Thomas Smith began reviewing scientific literature after conventional medicine failed him in controlling diabetes. Smith found research that shows dietary toxins impair cell membrane function. These toxins include trans fatty acids and refined sugars. Cells begin to have trouble absorbing nutrients, and the blood sugar rises. Over time, this results in chronic elevated blood and urine sugar levels. Sounds like a growing epidemic, doesn't it?

This damage to cell membranes, caused by a poor diet, can be repaired. The diabetic syndrome can be cured by eliminating all processed fats and oils. The protocol calls for supplementing high-dose Omega-3 fatty acids. This protocol normalizes blood sugars because the body is continuously repairing cell membranes by using the fats and oils available in the diet. One caution: the speed of recovery is related to the length of the illness. Some Type 2 diabetics may require up to one year for dramatic reductions in blood sugar.

A gaping hole exists between conventional medicine and diet. Conventional medicine claims that the cause of Type 2 diabetes is unknown. Medical doctors, as practitioners of conventional medicine, are not trained to explain how it happened. They treat symptoms with medicine. The business of medicine is medicine. The business of diabetes would be devasted if the cure was as simple as diet. The explanation Thomas Smith provides in his empirical studies is fascinating and I encourage anybody with competing or supporting evidence to open the debate.

Prior to the advent of insulin, in the 1920's, diabetes was treated with a low-carbohydrate diet. These diets were aimed at controlling sugar in the urine, a stark contrast to the current ADA suggested diet of low-fat and high-carbohydrate. In fact the diet recommended by Dr. Elliot Joslin consisted of approximately 20% protein, 75% fat and 5% from carbohydrates.

Well in the early century - this diet seemed to hold most diabetics on course just fine without the magic pills available today. It is also remarkable that the secondary complications and epidemic growth of diabetes was not a hot topic, either. Researchers decided to give Dr. Joslin's diet another go in a modern environment. The results of this low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (LCKD) improved glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes such that diabetes medications were discontinued or reduced in most participants - 17 out of 21 completing the study. The original study had 28 participants, with 8 dropouts. The LCKD can be very effective at lowering blood glucose. Participants also experienced reductions in body weight, waist circumference, and body fat.

It's funny how this study, conducted in 2005, produced results seen almost 100 years prior. LCKD appears to be a reasonable cure for type 2 diabetes. If most diabetes was adequately treated back in days of 1923 without the assistance of pills and insulin - why is it such a mess nowadays? Where did we go wrong?

Would you like to reduce your daily insulin requirements by a third or stop all diabetes medicines? Lofty goals, yes - but given the Eat To Live program - it's quite possible.

Regardless of my attempts to downgrade insulin dose in the last 15 years - my blood sugars would not take the hint. Had I known Dr. Fuhrman had figured this one out long ago - instead of badgering feats of diabetic noncompliance I would have picked up his book, Eat To Live. Dr. Fuhrman explains the best diet for humans to live longer in good health is also the best diet for one with diabetes. A diet comprised mostly in nature's perfect foods-green vegetables, beans, eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, garlic, raw nuts and seeds and limited fresh fruit, allows for people to eat as much as they want and still lose weight, drop their cholesterol, and their blood pressure relatively quickly.

The Eat To Live dietary style is a vegetable-based diet designed to maximize nutrient per calorie density. It is the most effective treatment for those with diabetes, more effective than drugs. For a type 2 diabetic, this approach has resulted in complete reversal of the diabetic condition in the vast majority of patients and for a type 1 diabetic it solves the problems with excessive highs and lows and prevents the typical dangerous complications that too frequently befall those with diabetes. Joel Fuhrman, M.D is a board certified family physician specializing in nutritional medicine for overweight and diabetic patents.

As far back as the 1930's, both mice and men were scientifically proven to outlive their well-fed peers. Albeit under drastic (and closely monitored) circumstances calorie-restricted diets had participants outliving their peers by as much as 40%. How does a diet verging on the brink of starvation extend a lifespan?

Researchers have found that persistent hunger promotes long life and identified a critical gene that specifically links calorie restriction (CR) to longevity. Genetic evidence has finally emerged in labs to explain the increased longevity in response to calorie restriction. This link was also identified between calorie restriction and aging. Of course this discovery immediately provoked the scientists to ponder the potential of the next generation of drugs to bestow the health benefits of calorie restriction without the discipline.

Fasting dates back as far as ancient Greek philosophers. Heck, even Mark Twain was a firm believer in fasting. In one of his essays he wrote, "A little starvation can really do more for the average sick man than can the best medicines and the best doctors. I do not mean a restricted diet; I mean total abstention from food for one or two days."

The work was funded by grants from the NIH, American Diabetes Association and the Ellison Medical Research Foundation. I graduated from Ward Melville High School with Brooke Ellison in 1996. It's fascinating to see my peers lending a hand in scientific research. Good for you, Brooke!