Carb Syndrome Blog Articles
Dr. Mercola tells us 9 ways to make yourself smarter as you age. Dr. Wilson says YES!
Looking for ways to boost your intellect, stave off mental aging, and maybe even live a longer life? You might be surprised to learn that not only do such strategies exist, but many are easily attainable by making simple tweaks here and there to your daily routine. Embracing the strategies that follow may give a hearty boost to your brainpower, help you keep mentally healthy and ultimately even make yourself smarter.
Is Veganism going Mainstream?
Although it may be tastier, it likely isn’t healthier. Their is no documented human population that evolved eating a vegan diet. Eating this way is a relatively new development fraught with metabolic and health landmines. For more information about the science I suggest reading Loren Cordain’s “The Paleo Answer”.
CNN says “Weight of the Nation” Declares war on Obesity. Dr. Wilson demurs.
Our current obesity epidemic is driven by the consumption of two food elements: excessive fructose mainly from sucrose (sugar) and high fructose corn syrup and high glycemic carbohydrates mainly from grains. It is now clear that excessive fructose is the primary driver of insulin resistance and central obesity. When you have insulin resistance and consume high glycemic carbohydrates your brain is subjected to magnified glucose spikes. Because high levels of glucose are toxic to nerve cells, over time these glucose spikes trigger a chronic brain disorder called Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome.
Dr. Wilson weighs in on HBO’s new documentary, The Weight of The Nation
"The Fat of the Nation” This week HBO began airing a four part series on obesity called “The Weight of the Nation”. This program is a collaboration between The Institute of Medicine (IOM), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),...
When the Feds Seize Small Farmers’ Bank Accounts, You Know Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong.
We’ve been living too long under the shadow of Big Agriculture and the Industrial Food Complex. The “cheap” food produced by these government-supported entities is literally killing us. When we are at our home in Greece we can still easily buy real food from local producers. When we return to the Unites States the first thing we notice is that just about everyone looks ill and is obese. Why is this so? It’s because our government supports our toxic diet. They make us sick so Big Pharma can produce more medications to keep the walking dead moving.
Dr. Mercola tells you The 6 Types of Pills Big Pharma Wants You Hooked On for Life
The use of psychotropic medications in children is one of the more egregious examples of how big Pharma has foisted a boat-load of dangerous drugs on vulnerable children. ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, bipolar II, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders barely existed in children a generation ago but now many children have been labeled with one or more of this conditions. Children who are treated with potent medications for these disorders often have difficulty getting off the drugs as they move into adulthood.
Is healthy weight impossible for many Americans?
I disagree that there is no magic bullet. In order to conquer obesity we need to fully understand the disease that we are dealing with. Remember that obesity is defined as excessive body fat and the only way to know for sure if you have excessive fat is to measure your body composition. Medical studies that take into account body composition rather than just weight or BMI clearly show that it’s not about excessive calories or lack of exercise.
Why the Campaign to Stop America’s Obesity Crisis Keeps Failing
The nation’s most powerful anti-obesity groups are teaming up for a new HBO documentary—but it pushes the same tired advice. Gary Taubes on the research they’re ignoring.
Most of my favorite factoids about obesity are historical ones, and they don’t make it into the new, four-part HBO documentary on the subject, The Weight of the Nation. Absent, for instance, is the fact that the very first childhood-obesity clinic in the United States was founded in the late 1930s at Columbia University by a young German physician, Hilde Bruch. As Bruch later told it, her inspiration was simple: she arrived in New York in 1934 and was “startled” by the number of fat kids she saw—“really fat ones, not only in clinics, but on the streets and subways, and in schools.”
Obesity and Diabetes Afflict a New Jersey Family Fighting to Stay Fit
For two generations, obesity and its henchman diabetes have stalked Alicia Rivera’s family. They took her mother-in-law’s lower legs, which were amputated after ulcers formed that wouldn’t otherwise heal, and have consigned Alicia and her husband to daily injections and pills. The couple now lives within arm’s reach of an EpiPen—a payload of adrenaline behind a long needle—in the event of an insulin coma. All this the 46-year-old mother of three has weathered without collapse.
