Reduce the Risk of Disease by Limiting Sugar Intake

Additional Info

• Segment Number: 4
• Audio File: wellness_for_life/1515wl5d.mp3
• Featured Speaker: Richard Jacoby, MD
• Guest Facebook Account: facebook.com/sugarcrushbook
• Guest Bio: Dr. Richard Jacoby is one of the country’s leading peripheral nerve surgeons. He practices in Scottsdale, Arizona, and specializes in the treatment of peripheral neuropathy. He is also one of the co-founders of the Scottsdale Healthcare Wound Management Center, a diplomat of the American Board of Podiatric Surgery and a member of the American Podiatry Association, the Arizona Podiatry Association, and the Association of Extremity Nerve Surgeons.
   
• Transcription: RadioMD Presents: Wellness for Life Radio | Original Air Date: April 10, 2015
  Host: Susanne Bennett, DC
  Guest: Richard Jacoby, MD
  
  You're listening to RadioMD. She's a chiropractic, holistic physician, best-selling author, international speaker, entrepreneur, and talk show host. She's Dr. Susanne Bennett. It's time now for Wellness for Life Radio. Here's Dr. Susanne.
  
  DR SUSANNE: My next guest estimates that 19 million Americans have undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes on top of the over 350 million diagnosed diabetics worldwide. Now, he is here to tell us why it's so important to reduce sugar intake to prevent such diseases. He's the author of the new book, Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage and Reclaim Good Health.
  
  Welcome to the show, Dr. Richard Jacoby.
  
  I'd like to ask you first thing, you know, often when you mention about reversing nerve damage, I talk a great deal about vitamin B's, how important vitamin B's are for stimulating and strengthening your nerve conduction and regenerating nerve, in fact. So, tell us about the Sugar Crush, your book, and how even B vitamins is linked to that.
  
  DR JACOBY: Excellent. That's a great question because what I've done in the book is to put the neuropathy, especially the peripheral neuropathy into phases. In Phase I, we get these buzzing sensations. They come and they go and they're very sporadic that you couldn't really attribute to anything. A lot of people will call this restless leg syndrome. So, that's the small fiber neuropathy. We'll talk about that in a second. Phase II, you get these we'll call them "zingers" at the present time. They're more intense and they come and go more frequently. When you hit Phase III, you have buzzing in your feet constantly and you may be on medication. We'll talk about Lyrica and some of those drugs that kind of take the symptoms away as the process continues into process Phase IV. Phase IV, a lot of my patients say, "Doctor, I'm actually getting better. I have less pain, but you know, I'm getting more numbness." Phase V, they come in and they say, "You know what? I'm all cured. I don't feel anything. But, what's that hole in the bottom of my foot? Why does it stink?" because they've got gangrene.
  
  DR SUSANNE: Oh, my goodness.
  
