As always – thanks for the info Mark!

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2009/04/test-test-test.html

doing this rigorously for a while will pay major dividends, plus will almost certainly improve your lipids.

Growing and using muscle works to reduce insulin resistance – endurance stuff like long walks and short bursts of high intensity or maybe Slow Burn works better than cardio intensity, which may shoot your BG up or drop it low.

I’m currently trialling Pantethine (NOT Pantothenic Acid) as a statin replacement but it’ll be July before I get another lipid panel to see if it works, this and a number of other things may improve lipids but again far and away the biggest effect comes from a suitably low carb diet. When the carbs are low enough you may find you can turn saturated fats into HDL at the expense of LDL.

NOTHING replaces insulin if you’re Type 1, LADA or certain types of MODY, but for Type 2s with some insulin production you can make it stretch further. The ADA reckons a maximum of 2.9% reduction in A1c but in their very own forums and elsewhere we routinely see 5 – 8% and even 10% reductions following the above or similar protocols. This suggests strongly that their dietary advice is crap.

- Charles Martin, DDS
Founder, Dentistry For Diabetics

Interesting article. Thank you, Mark.

My Master Formula is one of the most comprehensive formulas on the planet (if not the MOST). I decided to put ALA (lipoic acid) in it 12 years ago in an amount that would reflect the research. This is how I approach every nutrient in that formula. Yes, ALA is expensive, but cost of materials was not the deciding factor for building the Master Formula – researched-backed dosage was.

Advanced Health Formula was designed to be a lower cost, less potent alternative to “the world’s highest potency antioxidant formula” for those whose budgets couldn’t fit DCMF. And all that nutrition had to fit into 6 capsules. As such, it has smaller amounts of many of the same ingredients (and lacks some others altogether). BY dropping ALA we kept room for others.

A lot of people on a budget elect to get the Master Formula and take one 6-capsule packet per day (making it half as potent, but lasting twice as long).

I discovered it was reducing my blood glucose, not a lot but predictably, by about 10 points, and shaving about 10 more points off my postprandials.

Most importantly I discovered it works on my trick liver – which can dump hordes of glucose when I don’t need it, or refuse to release glucose when I do. I suspect it affects insulin resistance within the control circuitry. Some other diabetics find this, and some insulin users need to reduce their doses: for others it has no effect.

This is proven when I have discontinued and restarted it. Currently I do 150 or 250 mg x 2 per day.

This reduction of insulin resistance *may* be the mechanism whereby it reduces trigs, but it seems to have many beneficial effects and few side effects except for the price. Along with vitamin D3 it’s one of my must-have supplements.

I had my trigs down to 10% of what they were purely through low carbing so can’t be sure what if any extra effect the ALA has had.