Another very important condition which can have a massive impact upon our health and wellbeing, and influence our overall life in ways that we may not even begin to imagine, is hypoglycaemia. Like the digestive tract problems and their widespread prevalence discussed in the previous chapter, hypoglycaemia, or more precisely, reactive hypoglycaemia, is affecting the populations of the developed world in pandemic proportions and yet, when was the last time that your physician explained this to you?
Well, let me try to explain it you now as your awareness and understanding of this condition may reveal to you what you have been trying to understand about your health, and which has been eluding you for a long time. Understanding hypoglycaemia and knowing how to go about effectively treating the condition, unless you already do, may just end up being the single best thing that you have ever done or will ever do for yours and your family’s health, as it has in fact been with tens of thousands of my patients over the past three decades.
Hypoglycaemia simply means low levels of sugar, or more precisely glucose, in the blood, following your ingestion of carbohydrates containing foods. But how can that be, don’t carbohydrates raise your blood glucose? Yes they do, and that is where the problem begins, but let me first explain some important facts about this very important and very often problematic topic, carbohydrates.
The carbohydrates that we consume in our meals and snacks must get broken down by our digestive tracts into a much smaller molecule called glucose before they can be absorbed via our intestinal villi into our bloodstream and be delivered to the trillions of cells in our body which depend on glucose for their energy needs.
Carbohydrates are often referred to as simple or complex carbohydrates depending on how many molecules are stuck together to form the chain of molecules which becomes the carbohydrate.
Simple carbohydrates are made up of fewer molecules which do not take as long to digest and separate, and thus can be absorbed easily and quickly and can be a source of quick energy to our body when this is required.
The simplest of all commonly ingested carbohydrates is our common table sugar which consists of only two molecules, and is referred to as a disaccharide (‘di-’ as in consisting of two molecules).
The two simpler, one molecule substances (monosaccharides) that bond chemically together to form sugar, are called glucose and fructose. Fructose is also commonly found in fruit. A third monosaccharide is galactose which together with glucose makes up lactose, the disaccharide found in milk. For the sake of simplicity in the following examples, let us just remember that table sugar is made up of two simple molecules, glucose and fructose. Let us concentrate for the time being on the glucose molecule.
Common sugar is found in almost every food these days whether it has been added to sweeten the taste of the product or is naturally occurring – either way, whether you ingest it by eating an ice cream which will also probably contain many other not terribly natural or healthy ingredients, or in a glass of freshly squeezed natural orange juice, sugar is still sugar.
Sugar is therefore a very common, simple substance made up by only two molecules, which as you can imagine, does not require too long for our saliva and digestive tracts to separate into its two molecular components, glucose and fructose and to get absorbed into our blood.
Indeed a very quick digestive task for our bodies, when you consider that some of the more complex carbohydrates such as starches and cellulose found in some plants, roots and seeds (polysaccharides) are sometimes made up of long chains of tightly packed molecules that can add up to many thousands, and thus obviously require a lot longer to digest and absorb into our bloodstream than do soft drinks, biscuits or cakes.
Case History no. 12 – Peta’s personal testimonial. After suffering from abnormally heavy periods (menorrhagia) and severe endometriosis for over 20 years, a friend highly recommended I make an appointment with Bruno. Despite having seen countless doctors, specialists and naturopaths, I was hopeful Bruno could assist as I had seen my friend’s health greatly improve in a short timeframe under Bruno’s care. I am eternally grateful to my friend for recommending such a great naturopath to assist me on my path to great health. From the onset, Bruno was extremely caring, helpful, knowledgeable and compassionate. Bruno listened to my every word and asked many questions to confirm what he was seeing in my eyes and from my body in general. Bruno recommended a specific diet in conjunction with tablets appropriate for my health issues. Bruno carefully explained what foods I had to eliminate and why. I greatly appreciated Bruno explaining technical health information in an easy to understand way. Due to the severity of my conditions, it took about four months before I started to feel human again. I felt better than I had in 30 years. My periods were regular and only lasted five days (previously, I had bled very heavily for six months straight). For the first time in 20 years, my iron levels were consistently good and I didn’t need weekly iron injections or blood transfusions. I found I became very sensitive to foods I had eliminated which made it difficult to eat out with friends but I was determined to look after myself. I tried very hard to resist friend’s food temptations. Due to work stresses, I sometimes had bad weeks not taking the recommended tablets and not eating appropriately. Bruno was always incredibly positive, helpful and caring, getting me back on track. Work pressure resulted in poor quality of sleep. Bruno tweaked my tablets and food and I finally started getting quality sleep. I was finally waking up rested and ready to tackle the day. After being under Bruno’s care for about 12 months, I decided to move away from Sydney. I was very concerned about continuing on my wellness path without regular naturopath appointments with Bruno. I enquired whether I could come and see Bruno every few months as I wanted to continue under his care. No problem is ever too big for Bruno – he