Join Dr. Jason Fung as he unveils the hidden dangers of diabetes, shedding light on its prevalence, misconceptions, and actionable insights for prevention and treatment. Discover the reversibility of Type 2 diabetes through lifestyle changes in this informative episode of What The Health.

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Chapter Summaries:

0:00:30 Introduction to the Diabetes Epidemic

0:01:32 Misconceptions and Ignorance about Diabetes

0:02:49 Introducing the Guest Speaker: Dr. Jason Fung

0:07:56 Understanding the Different Types of Diabetes

0:11:47 The Rising Prevalence of Diabetes in Younger Populations

0:14:47 The Role of Weight and Diet in Diabetes

0:16:22 The Medical Profession's Approach to Diabetes

0:17:47 The Importance of Diet and Lifestyle in Diabetes Management

0:23:44 Demographic Differences in Diabetes

0:24:48 Key Takeaways and Closing Remarks

0:26:17 Health Hacks: Final Thoughts on Diabetes

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• https://www.thefastingmethod.com/ 
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WW - Diabetes

John Salak: Diabetes is everywhere. Too few people realize its [00:00:36] reach, let alone worry about it. Think about it. How many other diseases impact more than 100 million people because they already have it, or because, in this case, they've been labeled pre diabetic? And yet the potential dangers swirling around type 1 and type 2 diabetes seem to get marginal attention at best.

You can't see it or feel it initially, so that means there are perhaps thousands, if not millions of people running around who have it or are on track to get it and they don't realize it. As a society, another reason we don't pay enough attention to it is because culturally, too many people assume diabetes.

This is all extremely dangerous. We need to spend more time thinking about diabetes, positioning ourselves to avoid it, treating it effectively if it is contracted. And working to get rid of it if it is possible. The good news is that it is possible to do all of these things [00:02:24] provided we gain some knowledge and start making the right efforts.

Our upcoming guest is ready to lay out a lot of information, insights, and answers on how we can better battle this disease. He's also ready to signal what he thinks shortcoming in the medical profession in helping people. Toss off the most common form of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes. Listen up and learn.

But needless to say, Dr. Fung is well versed in the issues around diabetes, the seriousness of the problem, and what we may be seeing in terms of trends. So we'd like to welcome Dr. Fung to What the Health. Dr. Fung, welcome.

Jason Fung: Hi, good morning.

John Salak: Good morning. Dr. Fung you're working out of Toronto, correct?

Jason Fung: Correct.

John Salak: Correct.

And we just discussed it's getting really cold up there. Do you have snow yet?

Jason Fung: Not yet.

And I know you're working out of Canada, but obviously I have better statistics on what's happening in the States, but it's parallel to what we're seeing, I assume, in all developed countries. We see millions of people dealing with diabetes and prediabetes. Do these numbers alone tell how serious the problem is or are they overstating it or understating it? How serious is this problem?

So even if it doesn't get captured, it contributes in a heavy way to these other diseases, sort of like smoking, for example. Nobody dies of smoking. You die of lung cancer, you die of heart disease or die of other things. So sometimes it gets a little bit [00:04:48] underappreciated the importance of it because it contributes to those other diseases, and it's probably the most important reversible risk factor at this point.

John Salak: There's certainly been a lot written about diabetes. People are aware of it. They either told they are pre diabetic or they know someone who has diabetes or a relative or something like that. Are people sufficiently aware of the problems, the threat that diabetes presents?

To the point that nobody cared about diabetes to some extent even though it was well known as a risk factor, for disease and so on, and yet people still didn't really pay attention to it. And I think that's part of the thing is it's a little bit under appreciated, just how important this disease is, how it touches sort of everything else.

John Salak: why do you think that is? I mean, again, everyone knows about diabetes or is aware of the word that it's not a good thing. Why do you think that is? Is it because it's not an injury? It's not something you can cut out. With a knife or a scalpel? Does it not seem as threatening as cancer, even though it can lead to cancer or heart disease or something else?

It just, it takes sometimes decades to really find that effect. So because it's sort of a slower moving sort of. disease. Perhaps people don't feel the urgency in treating it. To the point that it's gotten, to be such a huge problem and growing. And yet there's still not a lot of attention.

