Prescription Alternatives

by Earl Mindell; Virginia Hopkins

  Ideally you should go off any drug under the supervision of a health care professional. As you change your diet, begin to exercise, and take the recommended supplements, your blood sugar will go down and stabilize. It is very important for you to track it daily and adjust any medications you’re taking accordingly.

  Supplements to Counteract the Harm Diabetes Can Do

  Diabetes ages the body rapidly. The disease causes changes that, for all intents and purposes, presses the fast-forward button on your aging clock. Damage to the cardiovascular system, the kidneys, the eyes, and the nerves of the feet can lead to heart disease, stroke, impotence, kidney failure, blindness, and pain and numbness in the lower legs and feet.

  Two reasons for this are (1) the dramatic increase in free radical production seen in diabetics, and (2) a process known as glycation, which is also amplified in people with the chronically high blood sugars seen in diabetes.

  Free radicals are renegade electrons, formed during normal metabolism, that pull electrons from other molecules, causing damage to proteins and fats. These submicroscopic troublemakers can be stopped by antioxidants, but if there aren’t enough antioxidants to go around, they can start chain reactions that powerfully contribute to accelerated aging and chronic disease. Also, most antioxidants actually become free radicals themselves once they’ve done the job of neutralizing a free radical, and they must be “replenished” by a different antioxidant to keep doing their good work. This is why it’s important to get the full range of antioxidant nutrients rather than taking huge amounts of any single antioxidant.

  Glycation describes the binding of glucose, the simplest form of sugar, to proteins. Think of how a turkey browns in the oven or look at some age spots on someone’s skin to get a visual picture of this process. Glycated proteins can’t do their jobs properly, and they contribute to the cellular breakdown that leads to dysfunctional organs and chronic disease.

  A complete supplement program for people with diabetes should include supplements to counteract both free radicals and glycation. Antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and beta-carotene are a good start, as are more powerful free-radical snatchers such as green tea extract and grapeseed extract. Here are two more supplements that can keep you younger longer if you have diabetes.

  Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is made in the body. Of all the known antioxidants, it’s among the most versatile. It stops free radicals from damaging proteins and fats, and it “recycles” used-up vitamin C, vitamin E, and glutathione (another antioxidant that’s made in the body). ALA is the only antioxidant proven to raise levels of glutathione within the cells. Take 50 to 125 mg twice daily.

  L-carnosine is an amino acid found in high concentrations in the cells of the brain and muscles and in the lenses of the eyes. It has some effectiveness at blocking free radical damage, but its main strength is its ability to inhibit glycation. L-carnosine decreases glycation by binding with sugars before they have a chance to bind with proteins. It protects healthy proteins from being damaged by glycated proteins and helps prevent cross-linking, a process related to glycation that causes skin and other organs to lose flexibility and function. In studies on mice bred to age rapidly, L-carnosine extended life span by 20 percent. Test tube studies have shown that L-carnosine turns back the clock on aged cells, bringing back the appearance and function of youth. Take 50 mg daily.

  Exercise: An Essential Part of Managing Diabetes and Controlling Weight

  You cannot properly control adult-onset diabetes without a good exercise program. There’s no getting around it. One of the most devastating side effects of diabetes over time is failing circulation to the extremities, causing numbness, tingling, loss of sensation, and sometimes even the loss of a limb. Exercise is essential for keeping circulation strong. Exercise is also an indispensable part of any weight loss program. A study of successful weight loss veterans—people who lost weight and kept it off—found that all of them exercised for an average of an hour each day.

  The recent news that more than half of America is overweight inspired the Institute of Medicine (IOM), an independent advisory agency that reports to the government on health issues, to put together an 800-plus-page volume devoted to redefining the diet and exercise requirements for healthy weight and avoidance of lifestyle-related illnesses. Its basic conclusions and recommendations concerning exercise were that Americans need to engage in at least 60 minutes of exercise every day, not the 30 to 60 minutes, three to five times a week previously recommended, and that Americans need to pay more attention to the intensity of their workouts, making sure that they are expending enough energy to stave off weight gain or induce weight loss.

