ONE OF EVERY TWO of you have a deadly disease that’s making you fat sick and will kill you and 90 percent of you don’t even know you have it.
What’s worse is your doctor’s not trained how to find it and they are not even looking for it.
This problem will cost us $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years. It is bankrupting our economy. In 30 years 100 percent of our federal budget will be needed to pay for Medicare and Medicaid leaving nothing for education, defense, agriculture, roads, or even social security.
So what am I talking about?
I’m talking about diabesity–the number one cause of obesity, heart disease, cancer, dementia, and of course type 2 diabetes.
You might hear many terms used to describe this one basic phenomenon–a new epidemic of disordered biology and disease. It is the continuum of abnormal biology that ranges from mild insulin resistance to full-blown diabetes. We call it by many names. See if you recognize any of them:
- Insulin resistance
- Pre-diabetes
- Metabolic syndrome
- Obesity
- Syndrome X
- Adult-onset diabetes
- Type 2 diabetes
In truth, these are ALL essentially one problem with varying degrees of severity. The diagnosis and treatment of the underlying causes that drive all these conditions are actually the same.
That is why I use a more comprehensive term to describe these conditions: diabesity. Diabesity describes a continuum of disease from optimal blood sugar balance to insulin sensitivity to full-blown diabetes. This biological imbalance is our modern plague.
It affects one in two Americans and is the leading cause of most chronic disease in this country including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and cancer, not to mention its leading role in weight gain and obesity.
Despite this fact, there are no national recommendations from the government or key organizations to advise screening and treatment of it, and most doctors don’t know how to properly diagnose it. The result is that 90 percent of the people who suffer from diabesity are left undiagnosed and untreated.
The instances of diabesity are increasing at an astonishing rate. Twenty years ago, when I started practicing medicine, not a single state in the nation had an obesity rate over 20 percent. Today, not a single state in the nation has an obesity rate under 20 percent. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes has tripled in since the 1980′s. There are now 27 million diabetics in the country.
The question is, “Why?” Why are we facing a diabesity pandemic? Why are our current treatment approaches failing so miserably? And why is conventional medicine floundering when it comes to diagnosing the biggest health threat of our time?
Diabesity describes a continuum of disease from from optimal blood sugar balance to insulin sensitivity to full-blown diabetes. This biological imbalance is our modern plague. It affects one in two Americans and is the leading cause of most chronic disease in this country including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and cancer, not to mention its leading role in weight gain and obesity.
Conventional Medicine Misunderstands the Fundamental Laws of Biology
Modern industrial medicine treats disease with medication or surgery. That’s what it is designed to do, and when it comes to emergency interventions it is still the best medicine in the world. When someone comes into the emergency room with a severed leg, conventional medicine treats the problem with incredible efficacy.
But when it comes to chronic illness, this approach simply doesn’t work.
Here’s why conventional medicine tends to break down in the face of chronic illnesses like diabesity …
Most medicine today is based on clear-cut, on-or-off, yes-or-no diagnoses that often miss the underlying causes and more subtle manifestations of illness. Most conventional doctors are taught that you have a disease or you don’t; you have diabetes or you don’t. There are no gray areas.
Practicing medicine this way is extremely misguided because it misses one of the most fundamental laws of physiology, biology and disease: the continuum concept.
There is a continuum from optimal health to hidden imbalance to serious dysfunction to disease. Anywhere along that continuum, we can intervene and reverse the process. The sooner we address it the better.
For example, when it comes to diabesity most doctors just follow blood sugar, which actually rises very late in the disease process. If your blood sugar is 90 or 110, you don’t have diabetes. If it’s over 126, you do have diabetes. But these distinctions are completely arbitrary, and they do nothing to help treat impending problems.
I remember one patient, Daren, who came to see me with mildly elevated blood sugar. I asked Daren if he had seen his doctor about this. He said yes. I then asked, “What did your doctor say?” Daren’s doctor had told him, “We are going to wait and watch until your blood sugar is more elevated, then we are going to treat you with medication for diabetes.”
