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Diabetes treatable by lifestyle modification
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To the Editor:
I enjoyed your article about how we as optometrists can do more to fight diabetes (“Optometrists can do more to fight diabetes” October 2018). Nearly half of my adult patients are diabetic or prediabetic. I talk to each one of them (as time allows) about their diet, level of physical activity and other lifestyle factors. Type 2 diabetes is a condition that in most cases can be treated and prevented by lifestyle and diet modifications. I refer many of my diabetics and patients with cardiovascular disease to the local St. Luke’s CHIP program, where they can learn hands-on how to change their diet (www.chiphealth.com).
Studies show that a whole-foods plant-based diet is more effective at controlling diabetes than the American Diabetes Association diet (Trapp et al.).
Michael Gregor, MD, is a well-known proponent of plant-based diets and has much to say about their effectiveness at reversing and controlling type 2 diabetes. If you have not read his work, or that of T. Colin Campbell, who co-wrote The China Study, you are missing out on what will be the main work of the future in medicine, where physicians, health coaches and dietitians focus on lifestyle modification and prevention and treatment with diet, rather than prescription medications.
Despite medical advancements, our health care system is losing the battle with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and the corollary obesity epidemic, which are all completely treatable by lifestyle modification.
Dan Thieme, OD
Meridian, Idaho
- References:
- Campbell TC, et al. The China Study. BenBella Books; 2006.
- Greger M. How not to die from diabetes. NutritionFacts.org. https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-not-to-die-from-diabetes. Posted October 7, 2016. Accessed November 28, 2018.
- Trapp CB, et al. Curr Diab Rep. 2010;doi:10.1007/s11892-010-0093-7.
Dr. DePaolis responds:
Thanks for your readership and taking the time to write to Primary Care Optometry News. Your comments are not only accurate and timely, they also cut to the core of many disease states, especially diabetes. While virtually all chronic illnesses are routed in genetics, environmental considerations – including diet and lifestyle – play an important role in disease expression. I applaud you for taking such a proactive role in patient education and thank you for sharing a few valuable resources with our colleagues. If we’re to ever ebb the tide of diabetes in America, it will require a medical community-wide initiative – optometry included.
Michael D. DePaolis, OD, FAAO
PCON Editor