The Diabetic Syndrome
The following is a transcription of the March 1957 issue of Dr. Royal Lee’s Applied Trophology newsletter, originally published by Standard Process Laboratories.
Also in this issue:
- Tip of the Month (Virus Infections and Vitamin E)
- Q&A
- High Points of A-C Carbamide, Cardiotrophin PMG, and Chlorophyll Complex
The Diabetic Syndrome
The high blood sugar of diabetes mellitus may be due to a number of causes, but pancreatic insulin is the universal remedy. It acts by stopping the release of sugar into the blood by the liver (Soskin). The liver acts as the storage depot of the body for sugar, the fuel of life.
The adrenals and pituitary, by the joint action of adrenaline and pitressin, appear to regulate the release of sugar from the liver (Houssay). Anger, fear, and excitement raise blood sugar by this adrenal effect; at the same time, blood pressure is raised (Selye’s “stress” syndrome).
Asthma victims who use adrenaline habitually to relieve their lung spasms tend to become diabetic by this effect. Synthetic adrenaline is far more likely to cause diabetes than the natural, according to references quoted in Lee Foundation Report No. 5. (We understand the only natural adrenaline is the Parke-Davis & Company product.)
Blood cholesterol is usually higher in diabetic patients, attributed to the lack of a cholesterol controlling hormone normally supplied by the pancreas and reduced in amount when insulin output is reduced (Applied Trophology, vol. 1, no. 1).
Probably this high elimination of cholesterol is the reason diabetics tend to have more gallbladder trouble than others. Gallstones are usually cholesterol, and cholesterol is eliminated only by the bile route. (The bile is the eliminative route for nondiffusible waste products—products that cannot get out by the kidney route. Carbon and soot particles inhaled into the lungs are phagocytized and carried to the liver for elimination in the bile. Cholesterol is nondiffusible and must be eliminated also by the bile route. It may precipitate out to form “stones” in the gallbladder. Most such stones are almost all cholesterol in composition.)
The high blood cholesterol of the diabetic patient predisposes him to cardiovascular disease and arteriosclerosis. Diabetic gangrene is an end result of this trend. So is diabetic retinitis.
The diabetic person tends to develop acidosis, which is the cause of diabetic coma. This relates most particularly to potassium deficiency. Potassium normally is stored in the liver and muscles in combination with sugar (Fenn, Jol. Biol. Chem., 128:297–307, 1939).
Insulin action promotes this storage and the consequent demand for potassium, which will be lost by way of the kidney in the diabetic between shots of insulin. The normal person has a steady secretion of insulin, which puts back the potassium as fast as it is released.
This potassium deficiency promotes heart failure and even necrosis (Soskin, Progress in Clinical Endocrinology, p. 279, Grune & Stratton). Other symptoms of this potassium deficiency following insulin administration are indicated by “shallow and rapid breathing, restlessness, disorientation, muscular weakness, high venous pressure, and paralysis.”
There are many nutritional factors that influence the trend of the diabetic syndrome. Some that promote diabetes are:
(1) Synthetic glucose, predicted by Dr. H.W. Wiley in 1910 to cause diabetes and proven to do so in test animals by Lukens and Dohan recently at the University of Pennsylvania (Science, 105:175, 1942).
No natural sugar, even the refined cane sugar without its vitamins and minerals, was found to have any tendency to cause diabetes.
The importance of the vitamins and minerals in natural, unrefined sugar is shown by the finding that test animals fed on refined sugar plus dried hamburger died in a few days, whereas the control animals seemed to get along very well for indefinite periods on unrefined sugar plus the same dried hamburger. Also, it is important to keep in mind the fact reported in The Vitamins in Medicine (Bicknell and Prescott, pp. 688–89, Grune & Stratton) that refined sugar destroys teeth, while unrefined sugar protects the teeth. (The principal mineral element in raw sugar and molasses is potassium.)
Synthetic glucose is sold under the various names of corn syrup, dextrose, corn sugar, and grape sugar. See The History of a Crime Against the Food Law by Dr. Wiley for particulars of this food fraud.
(2) Alloxan, a diabetogenic poison, known to be formed in bleached flour by the effect of bleach chemicals. (Xanthine becomes oxidized to alloxan.)
Bleached flour has long been known to cause epilepsy in dogs. In the March issue of Cosmopolitan, page 10, the discovery was reported that bleached flour causes epileptic attacks in human subjects, as well as headaches, insomnia, mental depression, abdominal distension, rectal itching, and diarrhea. A Texas physician recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that a number of cases of lupus erythematosus recovered when he took them off of bleached flour products. Heretofore this disease has been considered as hopeless and slow death.
Many nutritional concentrates have been found useful in controlling the diabetic complications, indicating various specific deficiencies as causes. We list a few:
Inositol – This is one of the B vitamin fractions. It has a favorable effect on blood sugar and is very useful in protecting the liver from fatty degeneration and cirrhosis.
Vitamin P – The vitamin P from buckwheat is definitely favorable to the control of diabetic retinitis.
Vitamin C Complex (Tyrosinase and the vitamin P and C group) – Very effective in the control of diabetic gangrene. We would call this condition diabetic scurvy. It responds remarkably.
Beet Leaf Juice (trade names Betaris, Betafood) – Usually relieves all symptoms of gallbladder stasis and congestion.