Jason Fung: Very many people are. And the thing is that if you don't check for it. It's not as easy as say a blood pressure and of course blood pressure is similar. It takes many decades for high blood pressure to manifest its effects, but it did still take sort of decades before we really got people. paying attention to the problem of high blood pressure, and I imagine it's going to be the same for diabetes, like you have to [00:07:48] get tested for it, but it's not even as easy because blood pressure is not invasive, whereas this you really have to do blood tests to really find out what your sugars are like.

John Salak: The most common forms of diabetes 1 and 2? Is that correct? Okay. What are the differences and what are the potential impacts of either? Or are they similar?

glucose. So to treat them is totally different. So for type one diabetes, of course, if your insulin levels are very low, then you give insulin and that helps bring it up. In type two diabetes, if your insulin levels are very high, then you should really bring them down in order to help normalize them. So they are sort of almost polar opposites, although they have the same effect of high blood glucose, and that's why people call it both diabetes.

But same have the same sort of high blood glucose and that's why they're called the same sort of like if you have a fever while it could be a infection or it could be a drug reaction But they both give you fever.

John Salak: Is one more dangerous than the other?

Jason Fung: They're dangerous in different ways. So most of what we talk about is type 2 because that's the most common. 90 ish percent of diabetes is type two diabetes.

John Salak: Are there other forms of diabetes as well? Lesser known forms.

Really less than 2 percent of all diabetes.

John Salak: So, that's why we don't hear about them as much or you're just not going to come across them. Why do we see the rise in diabetes? And you mentioned earlier that the trends are increasing. Why is this occurring? Is it something in our control or is it something that's genetic or a combination?

So it's hard to say that there's been a change in the genes of people that has changed. what they do. However, there's been a very big change in diets and lifestyles mostly diets of people because lifestyle always changes. You go from the 1500s, for example, where [00:11:24] there's horses and stuff to automobiles, that's a huge change.

But even that change in lifestyle didn't change the prevalence of diabetes much. What changed a lot was the diet in terms of highly processed foods and more availability of foods and that kind. So it's mostly a, an environmental change that seems to have caused it, largely lifestyle and diet.

Is that an accurate assessment of what we used to think of someone who had diabetes? And do we see it tracking to a younger demographic.

Jason Fung:

Absolutely. It's trending to a younger audience, in fact. Children, pediatric clinics, for example, that used to have a lot of type one diabetes now are seeing a lot more type two diabetes. So we're seeing it in Children. We're seeing it in young adults, and it really reflects the increasing obesity epidemic.

John Salak: And is it that we used to see it in older people or identify it more in older people who may have been out of shape? Because as you said, it takes a long while to realize there's a problem or it was, is there some other reason?

Jason Fung: It does take a while to make that diagnosis because most people get like an annual physical, when you're younger, you don't get your blood drawn quite as frequently. So therefore you're not going to pick it up because there's nothing that you can do. There's nothing you're going to feel.

It's harder to make that diagnosis. So a lot of times people will go without knowing it for years.

Jason Fung: It's not very effectively being dealt with. I mean, for years, people did consider type 2 diabetes sort of a chronic and progressive disease. That's what the American Diabetes Association said. And basically said, well, if you get it, you'll have it for life and just take your medications.

So everybody knows it's a reversible disease, but you need to lose weight. But that's not something the American Diabetes Association admitted until 2021, like just two years ago. Even though people for the last 15, 20 years already knew it was reversible. Mostly related to trying to lose weight.

So for years because the official position was that this is chronic and progressive, nobody focused on it. So luckily that's sort of changed now and you know, hopefully people will start to focus on it a bit more.

John Salak: Why do you think that was, that even though that awareness was there in the medical profession. Why was it, not thought of in a different way that this is a treatable disease?

Jason Fung: Honestly, I don't know. I mean, I thought it was ridiculous. It's the way that physicians are taught. That's the way I was taught.

If you ever listen to any lectures, they talk about medications. I think it's because they were so unsuccessful in getting people to lose weight that they sort of assumed they, again, took this very defeatist attitude that, hey, if we tell people to lose weight, they won't.

Why would we say this? You simply weren't focused on the right thing. You're focused on

Medications when you should have been focused on getting people to lose weight.

I don't see that as the role of a doctor. I see that as how do you get people healthier, whether it's drugs or something else such as diets. You have to give the right treatment, whereas doctors are only interested in drugs. So weight loss, for example, it's not a specialty. Until recently, there was no obesity medicine specialist.

For them it was all about drugs.

