What is the last thing our health care system needs?

More cases of Type 2 diabetes. According to the Diabetes Association, more than 33 million people in North America suffer from diabetes.

More millions are unaware they have pre-diabetes. This disease is associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries), blindness, kidney failure, heart attack and amputation of legs due to gangrene.

But a recent study published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, indicates we are going to see more Type 2 diabetes.

Finland researchers tracked 9,000 men without diabetes between 45 and 73 years of age for six years.

One in four men were taking a cholesterol-lowering drug at the start of the study. At the end of the study 625 men had developed Type 2 diabetes. Depending on the type and dosage of CLD prescribed, the risk of this disease varied between 28 and 44%.

This is hardly a therapeutic home-run!

Why does this happen? Dr. Ronald Goldberg, director of diabetes research at the University of Miami, speculates that CLDs increase insulin resistance. In effect, it’s more difficult for insulin to enter cells and decrease blood sugar. In addition, the pancreas may have more difficulty producing insulin.

This is not the first study that has found an association between the use of CLDs and Type 2 diabetes.

For instance, a report in the Annals of Medicine studied thousands of middle-aged women for seven years who were taking CLDs. Compared to those who were not on this medication, they were 50% more likely to develop diabetes.

Other researchers followed 150,000 women in their 50s, 60s and 70s for seven years.

Again, the study showed that those taking CLDs were 48% more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. These odds are worse than those at Los Vegas.

Good sense tells me it’s irrational to add to the epidemic of diabetes. Particularly since diabetes is associated with a 50% chance of dying of a heart attack! It’s a lose/lose situation.

Seventeen years ago I suffered a coronary attack. Cardiologists said I’d die in a couple of years without CLDs. But I had previously interviewed Dr. Linus Pauling who believed heart attack was due to a lack of Vitamin C and lysine (an amino acid). He explained why this combination in high doses prevented atherosclerosis. I bet my life on his research and in my 93rd year I’m still part of this planet.

I’ve also escaped the other complications of CLDs such as an increase in cataracts, muscle pain, emotional, liver, and kidney problems.

But the Pauling therapy meant I had to swallow 30 pills daily for 15 years.

Now, fortunately, I can choose from powders or capsules containing high doses of Vitamin C and lysine which are available in health food stores. But remember I’m not your doctor and I have never advised patients to discontinue CLDs. In addition, the medical establishment is totally convinced that CLDs are the be-all-and-end-all in heart attack prevention.

Readers often ask if they can take high doses of C and lysine along with CLDs.

Vitamin C and lysine in the diet do not cause harm, so additional amounts merely provide an effective dose to combat cardiovascular disease.

Surely it makes sense for the medical profession to evaluate the work of Dr. Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize winner, and the research of Dr Sydney Bush in England. His photos of arteries on my web site, www.docgiff.com , show the dramatic before and after results of Vitamin C and lysine.

But you will never see TV ads depicting the benefits of Vitamin C and lysine. Why? Because they are natural products and cannot be patented.

So there’s no money to be made from advertising.

I believe history will show the medical establishment has committed an error by ignoring this research. It’s not the first time in medical history this has happened. In the meantime, as sure as night follows day, there will be more and more cases of Type 2 diabetes.

See the web site at www.docgiff.com. For comment, email info@docgiff.com.