's not making it to the cell. So we still have that's called type two. And what are the reasons you get type two diabetes, we right now feel it's related to a lifestyle. So if you have a sedentary lifestyle, you put on too much weight, you are eating too much food more than what your body needs, you are basically overweight. And so these are things you can prevent. So I feel with type one, you don't have a chance you're born with it. But with type two, at least you can modify your lifestyle and try to, you know, stay steady, stable, do not let that sugar GWA.

Janet Walker  21:30

Do younger people have to be concerned about high blood sugar? Or is it mostly older people that suffer the effects of high blood sugar?

Samina Ahmad  21:40

Here, I think I would have to say that every person is going to suffer from the brunt of high sugar levels, you can see childhood obesity. You know, right now we see children who are obese, there was a time when we didn't do that. And I remember, Asian children were pretty sleek. But of course, all these fast food restaurants have made it all everywhere globally. And kids don't have a lot of tolerance of waiting for food to appear on their plates. They like to do the very quick stuff. And now Janet, you know that you have these cell phones, with these apps, where most of the food that I just feel a step from my iron Vedic training, that diet plays a huge role in controlling diabetes, and making a stabilized sugar, I will have to put that on the top of my list. And I know that younger generation is not really following the correct diet patterns. So I would have to say that we cannot exclude that total population and say, You guys are going to be fine. Don't worry about it, eat whatever you want, when what happens is they do have that little advantage of a younger age, healthier body, and also a faster metabolism, which might delay the final outcome. But don't think it's not going to happen. The freight train is out there. And we need to encourage our children to actually try to maintain good sugar levels by following some additional strategies. You know, like, I'd really tell people please stay hydrated, drink a lot of water, especially clear liquid, not the sodas and all those beverages. And try not to skip meals, reduce your stress, try to maintain moderate body weight do not go into these exercises, patterns of like excessive weight loss or, you know, no weight loss, you need to eat smaller portions every day. Specially people who have high blood sugar, they need to because what happens is they finish up with the, you know, they get hungry very quickly. They need to eat smaller meals, and they can't skip meals. But all generations need to be warned right now through your podcast. You are all very prone and you can get it and some people who have a genetic predisposition. Like if my mother or father had it, I am going to be on that list. That will be my risk factor for sure. Because my parents are my family members have it.

Janet Walker  24:20

Kimberly, I know that you follow the statistics. Can you tell us a little bit more about diabetes and

Kimberly Lloyd  24:27

aging? Well, yes. So diabetes type two that Dr. Samina was telling us about is very prevalent as people get older. There's 136 million people that are aged 65 to 99 years in 2019. And this is accounting for about 19% of the elderly population,

Janet Walker  24:55

or 20% of the elderly population. In the world has diabetes. That is, that's a surprisingly high number.

Kimberly Lloyd  25:06

Yes, and the reason this happens, Janet is because as we age, all of our cells in all of our tissues and organs, you know, replenish our organs, whether it's in three months for, say, red blood cells, or six years for, say, a bone to totally read, make itself. So we are in constant rotation of, you know, creating our body structure again, and we depend on the cells that came before. So in this, my we call it mitosis, the cells make baby cells to replenish the mother cell, which will die off. And so the organ stays in, you know, stays effective and stays functional. But as we age, that cell division process does not occur nearly as well as when we're 20, or child. So this is the process of aging, you know, very much research is focused on what happens chemically and biochemically to the organs as we age. And, you know, this is basically pretty much standard now in this educational community. So if we can revert and make cells healthier, then, and they reproduce the next generation that doesn't have so much DNA damage, it will be out their cell, we see this in some organs can you know, go back and become healthy again. So the pancreas itself this little organ that secretes the insulin and secretes all the digestive enzymes, it gets less dense and it's less productive. And so it has trouble making insulin even for a person who is very eating fairly well. The pancreas is beginning to deteriorate not function. So well, just like the bones are getting weaker when we age, the skin is getting saggy so we have the aging effects. So that's why diabetes type two is also abundant in the aging population. And the good news though is that we can do something about it. There are effective herbs and there are ways to manipulate the chemistry of our body with nutritional supplements and particular plant compounds that can help us balance this back out. And they're being investigated and being looked at seriously so if you could do something simple, you know as well as we want to also be sure and address or Dr. Simeon and we'll address it that we do. Whenever we talk about blood sugar, you know, you need to always be monitored by your physician. Everyone like Dr. Samina was suggesting if you have any of those symptoms, or that's type one, but also type two is similar that you and when you get older 50 Plus you should be having your blood sugar checked. Because you want to know and those are treated by medical pharmaceuticals because you do not want a dangerous situation to be occurring. Then, with selected formulas, you can actually make some effectual change in how your body chemistry is working.

Janet Walker  29:03

Kimberly, thank you for that recommendation for people to get regular health checkups and check their blood sugar. It is so important. And thank you both for being here Professor Kimberly and Dr. Samina we're out of time for today but I appreciate so much that you're both here to educate us about high blood sugar, diabetes and strategies that can help curb this blood sugar epidemic listeners please stay tuned. I'll be continuing my discussion with Kimberly and Dr. Samina in part two of this very important high blood sugar topic soon. And the best is yet to come because as promised, we're going to talk about a promising study on the supplement extreme shape a product that can help you keep your blood sugar levels in check. Thank you so much for listening to the healthy cells healthy you podcast with me, Janet Walker, and thank you to our sponsor LifePharm farm Incorporated, a company dedicated to finding high quality Whole Foods ingredients and making supplements for healthy living and cellular repair. You can find us on Apple podcasts I Heart Radio, Spotify, Google podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. subscribe and tell your friends and together we'll build healthy cells and a healthy you.