Sugar Consumption Increases Chances to Contract the Polio Virus
unstable glucose levels could have an influence on the risk of contracting polio. Of course we now know that excessive fructose from sugar and HFCS drives insulin resistance and when carbohydrates are consumed when you have insulin resistance, blood glucose levels rapidly rise and then crash below normal.
Humans evolved with a complex system to maintain steady glucose levels–levels that maximize neuron function.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cheesecake with Berry Sauce Yum! Sugar and Gluten Free. Yippee.
How about an Italian style cheesecake with berry sauce, and an almond crust that is also – get this – sugar free and gluten free. Yahoo.
What about those two brains? One in the head and one in the gut?
Although I believe that it’s important to maintain a healthy gut flora, I think there’s a better explanation for the connection between what’s in your gut and what happens to your brain. When you consume excessive fructose primarily from sugar and HFCS, your liver begins to fill up with fat and you end up with insulin resistance. When you have insulin resistance and consume high glycemic carbohydrates, your brain is exposed to magnified glucose spikes. Because neurons don’t have an insulin gate over time these glucose spikes lead to a diffuse brain dysfunction or “Sugar-Brain”.
Losing Those Last Pesky 20 Pounds
Those last pesky 20 pounds. Over the years my patients are always asking how they can shed a little more weight after they have worked hard to claw their way back from significant obesity. My response is always the same–forget about your weight and focus on your health.
You might wonder about this approach when we are in the middle of a massive obesity epidemic.
Is Your Food Sourced from the Plant Equivalent of AIDS?
One of the two traits that accounts for practically all of the genetically engineered crops grown in the world today gives plants resistance to glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup). Dr. Don Huber, a plant pathologist with 50 years experience, explains why the introduction of glyphosate-resistant genes into different crops is wreaking havoc with the environment, as well as animal, and most likely human, health Glyphosate does not affect the primary mechanism that causes death in the plant; rather it turns off the plant’s self-defense mechanism, allowing soil-borne fungi to quickly kill the plant. In essence, the plant’s immune system is dramatically impaired, much like a human AIDS patient
Low Glycemic Load Ingredients Often Found in Traditional Recipes: Like Yummy Tunisian Chicken with Chickpeas and Veggies
this Gorgeous Tunisian Chicken One Dish Dinner
Yes, it takes awhile to cook, but not too much time to put together. The main issue I had with it was sourcing all those traditional herbs and spices + organic chicken. I figure the chicken I paid a premium for might be sort of like the chicken scratching in the dirt of a Tunisian village, but that’s probably wishful thinking.
The Codfish Caper
The idea of how to eat in a healthy way is certainly nothing new. Those who lived near water ate fish in every conceivable form from time immemorial.
Capers, and caper berries were used to season fish and other foods from the time of the ancient Greeks, who not only ate the berries, but also pickled the leaves and put them into salads.
The natural anticarcinogenic effect of the caper – leaves, roots, and berries, were believed to prevent cancer. The roots were made into a tea against rheumatism.
But for us, we know the magical combination of fish and capers for its fabulous flavor combination.
Greek Potatoes: The Lemon Juice Makes the Potatoes Take Their Time Digesting: It’s a Good Thing
How to make potatoes into a low glycemic vegetable? Roast them in olive oil, then drench in lemon juice. Slows down their digestion time and transforms them into a low glycemic vegetable. You can do the same thing with fried potatoes by dousing them with Malt vinegar, as the English do when they serve “chips”. Yes.
How do I lose that last 20 pounds?
I’ve successfully lost 30 lbs 2 yrs ago by watching my carb intake, but I still need to lose about 20 more. I’ve maintained my weight loss but can’t get any more off. I’m a 56 year old woman who recently had an excellent physical. My fasting blood sugar was consistenly 80 (I borrowed my diabetic friend’s glucose monitoring kit for a week). I have no known illnesses and take no medications. I do take several nutritional supplements.
