In a recent study, men and women who consumed one or more sugar-sweetened sodas per day were 16 percent more likely to have a stroke over a 20- to 30-year period, compared with those who drank no soda. The results held even after the researchers took into account factors that could affect stroke risk, such as participants’ body mass indexes (BMIs) and total calorie intake. The study also found that substituting certain beverages for soda, could reduce stroke risk. You might just get used to drinking clean water with and between your meals. Check out the site discussing structured water “The Single Most Important Element for Your Health.”
Just one sugary beverage daily increases your risk of death from cardiac events. Check out the article by Daniel Becker, “Suppress Deadly After-Meal Blood Sugar Surges – Life Extension” and “Glucose: The Silent Killer – Life Extension,” by Daniel Becker. Also see, “Diet Soda May Increase Your Risk of Stroke by 50 Percent – Mercola,” and the WebMD article, “1 Sugary Drink a Day May Raise Heart Risk.
Dr. Gerald Pollack is one of the few expert researchers in the area of water and what it means to your health. He’s a professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington, whose theory of water is nothing short of ground-breaking. You also can check out the book, Cells, Gels, and the Engines of Life, which discusses the role of water in cell biology. Water is absolutely central. Check out the YouTube talk on how water in your cells impacts your health and life, “Structured Water by Dr. Mercola & Dr. Pollack.”
If you picture each of your cells as a matrix of proteins, like a grid made up of proteins and nucleic acids, the spaces in between those grids are filled with water, the article on water reports. This means there are a lot of surfaces that interact with water and impact its structure. Your cells consist mainly of this interfacial, or structured/ordered water, making it essential to understand this water in order to understand the workings of the cell. The video explains more about the health benefits of drinking clean, structured water.
When cells lose their sensitivity to insulin
When cells lose their sensitivity to insulin, glucose levels increase because it is not able to be utilized … diseases and possibly slow their rate of aging by tightly controlling blood glucose levels, reports the Life Extension Magazien article. Statistics mentioned report that in the USA, in addition to the 26 million Americans with diabetes, the Centers for Disease Control estimate that more than a third of the general population is now pre-diabetic. If high blood sugar levels are preventable, physicians also need to test for high insulin spikes after eating which can show up even when the fasting blood glucose levels are normal.
Normal fasting blood sugar levels shouldn’t get much over 85mg/dL. But it’s the insulin surges and spikes after eating that aren’t tested that are just as important. Blood sugar levels shouldn’t be surging over 140 after eating, which are then followed by too much insulin coming into the blood. See, “Sugary drinks may explain 180 000 deaths worldwide each year.” It’s not just the sugar or the artificial sweetener. It’s how your body reacts when it ‘thinks’ you’ve consumed something sweet. Your body may be acting as if the sweet taste itself is prompting it to react as though you’ve consumed a sugary snack, meal, or beverage.
When the insulin isn’t controlling the high blood sugar levels after meals, it’s resistant. So more and more insulin pours into the bloodstream aging out the arteries and organs before their time. It’s just the tip of the iceberg that can be preventing by a healthier diet. Too many HMOs and physicians still think readings up to 99mg/dL are ‘safe’ or normal. See, “Ask an Expert: Study links sugary drinks and heart risks – Providence,” or the Live Science article, “Soda Consumption Increases Stroke Risk | LiveScience.”
The problem is those fter-meal glucose “spikes” inflict silent damage to cells via multiple mechanisms and have been linked to cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, kidney failure, and retinal damage.
With many doctors, patients aren’t considered diabetic unless their fasting blood glucose is higher than 125 mg/dL. The range from 100-125 mg/dL is considered “pre-diabetic,” while anything lower is defined as normal. Optimal fasting glucose should be within the range of 70-85 mg/dL. A growing body of evidence reported in the Life Extension magazine article, “Suppress Deadly After-Meal Blood Sugar Surges – Life Extension” shows that tissue damage and disease risk increase when fasting blood glucose levels are above 85 mg/dL.
- Cancer4,20-29
- Cardiovascular disease5,9-15,17,30,31
- Alzheimer’s disease17,32,33
- Kidney disease8,34
- Pancreatic dysfunction35
- Diabetic retinopathy (which can lead to blindness)6,36
- Neuropathy (nerve pain and dysfunction)37,38
One team of researchers found that the risk of developing diabetes itself was increased more than seven-fold in people with fasting glucose levels of 105-109 mg/dL, compared with people with fasting glucose levels less than 85 mg/dL.19. That study concluded, according to the abstract that subjects with 100-109 mg/dL FPG have an appreciable risk of diabetes that cannot be considered as ‘normal’ and should be notified of their potential risk of developing diabetes.
