Plaque is the stuff of coronary heart disease. It is CONTROLLABLE, it is STOPPABLE, it is REVERSIBLE.
But you must be equipped with the right information on diet, nutritional supplements, and hopefully the avoidance of medication.
This is the blog that accompanies the 
I took my family to a local all-you-can-eat Indian buffet. It was delicious.
I confined my food choices mostly to vegetables and soups. Within about 30 minutes, I started to get that odd buzz in my head that usually signals a high blood sugar.
When I got home, my fingerstick blood glucose: 173 mg/dl. Darn it! Must have been cornstarch or other sugars in the sauces.
I got on my supine stationary bike and pedaled for 40 minutes at a moderate pace while I played Modern Warfare on XBox. (A great way, by the way, to fit in some low- to moderate-intensity exercise while occupying your brain. My wife often has to yell at me to get off, it’s so much fun.)
Blood glucose at the conclusion of exercise: 93 mg/dl– a nice 80 mg/dl drop.
This is a useful strategy to use in a pinch when you’ve either been inadvertently exposed to more carbohydrate than you can tolerate, or if you’d like to blunt the adverse glucose effects of a bowl of ice cream or other carbohydrate indulgence.
Should we explore the idea of a “morning-after” pill, or actually a “meal-after” pill, a supplement pill or liquid that blunts or eliminates the blood glucose rise after a meal? I’ve considered such an idea, but have been fearful that people would start to use it habitually. Thoughts?
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@RC: Wine won't necessarily correct a starch centered diet in the long-run. Obesity is not unheard of in Italy — quite the opposite — about half the men and over a third of the women. Huge amounts of obesity in Southern Italy and even in places where my father's relatives hail from — Rome — kids start out slender but decades of pasta result in the common pot belly (pregnant looking men) and plump women by middle age and beyond. Sicily — another pasta and wine loving country has plenty of obese adults as well as children. Even if pasta doesn't result in fat — it does its damage in other ways such as the type 2 diabetes my thin father had. The benefits to the diet there is that pasta is merely a course of many courses and can be skipped. Also, this is changing now but families used to cook meals at home — no junk food meals. Fresh veggies and meats, cheeses, plus of course the pasta and bread etc. Modern times have made junk/convenience foods invade Italy — McDonalds, fast-foods, packaged frankenfoods…ugh.
Yes, I wish that there was such a pill. Better yet, I wish that there was a pill that one could take that would provide for world peace and tranquility …
It is disappointing to watch this once informative blog descend to its current level of mediocrity.
Count me as another reader that is finished with this blog.
Going back to my item about using red wine at dinner to keep blood sugars down, one of the Anonymous people said that the "alcohol simply gets in front of carbs, and is digested first. But eventually your potato will get its turn to raise your sugar levels." Well, last night I didn't have potatoes, but I did have quite a bit more carbs than I normally would think wise, and had approximately 2 glasses of wine. I then took my blood sugars three times at one hour intervals (I had to go to sleep, you see). The first reading was 97, an hour later it was 92, an hour later it was 90. I got up out of bed 2 hours later and it was down to 86. Now, I'm the type where when I eat something that has too many carbs, my sugars go way up in the first 45 minutes to an hour. By the second hour, the sugars come down into a decent range. So I'm wondering – does the alcohol really go first, with the carbs waiting in the wings, or does the wine work to slow things down — allowing some carbs to be processed and delaying others? If I had taken my blood sugar again 2 or 3 hours later, would I see the spike then?
Hey "Anonymous" know exactly how you feel about the blog. Its sad.
Red wine does indeed reduce blood sugar, though the effect I've seen tends to be no more than 5-10 mg/dl.
I was thinking more along the lines of, say, American ginseng. Several gram doses have the potential to reduce postprandial blood sugar by 20-40 mg/dl. However, I am uncertain of the long-term safety of such a practice due to effects on the pancreas.
A mediocre thought to keep this
on life support without the irreplaceable infusion from the blogosphere tribe of Annonymous. If they'd gone back just one entry of Doc's they'd have been able to read 2 comments of mine related to some of the science behind Doc's obsession with blood sugar.
As a disclaimer, I personally don't just say no to carbs – even though my old knees won't cooperate on wind sprints or deep bends to bail me out.
Circadian rhythm is widely known, and erroneously construed merely relate to wakefulness. There are also distinct circadian cycles involved in the liver, heart and lungs.
Not having the time now to detail the relevant liver circadian dynamic I'll just highlight some. In short,
blood glucose and insulin, et. al. is not always a linear reaction; a spike is not always just another bad spike for everyone everytime of day.
O.K., for you researchers, in circadian involvement of liver up/down regulation phases
here are some leads(in no particular order): impact on glucose and lipid balance; transcription of insulin metabolism phases; mitochondrial fat burning; gluconeogenesis; gluco-corticoid receptors; triglycerides; glucose phosphate isomerase and 6-phosphofructokinase-2; HmGCoA lysase and reductase; S-transferase theta-2 and more.
Sounds like chronic cardio to me.
I take 500 mg metfomin each night
I am not diabetic
It's my "glucose lower pill"
I think that cinnamon capsules, GTF chormium or CLA / omega-3's would do the same thing. It all depends on if these nutrients would cause a hypoglycemic response in some people.
Serious question: what would a shot of vodka do in a scenario like this? (i.e., after carbs have been accidentally consumed, and after blood sugar has consequently risen).
Oops I see the same question about alcohol was already raised vis a vis red wine. Though I'm still not 100% clear on the answer!
Supposedly, pine bark extract taken with a meal supposedly keeps blood sugar from spiking. Then again, the conclusive evidence was only found in animal studies:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15925302
As a glucose intolerant, I have tried all kinds of things to keep my blood sugar under control. My biggest disappointment was vinegar before meal. It did nothing for me. I am of Indian origin and used to be a vegetarian. Tried Basmati rice which some claim has a more favorable glucose response. Again no effect on me. Tried fermented Indian dishes (dosa and idly) which also didn't help. I have now given up eating rice/wheat entirely and eat a lot of eggs and fish. It may just be that I am not meant to consume carbs.
BTW, potato in Raita is quite common in India. To me, Indian cooking in the US is characterized by a very limited set of dishes with blunted flavors. But, I do wonder what was in Dr Davis' soups and vegetables. Some Indian dishes use sugar or jaggery (cane juice boiled into unrefined sugar) but the dish would be detectably sweet. Another possibility is indiscrimate use of tomato sauce or ketchup added as shortcut to flavor sauces which of course contains HFCS!
Playing Modern Warfare while pedaling away on the bike? Your stock just went way up in my book good sir.
You people are right about the vegetable oil. Its really deplorable – our ancestors in India all used Ghee (clarified butter) heavily. Then the cholestrol propaganda from the West started a few decades ago and now everyone cooks with one or other vegetable oil.
Original Indian dishes made with ghee are much more delicious, especially non-vegetarian ones.
-Fructose comes from starch, bread, pasta – anything made from grains and leads to increased fatty acids in the blood.-
I pity those who are in care of this ignorant british MD. Starch breaks down to a glucose in the body – never a fructose. Also fructose increases liver fat more than fatty acids in the blood.