The 21 Symptoms of “Sugar-Brain” or CARB Syndrome: How Many Do You Have?
if you eat the wrong types of food there’s a good chance you will fry your brain and end up with Sugar-Brain. Sugar-brain is like any other chronic disease process because it is associated with certain specific symptoms that tend to surface over time. The medical term for Sugar-Brain is Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. Early in the course of the illness a person might have just a few of these symptoms but as time goes on they tend to gradually develop more of them until later stages of the disease where all of them are likely to be present
Eat More Food and Lose Fat—You’ve Got to be Kidding! Feast Every Day on Healthy Food
You can increase your caloric intake and lose fat. How is this possible? After all, haven’t the experts been telling us that weight gain is all about calories in/calories out? Unfortunately it’s not quite that simple. Remember that obesity is defined as excessive body fat, essentially a body composition issue. The “experts” decided to throw science out the window and use weight and BMI to define obesity even though neither one measures body fat.
Get the Straight Skinny on Obesity: See this video and learn why a calorie is not just a calorie
If you care about your health and are truly working to keep your weight down, then you need to know the truth about calories as well as the substances that distort how calories work in your body.
No Easy Cure For Diabetes type II in Children
The only pill approved in the U.S. for treatment of children with type 2 diabetes is proving surprisingly ineffective, according to a new study, heightening worries about the fast-growing and largely preventable disease.
Protect your brain and prevent or treat CARB syndrome by knowing your blood omega-6/omega-3 ratio and by consuming adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids
Protect your brain and prevent or treat CARB syndrome by knowing your blood omega-6/omega-3 ration and by consuming adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids
Can The Skittles Defense Be Far Behind in the Zimmerman/Martin Case?
It could’ve been Starbursts, Twizzlers or Sour Patch Kids. But when Trayvon Martin was fatally shot, he happened to be carrying a bag of Skittles.
The 17-year-old’s death at the hands of a neighborhood watchman in February ignited nationwide protests and heated debate about racial profiling and “Stand Your Ground” laws.
Are Kids Eating with their Eyes First? And choosing sugary cereals and other processed foods for the gorgeous pictures on the boxes?
Unless we understand why certain food is bad for us, then focusing on packaging may well lead to a dead end. We first need to determine what part of our food is truly “pornographic”. Is it fat? It is calories? Is it carbohydrates? Is it sugar? Until we answer this basic question, we will be groping in the dark.
Childhood Obesity Rates Decline in Massachusetts
we need to consider that the scientific definition of obesity is excessive body fat, a body composition issue. Using weight and BMI as proxy measures for obesity is problematic. Because I have always measured the body composition of my patients, I know that many patients lose too much lean body mass with traditional calorie-restricted diets even as they lose weight.
Recent research has suggested that what you eat is more important than how much you eat. Excessive fructose primarily from sugar and HFCS is the driving force behind insulin resistance and central obesity.
Gut Reaction: When Food Addictions and Cravings Create Problems
Gut Reaction
From: Childhood Obesity News 04/24/2012
Maybe we can get to a place where food addiction never even needs to be treated, because it won’t exist anymore. Maybe the way to prevent it lies not just in the psychological self, but also deep in the gut. Stranger things have happened, and humans don’t yet know everything. One thing we do know is, even if it turns out there is no direct link to obesity, keeping optimum intestinal health can only do a person good.
Dr. Wilson replies:
I think we are starting to understand food addiction and cravings much better. Over the years I have learned that patients with normal functioning brains never have cravings for sweets and junk food.
You May Not Be Fat, but what about your liver?
Now nearly 100% of adult patients admitted to the hospital through the ER appear to have fatty liver disease where their liver virtually fills up with fat. We are also seeing this condition in some children, something that was unheard of a few decades ago. Because your liver is your main detoxifying organ, you can imagine why you don’t want it full of fat.
