Comments on: Ruminations on the halted ACCORD study

By: Ev Gr

Ev Gr — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:42:18 +0000

Wow, I give firm Kudos to the censors who deleted the statistics from this article:

First: THREE out of ONE THOUSAND people died. This number was ONE-THIRD LESS then what ACCORD expected. Real epidemic on our hands.

Second: For those THREE people who died we do NOT know what their blood sugar numbers were because this is a BLIND study.

Lastly: For those people who claim that Insulin is harmful, it may be for people WITHOUT diabetes, but for those people with diabetes…READ MY LIPS: THEY CANNOT MAKE ENOUGH INSULIN TO LIVE. They have TWO Choices: A. Die without Insulin or B: Live a normal life WITHOUT any problems due to insulin because they are not taking excess of it.

And your point is?

By: Jackie Chase RD

Jackie Chase RD — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:38:37 +0000

Please do not blame the dietitian for high carb diets. Most people forget that a diet order is a legal prescription and dietitians have to follow the doctors order. Not all dietitians believe in the high carb diet approach to diabetes. It is however hard to buck the system when insurances and Medicare will only pay for the “evidence based diabetic protocol”.

I understand. Point taken.

Cheers–

MRE

By: Russell

Russell — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:02:07 +0000

Of course: ACCORD wan’t testing just the effects on CHD deaths of normal or near normal bloodsugar it was equally testing the effects on CHD deaths of the ACCORD program for lowering bloodsugar.
What is stunning is that I hadn’t seen the hyper-insulin hypothesis before I arrived here while hunting for explanations for what went wrong in ACCORD.
But my impression is that none of the posters here had panicked about ACCORD, that no one had decided they’d better raise their A1c to ADA levels AND that no one here has reached normal through ACCORD-like measures.
What I wonder is, on the one hand, WILL anyone “out there” be frightened away from normalizing by ACCORD, especailly those following a non-ACCORD path and, on the other hand, do many people reach normal using ACCORD-like measures who weren’t in ACCORD? In other words, is ACCORD likely to have a real effect on real people’s goals and methods?
Ironically, I didn’t know this site before my search for ACCORD explanations brought me here, because I have been low carb only since late October, so the ACCORD debacle has at least that as a silver lining — but we can hope that it shakes up the paradigm (in the right direction).

I don’t think there is a big worry about the vast unwashed masses of people being put off by the ACCORD results. Most will never hear of them. I’m more worried about physicians being put off of helping their patients work to achieve closely controlled blood sugars.

Cheers–

MRE

By: Razwell

Razwell — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:59:54 +0000

Dr. Eades

I do respect the fact that you are a real doctor and have to deal with the stresses of giving patients answers and quickly.

I’m sorry for the trolling. Some things are too serious to troll about. I don’t know enough to comment about the existence of a Metabolic Advantage.

Also I wish they would make progress as to the REAL cause of CHD. I certainly don’t want to get it. I wish the corruption of the national health organizations agendas would stop preventing the doctors who have something to offer to get their message out and the real results of these trials out.

The real cause of CHD could be something Anthony is missing, Orthodoxy is missing , and the Taubes camp is missing.

My trolling before was all in good fun. I’m sorry.

No problem. Apology accepted.

Cheers–

MRE

By: Alicia Vincent

Alicia Vincent — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:46:09 +0000

I’ll ditto what Dave Dixon says. After reading Taubes’ book, I say that the answer to the “surprising” results of the ACCORD study lies in Chapter 10 about the role of insulin. Insulin in and of itself can be a harmful substance. What I don’t understand is why so few people seem to be aware of this…especially in the media. I just read an article in the Economist discussing the ACCORD study (usually they are a fairly serious bunch) and not one mention was made regarding insulin as the culprit. Wonder what the explanation of these results will be in 6-8 weeks after they get a chance to write up their hypotheses.

I wonder myself.

By: Richard Nikoley

Richard Nikoley — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:09:45 +0000

Dr: Eades:

I posted a comment earlier, but it has not shown up. It says “awaiting moderation,” but other comments have appeared since then. I’d like to be a commenter and contribute, but I’d like to have some confidence I won’t be wasting my time.

Hi Richard–

I wrote a post a couple of weeks or so ago stating that I wasn’t going to be able to answer comments individually as I had been doing. The time commitment is too much now that I’ve got a book contract to deal with. What I’ve started doing is posting comments that are comments as they come in. Questions go to the back of the line until I have the time to deal with them. I could simply post all comments, whether comments or questions, as they come in without a response to either. Which would you prefer?

Cheers–

MRE

By: David LaCivita

David LaCivita — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:13:10 +0000

Dr. Mike, Something hit me after reading this. The doctors don’t believe their patients will make a life style adjustment or stay on the adjustment. So why not give them a pill that a sales rep has told them will work? Generally, I bet they are right, lifestyle change is difficult to do and maintain, especially in the US (Sugar is everywhere!). I don’t want to switch the blame here, I think I want to add more, there is enough to go around. The Gov., food industry, lawyers, doctors, advertising… How can the common man survive?!

By using his brain.

By: Angel_Q

Angel_Q — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:58:52 +0000

I saw that same article about this study in the paper, and when I got to the “we used lots of drugs” part, I knew that was probably the problem.

My fiance introduced me to Protein Power last June, and since then, I’ve lost weight, I’m sleeping better, my nails are stronger, my skin is better … low-carb is such good medicine! And I would not be diagnosed as diabetic, either, even though I have a family history of it. I’ve given away 4 sets of PP and Lifeplan to people I love who need to read them … and none of them have. (sigh) I’ll just have to go on being a good example, along with my fiance. Thanks for disseminating all the good info, Dr. Eades.

And thank you for buying all the books.

Cheers–

MRE

By: Nils

Nils — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:38:35 +0000

Another thought: If you try to lower the average blood sugar down to the “normal” range when the body’s natural regulating mechanisms have been put out of action, how low do the inevitable low levels go? Do those sudden deaths come at times when the blood sugar levels are just too low? what if an infarction hits at an unnaturally low bg – will it be deadlier than otherwise?

Usually the lower levels are into the normal range – they typically don’t fall drastically. I don’t think these lowered blood sugars have anything to do with sudden death from heart attacks. Sudden death is usually caused by the infarct hitting an area of the heart that is important in the conduction of the electrical impulse that stimulates the heart to beat in a rhythmic and coordinated fashion. When this impulse is short circuited, the heart fails to beat properly (ventricular fibrillation), leading to loss of blood to the brain and everywhere else and often death

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:17:45 +0000

Hi Dr. Mike,

Thanks for all of the great information. I check in everyday and enjoy reading your posts.

I was wondering if you have ever written a post on arthritis medications such as Humira (Adalimumab) or Enbrel (Etanercept).

-Paul

Not yet.