[LMB] Rise of the Medications was OT: if civilization fell

[Patricia A. Swan]

At 10:36 AM 2/5/2008, quietann wrote:

>On Feb 5, 2008 12:41 AM, Patricia A. Swan <zafaran at fastmail.fm> 
>wrote:
> > At 04:01 PM 2/4/2008, quietann wrote:
> > >I personally would be one of the dead ones, as I am a Type 1
> > >insulin-dependent diabetic.  I suspect a lot of the Type 
> 2s, as long
> > >as they didn't have a lot of diabetes complications, would 
> do fine,
> > >and maybe better in a situation where physical labor would be a
> > >necessity.
> > >
> > >quietann at gmail.com
> >
> > One of the things that Dr. Dean Ornish confirmed as sort-of a
> > side benefit of the extremely low fat vegetarian diet he studied
> > for reversing heart disease is that diabetes control and kidney
> > health improved.  I can confirmed that it did so in Mother's
> > case as well until I became ill enough myself that I was unable
> > to cook for us and stopped the Ornish diet.  Her health
> > deteriorated noticeably after that point.
>
>(apologies in advance for the rant)
>
>No!  No! NO! NO! NONONONO!!!!!
>
>I do NOT have the kind of diabetes that can be controlled or 
>cured by
>diet.  Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease that attacks the
>pancreas and ***destroys*** the beta-islet cells that make insulin.
>
>My body makes NO insulin.  None.  Nada. Zip.  It has not since 1976,
>when I was 11 1/2 years old.  The body cannot use the calories 
>in food
>if it does not have insulin.

{snip rant}

>quietann at gmail.com


I didn't say you *had* a type of diabetes that could be 
controlled without insulin, and my comment followed a paragraph 
where the bulk of your discussion was of Type 2 (formerly known 
as Adult-Onset) Diabetes.  And I didn't say *cure*.  I said the 
study showed improved control and better kidney health was found 
when they were studying the main effect of reversing heart 
disease.  Which the program also did and they have serial PET 
scans showing the opening of blocked coronary arteries 
progressing over time as the participants stayed on the program.

It was a double blind study where the control group of patients 
was maintained on the 30% fat American Heart Association diet 
(which is functionally pretty close to the American Diabetes 
Association diet), and the study population was on a 
less-than-ten-percent fat diet of complex carbohydrates, no 
oils, no cholesterol, and the only sources of animal protein was 
minimal non-fat milk and egg whites.  The control group 
continued to deteriorate, while the study group stabilized, and 
in many cases improved.

Using the preliminary information I had while the study was 
still in progress I put Mother on the Ornish diet when my sister 
the Psycho!Stalker encouraged Mother to screw around with her 
blood sugar control (by that point she was an insulin-dependent 
Type 2), and she got a foot infection.  The antibiotics to try 
and save the foot killed 80% of her kidneys, and put her in 
Coronary ICU when the filtration of electrolytes in her blood 
got totally screwed up and she went into Congestive Heart 
Failure.  I had put Mother on the Ornish Diet once I got her 
home from the initial hospitalization to debrede(sp) the foot 
and put in a Central Venous Catheter for me to give her the IV 
antibiotics for the next 30 days.  While on the Ornish diet, the 
wound in her foot healed so well, that the wound had completely 
filled in before the skin could close over it, and until the MRI 
showed the infection had gotten into the bone, all they thought 
they were going to have to do was touch-up the center of the 
wound to allow the skin to close over the rest of the tissue.

In the Regional Coronry ICU, Mother's Cardiologist and his 
Physician's Assistant were both familiar with the Ornish program 
from study patients who were being followed at Duke Medical 
Center, so they worked with me to keep Mother on the diet while 
they got the CHF under control and scheduled the amputation of 
her leg since the infection couldn't be cleared from the 
bone.  Mother's healing of the amputation progressed so rapidly 
that she was transferred directly from ICU to the rehab 
hospital, and her staples were removed 14 days post-amputation, 
the mold was made to cast the first socket for her prosthesis, 
and she was walking in the pool in her first temporary socket at 
16 days.  The staff at the rehab hospital had never seen even a 
young healthy male progress that rapidly from amputation to 
first socket, let alone a frail, 70+ year old, insulin-dependent 
diabetic.  The only difference she had from the standard patient 
population was the Ornish diet.  She might even still be alive, 
except I acquired a broken back at work, and I was caring for 
her as solo caregiver while dealing with my own smashed back, 
and there was a limit to what I could do, so her physical care 
had highest priority, and cooking good food from scratch changed 
to quickie-fix stuff.  And her diabetic complications began 
progressing again with neuropathy, blindness, and a series of 
progressively worse strokes before her death.

I grew up knowing the difference between Juvenile and 
Adult-onset (now called Type 1 and Type 2) diabetes, and have 
severe familial risk factors for diabetes.  I knew before I even 
reached adulthood that I had a one-in-four chance of having 
diabetes myself, and I currently have a sister (Psycho!Stalker) 
who is an insulin-dependent diabetic and has been for 15 
years.  My own personal diet is much closer to the macrobiotic 
diet than the Ornish diet is, but that's because I've got so 
many allergies and sensitivities that about all that's left to 
eat at this point is beans, non-gluten-containing grains, and 
miso (fermented soybean paste).

Pat in North Carolina