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secretradiobrooklyn · 3 years

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New York State Tax Edition | 3.20 & 3.27.21

Secret Radio | 3.20 & 3.27.21 | Hear it here.

Liner notes by Evan (except * for Paige), Art by Paige

1. Antoine Dougbé - “Towe Nin”

There was a while during which I tried to listen to every single T.P. Orchestre song that could be heard via discogs.com. They’ve released dozens of albums, probably close to a hundred if you count all of the albums attributed to various members, so that was a very daunting task… though really what it highlighted was the sheer volume of songs that just are not available to be heard in digital form. Those songs take on a sort of mythic quality as we listen to the huge variety of styles and periods that this band passed through in their prolific and very obscure career. But the ones that loom in the imagination the largest, for Paige and me, are the songs attributed to Antoine Dougbé. He writes for the band but doesn’t record with them, and in most cases Melomé Clement arranges the songs — and these are some of Melomé’s finest arrangements, in my opinion. “Towe Nin” isn’t a propulsive powerhouse like the Dougbé tracks on “Legends of Benin,” but it does have tons of style, and the band sounds extremely confident. My favorite detail of many — like, listen to the shaker solo in the middle! — on this track is the final passage, where three voices suddenly meld into an extremely Western, Beatle-y harmonic finale (with an unresolved final chord). Where did that come from?! It blows my mind to think about how these guys were hearing music and writing music in Benin in the ’70s…

2. Hürel - “Ve Ölüm” - “Tip Top” soundtrack

The other night we watched a DVD that was part of our Non-Classic French Cinema Program that Paige has been drafting for us, featuring movies she figures French people would know but that didn’t get exposed to American audiences. This one was… baffling — the problems were French cultural ones that we really didn’t grok at all. Which was kind of cool. An odd detail was that this song featured prominently throughout the trailer and the film, though we couldn’t figure out, like, why. But we knew immediately that it was awesome.

And… this track sent us down the rabbit hole of Anatolian rock, which turns out to be Turkish psych music from the ’60s & ’70s. We’ve played Erkin Koray’s “Cemalim” and thought that was cool, but had no idea it was a burgeoning scene with tons of creative writers and amazing songs. We’ve spent a lot of time checking out Anatolian music since, and I can tell we’re just getting started. So: thank you to a giant French crowdpleaser movie for the Anatolian clue-in!

3. They Might Be Giants - “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Clothes”

I was not expecting to experience a They Might Be Giants renaissance at this point in my life, but this is just further proof that time has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. This song tells me a lot about what I like now by re-presenting what I liked then, showing off completely new facets I hadn’t yet appreciated. This song is lousy with insights… including that super Slanted Malkmus-y scream at the very end!)

4. Jacqueline Taïeb - “La fac de lettres”

Jacqueline Taïeb is probably my single favorite French pop artist, even though her body of work is way smaller than most of the runners-up. (I would say the closest contender is Jacque Dutronc.) She’s so full of irrepressible character, it just bubbles up out of the vocal performances. Her biggest hit was “7 heures du matin,” in the character of a bored, rock-obsessed teenager trying to figure out what to wear to school that morning, and “La fac du lettres” kind of picks up the thread: now she’s in the auditorium at school, learning about British history — the invasion of Normandy, the Hundred Years’ War — and pining to get back to the recording studio.

5. La Card - “Jedno zbogom za tebe”

I didn’t know what circumstance would call for Yugoslavian synth pop warped by endless cassette plays, but it turns out that driving a thousand miles west in one fell swoop requires a certain amount of ’80s vibes. Turns out Yugoslavia had a pretty rich punk/new wave scene in the ’80s, and even though the songs were often critical of the Communist government, they were not only allowed to be played but, to a certain extent, supported by the government, and there were also several magazines covering punk, new wave, ska (!), and rock music in Yugoslavia.

6. Suicide - “Shadazz”

Maybe it’s the band name, but I was never able to find a place for myself in the music of Suicide, despite how many bands I dig who cite them. But Paige pulled this track, and now I’m starting to get it. I also really like how the kick drum fits against the cymbal-ish sound loop that leads the percussion.

