The real No. 1 killer of diabetics (It’s NOT heart disease)
If you’ve been told that the No.1 cause of death among diabetics is heart disease, you may want to listen in.
As certified health coach and best-selling author Bill Gottlieb points out, there’s an underlying and overlooked health problem in people with diabetes that actually precedes deadly heart disease.
I’m talking about kidney disease.
In Bill’s Essential Age-Eraser Protocol, he cites the University of Washington study that revealed this important connection. The researchers analyzed 10 years of health data from more than 15,000 people and found that 42 percent of the participating diabetes patients had kidney disease.
And that’s what makes these two additional findings so striking:
- Death rate for diabetes patients with no kidney disease was 11 percent.
- Death rate for diabetes patients with kidney disease was significantly higher: 31 percent!
“In other words,” Bill says, “most people who die from diabetes die because of kidney disease. And it’s so deadly because kidney damage causes high blood pressure, which in turn, causes heart attack and stroke.”
As this research shows, if you have diabetes, preventing kidney disease is paramount—and Bill explains there’s one easy and natural way to do that…
An unexpected guard of your kidney health
Bill notes there’s one important kidney-protector that most people don’t know about: Soybeans.
Dozens of studies show that soybeans are what Bill calls a “nutritional ally” for those who have diabetes and kidney disease. He cites a study where researchers divided 41 diabetes patients with diabetic nephropathy—the medical name for diabetic kidney disease—into two groups.
For four years, one group followed a diet with protein mostly from meat, while the second group ate a diet with protein equally from meat, vegetables, and soy. Bill notes that at the end of the study, those in the soy group had a dramatic reduction in proteinuria—the presence of excessive, damaging protein from the kidneys.
And Bill adds even more impressive details: “The soy group also had a reduction in urinary levels of albumin, a biomarker of weakened kidneys. The level of albumin in the soy group was seven times lower than in the meat group. The soy group also had levels of creatinine—another biomarker of kidney damage—that was three times lower than the meat group.”
Plus, the soy group had big drops in risk markers for heart disease, including the blood fats LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglycerides, and in C-reactive protein—a biomarker for the low-grade chronic inflammation that drives heart disease.
According to the researchers, these results were “nothing short of amazing”.
Eating less meat and more soy is easy
Bill recommends that diabetic patients eat less meat and more soy foods, such as:
- Soy burger (one patty, 13 grams)
- Soy chips (one cup, 7 grams)
- Soy milk (one cup, 6 grams)
- Soy nuts (one cup, 11 grams)
- Cooked soy pasta (one-half cup, 13 grams)
- Edamame (soybean pods) (one cup, 11 grams)
“Edamame—popular in Japan—is my favorite way to get soy,” Bill says. “To make it, steam soybeans for five minutes in their pods, remove the pods, and eat the beans. You can even sprinkle them with a little sea salt. It’s great as an appetizer or snack.”
Other soy foods that Bill recommends include tofu (coagulated soy milk pressed into soft white blocks), miso (fermented soybean paste), tamari (fermented soy sauce), tempeh (fermented soybeans in a burger-like patty), and soy protein powder.
Further details about all these soy sources—including brand names and dosage information—can be found in Bill’s Essential Age-Eraser Protocol. Click here to get started today or to learn more about this comprehensive online learning tool.
SOURCES
“Kidney Disease and Increased Mortality Risk in Type 2 Diabetes” Journal of the American Society of Nephrology 2013; 24(2): 302-308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1681/ASN.2012070718