  Once you’re at an optimum weight, you will probably be able to eat slightly more than you did while losing weight, as long as you continue to exercise. In a study published in the August 2002 issue of the journal Endocrinology, obese rats were given a calorically restricted diet as their energy consumption was increased. They lost a significant amount of weight within five months. When food intake was increased after the weight was lost, they maintained their new weight as long as they continued to exercise.

  The IOM’s recommendation of one hour of moderate physical activity daily is double the 1996 recommendation given by the U.S. Surgeon General. With more than 60 percent of Americans not in a regular exercise program and 25 percent completely sedentary, the notion that people will adhere to this recommendation is quite far-fetched.

  If you absolutely don’t have 60 minutes a day to exercise, keep in mind that you can split up your activity into more manageable chunks. For example, you can take a 20-minute walk with your dog in the morning, a 20-minute walk on your lunch break, and another 20-minute walk in the evening to tally up your 60 minutes. If you would much prefer to watch TV than exercise, purchase equipment that will enable you to log your workout while watching your favorite programs. Make it as easy and pleasurable as you can, but do it. You’ll feel better, you’ll live longer, and there will be more life in your years. Once you’re used to doing it daily, it will just become part of your life and won’t seem like such a chore.

  Intensity is as important an element of your workouts as duration (the amount of time you spend doing a workout) and mode (the form of exercise you choose). Intensity is a tricky thing to measure; for someone who hasn’t worked out before, a low-intensity workout can feel excruciatingly difficult, and for a highly trained athlete, a high-intensity workout can feel like a game of croquet. Your experience of intensity also varies according to the mode of exercise you choose. Non-weight-bearing exercise such as swimming and stationary cycling will often feel more intense at your target heart rate than weight- bearing exercise. You have to work harder to get your heart rate up because you don’t have the added work of supporting your own body weight. If at all possible, include weight-bearing exercise in your regimen. It’s better at strengthening bones and muscles. If you’re heavy, keep in mind that the more you weigh, the more energy (calories) you’ll expend during a weight-bearing workout.

  Intensity is, most simply, the rate at which you expend energy. If you take an hour-long walk along a flat sidewalk at 2.5 miles per hour—only a little faster than window-shopping pace—you might expend 200 calories. If you speed up to a brisk four miles per hour and walk in a hilly area, you could conceivably expend more than twice that amount of caloric energy. Intensity affects your metabolic rate both during and after exercise. When you exercise at a moderate intensity rather than a low one, your body will continue to burn calories above and beyond those you burn doing everyday things. This elevated post-exercise energy consumption can last anywhere from a few hours to a whole day, depending on how hard you exercise.

  Some overachievers go over the top with intensity. They exhaust themselves too quickly to keep up the pace, and they often end up overtraining—a situation that leads to pulled muscles, injuries, and a weak immune system. Additionally, they end up working out at a level that uses the mostly quickly available carbohydrate en
ergy, so stored fat remains socked away while carbohydrate stores are burned as fuel. Blood sugars drop, causing light-headedness and weakness—symptoms referred to by athletes as “bonking”—and carbohydrate cravings result. High-intensity workouts can also cause a rush of the stress hormone cortisol. This rush of cortisol and other energizing body chemicals is the source of “runner’s high.” The catch is that day after day of high cortisol requirements can deplete the adrenal glands, which in turn leads to chronic fatigue, dampened immunity, worsening allergies, and other unpleasant symptoms. In the end, going overboard with intensity will work against a weight-loss program, because you’ll have uncontrollable carbohydrate cravings and likely will incur an injury or illness that will make you unable to work out.

