Destroyed Beta Cells
The main factor in type 1 diabetes is clearly the destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, which is due to an inflammatory autoimmune reaction. Diabetes may manifest only after 90 per cent of the beta cells have been destroyed. The reason for this abnormal immune response is not well understood in medical circles.
Nevertheless, there are several important clues. Food allergy is one of them, dysbiosis or overgrowth of the intestines with pathogenic microbes another, while a third clue is vitamin B6 deficiency.
The diabetic pancreas shows a greatly increased number of white blood cells of a type associated with allergies. When type I diabetics are fasted in an appropriate way, their blood sugar levels often return to normal and may remain normal as long as only selected non-allergenic foods are used. With other foods, however, blood sugar levels may immediately go very high.
However, the question remains why an allergic reaction targets specifically the pancreas when usually other types of allergic reactions occur. It is here that the other two clues may provide the answer. When the normal protective gut bacteria are under stress, pathogenic microbes will take over. This is now very common but usually they remain further down towards the large intestine. Should they, however, invade the duodenum, the upper part of the small intestine, then pancreatitis or inflammation of the pancreas may result. This has been demonstrated experimentally. It is not even necessary for microbes to invade the pancreas itself as their breakdown products or endotoxins do most of the damage.
Clearly, a low-grade chronic inflammation of the pancreas makes it a primary target organ for any allergic reaction. Alternatively or in addition, vitamin B6 deficiency has been shown to damage the insulin-producing beta cells.
Even with a mild vitamin B6 deficiency, the amino acid tryptophan cannot be properly metabolised, part of which is normally converted to niacin or nicotinamide. Instead, an abnormal metabolite, xanthurenic acid, accumulates. High levels of this have been shown in animal experiments to damage the beta cells and within days such animals developed diabetes. The sooner the missing vitamin was supplied in high doses, the easier the blood sugar regulation could be normalised again.
Individuals who are even mildly deficient in vitamin B6 excrete xanthurenic acid in the urine. This is used as a laboratory test for vitamin B6 deficiency. Insulin-dependent diabetics generally excrete large amounts of xanthurenic acid, especially those with retinopathies (damaged retina). Magnesium and zinc supplements reduce the formation of xanthurenic acid. Both minerals are deficient in diabetics. A study found the diabetes death rate four times higher in areas with low water magnesium levels than in high magnesium areas.
Another interesting facet is that high doses of nicotinamide can postpone the need for insulin injections in newly diagnosed type I diabetics for months and even years. The explanation: a high level of this B vitamin in the blood inhibits the formation of xanthurenic acid from tryptophan in addition to protecting beta cells from autoimmune attack.
THE MILK AND GLUTEN CONNECTIONS
However, now comes the really important bit of information that ties together all of the foregoing parts. A study of several hundred newly diagnosed diabetic children revealed an immune response to a fragment of cows' milk protein in all of them. What is more, this protein fragment has the same composition as one called P69 on the beta cells.
Juvenile diabetes is much higher in those who have been bottle-fed rather than breast-fed, and it is lower in communities that consume fewer cows' milk products. However, it appears that this protein fragment is only a problem with milk from Friesian cows (called A1 milk) but not with milk from other, lower-yielding, breeds that produce A2 milk. Most of presently consumed milk is A1 milk.
P69 is usually protected inside the beta cells and comes only to the surface during microbial and especially viral infections. At that time the immune system can mistake it for cows' milk protein, attack it, and destroy the beta cell in the process. The problem is that bottle-fed infants are very susceptible to colds, respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. It is regarded as normal for them to have six and more infections a year, while these are rare with breast-fed infants.
But it does not end there. Bottle-fed infants also frequently receive antibiotics that then encourage overgrowth of the intestines with undesirable microbes, and a tendency to chronic pancreatitis. One type of E. coli bacteria is harmless in the large intestines but it has the potential for causing great damage in the small intestine. That is because it produces a molecule that is very similar to insulin. When the immune system becomes activated against this molecule, it may then also direct its attack against related features at the beta cells.
This shows that a combination of two factors is required to trigger an attack on the insulin-producing beta cells: one factor that brings P69 to the surface of the beta cells, and another factor that activates the immune system to attack them. As the first factor we may have high concentrations of xanthurenic acid or frequent colds of bottle-fed babies, and if antibiotics are used, then this also promotes overgrowth of the small intestines with pathogenic microbes, including E. coli as the second factor. This is reinforced when ingesting cow’s milk, which intensifies the attack on the beta cells.
More recently it has also been shown that an autoimmune attack on the pancreas can be triggered by a “leaky gut” or increased intestinal permeability. This has been shown to be triggered by gluten ingestion, especially from wheat.
Nitrosamine is a chemical especially high in preserved small goods, but it may also be formed from the high nitrate content of chemically fertilised produce. A significant association between nitrosamine and type I diabetes has been found, although it may only act indirectly by causing dysbiosis like so many other chemicals.