7. Girma Beyene - “Ene Negn Bay Manesh”

Man, Ethiopia was swingin so hard in the ’60s and ’70s! This track combines the organ-driven band dynamic with a smooth Western vocal croon that I’ve never quite heard before.

8. Os Mutantes - “Trem Fantasma”

I still can’t believe that I haven’t been listening to this album my whole life — it’s so freaking amazing from beginning to end. Every song feels like its own complete cinematic experience, with narrative twists and turns, a high-drama dynamic, and each voice taking on a host of characters, independently and together. “Trem Fantasma” is an entire album contained in a single song — and that’s what it’s like with every song on their debut album. PLUS it’s got the coolest possible cover. Truly, I’m still in awe at this album. It makes me wonder: what did the Beatles think of this record?!

9. The Beatles - “Think for Yourself”

This is one of those songs that I feel like established whole new harmony relationships in Western pop… and this likely isn’t even one of their top 50 songs for most Beatles fans. Apparently, they had the main tracks recorded already — this is one of George’s first songs, it’s just 1965 — and they threw the harmonies on in “a light-hearted session” between two other things they were in the middle of, because they were under pressure to get this album finished. That’s amazing! Also, this song is the first one to use a fuzzbox on a bass: Paul played one (excellent) part on clean bass, and another one one all fuzzed out, which became the lead guitar — in fact, John had a guitar part but scrapped it to play an organ instead. What a righteous song to kick off the concept of lead bass guitar! That was Harvey Danger’s big compositional secret: Aaron wrote and played most of the lead guitar parts on bass, and had a fantastic sense of what he could do with the tone of his instrument.

10. Erkin Koray - “Öksürük”

Anatolian rock! It has its own note scale, that gives it this Eastern tonality while working in Western rock shapes and with what feels like a very relatably wry sense of humor. Erkin Koray is right up there in the firmament for us — the whole genre is full of welcome discoveries, but Koray is a really unique guitarist and composer beyond any particular genre. This track plays up his lead guitar passages while maintaining a pretty undeniable disco downbeat, and his vocal delivery strikes me as more French than anything. And yet the whole thing is so deeply and fully Turkish.

11. Vaudou Game - “Pas Contente”

We’ve been so head-over-heels for Beninese funk and rock from the ’60s and ’70s that our fantasies about that music are completely separated from any music happening today. But Vaudou Game is led by Peter Solo, a Togolese musician who grew up on the sound of T.P. Orchestre and decided to work with it himself. His band is handpicked and mostly I think French — the sound is I think a really impressive take on classic Beninese style but with very modern feel. This track is from 2014. I’m looking forward to digging in some more, because it’s a thrill to find a live wire in this music style.

12. Cut Off Your Hands - “Higher Lows and Lower Highs”

This is one of my favorite tracks from the last 5 years. I get so absorbed in the way the bass part relates to all of the other pieces. The bass is absolutely the reason this song works — just tune into it and check out how the whole world of the song bends to accommodate it.

The Gang of Roesli - “Don’t Talk about Freedom”

Years ago, when I took over Eleven magazine, there was a giant stack of mailed-in CDs in the editor’s office. I didn’t hang onto many of them, but there was a set from Now-Again Records that just looked like something we should spend more time with. Turns out that one of them was “Those Shocking Shaking Days,” a collection of trippy, heavy Indonesian rock. I didn’t get it at the time, but lately I’ve certainly been picking up what they were laying down. The baroque keys, the vocal la’s, the hitched-up bass and guitar, that little bass lick, the harmonica… I would love to have been around for the session this came from.

13. Warm Gun - “Broken Windows” - “PAINK”

More paink from France, in the mode of Richard Hell, short sweet and rowdy.