  DR JACOBY: Very dangerous disease. Between 100,000 and 150,000 amputations a year in the United States, over a million worldwide. It doesn't have to happen. So, what can you do to reverse or stop this process? Number one: don't eat sugar in any form. I tell my patients, "If it tastes good, don't eat it unless you read the label." It always gets a chuckle, but it's true. Eighty percent of the food in the United States has high fructose corn syrup. It's everything. Even fruits and vegetables. The only fruits and vegetables that people like are the ones that are sweet. A grapefruit. Forty years ago, you had to put sugar on it, it was so tart. Today, you can eat it like an apple because it's got 10 times the amount of sugar. Fructose. So, what can you do? You can mitigate that by eliminating from your diet wheat, bread, plus fruits and vegetables, you have to be very careful because you're going to raise your blood sugar with that substance. On the vitamin side of it what can you do? Well, I think the B vitamins are very, very important and in the nitric oxide pathway and please excuse me for going into biochemistry because everybody hates that, but it's the crux to this argument. There's a substance called L-arginine and it's a semi-essential amino acid. In diabetics, they are deficient in that and you can measure that in the blood. L-arginine converts to nitrous oxide. If you have enough L-arginine, you'll get a lot of nitric oxide. You'll dilate your blood vessel, your end organ will function fine. If you don't, you get perioxynitrite. Very vasoconstrictive. So, why does one turn to the other? One, if you have L-arginine, you'll not convert or, if the co-enzyme, tetrahydrobiopterin, and we'll call that BH4, that's it's nomenclature, and what is that? It's B6, B12, folic acid and vitamin C. The higher the levels of those ingredients, then the more nitric oxide you'll produce, the more blood flow you'll get to an end organ. It doesn't matter what the end organ is. In women, I just digress to one of the problems is pelvic floor pain. That's mediated by nerve compression, pudendal nerve. The symptoms of pelvic floor pain are very similar to the symptoms you get in your feet. The number one symptom in the beginning is burning. That is because of too much sugar in your system. Now, let's go back to the formula. Vitamin C. Linus Pawling, famous for his talk in books on vitamin C and cancer. What he was saying back in the 70's was, we don't eat enough vitamin C. That statement is true, but, actually, we're eating too much sugar because the molecule of vitamin C and glucose are about 2 carbons different, both mediated by insulin. So, let me give you an example. You reach for orange juice because you think you need the vitamin C. True. But, you're really getting sugar. Lots and lots of sugar. So, both those molecules compete with insulin. So, just a little metaphor. Mr. Insulin steps into the cell and says, "What can I do for you?" and there's vitamin C standing there standing there and glucose. Glucose trumps C. C is washed out of the bloodstream and the glucose goes into the cell. So, it's then down regulating your nitric oxide pathway and you're cutting off the blood supply. So, you think you're doing the right thing, but you're not. Should you supplement with L-arginine? Yes. But you have to make sure you have the B6, B12, folic acid and vitamin C. Now, a lot of people can't absorb those B vitamins because diabetics are generally overweight and they have lots of different diseases in the alimentary canal in the stomach and in the intestine, one of which is GERD, the reflux. So, a lot of people are taking proton pump inhibitors because they're trying to mitigate or lessen the effects of hydrochloric acid in their stomach and it causes burning in their esophagus. But, it also knocks out the hydrochloric acid which you want to do, but you don't want to do that because you need that hydrochloric acid to break down protein and the B12 is in meat. So, a good thing and a bad thing. So, you need a supplement, in my opinion. Otherwise, you're going to cause a grave process of losing your nitric oxide. I hope that explains it without too much detail.
  
  DR SUSANNE: No, you did such a great job. I love the fact that you are a true believer in supplementation because I am as well. As we get older, we have a difficult time absorbing these nutrients as well. When you have sugar and, everyone, what I want to talk about is that B vitamins are very important if you drink alcohol. Alcohol is a sugar and it really reduces your ability to maintain your B vitamins in your body, isn't that right? I know you recommend in your book, Sugar Crush, I know you recommend a low carbohydrate diet. It's called a ketogenic diet. We only have about 1 minute and maybe, if you can, just explain what the ketogenic diet means.
  
  DR JACOBY: It means the absence of carbohydrates in any form. The body will go into ketosis and produce ketones and it's ketones—I talk about cancer in this book as well. Otto Warhburg, in 1931, got the Nobel Prize for what I'm going to tell you: sugar causes cancer. He said that ketones kill cancer cells because they can't metabolize ketones. They die. They need sugar and, specifically, fructose. So, that's his theory in 1931. I tell my oncology friends, I say, "He got the Nobel prize. Not the Marvel comic book prize. The Nobel Prize. Yet, you never hear any talk about him." There is some new literature that proves his point, once again. The answer is, sugar. Low carbohydrate diet means a ketogenic diet. So, I'm kind of over towards the Paleo type meal. If you can't pronounce words, you shouldn't be eating it.
  
  DR SUSANNE: Thank you. Dr. Jacoby, such great information. If you want to learn more about the book, Sugar Crush, I put it on my Wellness for Life Radio show page on RadioMD.
  
  This is Dr. Susanne Bennett sharing natural strategies for ultimate health and wellness right here on RadioMD.
  
  Until next time, stay well.
• Length (mins): 10
• Waiver Received: No
• Host: Susanne Bennett, DC