Almost everyone in America now appears to have abnormal fatty substances- of which part is cholesterol – deposited in the walls of the arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis. These deposits, which have the same composition as the fats in the blood, may narrow the channels through which blood passes to the point that circulation is markedly decreased. Such a partial blockage, limiting the blood supply in the eyes, hastens the onset of cataracts and other abnormalities, in the legs, feet, or hands, it causes coldness, discomfort, cramps, pain, and sometimes gangrene, making amputation necessary; in the brain it may cause confusion, forgetfulness, premature senility, or strokes; and in the heart, angina or attacks known as coronary occlusion.

These fatty deposits seriously complicate such diseases as diabetes and nephrosis¹ and delay recovery from almost every illness. They may be localized as tumors, or atheromas, on the skin or be so generalized that they clog all arteries uniformly, the space left for the blood so decreased that high blood pressure results and becomes progressively more elevated as the atherosclerosis advances. High blood pressure from other causes, however, makes atherosclerosis worse.

Although atherosclerosis has been described as “universal and life-long,” it has been produced in hundreds of thousands of animals, and when the diet is made adequate, health is restored. The same is equally true of humans.

Atherosclerosis² is reversible. Deposits containing cholesterol can often be seen in the skin around the eyes as yellow fatty accumulations; these tiny tumors quickly disappear after the diet is improved. A woman who consulted me had dozens of them under pendulous breasts; six weeks later none remained. On one occasion I was asked to see a ten-year-old child who had more than 200 such deposits on her back and abdomen and a blood cholesterol above 1000 mg; after her diet was made adequate, the deposits seemed to melt away. A retired postman, brought to see me in a wheelchair, had such constant, severe pain in his legs because of atherosclerosis that his physician had recommended amputation; two months later he walked in to see me. Such cases indicate that this problem can be corrected.

Countless experiments with healthy volunteers, survivors of heart attacks, persons in prisons and mental institutions, and innumerable animals show that when fatty substances are being deposited in the arterial walls, the blood cholesterol is invariably high and in abnormally large particles and that the fat in the blood which is combined with phosphorus, known as phospholipids, or lecithin, is too low. Yet these abnormalities are corrected as soon as all nutrients needed to utilize fats are supplied. Atherosclerosis and such seemingly unrelated problems as gallstones and much obesity appear to be caused by a combined undersupply of many nutrients essential before fats can be used normally. Cholesterol is merely the innocent little pig that got stuck in the barn door. More on Those "Cholesterol" Problems

One of those modern diseases that evades full understanding, more and more people are falling victim to is diabetes. What is missing in most people – diabetics and almost everyone else – is understanding of the condition and how it comes about.

When anyone is diagnosed as pre-diabetic or diabetic, they are most often warned about their sugar and refined carbohydrate intake (refined carbs turn into sugar too) but this is only a part of the problem.

Here’s a basic outline of what happens.

Your adrenals produce cortisol whenever you are stressed – mentally or physically. They’re your “fight or flight” glands that produce this hormone called cortisol.

Cortisol is also an anti-inflammatory so, if you’re producing cortisol, there’s inflammation. When there’s inflammation, that’s stress on your body and the adrenal glands do their job of producing cortisol. This is good.

The problem comes in when there’s underlying inflammation going on constantly in your body. This inflammation can be caused by stressors such as viruses, bacteria, metals, chemicals, yeast, candida, food sensitivities – you name it, so many things can cause inflammation – even a spine out of whack.

Cortisol is a hormone. Hormones are the chemical messengers of your body. If you have inflammation, under ideal conditions, the adrenals send out the cortisol to your cells. On each and every cell, there are “docking sites” called receptors. This is where the cells can receive the message, carry out the command “decrease inflammation” and send a message back to the adrenals “job done”.

If those receptor sites are blocked due to toxins (such as caused by the stressors mentioned earlier), the cortisol can’t get into the receptor sites and so the communication gets lost.

Because there’s no reply coming from the cell, the adrenals keep pumping out cortisol (hormone = chemical messenger) to deal with the inflammation, which never gets received or acknowledged so the adrenals keep sending out the cortisol.

Much like mailing a letter to the correct recipient and it just never gets there so you mail another one and another one and another one, but they never arrive and so on.

When this frantic attempt at getting the message to the cell to decrease inflammation continues on and on and on without any response, the cortisol begins to store fat around the vital organs of your body in an attempt to “provide future energy to protect the organs” because there is perceived danger to them.

However, this creates a danger for those organs too and can lead to other more serious disease such as liver, heart, pancreas problems. This is why people start to get a spare tire around their middle. It’s one of cortisol’s jobs, to store fat “just in case”.

Many people try dozens of diets to lose weight and may or may not lose the weight but it invariably returns. That’s because the source of the problem has not been addressed,  which could simply be the overproduction of cortisol due to unresolved inflammation.

Hormonal Imbalances

When the cortisol keeps pumping out to handle the constant inflammation, this does not allow for other hormones to “kick in” such as your sleep and sex hormones (melatonin, serotonin and DHEA – precursor to testosterone and estrogen).

You can call this a hormone or chemical imbalance – take your pick.

In most cases, the symptoms are treated or you’re told you have a chemical imbalance and you’re given some sort of a drug. Problem is that is not addressing the source of the problem and, in fact, worsens things because taking synthetic things will worsen the imbalance as the receptor sites get blocked with more and more garbage, making it more and more impossible for the chemical messengers to get into the cells through the receptor sites.

This then leads to weight issues, energy problems, sleep problems, mood swings, hot  flashes, lowered sex drive, depression, night sweats, etc, etc.

What has this to do with diabetes?  More on Do You Understand Diabetes and How it is Created?

Excerpted from the Office of Dietary Supplements, a department of the US Government.

Magnesium: What is it?

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body and is essential to good health. Approximately 50% of total body magnesium is found in bone. The other half is found predominantly inside cells of body tissues and organs. Only 1% of magnesium is found in blood, but the body works very hard to keep blood levels of magnesium constant.

Magnesium is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. More on More About Calcium's Balancing Partner, Magnesium

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