November is Diabetes Awareness Month

Diabetes is a serious disease, whether you have Type 1 Diabetes or Type 2. According to the American Diabetes Association Diabetes causes more deaths per year than breast cancer and AIDS combined, and having diabetes nearly doubles your chance of having a heart attack.

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that affects 422 million people worldwide according to a Time magazine article written in Dec. 2017. Type 2 diabetes is caused by your body’s inability to break down sugars from your diet. Normally, cells in the pancreas work to release insulin, a hormone that processes sugar and either sends it to cells that need it for energy or store it as fat for future energy needs. Cells in the liver are responsible for clearing insulin from the circulation. But excess fat in the pancreas and liver can start to shut down these insulin-producing cells, leading to spikes in blood sugar levels. Diabetes medications can bring sugar levels down but do not address the compromised insulin machinery.

Patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes may discover that if they are overweight at diagnosis and then lose weight and begin regular physical activity, their blood glucose returns to normal. In fact, in a paper published in the Lancet, researchers in the UK describe a landmark study in which people with diabetes went into remission—just by losing weight. Nearly half of people in the study who were given a six-month diet plan and lost an average of 30 pounds went into remission and no longer had diabetes. But for most people dieting is really hard!

At PremierMD Care we have a weight loss and nutrition program that’s much easier to stick to than many traditional diet programs. Have you ever wondered why traditional diet programs do not work? All the other diets, calorie restriction, high protein, low carbohydrate, low fat, Paleo, Atkins, Nutrisystem, etc., are destined to fail as they deprive your body of the proper nutrition it is so badly craving. These fad diets are not based on proven medical research and lead to temporary weight loss which is impossible to maintain. We understand how difficult losing weight is but we also understand the cost to your health if you don’t establish a truly healthy diet and lifestyle. Our program will lead to a health transformation that will last a lifetime.

 

How is our weight loss program different?

The Nutritarian diet plan, pioneered by Dr. Joel Fuhrman provides you with all the proper micronutrients and macronutrients that your body needs. We do not focus on counting calories or depriving you of calories. Instead, we focus on eating nutrient dense foods which will allow for sustained weight loss. This will also greatly improve your overall health by preventing and reversing disease such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease (to name a few).

The Nutritarian diet plan is based on eating predominantly nutrient dense foods such as vegetables, fruit, beans, nuts and seeds, with a limited amount of animal products, and it eliminates nutrient poor foods such as sugar, white flour, and processed foods.

The other reason our program is different is that we start out by doing some very important testing to ensure you can achieve the maximum weight loss results. Here is the testing we recommend:

Resting Energy Expenditure Testing—We use state of the art medical equipment to determine your metabolic rate (whether your metabolism is fast or slow). Sometimes your metabolism may be slower than it should be if you have an underlying medical problem such as an underactive thyroid gland. Treating this underlying problem can help improve your metabolism and your ability to lose weight.

Body Composition Testing — This determines how much of your body is and isn’t made up of fat. Lean tissue (muscles and organs) is metabolically active tissue, the tissue that burns calories all day long. Body fat is a storage form of energy and does not burn calories. Through our Weight Loss Program, we will help reduce your body fat and increase your lean tissue so that your metabolism will be optimized.

Hormone Testing— This includes several different hormones such as your thyroid hormones, because normal thyroid gland function is essential for maintaining a normal metabolism and energy level. Thyroid gland dysfunction is one of the most common endocrine abnormalities treated in our office. This condition is frequently misdiagnosed (and therefore untreated) because of a certain level of confusion that exists in the medical community regarding the interpretation of the thyroid laboratory findings.

Female and Male Hormones — Estrogen and progesterone are the two main female hormones and testosterone is the main male hormone. When your levels of these hormones are out of balance, weight gain can be the result (in addition to a multitude of other symptoms). The weight gain seen in patients with this type of hormonal imbalance, is usually seen in the central body area (hips, thighs, belly). This weight gain will occur despite good diet and exercise and is very difficult to overcome if the hormonal imbalance is not corrected.

Medications and Supplements

Our focus is to help you eat healthy but at times, medications can be used to help control food cravings in the initial stages of the Weight Loss Program. To ensure your safety, you will be monitored closely while you are taking any weight loss medications.

Vitamin supplements such as vitamin B12 injections, Vitamin D3, Zinc, and DHA are some of the supplements recommended to maximize your results in the Weight Loss Program.

 

If you’ve been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes or even if you have had a weight problem you’ve been battling for a long time (a risk factor for developing diabetes), now is the time to take control of your health. Call Premier MD Care at 239-319-4919 today for a consultation to talk about our weight loss program.