14. Duo Kribo - “Uang” - “Those Shocking Shaking Days”

This is another amazing Indonesian track — amazing for a completely different reason than The Gang of Roesli. Such a note-perfect rendition of chart-topping American (and German — what’s up, Scorps?) rock, but their own song nonetheless! This song attracts me, repels me, attracts me, repels me, on and on in equal measure. To me the kicker is the outro section, which sounds like something Eko Roosevelt came up with… thousands of miles and many genres away from Duo Kribo.

15. The Real Kids - “All Kindsa Girls”

Even as the theoretical pleasures of Facebook overall continue to recede, I find myself glad of a FB group somebody let me in on: Now Playing. The only stipulation about posts is that you have to include a photo of the actual record that you are actually playing — beyond that, it could be any genre, any period, whatever. People post interesting albums all the time, and will often write up their thoughts or memories about the band when they do. Boston’s The Real Kids just sounded like something I should know about, so I hunted it down and man, they were not wrong. Not everything on the album was for us, but right from the African-sounding guitar intro, “All Kindsa Girls” certainly was. Lead guitar/vocal guy John Felice was an early member of the Modern Lovers and a fellow VU devotee with his neighbor Jonathan Richman — he also spent time as a Ramones roadie. I’m tickled by how much the penultimate guitar riff sounds like something off the first Vampire Weekend album, and the final riff was destined to become a punk classic.

16. De Frank Professionals - “Afe Ato Yen Bio”

We broadcast the first part of this episode from the cockpit of the van rocketing between New York and Illinois. Not long after we got here to the woods, a package showed up from Analog Africa with our new “Afro-Beat Airways” reissue, as well as their first indispensable T.P. Orchestre collection, “The Skeletal Essences of Afro-Funk 1969-1980.” We’re celebrating that record with this absolutely killer song by De Frank Professionals, a band about whom very little is known. I am in love with every part of this song, from the sixth-beat hi-hat accent to those tandem vocal parts and that beautiful guitar tone. This track has quickly risen to being one of our all-time faves. Bless Samy Ben Redjeb and everyone at AA for doing the work to find these amazing recordings, track down the musicians, pay them for rights to release, and making these miraculous finds available!

17. Ros Serey Sothea - “Shave Your Beard”

Concurrent to our African fascination has been the gorgeous and thoroughly tragic revelation of Cambodia’s richly talented and expressive rock scene that was utterly destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. There were so many amazing musicians in the scene, but certainly the most flat-out amazing voice was Ros Serey Sothea’s, as this track makes clear. I also love just how sophsticated and innovative these Cambodian song arrangements are — they really take Western ’60s pop into a new world, with intricate guitar parts and really solidly satisfying instrumental structures.

18. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - “O.N.E.”

This is a hard band to keep up with, for a variety of reasons — they can be so intense, and their guitar-rock prog virtuosity can get a bit off-putting if you’re not ready for it. This track, though, reminds me of a host of favorite reference points from the last twenty years of rock. This recording makes me wish that they could have played with Bailiff in Chicago in 2012 — I think everyone would have gained a lot from that connection.

Also, the video is so beautiful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkZd2lBQb2c

19. Ettika - “Ettika” - “Chebran: French Boogie Vol. 2”

French culture is shot through with African references. Ettika was an early ’80s hit with musicians besotted by synths and American rap styles. This band was produced by a noted French composer who was married to a Cameroonian and very much into African groove. This “French Boogie” collection is full of African-style gems heavily refracted through the decade’s new technology.

20. Spice Girls - “Wannabe”

I yield the floor.

*As I mention in the “broadcast” it just felt right. That confident opening line. What are guilty pleasures? How do you feel listening to this song? And y’all already have our phone numbers, so that’s no surprise!

- The Gang of Roesli - “Don’t Talk about Freedom”

21. Steely Dan - “Reelin’ in the Years”

Gut reaction: do you actually love this song? Do you actually hate this song? Do you find that your reaction changes moment by moment within the experience of listening to the song, where your personal experience clashes with your cultural memory associations? Me too.

