Southwest Florida's Health and Wellness Magazine Health and Wellness Articles
Diabetes, a devastating disease, is a major risk factor for all chronic illnesses, including arth-
ritis, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimers.
A systemic condition, it affects every cell in the body, damaging eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart and brain. The good news is diabetes is nearly 100% preventable by identifying and understanding bio-markers (mostly blood tests) that collectively diagnose a dangerous pre-diabetic state, allowing for lifestyle interventions.
Pre-diabetes affects 35% of all Americans and almost 50% of Americans 45 years of age and older. Lack of awareness about pre-diabetes has allowed it to wreak havoc on the same organs and systems of your body affected by diabetes, often decades before diabetes is ever diagnosed!
Picture a financial broker saying “you’re fine” and “not at risk,” only to find that your planned retirement won’t happen. The money isn’t there! We’re all familiar with basic debits and credits. When it comes to our own blood marker numbers though, we’re not nearly as familiar, but we really need to be.
How can you effectively prevent, reverse or treat a condition you don’t know is there? Too often the focus for both patient and practitioner is on medicating the problem once it’s too late to prevent it. Because pre-diabetes comes on quietly and isn’t a “diagnosed disease,” people are told they’re “normal” when they often meet the criteria of pre-diabetes.
Traditional medicine is a “disease” based system within which a diagnoses is made, a patient is labeled with a “condition,” and a third party (insurance) justifies treatment. Within this system, blood chemistries are interpreted, based upon an arbitrary standard of highs & lows, to determine if a medical condition exists and a prescription is given.
A functional medicine approach is one where diseases are prevented, with help from a trained physician who can identify early blood markers or patterns of organ dysfunction and offer treatment through lifestyle and nutrition changes.
The 7 bio-markers that must be looked at from a functional (optimal) level to identify and prevent diabetes:
1. Fasting blood sugar greater than 100 mg/dl
2. Blood pressure greater than 130/85
3. Triglycerides greater than 150 mg/dl
4. HDL cholesterol less than 40 mg/dl in men or less than 50 mg/dl in women – Triglyceride/HDL ratio greater than 3.0
5. Waist circumference greater than 40 inches in men and greater than 35 inches in women
6. HbA1C (Hemoglobin A1C) between 5.7 – 6.4
7. Fasting insulin greater than 5 mg/dl – This is rarely tested and one of the earliest markers of insulin resistance or pre-diabetes.
Ask for a copy of your blood tests. Learn what the basic numbers mean. According to the National Institute of Health guidelines, if you have 3 or more of the results explained in the 1-7 list above, with or without medication to control them, you have pre-diabetes, also known as “metabolic syndrome”.
Understand your numbers. Have an intelligent conversation with your physician. If your markers indicate you’re on the wrong path, “change course”! Diabetes originates more from a learned lifestyle choice and is not based on genetics. You have the power to change those numbers!
Dr. Joseph Mercola summarizes the situation concisely.
“The most recent data reveals that, between 2001 and 2009, incidence of type 1 diabetes among children under the age of 19 rose by 21 percent. Incidence of type 2 diabetes among children aged 10-19 rose by 30 percent during that same time frame!
Conventional Medicine Has It All Wrong…
Statistics such as these point to two very important facts. First, it tells us that diabetes cannot be primarily caused by genetics, and, secondly, it literally screams that something we’re doing, consistently and en masse, is horribly wrong, and we need to address it.”
During National Diabetes Awareness Month recognize the importance of understanding blood marker numbers. Take charge of your health destiny! Change YOUR numbers to the best they can be!
We are in a health crisis with an alarming rise in diabetes. Medicine is never going to cure an underlying root cause. Medicine, by design, will only deal with the symptom.
The good news? There are answers and there is hope!
Dr. Laura Korman, of Korman Relief & Wellness Center, accepts patients who care about their health and are willing to take control of their health destinies. She is a Diplomate of the American Clinical Board of Nutri
tion and has over 600 post doctorate classroom hours in nutrition.
Dr. Korman can meet with you remotely or at her Port Charlotte, Florida clinic. Please visit Dr. Korman’s website at www.drlaurakorman.com to learn so much more about so many things!
Laura R. Korman, DC, DACBN
Korman Relief & Wellness Center
16954 Toledo Blade Blvd
Port Charlotte, FL 33954
941-629-6700
Email: drlaurakorman@gmail.com
