I'm reading Ann Wigmore's book Why Suffer, which I love, and I came upon this, which I thought was very interesting so I thought I'd share it...

"Diabetes is believed to be the result of the failure of the pancreas gland to produce enough insulin regularly to keep the sugar level of the blood down to the point scientists have determined is normal... Recently, however, a group of researchers kept the pancreas of a deceased diabetic alive outside the body for more than six hours. They found that it would produce all the insulin necessary to keep the sugar in the blood at a safe level. It appears that this ample insulin is unused in the diabetic because of an interference somewhere, possibly a stoppage of the two tiny tubes that are supposed to carry the insulin into the top of the small intestine. It may be that this blockage prevents the insulin from getting into the blood and it is thrown out of the body as waste."

She then recounts the case of a man who had taken insulin for five years, who heard what wheatgrass juice was doing for others, so he decided to try a simple diet which included large amounts of wheatgrass juice which he planted and grew himself. For six weeks he drank 2 large tumblers of wheatgrass juice and when he went to the doctor to be tested for diabetes, the doctors could find no trace of the disease.

That's interesting how his Pancreas functioned better outside his body than in. Other factors had to be involved.....like how everything works together (or tries to work as one Unit) in our Bodies?......WY

I say screw all that. Eating poorly messes up your body. The end.

The removed pancreas that worked again sounds like an isolated incident which would have to be repeated a few times to be proven. But if that were the case and a stopage like plaque buildup were responsible, that would be so interesting!

Gabriel Cousens just this year came out with a book on diabetes, I got it, but I gave it away before I really read it. Otherwise, I would be looking to see what he had to say about this. It was huge and had a huge section on diabetes around the world, even getting into the nitty-gritty stuff, for example: like how it might impact personal finances in India! It was interesting because, I always thought of diabetes as being a western disease and from reading the book I now realize that they get it everywhere.
[www.amazon.com]

No, she wasn't saying that the pancreas worked again outside the body, she was saying that there was never anything wrong with the pancreas in the first place - that if the pancreas was functioning like normal in the petri dish, then the problem must've been outside the pancreas, something like a blockage.

Also, Lillianswan, I think that Type II diabetes would be the Western disease, but since Type I is hereditary then it would make sense that it occurs all over the world. Type I, the hereditary kind, is pretty rare... but Type II, the adult-onset kind (which is what Ann Wigmore was referring to), has become an epidemic in America.

In some instances the problem can be at the receptor site of the cell membrane, resisting the insulin. In other words, glucose/sugar needs to be escorted into the cell. Insulin does the escorting to facilitate the admission.

Think of a high-security facility that restricts access. If however you are taken by someone with a valid id badge, then you are allowed in. However, if the reader does not recognize the badge when it is swiped, the door won't open. If the don't won't open you don't get in.

The cell surface has receptor sites (think key hole) to interact with specific receptors (think key). If the key hole is damaged, jammed, etc. the key won't work easily as intended or won't work at all, in this case recognizing the insulin that is bringing glucose. In the meantime, in the the cell, it could be starving for fuel that the glucose could provide, but it just can't get in.

Wishing you vibrant health

There is a great book called "The Schwarzbein Principle" by Dr. Diana Schwarzbein that talks about the chemical processes involved that cause Type II diabetes as well as a host of other diseases caused by hormone imbalance and damaged metabolism. She is an endicrinologist who worked with diabetics early in her career and began to make many connections between disease and diet. Like Pistachio says, it has a lot to do with the resistance of the cells to the insulin. And according to Schwarzbein, is directly related to diet. Perhaps wheatgrass helps balance blood glucose levels and assists the cells with insulin resistance? Very interesting-- Thank you for sharing.

LuckyGirl Wrote:

She...began to make connections between disease and diet.
> And according to Schwarzbein, is directly related to diet...

Some feel that abnormal fats, such as deep fried at high temperature alters the structure in such a way to affect the cell memberane, in which fat (normal healthy fat) plays a role. Others looks at refined sugar as also contributing to this situation.

Wishing you vibrant health

This sounds wonderful to me - regardless of what the organ does or did outside of the body, the part that resonates is that he had a complete turn around after changing his diet and drinking a good amount of wheatgrass!!

I still like arugula's explanation!

This is the official Diabetes task force for India website and they say that the "diabetes epidemic" in India has reached "pandemic" proportions. About 1% of the diabetics are type I the rest are type II. About 30% of the type IIs are obese, 10-15% are underweight and the rest are normal or slightly overweight.

[www.diabetesindia.com]

The diabetes rate is 9% in urban areas and 3% in rural areas, or an overal rate of 4% or 40 million diabetics, making India the country with the largest diabetic population in the world.

Something is really wrong here IMHO, as in pollution causing this or something.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2008 10:29PM by Lillianswan.

arugula,

I'm with you on this one. LOL. I just feel better eating fresh, unprocessed foods.

I'm showing my students Supersize Me and we got to the part where Morgan Spurlock pukes his guts out. I laughed so hard, I almost fell off my chair. Some students said that scene ruined their appetite!

I had a wonderful salad for dinner tonight.