22. Zia - “Kofriom” - “Helel Yos”

I don’t remember how I got to this track, but holy smokes am I glad we did! It’s pretty freakin hard to find out anything about Zia. The cover of this album portrays an older man with dyed hair and a white blazer over a black collar… but I did actually find a video of Zia performing this song on Iranian public television, and he looks considerably younger and less flash than that. In fact, he’s sporting a tan three-piece suit with a wide tie, all alone on a heavily mirrored stage, and he kind of looks like he might be running for a senate seat in his spare time. It’s a very weird effect. But meanwhile: this whole album is super cool, very expressive of an emotional state I definitely don’t understand. The handclaps are absolutely top notch in the rhythm — they remind me of Ayalew Mesfin’s awesome “Gedawo.”

23. Jo LeMaire & Flouze - “Je Suis Venue te Dire Que je M’en Vais”

Doesn’t this sound like something you could have had intense adolescent feelings to?

*I first heard this song in the trailer for Boy Meets Girl and then later in the film. (Not my personal favorite Carax but definitely great, and the music and sound design is top notch.) Then my French teacher suggested I check out a song, and it was this song. So that’s neat!

24. Rung Petchburi - “Pai Joi” - “Thai? Dai!: The Heavier Side of the Lukthung Underground”

We’re still just getting to know Lukthung music, but for the last couple weeks we’ve been getting deeper and deeper into Thai rock, psych, surf and funk. It’s a rich vein, and it shares some really interesting characteristics with seemingly unrelated regions, like Turkey and Ethiopia.

Black Brothers - “Saman Doye”

I’m telling you, “Those Shocking Shaking Days” will improve your life immediately.

25. Nahid Akhtar - “Dil de Guitar” - from “Good Listener Vol 1,”

This collection just came out this month, which was a surprise because we just stumbled across this track by reading about Nahid Akhtar elsewhere. What an AMAZING track! This was recorded and released in Pakistan in 1977, and I can’t even imagine how they wrote it, much less recorded it. The drum loops seem like they hadn’t been invented yet… but there they are, cranked up to their highest speed. It’s a collage of ideas and hooks, all just crammed together into a single song. the main hook reminds me a bit of “Jogi Jogi,” our favorite Pakistani song on WBFF thus far. I feel like I could listen to this song a hundred times and hear something new each time. Akhtar’s voice is so expressive and confident in those long held notes — and who is that ogre doing call and response with her? So weird. So cool.

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24hourchampagnediet-blog1 · 5 years

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Tackling diabetes with a ketogenic diet – the tale continued

New Post has been published on https://bestrawfoodrecipes.com/tackling-diabetes-with-a-ketogenic-diet-the-tale-continued/

Tackling diabetes with a ketogenic diet – the tale continued

Low carb diets are a hot topic. Having told of his own efforts to reverse T2 diabetes last week, JOHN McCRONE answers some of the reader response.

OPINION: One moment triumph, the next dropped straight back into the worries and uncertainties. All part of the complexities of dealing with a chronic condition like diabetes, I guess.

What am I talking about? Well, last week I told of my own type 2 diabetes journey – about having pulled back from the brink through adopting the still controversial Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) diet.

Out of the blue – as a “slimmish, fittish, 60-ish, white male” on the standard, sugar and starch heavy, insulin-spiking, Kiwi diet – I had developed sky-high blood glucose levels.

READ MORE: * Back from the brink: How I reversed my diabetes * The big fat debate over whether keto-style diets are right for reversing diabetes * Residents still suffering from ‘quake-brain’ * It’s not the calories, it’s our modern lifestyle that is killing us

And just about as quickly, I managed to drop those levels back down into normal range by switching to a fat-burning, ketogenic, eating pattern.

Certainly a tale of triumph. And one that resonated with the New Zealand public. There are plenty of us out there struggling with the same health issues for the same dietary reasons.

So keep the conversation going many urged. And I shall.

This week I will first reply on some of the points raised in the readers’ comments on the two articles – my personal journey with LCHF, and the official view.

Then I will add an update on how I may have been premature to suggest my own diabetes story is anywhere near finished.

‘A LITTLE LONG’

Overall, the online response was positive. Surprisingly so.