And the drugs didn't cure it. So they said, therefore it's incurable. Well, it's a dietary disease. You need a dietary treatment. You can't give drugs for a dietary disease. It's like celiac disease. It's a dietary disease. You can't just give drugs. Like, that's not gonna cure it. You change the diet, and it does.

They're saying that we have the right treatment. We're doing the best we can. It's just a bad disease. But that's not true. And now they've had to face the fact that, for years.

You've been wrong. For example, in the American Diabetes Association, there's a new emphasis that we should focus on weight. I'm like, geez,

Like, this is the top diabetes specialist all over America and you didn't think that weight was important until last year?

John Salak: We were recently speaking with another doctor who was in the weight control area, he said, one of the challenges for doctors is in the last 20 years when we see the medical industry, medical insurance coming, doctors only spend a limited amount of time with patients.

It's more like you're 18 pounds overweight. It would seem like they were saying this was just process. Rather than a thought. And it's also reactionary rather than proactive approach to health, too.

Like everybody's tried it, like 99 percent of the American population has tried that. And it works for like 2 percent of it. It's spectacularly unsuccessful. You tell somebody, Oh, count your calories, cut your calories. They lose weight for a few months, then they gained it all back. So clearly it's not a good strategy.

I don't buy that. I think that's an excuse. It's the same as, if you have time to take somebody's blood pressure, there's time to talk to somebody about it. Or you can give them handouts. You can give them books, you can point them to other resources. But I think the entire, sort of, weight loss area they haven't focused on it, they don't understand it they're not taught about it, and they don't see it as their area that they need to worry about. Therefore It never becomes part of it, even though it's such an important part of health.

John Salak: for strokes, heart disease, or anything else. That's a different challenge. It's sort of a proactive health challenge versus a reactive health challenge.

Is that a fair assessment?

That is, they boil everything down to calories. He can't. So if you were to say that a hundred calories of cookies are the same as a hundred calories of broccoli, you'd be wrong. There's nothing alike about those two. So when you eat the cookies, your body responds in a certain way, produces certain hormones when you eat cookies versus when you eat salmon or eggs or broccoli.

So that's why I think this sort of more deeper understanding of what happens to the body is important to understand.

Is that correct?

Jason Fung: It's mostly the excessive like the fatty liver and the excessive accumulation. So you can see people, for example, especially Asians who on average are much. Lighter. So their body mass index is lower and they will still develop diabetes.

So it's more than about the weight. And again, we boil it down, but it's not just that it's really the excessive body fat, but it's not even that it's actually the type of fat. If it's the visceral fat, that you carry around the abdomen is much more likely to cause problems.

Jason Fung: The treatments are going to be the same. I mean, it comes down to the same thing. Your body has too much glucose, so you really want to, you change the diet so that they burn off some of the glucose. So low carbohydrate diets is one way to do it, exercise is one way to do it intermittent fasting is another way to do it.

John Salak: I appreciate all your time and insights on this and I know you're incredibly busy because you're working in the hospital right now. I don't want to tie you up too much longer. What are the most important takeaways you'd like someone to walk away from this discussion?

But it is a reversible disease. That's the one thing that people really have to understand. So therefore we should be trying to reverse it because if you don't, you're going to be at risk of heart disease, cancer, blindness kidney disease and so on.

John Salak: Some really horrible consequences.

Jason Fung: Yeah.

John Salak: All right. Dr. Fung, thank you very much. We recommend everybody read the Diabetes Code, your book, which came out a few years ago, and more recently, the workbook. Dr.

Fung, thank you very much for your time, your insights.

Jason Fung: Thank you very much.

Signing up is easy and free. Just visit us at WellWellUSA. com, go to Milton's Discounts in the top menu bar, and the sign up form will appear. Signing up will just take seconds, but the benefits can last for years. Some closing thoughts on diabetes. It is almost everywhere, and the problem is growing. [00:26:24] But, remember, there are ways to more effectively battle back.

First off... As with almost everything else, people need to take better care of themselves, which includes embracing healthier, more balanced diets, and becoming more active. This goes for everyone, not just mature adults, but children, teenagers, and middle aged individuals. Holding too much weight and doing too little exercise is like opening the door to diabetes and inviting it in.

At a minimum, it is critical to get informed, eat right, and become active. That's it for this episode of What the Health. I'd like to thank Dr. Fung for his [00:27:36] time and insights. Anyone looking for information on diabetes should start by getting his book, The Diabetes Code. It is available on Amazon. Okay, again, thanks for listening, and we hope that you'll join us on another episode of What the Health.