treats patients all over the world so we could have appointments via phone and I could order my tablets from him. Due to stress from the move, I fell back into old and bad eating habits. Bruno helped get me back on track. After a few months, I developed extremely bad psoriasis on my scalp. It was extremely sore and I found it very difficult to touch or comb my hair. My hair was falling out in large clumps. I thought it was due to Brisbane’s unusually hot and humid summer. I sought assistance from doctors and specialists and I was given antibiotics and told to apply cream regularly and that it would clear up when the weather cooled down. Six months later, the weather had cooled down but my psoriasis had spread to my ears and nostrils. In desperation, I sought Bruno’s assistance. I wish I had contacted him months earlier! Within a few weeks the psoriasis had greatly improved and within a few months, it had completely cleared up. Even though this consultation was over the phone, Bruno immediately knew what was causing the psoriasis and what I needed to do to restore good health. I cannot thank Bruno enough for his invaluable assistance, guidance, care and patience while I have been under his care. Do not hesitate, call Bruno today! Peta E. |
COMMENTS: Peta’s long debilitating symptoms (mainly hormonal, food sensitivities, psoriasis and low iron count) were resolved without any direct hormonal nor skin interventions, but rather by balancing her sugar metabolism and digestive issues – of which Peta, like most people, was largely unaware – and with the use of our diet and our supplements, The Marevich Way, to help these causative problems. |
From my experience, together with the intestinal absorption conditions discussed in the previous chapter, it is my professional opinion that these two conditions combine to either directly or indirectly cause the overwhelmingly large number of fatigue, pain, all kinds of disease, suffering and premature deaths suffered in our world today. Big assumptions or conclusion you may think.
When I first started observing the strange but vast effects that this condition was having with our patients many years ago, hypoglycaemia was, and it kind of still is, considered by medicine mainly as a glucose low in our blood, most commonly seen with diabetics who have taken an excessive amount of medicinal insulin to lower the high blood glucose levels that occur with people who suffer with diabetes. Their blood’s glucose tends to raise too high (hyperglycaemia) for several possible reasons, but mostly because their pancreases are no longer producing as much insulin as they should and also their cells have become desensitised to what insulin should do, which is to allow the glucose in the blood to enter inside these living cells that make up our bodies.
These days science is far more aware that there are also other causes apart from excessive medicinal insulin that will cause the blood sugar to become unstable and fall more rapidly that it should. The condition has been given names such as reactive hypoglycaemia, low blood sugar, insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome. They are really all one and the same problem.
The glucose in our blood can be easily determined even at home with a finger prick and an electronic blood glucose meter, which can be purchased relatively inexpensively in pharmacies by anyone, thus making remaining ignorant of this condition less necessary.
Even then, a large percentage of the world’s population is unaware of the fact that they are diabetic, despite doctors and nutritionists having been raising awareness and concerns about this condition for decades now. Quite rightly so, that they would raise it, as modern medicine at the moment is clearly losing the fight against type 2 diabetes, also referred to as adult onset diabetes, and the vast multitude of other problems, suffering and mortality it causes, including at least doubling the risk of early death.
As at 2015, International Diabetes Federation stated that there are approximately 415 million adult diabetics in the world, one out of every 11 people.
In Australia, according to the same diabetes monitoring body, there were some 1.2 million diabetics known and registered (one out of every 20 Australians). Current estimates are that, in addition to the 1.2 million diabetics, there are another four million ‘pre-diabetic’ in Australia, (one out of every six Australians, whether young or old).
Statistics indicate 280 people develop diabetes every day in Australia, that’s one every five minutes! |
Unfortunately the real figures are almost certainly far more sinister, as it is thought that the real total numbers of diabetics in the world could be anywhere between 20% to 50% higher when taking into account large numbers of undiagnosed people who are diabetic but they don’t know it. The planet’s major monitoring agency, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has declared diabetes as an epidemic and predicts that “without major changes, as many as 1 in 3 (33%) US adults could have diabetes by 2050”.
There are no reliable estimates as to how many people are hypoglycaemic, which could be defined as the ‘pre-pre-diabetic’ stage, in Australia or anywhere in the world. One will have been pre-diabetic before having become diabetic. Whilst not every hypoglycaemic will necessary become pre-diabetic and not every pre-diabetic will develop diabetes, it is safe to assume that every diabetic was once pre-diabetic and hypoglycaemic before that.
Whilst there is some statistical consolation that not every hypoglycaemic will become pre-diabetic and not every pre-diabetic will progress to diabetes, it is certainly nothing to be too relaxed about.
For every registered diabetic person in the previously mentioned statistics, the figures show that there are at least 2.5 other pre-diabetic people waiting to become diabetic. My personal clinical estimates, developed by observation of tens of thousands of my patients’ reactions to different diets and supplements, is that for every pre-diabetic person there are, conservatively, at least three people whose health problems are, at one level or another. being directly affected by hypoglycaemia.