Clearly there are now many other people who have found LCHF and Keto style diets – low carbohydrate, and very low carbohydrate – to be an effective weapon against chronic illnesses in general.

MURRAY WILSON/STUFF

Checking levels: Those with diabetes get used to the routine of monitoring blood glucose.

Plenty had their own tale to tell. Lizardy says she was diagnosed pre-diabetic and lost 15 kilograms with minimal effort. Low carb helped fix years of nagging ligament inflammation too.

“I am 53 back to playing hockey twice weekly. And am back in my pre-baby goal-weight jeans from the bottom of my drawer. A little flared but they look awesome to me.”

Kat Sciwi says: “I resist calling it a miracle cure, but it almost is.” Linda Smalley says: “The effect was beyond amazing.”

Just as significant perhaps, the comments were short on those saying they had tried the switch and came away disappointed. In consumer terms, the word of mouth for LCHF is good.

But let’s get into some of the gaps, confusions and finer distinctions my articles might have trailed in their wake.

First, geekgirl warmed my heart with: “Great article, if a little long…”. Yes, it was a big information dump. Yet also it barely scratched the surface of a subject that we all need to be getting our heads around.

We know the basic problem. Everything about the modern world has become one great lifestyle experiment whisking us along to an uncertain destination when it comes to its health impacts.

As a species, we evolved to fit a particular nutritional and metabolic landscape. Now we have jumped aboard this wild generational ride in regards to our diets, our stress levels; our patterns of activity, sleep and even entertainment.

A keto-advocating doctor was telling me how whole new diseases classes – like chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia – have become rife in just the past two decades of his practice.

Unpicking the damage we are doing to ourselves is going to be a mammoth medical detective task, he says.

So to the other comments. Horrific pulled me up on something very different – suspected racism for describing myself as an old white male.

“I don’t understand how being a white male would make you surprised to get diabetes? Please explain.”

Well, I wasn’t intending to draw attention to New Zealand’s inequality story. But it was indeed in the back of my mind after spotting a barely believable statistic in a 2015 Ministry of Health report.

SUPPLIED

Ethnic disparity: Nearly half of NZ Pacifica – and Indians too – get diabetes by their 70s.

A graph of diabetes prevalence by ethnicity shows that by the time Pākehā Kiwi hit their 70s, nearly a fifth of us will be diabetic. Which is a lot.

However for Māori, this rises to a third. And for Pacifica and Indians, it becomes shockingly close to half for both ethnic groups.

Everyone knows the likely reasons. Income, education and other advantages tend to dictate the diet and lifestyle choices open to people.

As Foo barf notes: “Dietary changes are easier said than done, especially for the majority who aren’t in the lucky club of being able to afford avocado daily. I stick to a similar diet but wow, the cost compared to almost any other diet is roughly double.”

Others replied that – shop smarter – and low carb is perfectly affordable. But anyway, for me the ethnic skew highlights a key fact about diabetes that I was trying to make.

I had felt an unlikely diabetes candidate because of my build. Knobbly-kneed and naturally skinny like my distant Scottish ancestors.

I was of course a classic case of TOFI – thin on the outside, fat on the inside. But only having a slightly bulging tummy gave me a false sense of security.

And here we have our national statistics showing the same thing. Pacifica and Indians – with their different genetics and typical body types – can still wind up with the same dreadful diabetes rates.

So the call to action applies to everyone. Being outwardly slim is no protection if your diet is choking up your internal organs with fat.

NAME-CHECKING THE COMPETITION

Another complaint about my articles was the failure to name-check all the varieties of diabetes-beating diets, and also to give more prominence to fasting as a tactic.

Liz Tillman says: “I notice there was no mention of Dr Michael Mosley’s Fast800/5:2 diet based on the Mediterranean diet. Macro’s of 30 per cent carbs, 30 per cent protein, 40 per cent fat, with time restricted eating. Less extreme than keto but still really effective.”

Lance Florance says: “Started on a keto diet and then moved to carnivore over the last 6mths. I am 50 and never felt as good as what I do now.”

