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Monthly Archives: August 2016

August 9, 2016

When a patient has a sudden and continued spike in glucose levels, we often look to check their insulin levels by ordering a C-Peptide test. We know that this test measures in vivo insulin based on the measurement of C-Peptide, which is co-secreted with insulin in equimolar amounts as a consequence …

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Alternative Therapies for Type 1 Anger Me

I’ve been with many a person who has type 1, when the person is told if they would just eat, drink, or rub this potion on their body, or if they would just think a certain way, they would no longer have type 1 diabetes. When I see or hear this, I become very angry and protective. Today, a woman who has had type 1 diabetes for almost 30 years told me she went to an alternative healer for an essential oils treatment. The “healer” told her if she would rub the cinnamon oils on her ankles it would heal her diabetes. She asked me what I thought.

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International Textbook of Diabetes Mellitus, 4th Ed., Excerpt #36: Normal Beta-cell Function Part 1 of 6

Insulin is an ancient hormone; it emerged early in evolution since the most primitive forms of vertebrates (extant lamprey and hagfish) evolving from insulin-like peptide genes, which are expressed in all multicellular animals. From an evolutionary point of view insulin facilitates survival in an environment where access to nutrients is discontinuous, erratic, and difficult, requiring the function of highly specialized tissues necessary to allow movement and appropriate reactions to external stimuli (i.e., skeletal muscle and nervous system). Insulin, in the fed state is secreted to stimulate glucose and amino acids uptake allowing the build-up of depots of glycogen, proteins and lipids, which are necessary to sustain the energy requirements during successive fasting.

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August 6, 2016

This past week, one of my favorite patients came back from a visit to Mississippi and was distraught. This patient was diagnosed with diabetes 6 years ago, and after significant weight loss he had to be placed on insulin. Being one of those people who believed he could “cure” his …

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