anyone familiar with the ketogenic level of the wahls protocol? her regular protocol calls for colorful veggies and berries. the berries raise my sugar a lot unless I eat like a quarter cup. anyone read up on, tried out the wahls diet? the ketogenic version of the wahls diet? she calls for 9 cups of veggies a day. I think I could only do that if I drank quite a bit of that as juice. she is focusing on autoimmunity and mitigating it through addressing nutrient deficiencies. since LADA and some/all type 2's have an autoimmunity component, the wahls protocol is something I am investigating.
I assume in your last sentence you mean "some/all type 1's have an autoimmunity component" not type 2's?
some type 2's as well.
Type 2's don't have autoimmunity. Autoimmunity is, by definition, Type 1.
Zoe,
Actually recent research is pointing to an autoimmune root cause for T2, albeit a different one from T1.
Quoting from the article:
The root cause of the insulin resistance in type-2 diabetes is not known, but it’s associated with obesity and can run in families. Several years ago, Daniel and Shawn Winer began to speculate that different types of immune cells, including T cells and B cells, can cause inflammation in the fatty tissue that surrounds and cushions organs in the body. This inflammation occurs in mice fed a high-fat, high-calorie diet when the rapidly growing fat cells outstrip their blood supply and begin to die. (It’s also seen in humans with type-2 diabetes.) The dying cells spew their contents, and immune system cells called macrophages are summoned to clean up the mess.“This immune reaction causes havoc in the fatty tissue,” said Engleman, “and we’ve found that it involves two other immune system cells — T cells and B cells — in addition to macrophages.” The resulting onslaught by the immune system inhibits the ability of the remaining fat cells to respond to insulin and causes fatty acids to be shed into the blood. This sets in motion a physiological cascade that leads to fatty liver disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and further insulin resistance throughout the body.
Personally I'm not scientifically oriented enough to read or follow articles about tests in mice; but this article doesn't seem to the best of my understanding to be referring to an autoimmune attack on the beta cells. But more importantly is that when so many people are being misdiagnosed as Type 2, when according to our knowledge at this time Type 1 is a condition caused by an autoimmune attack on the beta cells and Type 2 is not, I feel the need to emphasize that fact. There are specific antibodies that can be tested for to determine if one is a Type 1 or Type 2 (Melitta knows the whole list I'm only familiar with the GAD which is the common one in LADA/Type 1).
Very true, T2 is not an autoimmune attack on the beta cells, but that does not mean there is not an autoimmune component to T2, at least according to this article.
I think your point about this only being about mice points up the fact that it may or may not be true in humans.
Agree on both counts. Any type of cell can be the target of an autoimmune disease, e.g., RA, MS, Lupus, etc., etc., etc. I also read the excerpt above as referring to an autoimmune attack, albeit not on the beta cells.
And the point about mice is critically important. From Jenny Ruhl on the subject of rodent-based research: ". . . rodent research . . . is often misleading because rodent blood sugar control works very differently from that of humans. That's why the press has reported hundreds of times that diabetes has been "cured" in mice though there's never been a hint of a cure that works in humans."
Jenny Ruhl, Diet 101: The Truth About Low Carb Diets (Turners Falls: Technion Books, 2008), P. 178
hi there, I am interested in Wahl's protocol, but her book is on back order. I'll receive it in January, apparently! I am a bit concerned about keeping the carbs low while getting all the nutrients that she recommends... let's work on it together!
i can't do it cuz i don't even balance my checkbook, but you could try fitday.com to track your nutrient intake or just take a multi-vitamin everyday.
Well as you might imagine, I looked at this diet. She followed her Ted talk with a book called "The Wahls Protocol." In my reading of her work she "speculates" that her diet may help autoimmune T1 but provides very little foundation for the claim. She doesn't clearly distinguish T1 or T2 and actually suggests that diabetes may be a mitochondrial problem. She repeatedly notes the benefits of low carb and ketogenic approachs for improved blood sugar control but provides basically no information on how her diet might address autoimmune T1 (or T2) and only speculates
I have to admit, I basically eat a Wahls Paleo Plus form of diet. The only real difference is that I don't exclude dairy or eggs. I consider each of Wahls diets ketogenic with the Wahls Paleo Plus being the most carb restrictive and ketogenic. Her clinical trial work is for MS and uses the Paleo Plus diet excluding dairy and eggs.
Thanks Brian for sharing! Do you manage to eat low carb on this type of diet?
Actually I'd be more interested in how you could possibly not do low carb on the Paleo Plus version. After all, no grains, legumes or potatoes and you only get two servings of starchy veggies a week and you are allowed on cup of fruits (preferably berries) a day. A cup of blueberries is less than 20g carb. How can this possibly not be low carb?
"suggests" that her diet may help T1s . . . "doesn't clearly distinguish T1 or T2" . . . I actually think her basic diet ideas are good for a number of reasons, but when she opines about cause and effect, that's what it is: opinions. The intellectual rigor is, shall we say, underwhelming. Show me some clean, well designed peer reviewed studies and I will be much more attentive.