Can Limiting High Fructose Corn Syrup Help Autistic Children?
I was wondering if your patients get better when they abstain from high fructose corn syrup? Your definition of the disease includes the word “reversible.”
I have worked with an autistic child at this end who got better and remains well by not consuming high fructose corn syrup or food ingredients known to contain trace amounts of mercury, cadmium and lead. This is a child who was at the peak of his disease totally unmanageable.
Will 10 liters of coca cola and 30 cigarettes a day kill you? You betcha
It is clear from recent research that excessive fructose mainly from sugar and HFCS is the driving force behind insulin resistance and central obesity. When someone with insulin resistance consumes high glycemic carbohydrates along with their fructose infused Coke, their brain is exposed to toxic magnified glucose spikes.
Where are the bees going?
The unexplained loss of the honey bee is is another example of the unintended consequences of messing with Mother Nature. When you feed any living creature substances that they didn’t evolve eating, strange things begin to happen. Bee colonies disappear and general health goes down the tubes.
Quality of Life and Chronic Illness
Thanks for sending me the great WSJ article on focusing on the quality of people’s lives to improve management of their chronic medical problems. In my medical practice of over 30 years I learned long ago about the importance of considering the total spectrum of my patient’s lives when trying to manage their chronic medical problems. As you point out so well, our current reimbursement system makes it difficult for physicians to do so unless they are working in a team environment.
Can You Have Your Cake and Eat It Too? That all Depends…
he big take-home message is that our responses to reward cues are automatic and happen without our even being aware they are influencing our behaviors. That’s where being mindful of self-regulation or willpower can come into play. ”Knowing certain cues are affecting you can make you more aware of them, and perhaps you can use your self-regulation system to keep things in check,” says Kelley — like not letting yourself automatically reach for a second slice of birthday cake.
Exercise is Good, Unless You Sacrifice Sleep To Get There: See Dr. Mercola’s piece
Exercising is, hands-down, one of the best physical things you can do for your health.
Besides being beneficial for weight management, exercise can reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and depression, and it can increase your energy levels, help you think clearer, and slow down the aging process.
Unfortunately, exercise is also one of the first things that tends to fall by the wayside. And, even with the best intentions and follow-through, progress can stall and intentions can go awry…
Gene Hunt On For Mental Disabilty
Although it may be useful to identify specific genetic mutations associated with various learning disabilities, it’s even more important to identify possible environmental triggers of these mutations. This is especially true with conditions such as autism where the incidence appears to be increasing.
Over 15 years ago Hudson and Pope made the observation that a group of diverse conditions seem to be somehow related, including major depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, fibromyalgia, ADHD and eating disorders. They called this disease process Affective Spectrum Disorder but they never identified possible environmental triggers of the condition.
It now appears that certain dietary elements may play a role in this type of brain dysfunction. We now know that excessive fructose primarily from sugar and HFCS is the driving force behind insulin resistance and central obesity. When you have insulin resistance and consume high glycemic carbohydrates, you end up subjecting your brain to magnified glucose spikes. We suspect that hese toxic glucose spikes eventually trigger a disease we call Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome.
Tara Parker-Pope reports on the Challenge of Going Vegan in the NYTimes and Doctor Wilson replies
Is it healthy to go on a Vegan Diet? The answer depends on who you ask. Dr. Wilson, after thirty years of practicing medicine, weighs in. “Man evolved to be an omnivore. There is no healthy way to be a vegan.”
Frying Your Brain With Fructose and Glucose: “Sugar-Brain”
If you have spent much time on this web site, you know that it’s dedicated to educating the public about the most common chronic disease in modern societies—Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. Because this term is geared more for the medical profession and because up until now most people have never heard of CARB syndrome, we decided to use another term when discussing the disease with the general public. We often refer to the condition as “Sugar-Brain” because the title says it all. Sugar-Brain is the state of your brain when it has been exposed to excessive amounts of two simple sugars—fructose and glucose. How could these two common sugars lead to a chronic brain disease that is now epidemic in our population?
