This is the news archive of Facts are Facts.
You can find our recent articles in the section Latest.

AN UNSUSPECTED CAUSE OF DIABETES THAT COULD BE PUTTING YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN AT RISK

Diabetes is considered the ultimate lifestyle disease. Around 2 million Britons and 10 million Americans have been diagnosed with it – and it’s reckoned that nearly half those numbers again are walking around with it, but don’t realize they have it. The standard view is that diabetes is the result of diet, genetics – you’re more likely to develop it if a family member already has it – or race. But a ground-breaking new report published this week by What Doctors Don’t Tell You, the leading health journal, reveals another likely cause that could be putting many more of us at risk, and especially our young. Leading chemist Dr Lisa Landymore-Lim believes that many popular prescription and over-the-counter drugs are a significant cause of diabetes in the West. A series of clues lead her to her startling conclusions, which have enormous implications for the healthcare industry in the West. If true, it means that even popular drugs such as some antibiotics could be making us chronically sick, and, in the process, creating a whole new ‘market’ of diabetics. Dr Landymore-Lim’s report, which is based on 20 years work with diabetics and more than 12 years of pure research, is published for the first time in the December issue of What Doctors Don’t Tell You, http://www.wddty.co.uk/shop/detail.asp?id=4622

THE FIRST CLUE

The pancreas isn’t just where insulin is stored. It’s also where the body’s highest concentration of zinc is found – and it is this simple fact that marks it out as a major target for chemical attack from pharmaceutical drugs. Indeed, many popular drugs – including a well-known antibiotic, a diuretic and an antihypertensive – may be attacking the pancreas as an unexpected by-product of their primary function. Although the chemical structure of each of these drug groups is different, they all share one common feature – they will all bind to zinc in a process known as ‘chelation’, or chemical attachment. The theory is supported by the extraordinary fact that many diabetics when first diagnosed also display a clear loss of zinc in their pancreatic cells. If true, this theory suggests that we are all unwittingly creating a time-bomb that may affect our – and our children’s – long-term health. This must-read report reveals the exact drugs to avoid, so reducing your risk of developing diabetes.

THE SECOND CLUE

The idea that the depletion of our levels of zinc may be an unsuspected cause of diabetes is also supported by animal studies. Animals that are injected with zinc immediately before they are exposed to a diabetes-causing chemical never develop the condition, whereas those not given the injection do. Dr Landymore-Lim’s theory that many well-known drugs are a major cause of zinc depletion received a boost when she started researching penicillin, one of the first antibiotic agents and still one of the most popular for patients of all ages. When she analysed how penicillin worked, she also began to understand why it is that the patient also increases his or her risk of developing diabetes. Penicillin is attracted to the beta cells in the pancreas, which contain zinc. When this happens, the acid structure within the cell changes, and the delicate insulin-zinc balance is destroyed. The body then starts producing antibodies to bind and destroy the changed beta cells, which are identified as foreign, and unwelcome, agents. Again, her theory is vindicated by the discovery that many diabetic patients have these antibodies in their blood. Doctors agree that diabetes is an auto-immune disorder – but now Dr Landymore-Lim may well have discovered why.

THE THIRD CLUE

Medicine believes that diabetes may be hereditary because often children in the same family develop the condition. But there could be a far simpler explanation, and one that supports Dr Landymore-Lim’s theory. She discovered that the incidence of diabetes is twice as high in rural areas of England such as East Anglia than in populated and more polluted regions in and around London. A similar pattern is found in Scotland , where rural regions also record far higher incidence of diabetes than city and urban areas. If diabetes is hereditary, you would expect a more even spread between all regions. So what is happening in our villages? In the UK doctors are allowed to dispense their own drugs for patients who live more than a mile away from the closest pharmacy. In isolated rural communities, this is very common. As a consequence, doctors are more likely to prescribe more frequently for families that live a long way from the surgery, and especially the pharmacy. One study of prescribing habits discovered that antibiotics are being liberally prescribed to babies and children living in rural areas – the very same regions where incidence of diabetes is high, and sometimes double, compared to urban areas. This pattern is repeated throughout all regions. Areas where fewer prescriptions are written also happen to be where fewer cases of diabetes are recorded. Conversely, areas of high prescribing are also ones that have many more cases of diabetes. It’s no secret that a small handful of drugs can lead to diabetes. What has never before been discovered is that many drugs – ones that our children and us take every day – may be causing a diabetes time-bomb. All the drugs are listed in the special report featured in the next issue of What Doctors Don't Tell You, and it’s one that everyone concerned about their health needs to read.