Nip Diabetes in the Bud

I have long believed that niacin (vitamin B3) is one of the safest, most versatile, and least expensive nutrients available. I’ve written about its uses for everything from arthritis to insomnia to memory loss, and the list keeps growing. Thankfully, it’s now beginning to get wider recognition. Niacin’s stepbrother, niacinamide, however, can perform miracles that are still being overlooked.

The proper use of niacinamide could reduce medical expenses in this country by billions of dollars. Even more important, it could prevent the disability and premature deaths of millions of people. A significant amount of research has shown that niacinamide may help prevent, slow the progression of, and at times even reverse, diabetes.

Unfortunately, diabetes prevention seems to have taken a back seat to diabetes treatment. As with most diseases, there’s far more money to be made in treating the condition than eliminating it through prevention. The bulk of any research money is directed toward finding patentable drug and surgical treatments. Sadly, two very inexpensive and effective methods of preventing and reversing the disease are being overlooked.

Are We Unknowingly Giving Our Kids Diabetes?

Volumes could be written on the benefits of breast-feeding babies. But that is old news. Mothers know about it; educators know about it; doctors know about it; pharmaceutical companies know about it; everybody knows about it. Yet some doctors and hospitals still encourage the use of cow’s milk formula. And the incidence of type 1 diabetes (formerly called juvenile-onset) continues to rise.

Research has shown that two or more proteins in cow’s milk can trigger the destruction of the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (the beta cells). (Cheese wasn’t shown to have these proteins, nor was it damaging to the pancreas.)

Researchers have also discovered that patients who develop type 1 diabetes have generally been breast-fed for less than three months and were given either cow’s milk or solid foods within four months of birth. Additionally, groups of children who didn’t receive cow’s milk during the first three months of life developed 40 percent fewer cases of diabetes than those who had cow’s milk. (Diabetes Care 94;17:13–9)

During the first few months of life a child’s immune system is still developing. Exposure to these milk proteins appears to trigger an autoimmune reaction within the pancreas. In simpler terms, the immune system develops antibodies to destroy the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, just as they would destroy some foreign object that invades the body. Researchers say these pancreas-destroying antibodies exist in 75 percent of those people who develop type 1 diabetes. The antibodies are practically nonexistent in those without the disease.

1 2 3 4