For more information on the study, check out the study or its abstract, “Fasting plasma glucose and incidence of diabetes—implication for the threshold for impaired fasting glucose: results from the population-based Omiya MA cohort study.” Authors are Kato M, Noda M, Suga H, Matsumoto M, and Kanazawa Y. The study is published in the J Atheroscler Thromb. 2009;16(6):857-61. Epub 2009 Dec 22. Also see the January 26, 2011 news release on a CDC study, “Number of Americans with Diabetes Rises to Nearly 26 Million: More than a third of adults estimated to have prediabetes.”
Nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
In addition, an estimated 79 million U.S. adults have prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Prediabetes raises a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Diabetes affects 8.3 percent of Americans of all ages, and 11.3 percent of adults aged 20 and older, according to the National Diabetes Fact Sheet for 2011. About 27 percent of those with diabetes—7 million Americans—do not know they have the disease. Prediabetes affects 35 percent of adults aged 20 and older.
“These distressing numbers show how important it is to prevent type 2 diabetes and to help those who have diabetes manage the disease to prevent serious complications such as kidney failure and blindness,” said Ann Albright, Ph.D, R.D., director of CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation, in the CDC news release, Number of Americans with Diabetes Rises to Nearly 26 Million: More than a third of adults estimated to have prediabetes. “We know that a structured lifestyle program that includes losing weight and increasing physical activity can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes.”
CDC is working on the National Diabetes Prevention Program, as stated in the Affordable Care Act
This program, based on the NIH-led Diabetes Prevention Program research study, is aimed at helping people reduce their risk for developing type 2 diabetes. In 2008, CDC estimated that 23.6 million Americans, or 7.8 percent of the population, had diabetes and another 57 million adults had prediabetes. The 2011 CDC estimates have increased for several reasons:
- More people are developing diabetes.
- Many people are living longer with diabetes, which raises the total number of those with the disease. Better management of the disease is improving cardiovascular disease risk factors and reducing complications such as kidney failure and amputations.
- Hemoglobin A1c is now used as a diagnostic test, and was therefore incorporated into calculations of national prevalence for the first time. The test, also called glycated hemoglobin, measures levels of blood glucose (sugar) over a period of two to three months. Because of this change, estimates of populations with diabetes and prediabetes in the 2011 fact sheet are not directly comparable to estimates in previous fact sheets.
In a study published last year, CDC projected that as many as 1 in 3 U.S. adults could have diabetes by 2050 if current trends continue. Type 2 diabetes, in which the body gradually loses its ability to use and produce insulin, accounts for 90 percent to 95 percent of diabetes cases. Risk factors for type 2 diabetes include older age, obesity, family history, having diabetes while pregnant (gestational diabetes), a sedentary lifestyle, and race/ethnicity. Groups at higher risk for the disease are African-Americans, Hispanics, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and some Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Other data from the CDC fact sheet:
- About 215,000 Americans younger than age 20 have diabetes. Most cases of diabetes among children and adolescents are type 1, which develops when the body can no longer make insulin, a hormone that controls the amount of blood glucose.
- An estimated 1.9 million Americans were diagnosed with diabetes in 2010.
- Racial and ethnic minorities continue to have higher rates of diabetes after adjusting for population age differences. For adults, diabetes rates were 16.1 percent for American Indians/Alaska Natives, 12.6 percent for blacks, 11.8 percent for Hispanics, 8.4 percent for Asian-Americans, and 7.1 percent for non-Hispanic whites.
- Half of Americans aged 65 and older have prediabetes, and nearly 27 percent have diabetes.
The fact sheet estimates are drawn from a variety of sources, including CDC surveys, the Indian Health Service National Patient Information Reporting System, the U.S. Renal Data System of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Census Bureau, and published studies. The fact sheet was prepared in collaboration with a number of agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, other federal agencies, and the American Association of Diabetes Educators, the American Diabetes Association, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International.
Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. People with diabetes are more likely to suffer from complications such as heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, kidney failure, blindness and amputations of feet and legs. Diabetes costs $174 billion annually, including $116 billion in direct medical expenses.
The fact sheet is available at the CDC-Diabetes site. Information on diabetes prevention and control from the National Diabetes Education Program—a joint effort of CDC and NIH—is available at Your Diabetes Information site. For more information, also check out the site of the U.S. Department Of Health and Human Services.
