Soon after Manny arrived at the Clinic it became clear that he was to become one of my more entertaining patients. As we sat down in the consulting room and began to talk about his diet and chief complaints, he launched into a story about the goat he recently acquired, and kept in his backyard in Bridgeport, so that he and his family could have fresh goat’s milk every day. Manny is a well-dressed, successful businessman who is originally from the Dominican Republic. He has close-cropped grey hair and a definite twinkle in his eye. “I got this goat as part of my get-healthy plan, but he’s taking over my life. All I do is milk him, and I can’t convince my kids to help,” he chuckled. He went on to educate me on the diet and general habits of the urban goat. As we shifted off the topic of the goat, it he told me that he was seeking treatment for chronic cough and shortness of breath. He was also concerned having gained over 50 pounds over the last couple of years. He was now obese at 271 pounds. He had no significant history of illness, rode his bike every day and lifted weights.
Lab tests revealed a couple of things. First, his cholesterol was high at 223 (HDL of 38 and LDL of 165). His hemoglobin A1C—which is a blood test that essentially measures blood glucose over a period of time—was slightly elevated, indicating a pre-diabetic state. It’s important to understand a little bit how diabetes works so you can understand how we treated Manny.
Type II diabetes, or adult onset diabetes, is quite common in overweight people over the age of 40. With this disease, the body is no longer sensitive to insulin, which is a hormone produced in the pancreas and allows your body to use food as energy. Properly functioning insulin senses blood sugar in your system and transports it to cells for fuel. When your body doesn’t use insulin correctly, it can’t metabolize foods properly. Your pancreas squirts out more and more insulin, but the body still can’t use it. The sugar from food hangs around in the blood because the insulin isn’t there to take it to the cells. This is why diabetics have high blood glucose; the whole process is called insulin resistance. The more fat you have and the less active you are, the more resistant your cells become to insulin. This may all sound fairly innocuous but the complications of diabetes are not: cardiovascular disease, nerve damage, eye damage, circulatory problems, and kidney damage are just a few.
Manny’s diet didn’t fit the pre-diabetic picture. He reported breakfast as oatmeal or eggs; fish or some other protein and salad for lunch and the same for dinner; snacks were oatmeal, dried fruit, nuts or a smoothie. He talked about how much he loved cheese. I probed him a little further: just how much oatmeal is he eating each day? He sheepishly admitted that he ate two, maybe three giant bowls each day. For a Type 0, who poorly tolerate carbohydrates, this is the equivalent of blood sugar suicide. With something as seemingly innocuous as oatmeal, Manny was basically driving himself into a state of not only obesity, but also full-blown diabetes. Type O’s, whose metabolisms cannot tolerate carbohydrates, tend to crave them and become addicted. Manny reported that his best friend was able to lose weight on a diet of oatmeal and cottage cheese. Perhaps, I told him, this friend had blood Type A, which can metabolize such foods. The key here is that not all foods are good for each body type or blood type and this is where the naturopathic doctor comes in to guide the patient toward the proper choices.
For his treatment plan, we sent Manny away with a list of Type O foods that he should adhere to as closely as possible. The list focused on proteins, appropriate fats such as olive oil and avocado and limited fruits. He was not allowed any oatmeal. As exercise is imperative in blood sugar regulation, he was to stay on his workout regimen. We also gave him two D’Adamo products: Deflect and Glycosia.
Deflect is among the most integral products from D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition and for Manny, it’s an important medicine. First, let’s look at how Deflect for Type O works. As we’ve talked about in previous blogs, lectins (proteins found in food) bind with carbohydrate antigens in the gut and immune system. If you’re eating the wrong kinds of foods for your blood type, the lectins will bind to certain cells and cause a multitude of nasty effects such as intestinal dysbiosis, immune dysfunction, leaky gut, metabolic syndrome, and weight gain. For example, in Type O’s the lectins in wheat germ will bind to insulin receptors and create the same effect as insulin on fat tissue, which is to store calories as more fat. This is, in part, why Type O’s on high carbohydrate diets have a hard time losing weight. Deflect does as its name suggests: it prevents lectins from binding to cells and, therefore, prevents them from doing damage. Particularly for Manny, taking Deflect is essential because not only does it prevent lectins from binding to insulin receptors, it removes lectins that are already bound there. Remember: insulin in excess translates to fat storage and less fat burning. The less insulin being released, the better—especially in individuals with insulin resistance and obesity.
For the specs on Deflect, click on: http://www.scribd.com/doc/45153220/Glycoscia-SpecSheet
Many people ask about the flavanoid resveratrol, which is one of the latest darlings of the supplement industry. Flavanoids are the pigments that occur naturally in fruits and vegetables, and is where all of the nutritional power is in these foods. It’s been touted for a range of miseries including high cholesterol, cancer and obesity. Recent studies have shown that even in low doses, resveratrol lends cells increased insulin sensitivity, which means that cells need less insulin and respond better to it, which means better fat mobilization. This is great news for diabetics and pre-diabetics. Resveratrol is one of the primary ingredients in Glycosia, which is the second product Manny will be taking to control his blood sugar. Quercetin is another component of Glycosia—like resveratrol, a flavanoid that is especially effective in heading off the complications by protecting blood vessels and, again, regulating insulin. Glycosia also contains herbs that control blood sugar and improve insulin resistance: salvia, salacia and maitake mushroom.
For more information on Glycosia click on: http://www.scribd.com/doc/45153220/Glycoscia-SpecSheet.
A month later Manny returned for a follow-up. He was very assiduous: I’ve never seen a patient keep more voluminous and precise records of his diet and exercise. Aside from Thanksgiving, he stuck to the plan and dropped 10 pounds in a month. His blood sugar, which he monitors daily, is at the high end of normal but starting to drop. With weight loss and blood sugar control (and perhaps all things in life), it’s progress not perfection. As far as I’m concerned, that he gave up oatmeal is a minor miracle. As for the goat, at his last visit, Manny claimed he’d been too busy and hadn’t milked them in a week. I don’t know much about goats, but this didn’t seem like a great idea and, then, goat’s milk is not on the Type O list of acceptable foods. The relationship between the goat and Manny may not be long for this world.