Awwsudup says: “If you include an intermittent fasting lifestyle you don’t need to go full blown keto. You still get great long term results and no boredom of food choice.”

Some other readers touched on the V-word. Online, you can’t mention keto – with its heavy promotion of bacon, eggs and grass-fed beef – without drawing a similarly motivated response from the vegetarian camp.

Mc72 says: “A whole food plant based diet treats the cause and reverses diabetes on a regular basis. High fat diets are not good for us. High protein is also suicidal.”

Kiwiegghead says: “Eat all the carbohydrates from whole plants and you cannot get diabetes.”

Evidence Based Eating NZ, a lobby group, also wrote in, demanding an opportunity to have its say in the debate.

But actually, the vegan backlash was unexpectedly muted given the way they and keto make such natural social media foes.

Keto enthusiasts, like the UK’s Dr Zoe Harcombe, talk openly about a world vegan conspiracy – the Seventh Day Adventists, puritanical dietitians, cereal companies and others getting together in a moral crusade against meat.

JAMES LOWE/STUFF

Sweet temptation: Readers note that even modern recipe books are whacking up the sugar content.

No surprise vegans hit back just as hard, saying the planet can’t afford for humans to push animal protein diets. There are bigger economic and environmental priorities in play.

However it may be a sign the conversation is being moved along now that it is a Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) diet that is being opposed to an LCHF one.

You can be a vegetarian and still go LCHF – although it is more difficult to hit the macronutrient balances.

And LCHF shares the same basic message that the first thing we all need to do is stop eating processed foods and end our love affair with sugar and highly-refined starch. Go whole food – real food – and cut the junk, reduce the calories.

For most people, that is already going to get them most of the way to where they want to be in terms of preventing, and even reversing, chronic disease.

RETAIL OUTLETS FOR BIG PHARMA

More comments. Many readers made the point that a big change in dietary habits can be difficult. And also that the current medical establishment is not geared up to support such a change.

Some were blunt. SaltyDog says: “The majority of GP’s are retail outlets for big pharma”.

Eljayem says: “In this country we do have to look after ourselves. The health system here is designed to be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff – too late but free.”

Adeej wondered: “Where’s the solution if you don’t like to cook, and you use the processed foods primarily for convenience?”

Ponder this made the interesting observation that even modern recipe books are part of the problem. They whack up the sugar content to match today’s sweeter tooth.

“From 1 cup to 1 and ¾ cups in 25 years. If people don’t know what food used to taste like 30-40 years ago, they have no idea how much sugar has been snuck into their diet.”

Then to answer on a few details and getting back to my own personal story, Kaybe says she felt somewhat misled by the end.

“His amazingly swift reduction in mmol readings wasn’t totally a result of changing his diet, but mostly down to taking metformin, a standard diabetes drug.”

Yes, I did go on to metformin pretty immediately – along with starting to fix my diet. I’m not against drugs that might work.

My HbA1c blood glucose reading fell from its super high 99 mmol/mol to a normal 35 within six months. But it was getting to understand the principles of LCHF, and tightening my diet accordingly, which I felt did most of the heavy lifting.

I was able to wind down the metformin, then drop it completely, after a year. Largely I did that as an experiment to see if diet alone could do it.

With no metformin, my HbA1c has risen from 35 to 39. So as I said in the article, that gives a gauge of how much the pills did make a difference. The more crucial step was still subtracting the carb fuel driving up my blood sugar.

The high fat aspect of LCHF drew the expected questions as well.

Grad28 asks: “I am curious as to what your cholesterol levels are. So much conflicting reports regarding excess fats and effects of high cholesterol.”

I agree this is a worry because the experts give us such contrasting views. All I can say is that, for me, LCHF sent my lipid panel numbers in the right direction.

My total cholesterol still counts as high. It was 6.9 mmol/l at diagnosis in 2017 and now stands at 6.1. LDL was 3.9 and is 3.7. So only small improvements. Yet certainly nothing getting worse.

And for the markers that really count to keto believers – like my triglyceride to HDL ratio – they have flipped spectacularly.