Tribal Clinic Uses Native Foods to Fight Diseases
To walk into the central gathering space of the Potawot Health Village in Arcata, a multi-tribal health clinic, is to be made instantly aware of the concept of traditional native food as medicine. “Got Acorns?” reads a poster. “Got salmon?” “Got seaweed?”
Americans Eat the Cheapest Food in the World, But What is It Really Costing?
The “faster, bigger, cheaper” approach to food production that the United States has mastered is unsustainable and is contributing to the destruction of our planet and your health.
Easy access to cheap, poor-quality food is contributing to the rising rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other chronic disease
CEREALS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THEN SUGAR.
The absence of diseases of affluence is not only in HUNTER-GATHERER but also in non-agrarian HORTICULTURAL societies.
The Anti-Sugar Brigade Mounts Up
Anti-sugar brigade takes aim and fires at processed foods
Obese Workers’ Health Care Costs Top Those of Smokers
Unless we understand what we are really treating, there isn’t much hope that we will reduce the health care costs of obesity. Obesity traditionally has been viewed as a simple calorie in/calorie out formula. We now know that’s not how it works.
Does George Zimmerman, Shooter of Travyon Martin Suffer from Carb Syndrome?
In looking at the mug shot of George Zimmerman, I was struck by one thing—he clearly has the disease that I call CARB syndrome. How can I tell? He clearly has excessive body fat and he has lost what I call “the look of health”. Once of the first things that happens to people when they develop a chronic disease like CARB syndrome is they lose this look of health
Five Easy Changes To Get Hidden Sugars Out of Your Diet
Five Easy Changes To Get Hidden Sugars Out of Your Diet We all know that candy and cookies and pancake syrup are full of sugars and high fructose corn syrup. And if we want to get healthy and treat our CARB Syndrome, we’ll have to give ‘em up, but what else? ...
Lack of Sleep Can Double Your Risk of a Heart Attack
Research indicates that sleeping less than six hours may increase insulin resistance and diabetes. It may also double risk of angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke. The same appears to be true when you sleep more than nine hours per night.
Humans are biologically programmed to nap during the daytime. Training your body to resist the urge to nap in the afternoon can lead to inability to easily fall asleep at night.
Ideally, you should sleep enough hours so that your energy is sustained through the day without artificial stimulation, with the exception of a daytime nap.
Engaging in shift work dramatically increases mortality. Preliminary data shows that increasing melatonin levels during your night shift—effectively turning it into daytime, increases risk.
Obesity in Pregnant Women May Forecast Autism in Children
baby breastfeeding Obesity in Pregnant Women May Forecast Autism in Children New Research Published in the journal Pediatrics, and reported in the Wall Street Journal 04-08-12 by Shirley Wang reveals: The obesity epidemic may be contributing to the rising...
Why is Sugar Suddenly All Over the News
If we are going to regulate sugar like alcohol and tobacco, we need a good reason to do so. And now we have it. They are one of the primary triggers of a new disease process that is devastating all modern populations that consume this type of food. As with alcohol and tobacco, sugar and HFCS are chronic toxins—you can consume them for years will no apparent ill effects until the wheels suddenly fall off decades later. In our medical practices we are now seeing the consequences of the toxic nature of sugar and HFCS.
Dr. Bill Wilson welcomes you to the CARB Syndrome project
Natural is From Nature
It’s really not a minefield if you understand the true meaning of natural—made from nature without interference or manipulation by man. Genetically modified foods are obviously not natural. Cattle and chickens fattened up with corn and other grains are not natural because this is not how these creatures evolved to eat.
Pick Your Poison
Arguing over the difference between light-colored whole wheat flour and regular white flour is like arguing over the difference between smoking cigarettes and cigars—they are both toxic. Recent research has shown that excessive fructose primarily from sucrose and HFCS...