  You can include time spent doing weight training in your daily exercise allotment. Keep in mind that if you can’t meet the goal of logging an hour a day, you shouldn’t just give up on exercise altogether. Something is always better than nothing. If you can’t walk for an hour, walk for 20 minutes instead. If you have physical problems that preclude long bouts of aerobic exercise, try stretching exercises, yoga, or qi gong. If you are housebound by weather and want to get some aerobic exercise, find an exercise program on TV, clean your house from top to bottom, or put on your favorite dancing music. The best exercise is whatever is fun and easy for you to do every day.

  Chapter 17

  Drugs for Eye Diseases and Their Natural Alternatives

  Your eyes are a window to more than just your soul. Unhealthy eyes can reveal ill health even before signs of illness emerge in other parts of the body. The condition of the tiny blood vessels that nourish the eye is a good indicator of the health of the blood vessels throughout the rest of your body. For example, if the tiny blood vessels in your eyes are broken or leaking, you can be sure that same process is under way in your larger arteries. If your eyes are dry enough to require rewetting drops, chances are the rest of your body is low on important nutrients needed to make lubricating tears, or you have an allergy caused by an overstressed immune system. Vision-stealing diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy are often caused or precipitated by a combination of exposure to toxins and poor nutrition.

  What Causes Eye Disease?

  Glaucoma can be caused by long-term use of steroid drugs or by overconsumption of optic nerve toxins such as aspartame and monosodium glutamate (MSG). Drugs used to treat glaucoma are designed to lower pressure in the eyeball. Much like the medical approach of bombarding the body with cholesterol-lowering or blood-pressure-lowering medication at the cost of general health and well-being, this tactic doesn’t always help more than it hurts.

  Macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness in adults over 50. Unlike glaucoma, macular degeneration doesn’t result in complete blindness but instead causes loss of central vision. In advanced stages of this debilitating eye disease, most of the visual field is blurred beyond recognition, rendering the person legally blind. The macula is a part of the retina that’s particularly vulnerable to damage from the sun and poor nutrition. Because darker eyes have more dark pigment to filter out ultraviolet rays, brown-eyed people are at lower risk than those with blue, green, or hazel eyes. No medical treatment can stop this disease from progressing, and no drug can do any more than slow its progression. Laser surgery is a last resort, but it is done only on people in whom the disease is very advanced, because it carries the risk of making vision worse. Fortunately, a lot can be done nutritionally to prevent and control macular degeneration.

  Cataracts are another very common vision problem. Clouding of the lens of the eye can be caused by too much sun exposure, an unhealthy diet over the years, heavy smoking, or diabetes. The lens loses its flexibility as we age, and focusing becomes more difficult. (Ever notice how many people who never needed glasses in their adult lives are suddenly wearing them when they hit 40?) The lens yellows and becomes very cloudy, blurring vision and causing uncomfortable glare from bright light.

  Diabetic cataracts result from an accumulation of excess sugar in the lens. Cataracts make it impossible to see color accurately. Faces may become difficult to recognize, and family members may mistakenly think the person has become senile. Elderly people who fall and break a hip may have missed seeing the step they tripped on because of cataracts. There aren’t any drugs for the treatment of cataracts; surgical removal of the clouded lens is the treatment of choice. It’s a very simple surgery that almost always yields excellent results, especially when a new, synthetic lens implant replaces the old lens.

  Diabetic eye disease is common in both type 1 (insulin-dependent) and type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes. Blood vessels throughout the body are more prone to clogging with fatty deposits in diabetics. Their risk for heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, and stroke is considerably higher than in the rest of the population. The blood vessels that feed the retina are especially at risk. When these vessels are unhealthy, the retina can’t get the nourishment it needs. The body tries to get blood to the area by actually sprouting new blood vessels to bypass the clogged ones. The new blood vessels grow over the retina, causing blindness. Laser surgery and vitrectomy (where blood that has leaked into the eyeball is “vacuumed” out) are the only medical treatments available for diabetic retinopathy, and by the time these are needed, the disease is advanced. Good nutrition and the right supplements can do a great deal to keep things from going that far.

  What Causes Irritated Eyes?