A Case History
My very first patient was a type 1 diabetic. Earlier I had worked mainly in medical university departments but at that time I was just writing with no intention of becoming a natural therapist. Unexpectedly a young man who was my friend was found to be diabetic when he was admitted to a hospital with symptoms close to diabetic coma. After being released with two daily insulin injections he asked me for help.
Immediately he stopped using insulin and went on an apple diet instead, followed by an organic raw-food diet including fermented goats' milk, but no vitamin or mineral supplements, herbs or other remedies. On the first day of this regimen his blood sugar level was 210 mg% or 11.8 mmol/l. Ten days later it was normal and remained normal even after the introduction of a normal mixed and cooked diet, and also the glucose tolerance test performed on the 24th day at the hospital was normal.
This diet was successful because it addressed the two most important factors in his condition: it eliminated foods and chemicals that have been allergenic or incompatible and it also sanitised the intestine by establishing a healthy micro-flora. However, the longer the condition is just 'managed' with insulin, the more of the beta cells become destroyed and the longer may be the road to recovery.
Nevertheless, even in advanced conditions it should frequently be possible to phase insulin out as a diet can be devised to regulate the blood sugar level. At the same time, with the elimination of the conditions that lead to the destruction of the beta cells, these have a chance to regenerate, with the internal blood sugar regulation becoming more effective in time so that the initially very strict diet can gradually been relaxed.
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The Basic Diabetes 1 Diet
Children, depending on age, may remain for one to several days on this changeover cleansing routine, while adults may continue for one to two or three weeks, or until the blood sugar stabilises at an improved level. Start with one meal a day of the foods allowed in the basic diet. A day or two later increase this to two meals. If your blood sugar level is now reasonably low and stable without insulin, then start with allergy-testing the individual foods of the maintenance diet. If you still require insulin, remain for several weeks on the basic diet before you start allergy testing new foods.
The basic diet is a ‘safe’ diet with a minimum of glucose or foods such as starch that yield glucose during digestion. Suitable foods are meat, fish and other seafood, eggs, goats’ milk products (preferably fermented), Brazil nuts, ground linseed, avocados, lettuce and other leaf vegetables, celery, cucumber, some fresh tomato and raw onion for flavouring a salad, tart apples, lemon and lime juice. Green beans are especially good.
For normalising or stabilising the blood sugar level meat and fish may be conventionally cooked. However, the higher the cooking temperature, the greater will be the long-term health damage. Therefore, boil or steam but do not heat the food to above the boiling point. Nevertheless, much greater benefit in overall health will result from eating these foods predominantly raw. Use additional digestive enzymes with all cooked foods, but especially with cooked flesh foods.
Raw food and digestive enzymes are especially important for those who like to re-generate their insulin production, or for anyone with damage to their eyes, kidneys or blood vessels. Raw meat or fish are quite safe if you take suitable precautions. Try to find a source of organic meat and fowl, or otherwise grass-fed beef and free-range chicken. According to the Australian Department of Primary Industries freezing meat for about 10 days at minus 8°C or colder will kill any tapeworm cysts. Avoid any meat from feedlots, or fish from fish farms. Minimise eating large predatory fish, such as shark or tuna, because of their high mercury content. In addition use parasite remedies as outlined below.
Besides using raw minced meat, you may marinate diced meat or fish, or blend fish or chicken with water. Fresh fish often is sufficiently tender and tasty as it is. To marinate you immerse diced meat or fish in lemon juice or diluted cider vinegar and keep it refrigerated overnight.
Use raw onion, lime or lemon juice, ginger or chilli or any other herbs or spices for flavouring meals. If trying out raw flesh foods start using small amounts and increase gradually. Minimise the use of salt, and avoid it if you have a kidney problem, except if your blood pressure is rather low. Small amounts of magnesium chloride or potassium chloride are beneficial instead of salt. Egg yolk is best eaten raw and mixed with other food, while the white may be cooked; as a compromise you may soft-boil or lightly poach the egg, in any case the yolk should remain soft.
In addition to meat, fish or other seafood, egg or non-pasteurised goats’ cheese, eat a salad with each meal using the mentioned low-carbohydrate vegetables and possibly yoghurt. You may use virgin coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil. Avoid tinned fish with any kind of sauce, sausages or other manufactured meat.
Besides one or two meals, have apples or possibly pears and frequent drinks with diluted lime or lemon juice. Whenever you feel hungry, mix a teaspoon of spirulina (or chlorella) powder, a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, and a pinch of lecithin with water (warm or cold) or with diluted lime or lemon juice as an appetite suppressant and energiser.
Finally, several times a day before or between meals mix a teaspoon of psyllium hulls in a large glass of water and drink immediately. This is to help clean out the intestinal tract and ensure two to three easy bowel movements each day.
If your blood sugar level remains more or less normal, or after several weeks on this basic diet you may use allergy testing as described below to see how you react to additional foods as suggested for type 2 diabetics. Continue to use only non-reacting or safe foods.
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