Disodium Phosphate – Thins the bile, aids the liver to metabolize fats. (A nutritional salt in the amounts required: ½ teaspoon per day in water; a mild laxative in doses of 2 teaspoons per day.)
Alfalfa Juice Minerals (trade names Minaplex, Organic Bound Minerals) – A high potassium food mineral, useful in correcting diabetic acidosis and potassium deficiency and in correcting the tachycardia following heavy meals or sugar excess, which can reach the proportions of paroxysmal tachycardia. Restores the autonomic imbalance of potassium deficiency where heart laboring is evident. Effective within minutes.
Cardiotrophin – A heart muscle extract that stimulates all muscle to pick up blood sugar more readily; causes a progressive, slow improvement in most diabetic patients.
Cytotrophic Extract of Pancreas [Pancreatrophin] – Useful in building up an overworked pancreas, often eliminates a state of soreness in the pancreas region.
The diabetic should rigidly exclude from his food intake sugar, pastry, candy, soft drinks, and anything containing glucose (which is now even found in peanut butter).
If he has a craving for sweets, he may need bile salts to increase the mobilization of reserve fat into the blood. Such craving may be a specific indication of bile salt deficiency. The effect is that of a physiological emulsifier.
The only cereal readily tolerated by the diabetic is oatmeal. The steel-cut variety has not been injured by precooking. Or whole hulled oats may be soaked and liquefied as a raw cereal (quite tasty, if properly salted, with raisins or banana slices).
Oats contain a liberal amount of vitamin F complex, known to protect test animals against alloxan diabetes (Houssay and Martinez, Science, 105:548, 1947).
Among the protein foods, the Brazil nut has a peculiar benefit for the diabetic.
Of the natural vitamin complexes, the F complex and the B complex are most likely to promote demonstrably favorable results on the blood sugar.
Tupelo honey contains the highest percentage of levulose (65 percent of its sugar is levulose), and levulose is harmless to the diabetic in reasonable amounts because of its slow rate of absorption from the intestinal tract. Whereas 4 ounces of glucose are all absorbed into the bloodstream 15 minutes after ingestion, a like amount of levulose requires 4 hours. Obviously, no insulin is required to level off absorption peaks under these circumstances.
Tip of the Month (Virus Infections and Vitamin E)
Where a virus infection persists—whether it’s a cold, fever blisters, canker sores, or shingles—try shock doses of vitamin E complex: 4 tablets three times per day. The first day’s treatment usually does the trick.
Questions and Answers
Q. Counteracting the effects of antibiotics, nutritionally?
A. To counteract antibiotics, the C complex is most essential.
Q. It is frequently claimed that citrus fruits are acid-producing. However, most authors do not agree with that. Please explain this discrepancy.
A. The citric acid in grapefruit, etc., is a carbohydrate. It picks up calcium from bone. Then, after it is oxidized to CO2, the calcium is dropped, usually where it is not wanted, to cause bursitis, arthritic spurs, etc. The ash of the citrus fruit is alkaline, which causes and aggravates allergies and blocks the assimilation of calcium, so the bones cannot get a new supply. All bad.
Q. Should dosage of cytotrophins [protomorphogens] be based on a balanced proportion per body weight on the average?
A. Dosage rather should be guided by effect, with only enough used to get results.
Q. What is the difference between the cytotrophic tissue extracts and the liver, prostate, ovarian, lymph substance, etc., that have been on the market for many years?
A. The older products were not concentrated enough to get the results. We find in most cases too mild an action to be of much benefit.
Q. What is happening to all the people who are taking so many injections of the antibiotics?
A. Many unsuspected reactions.
High Points of Standard Process Nutritional Adjuncts
Carbamide [A-C Carbamide]: Carbamide is an essential tissue fluid component, the only salt that reduces the electrical conductivity of water. (Inflammation is always accompanied by a higher local conductivity of tissue fluids.) Its most spectacular effect is in relieving the nervous tension characterized by unpleasant dreams, nightmares, etc.
Opiates inhibit carbamide formation; the kidney inhibition it causes and the mental hallucinations are stopped by the attendant use of a little carbamide. These states may well be related to the alteration in electrical conductivity.
A-C Carbamide is useful as a diuretic in large doses, which must be adjusted to the needs of the patient; often one gram a day is sufficient. The mental effect of fevers is no doubt a consequence of increased tissue fluid conductivity following general inflammation. May be used with benefit in colds, etc.
Cardiotrophin: As a tonic for heart muscle. It must be kept in mind that vitamin therapy comes ahead of this. The C and G complexes are essential, with E2 where pains exist. No condition is more easily treated (nutritionally) than all forms of heart disease. The Endocardiograph shows exactly what takes place; there can be no doubt of the effects. In the diabetic, Cardiotrophin helps to control blood sugar, probably by activating the absorption of sugar from the blood by the muscle cell.
Chlorophyll Complex: Chlorophyll is a detoxifier. Its most obvious action is in stopping the pain in burns or trauma. If a patient has his teeth extracted, immediate dentures installed, and his tooth sockets packed with a mixture of Antiphlogistine (a preparation of bentonite, a mineral absorbent of toxic exudates) and Chlorophyll Ointment, he has no pain during healing. The usual constant pain for twelve hours or more is not experienced. Chlorophyll destroys guanidine on contact (guanidine is an irritant produced by tissue damage).
Patients with alkalosis are much more sensitive to guanidine irritation than normal persons. Slight burns are productive of intolerable pain, so are minor wounds, etc.