This attitude is absurd and harmful in the face of what we know about the problems that occur even in the absence of full-blown diabetes. Science is now showing us that many people with pre-diabetes never get diabetes, but they are at severe risk just the same. Pre-diabetes actually isn’t pre- anything, it’s a serious health condition and needs to be treated as early as possible.
More to the point, this approach completely ignores more subtle clues from symptoms and signs of disease, which may highlight underlying metabolic imbalances (especially when complemented by further testing).
These imbalances may be remedied by the appropriate treatment – treatment that is not focused on some disease, but instead works to remove those things that alter or damage our functioning, and provides those things that enhance, optimize, and normalize our functioning by balancing the system rather than treating the symptom. We need to treat the system, not the symptom; the patient, not the disease.
Consider the man in the emergency room with the severed leg again for a moment. For that person, identifying what severed the leg isn’t likely to make the difference between life and death. The symptom — the severed leg — must be treated if he is going to survive.
But that paradigm simply doesn’t hold true for health conditions like diabesity. This mechanistic model can be applied in some health crises, but it doesn’t work when it comes to chronic disease.
Navigating the Terrain of Disease: Identifying the Causes
To effectively treat diabesity we must shift our focus away from the symptoms or risk factors of the disease and begin taking a hard look at the causes. All of our attention is on treatments that lower blood sugar (diabetes drugs and insulin), lower high blood pressure (anti-hypertensive drugs), improve cholesterol (statins), and thin the blood (aspirin). But we never ever ask the most important question:
Why is your blood sugar, blood pressure, or blood cholesterol too high and why is your blood too sticky and likely to clot?
Put another way: What are the root causes of diabesity?
Answering that question must be the focus of our diagnosis and treatment of the disease if we are going to solve this global epidemic.
The good news is that the answer is shockingly simple.
In next week’s blog I will outline what really causes diabesity and provide 8 steps you can use to overcome it.
If you would like to learn more about diabesity and how to prevent, treat, and reverse it check out The Blood Sugar Solution and The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook.
In the meantime, I’d like to hear from you …
Do you suffer from diabesity? What has your struggle been like?
Why do you think conventional medicine is so ineffective at treating this illness?
What do you think are the real underlying causes of this deadly disease?
Please leave your thoughts by adding a comment below – but remember, we can’t offer personal medical advice online, so be sure to limit your comments to those about taking back our health!
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, MD
I have eliminated sugar and simple carbs for the past 5 days and I just cannot believe how much better I feel already—thanks Dr. Hyman for all that you do—George
am 77 yrs old male originaly from India. I have diabetics for more than 45 yrs. I am on Insulin for more than 15yrs. My average A1C is 7.2.
Though I am non-vegi, it is hard to cook and eat American food every day. I am looking for good Nutrician book for Indian food which includes portion size (measure like cup, spoon and not in grama), carb, prot, fat, calories etc. There are many books but not telling every thing.
My dream is to put this type inf on web and I-pad so people of Indian origin can excess the inf in controling diabetic. American Assoc. of Physician of Indian original – AAPI has better inf but not available in PDF form and I need in Excel or Word format. Can U help me. Thanks
Hi Raoji,
Thank you for your interest in Dr Hyman’s work. To find more resources we suggest looking at Dr Hyman’s website for managing blood sugar @ http://www.bloodsugarsolution.com Also, you might be interested in reading his book, The Blood Sugar Solution if you have diabetes (for 45 years!- you probably would like to gain better control!).
For more personalized nutrition advice, Dr Hyman’s nutrition coaching team would be happy to work with you on an individual level to help you reach your goals. To work with the nutrition coaching team please go to: http://www.bloodsugarsolution.com/nutrition-coaching/ OR call (800) 892-1443 to get started.
A helpful way to measure ingredients for healthy cooking at home is to use a digital food scale. It usually allows you to measure ounces and grams. Most ingredients that are bought in packages, boxes or cans give you the calories per grams also. It is very easy then to eat healthy ingredients and know the quantity of calories you’ve eaten. I find that as a formerly 50 lb. overweight woman with a diabetic mother that I cannot eat more than 1200 to 1500 calories a day. It’s not always easy, or fun, but I feel terrific and I eat very healthily and deliciously with fresh or frozen ingredients. Limit meat to 2- 4 ounces per lunch and dinner. I’ve maintained this weight loss for 4 years. The recommended 2000 calories a day is not an “American average amount” for people with diabesity. Very deceptive of Food Pyramid.