My triglycerides have dropped from 3.5 to 1.0. My “good” HDL cholesterol has risen from 1.4 to 1.9. Plug that into the handy online TG:HDL calculator (which adjusts for the different measurement basis) and my overall ratio has plummeted from 5.7 to 1.2.

In simple terms, my circulation is no longer such a swimming soup of sugar-derived fats wandering the body seeking a home.

So a “higher fat” diet hasn’t harmed at all. Yet remember also that I’m likely eating less fat, or at least about the same as before, in total.

LCHF is about cutting out the sugary and starchy carbs to achieve a better macronutrient balance, not about adding extra fat on top of the carbs you already eat. It is a diet.

THE LADA QUESTION

Finally the new thing that has caused a few sleepless nights.

A number of commenters were unhappy that type 1 diabetes – the auto-immune condition which can’t be reversed by diet – was not explained.

XdangermouseX says: I wish they would rename T2 diabetes to something else. These headlines break my T1 little heart.”

Kozmokramer says: “Totally agree…. especially when people start talking about how you can cure type one diabetes and be insulin free! Very dangerous.”

The T1 distinction was another point left out for space reasons. I apologise. Yet others then went on to say how – in my case – it could be relevant.

Babymw warns: “I think you will find if you have the antibody testing you have LADA – Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood. Type 1 diabetes. It’s simply because of your age they have said T2.”

LADA, also called type 1.5 diabetes, is now recognised as a syndrome of its own.

You start off looking like type 2 as your pancreas is failing but not completely shot. Its insulin-producing beta cells are limping along and so diet change can be enough to fix your blood glucose levels for a while.

But after a honeymoon period – usually months, but occasionally years – the immune reaction which is doing the damage roars back to polish your pancreas off. You become effectively T1 and need to be on insulin injections.

Oh bugger indeed, I thought. I’ve managed two years. But probably time to pester the doctor for the further tests to confirm what track I am on.

New research is showing type 2 can be properly reversed if your story is just about a fat-clogged pancreas suppressing beta cell activity. Remove the organ fat and a normal insulin response can fire up again.

Trials last year by Newcastle University’s Professor Roy Taylor found a strict weight loss diet saw this happen for two-thirds of his subjects. But for the other third, the beta cells failed to rebound.

I checked my own situation, paying for a $40 blood test to see how my insulin production is faring. It is ticking along at a low normal of 33 pmol/l for now. The pancreas still flickers, but is possibly in the twilight zone.

A GP – a specialist in the genetics of chronic illnesses like diabetes – kindly got in touch after the articles and described why I might fit the LADA scenario.

By my own account, he says, I have been under considerable work and life stress following the Canterbury earthquakes. Back in 2013, I was writing about having brain fog, arthritic flares and other evidence of chronic inflammation.

His bet would be that I have a common genetic weakness – the COMt Val/Met polymorphism – which prevents efficient clear up of certain critical neuro-chemicals.

Stress and a resulting generalised state of inflammation would have stayed locked on, roaming the body, looking for places to land. And with a less than perfect diet, my pancreas would have eventually been caught up in the immune system’s cross fire.

It is a speculative bit of detective work without further evidence. Yet if it is basically an auto-immune attack, then it is likely to return to finish the job.

The good news, he adds brightly, is that an LCHF way of eating – coupled to intermittent fasting and the kind of hard gym work I am doing – is still the way to both turn off inflammation and also minimise the need for insulin if T2 does become T1.

Commenters talked about that too. KatyPi, with a T1 daughter, says: “Type 1 can’t be reversed, but control and weight fluctuations can be greatly improved by adopting the low carb, high fat diet.”

Angela Nolan agrees: “Type 1’s have reported needing much less insulin and gaining much better blood sugar control eating low carb, high fat diets.”

Again, it is heartening the knowledge is out there. People are realising the damage bad diet can do and how they might need to get proactive about changing that.

So share experiences and maintain an open mind. Yes, keep the conversation going please.

Source link Keto Diet Effects

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fuckyeahtattoogirls-blog1 · 5 years