  Itchy, runny, allergic, bloodshot, dry, gritty, or burning eyes are common complaints for which we tend to buy over-the-counter eyedrops. It’s estimated that over 30 million Americans complain of dry eyes. Smog, chemical irritants, contact lenses (which can pull moisture off the eyes), low humidity, cigarette smoke, dust, wind, sun, air-conditioning, heaters, chronic crying (which dilutes the viscous tear film that keeps moisture in), and droopy lower eyelids (which can allow tears to evaporate too quickly) are common causes of dry eye. People who suffer from arthritis tend to have dry eyes. In Sjögren’s syndrome, which affects mostly women over the age of 40, the eyes and mouth become very dry. Tooth decay and severe eye discomfort can result.

  Common Drugs That Can Cause Eye Problems

  Antihistamines can cause sensitivity to the sun and cause dry eyes.

  Blood thinners (e.g., heparin, Coumadin) can cause retinal hemorrhage.

  NSAIDs (e.g., aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen) used long term can cause cataracts, dry eyes, and retinal hemorrhages.

  Preservatives in eyedrops can cause eye irritation (e.g., red eye).

  Impotence (erectile dysfunction) drugs (e.g., Flomax) can cause floppy iris syndrome, which interferes with cataract surgery, color perception changes, blurry vision, and increased light sensitivity.

  Adrenergic agents, beta-2-adrenergic agonists, and anticholinergic agents, which include some of the blood pressure drugs, asthma and allergy drugs, and impotence drugs, can cause dilation of the pupils and angle-closure glaucoma.

  Glucocorticoids (e.g., prednisone, cortisol, asthma drugs) can increase pressure in the eye and lead to open-angle glaucoma, and can lead to cataracts and optic nerve damage.

  Tamoxifen, the breast cancer drug, can cause damage to the retina.

  Amiodarone, a drug used to treat irregular heartbeat, can cause multiple eye problems, including changes in color vision.

  Rosiglitazone (Avandia), the diabetes drugs, can cause macular edema (swelling of the retina).

  Prozac can cause dilated pupils, double vision, blurred vision, dry eyes, eye pain, eyelid infection, cataracts, glaucoma, ptosis (eyelid droop), and an inflammation of the iris (iritis).

  Birth control pills can cause dry eyes and color vision disturbances.

  A long list of medicines can cause dry eyes, and benzalkonium chloride, a preservative used in most eyedrops, may make dry eyes worse. If you are taking any type of medication and are suffering from dry eyes, be sure to check the package inse
rt to find out if one of the drug’s side effects is dry eyes or vision problems. Aspartame (Nutra-Sweet) has also been shown to cause dry eyes.

  Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs for the Eyes

  Examples of Sympathomimetic Glaucoma Drugs

  Apraclonidine (Iopidine)

  Brimonidine (Alphagan)

  Dipivefrin (Propine)

  Epinephrine (Epifrin, Glaucon)

  What Do They Do in the Body? These drugs increase the outflow of fluid (aqueous humor) from the eyeball. They also reduce the production of aqueous humor.

  What Are They Prescribed For? Decreasing eye fluid pressure in people with ocular hypertension or glaucoma.

  What Are the Possible Side Effects? The following are drug-specific side effects:

  • Alphagan. Ten to 30 percent of those who use this drug have dry mouth, blood congestion in the eyes, burning and stinging, headache, blurred vision, feeling of having something stuck in the eye, fatigue or drowsiness, inflamed eyelash follicles or eyelids, eye allergy symptoms, and itching of the eye. Other side effects include staining or erosion of the cornea, increased sensitivity to light, redness or swelling of the eyelids or conjunctiva, aching or dry eyes, eye irritation, tearing, upper respiratory problems, dizziness, gastrointestinal problems, weakness, whitening or hemorrhage of the conjunctiva, abnormal vision, muscle pain, lid crusting, abnormal sense of taste, insomnia, depression, high blood pressure, anxiety, palpitations, nasal dryness, and fainting.