I think I already receive your newsletter because I got this email. Is there any way I could get a copy of the Eat Your Medicine Report?
Thank you.
Hi Patricia,
Thank you for your message and your interest in Dr. Hyman’s work. Go to drhyman.com and enter your information in the left hand column where indicated to receive the Eat Your Medicine Report.
Wishing You the Best of Health!
Dr. Hyman Staff
Diabesity is a great term for a deadly disease. I have been diabetic for 20 years and I’m only 48. I was 28 when diagnosed and I asked to be checked simply because I had the same symptom that my mom had, I was always extremely thirsty. I have found this disease to be a hard pill to swallow. I know I shouldn’t feel like I’m deprived, but I am. Many of the things that my friends/relatives eat I just can’t eat. They probably shouldn’t eat these things as well, but because they have not been “diagnosed” as being diabetic, they think its ok. I’m really sick of trying to manage my blood sugars. They still constantly fluctuate and I’m at a point where I’m starting to get really depressed. My mom doesn’t help it when she says, “I hope I don’t ever have to go on insulin!” Well, who WANTS to go on Insulin or take medication forever? I’m sick of people looking at me like there’s something wrong with me. Diabetics get tired of people watching what WE eat, while they stuff themselves and probably have higher cholesterol numbers than I do. Its frustrating and I find that I keep changing primary physicians searching for the one physician that believes in some holistic practices and healthier ways of eating that will cure illness. I bought your cookbook in a last ditch attempt to radically change my diet and be diabetic NO MORE. This has got to work, because I have run out of options! I look forward to the 12-week course and I’m praying daily as I move toward better health and not being diabetic.
Great Sandy!
For more personalized nutrition advice and guidance with Dr Hyman’s The Blood Sugar Solution, Dr Hyman’s nutrition coaching team would be happy to work with you on an individual level to help you reach your goals. To work with the nutrition coaching team please go to: http://www.bloodsugarsolution.com/nutrition-coaching/ OR call (800) 892-1443 to get started.
I have read your book. And the Wheat Belly book. And Taub’s book on why we get fat……..and though I have followed all of the healthy diets in these books……I do not loose the weight ! I will lose maybe 5 pounds—and then my body seems to think that that is enough !
I eat good fat, lean protein, very little whole grains, low carb veggies, no refined sugar, limit fruit, nothing white….just what am I doing wrong ?
Dear Katherine,
Thank you for your message and your interest in Dr. Hyman’s work. It’s not possible to answer your question over the internet without taking into account any medical issues that may affecting your weight loss goals.
Wishing You the Best of Health!
Dr. Hyman Staff
My daughter recently sent me a copy of TBSS. My husband is 75 and has type 2 diabetes. I’m 65 and didn’t do well on the diabesity quiz. Not many of your case examples have cited people our age and how they respond to the TBSS plan. It would be encouraging to have some assurance that the plan is appropriate for those age 65+, or if there are special considerations for our age group. Meanwhile, I have ordered supplements and we are ready to start our week of gluten/dairy free living. My husband has never cared much for green, leafy vegetables, so this will be a real stretch for him. At least he is reading the book and is willing to give the program a try. Wish us well!
Hi Barbara!
Great job! We do wish you well and know you can do it!! Your age is completely appropriate for the program and you will do really well.
For more personalized nutrition advice, Dr Hyman’s nutrition coaching team would be happy to work with you on an individual level to help you reach your goals. To work with the nutrition coaching team please go to:http://www.bloodsugarsolution.com/nutrition-coaching/ OR call (800) 892-1443 to get started.
I just wanted to say that if you are still breathing and living why wouldn’t this be for you. I am soon to be 67 years old. I tried this and for two weeks I am felling better. I also have lost 12#.