Dr. Oz’s Emergency Wake-Up Call – America’s Silent Killer, Oprah and Dr. Oz Want to Save Your Life
Millions of Americans have it now—by the time you feel symptoms, the damage is done. Dr. Oz reveals how you can stop America’s silent killer: diabetes. Plus, Walgreens’ free blood glucose test offer!
80 million people in the United States have diabetes or are on the verge of developing this disease. Diabetes is particularly prevalent in the African-American community, where it claims nearly 100 lives every single day. “It’s time to get out of denial,” Oprah says.
Dr. Oz says 25 percent of the patients he operates on have diabetes. “Most diabetes is preventable,” he says. “It is treatable, even reversible.”
Dr. Oz says the average person eats 150 pounds of sugar a year. That’s 40 pounds of extra sugar that we’re eating every single year as opposed to just a generation ago. Dr. Oz says sugar is often hidden in products you wouldn’t expect. “It’s hidden in our condiments,” he says. “It’s hidden in our salad dressing.”
Serious problems arise if you have too much sugar. We store it in our belly, that belly fat, the omentum, gets excessively large. And when it does that, it poisons the insulin, thus it no longer can work and the sugar cannot get out of the bloodstream.
Dr. Oz says this in turn causes issues for the heart. “The blood vessels are very delicate, The sugar is like pieces of glass shard scraping at it.
These shards leave small holes on the inside of the artery, our body scars in an attempt to heal it. It’s a fragile repair. “It breaks – it ruptures. Now you have an open surface that’s sore.
Dr. Oz says this dangerous scarring takes place in all other body tissues. That’s a problem because that influences all of our organs.
For that reason, Dr. Oz says diabetics are at high risk of kidney failure.
Diabetes can also affect the way you look at the world. “In the eyes, the blood vessels are very fragile,” he says. “Those fragile little vessels crack. A little tiny crack in a big vessel, and the blood accumulates.”
As the blood accumulates, you aren’t able to see as much as you did before. In the United States, approximately 86,000 diabetes-related amputations are performed every year.
In severe cases, a diabetic’s blood vessels look like bent straws that cut off blood flow to the legs, your ability to fight infections in your lower extremities by shutting off the supply of white blood cells, first time they know they’ve got a problem is they get an infection in their toe. They don’t feel their toe so well because it affects their nerves, and so they end up losing their feet.”
Type 1 diabetes is genetic and affects 10 percent of Americans diagnosed with diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes develops from lifestyle issues. Type 2 affects most of the population, Dr. Oz says it’s the most treatable. Patients just have to start making better lifestyle choices. “Ninety percent of type 2 diabetics can actually reverse their problem.
Symptoms Of Type 1 Diabetes And Type 2 Diabetes
1. Constant thirst and frequent urination
2. Non-healing infections
3. Tingling toes
Four Risk Factors For Type Two Diabetes
1. Belly fat – Dr. Oz’s test to see if you have too much Omentum, If your waist size, measured at your belly button is more than half of your height, then you’ve got too much belly and you’re at risk for diabetes.
2. Sedentary lifestyle – Physical activity is key to preventing or reversing diabetes
3. Family history – If you’ve got relatives who have diabetes or if you had diabetes when you were pregnant, these are big warning signs
4. Smoking: Cigarettes not only harm your lungs, it kills your pancreas
Dr. Ian Smith said says the obesity epidemic has spiraled out of control. African Americans are twice as likely to have type 2, develop end-stage kidney disease, have amputations and die from the disease, African-Americans are facing an obesity crisis.
Fitness expert Bob Greene says physical activity can literally save the life of someone at risk for diabetes. “When it comes to diabetes, we know that if you simply get 30 minutes a day, your risk is lowered by 60 percent.
Dr. Oz and Dr. Smith have one message for anyone who thinks they may be at risk for diabetes: Don’t wait to get tested. “Almost always you can reverse it,” Dr. Oz says. “What you can’t always reverse are the side effects of what that glass shrapnel has already done inside of you.”
Bob Greene’s book is The Best Life Guide to Managing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes
Try the Best Life for 30 days FREE! As seen on Oprah
Recommended meals, tracking tools, and a robust community, Bob Greene’s site can help you achieve permanent weight loss success… CLICK HERE!
For more information on receiving a free blood glucose test and to find your nearest 24-hour Walgreens location, please visit Walgreens.com/diabetes . All Walgreens 24-hour stores and Take Care Clinics will be offering free blood glucose testing tomorrow, Friday, February 5, 2010, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I have had type 1 diabetes since the age of 2. I am now or will be 46 in April 2010. My body has undergone changes and with that, I must also adjust my insulin dosages. The insulin usually stays constant but will vary to the degree of activity which I’m involved in. My height is about 5′ 6” (same as Oprah) and I weigh approximately 175-180 pounds. I’m stalky and solid. Right now I do experience some numbness in my fingers of my right hand and some slight tingling in the toes of my left foot. It bothered me seeing the lady who was younger than me with an amputation and on kidney dialysis. I’m kind of scared that this could eventually happen to me also. So far, when I go for checkups, all my bloodwork comes back normal, and believe me, that’s what I want.
When I was first diagnosed, not to much was known about the disease (1966). It involved one needle per day and voiding on some litmus paper. If the paper turned green, you had sugar in your system. If the paper remained yellow, your system had minmal sugars in it and therefore you needed to eat. Meals were weighed to the gram as to how much I could eat of a certain food. My mother followed strict guidelines as to what I could or could not have. It may have seemed like I may have been robbed as a kid (in regards to food), but I feel I’m probably much healthier for it.
As time progressed, so did more information about diabetes. I am currently on 4 insulin shots per day now, but not of a high quantity. The quantities of insulin which I take, depends on what my sugar level is at. I take “Humolog” insulin at b’fast, lunch and dinner, usually between 2-10 units at each meal and about 32 units of Lantis insulin before bed. I’ve heard in the past that Lantis insulin is the Poor man’s pump. My last hemoglobin A1C was about 8, which is slightly high and I’m trying to get it down to about 7. Between 5 and 6, I believe, is normal. I’m doing my best now to workout at least an hour a day and start eating a little healthier such as smoked salmon and having sandwiches and vegetables with no butter. Hopefully that may help a bit.
Eating healthier can make the difference between becoming and not becoming a type 2 diabetic statistic. Type 1 is not reversable and I’m comfortable with that, although it would be nice for one day in my life not to have an injection. Eat healthier, you’ll live longer, that’s if you want to.