Case Study no. 13– Andrew’s personal testimonial. Some ten years ago my health was suffering. I was overweight with high insulin levels and given the recent loss of a family member, was also depressed. I went to my local GP and went on a mainstream antidepressant. The side effects were enormous, including driving to work and nearly falling asleep at the wheel one day. The GP advised a stimulant drug to stay awake. I was not keen to take further drugs and sensed that I was spiralling downwards with failed diets. Not knowing what to do I thought a naturopath was worth a try and discovered Bruno. I was sceptical at first but he helped me get off the antidepressants and go on a natural alternative with no side effects. Through a complete change in diet and supplement program I lost weight, improved cholesterol and my sense of wellbeing also improved significantly. Type 2 diabetes was no longer a threat. Prior to starting the program Bruno said that blood test results would change and improve and after being on the program they did as expected. I was amazed and haven’t looked back since. I know more now about what foods to avoid and what to include and the importance of exercise. There is so much misinformation out there but now I am more educated and discerning. I am a real life example of health success in a modern world. Thanks Bruno. Andrew C. |
COMMENTS: Andrew also suffered with a large variety of food intolerances and sensitivities when he first came to see me. He had been on numerous diet programs to try and control these problems and their debilitanting ettecs but with only limited success. Helping improve Andrew’s blood-sugar metabolism and thus serotonin levels by following The Marevich Way helped him get off the medicines that were not really achieving this for him and avoid their strong side effects. The healing and stabilising of the digestive tract helped improve his immune system and, yes, he has been quite successful and continues to take good care of his health. |
These figures add up to at least 12 million hypoglycaemic in Australia. This is, at least, every second person! Every second person in Australia and therefore almost certainly in most of the rest of world, suffering with an undiagnosed condition which is likely to be already contributing to a multitude of other clinical or subclinical conditions going undiagnosed, and thus unhelped by the health system. This also means that more likely than not, most people who have been diagnosed with a health condition have most likely received a diagnosis and prescribed with medicinal drugs primarily based on their symptoms, rather than the true causative factors, in which poor intestinal permeability and reactive hypoglycaemia are almost certainly playing a leading role. This further means that the patients’ real causative problems have been left untreated and are thus most likely still slowly brewing in the background to develop into something more serious like perhaps, eventually, diabetes but perhaps even something worse.
Unfortunately, the real cause of most illnesses will never get official diagnosed nor recognised as having been originated or aided in their progress by hypoglycaemia nor pre-diabetes |
And even if these conditions are picked up via blood tests done to determine the cause of their illness, they may only get referred to as just one more, unrelated problem with little or no relationship to the patients’ official condition or illness.
The most common causes of death are cardiovascular diseases and cancers. These may not have been necessarily caused directly by hypoglycaemia or pre-diabetes in every case. However, almost certainly they would have been made worse, further complicated, and their recovery or remission hindered, slowed down and perhaps even blocked by one of these two glucose metabolism conditions which the overwhelming percentage of the world is affected by.
The patient will have been instead, whilst fighting to get better, more likely been diagnosed by their doctor with a condition that more reflects their symptoms and have either been prescribed painkillers, blood pressure medication, cholesterol lowering drugs, anti-inflammatories, antacids, hormonal replacements, steroids, heart medicines, antibiotics or worse, anticancer drugs. Again, these drugs may be necessary for some patients with an advanced illness and resulting poor overall general health. Embarking on a “natural-medicines-only” treatment may at this advanced stage be too slow or risky. The dangerous side effects of the drugs may be a lesser risk than not taking them at all.
Let us clarify how our blood sugar or glucose should ideally behave and what often goes wrong. At fasting, before having any food in the morning, blood glucose level is considered normal, according to the recommended range figures printed on most blood test, if it reads somewhere between 3.5 to 5.5 mmol/L (millimoles of glucose in every one litre of blood). Different pathology laboratories and different countries may use a slightly different range such as 4.0 to 6.0. Also, mmol/L is a form of measurement used in Australia and many other parts of the world, such as parts of Europe and Asia, whereas other countries such as the US use mg/dL instead (milligrams of glucose in a decilitre of blood) just to make things a little more interesting. It is not hard though to convert mmol/L to mg/dL. Just multiply by 18 (i.e. 4 mmol/L x 18= 72 mg/dL and 6 mmol/L x 18= 108 mg/dL).
At the testing laboratory, if your fasting blood glucose is higher than the recommend high level (6.1mmol/L or higher) and, after having been given 75 g of glucose to drink and after waiting two more hours, the reading is now above 11 mmol/L then you will generally be officially declared as a type 2 diabetic and probably be prescribed drugs and hopefully nutritional and exercise advice to try and improve your readings.
Again, quite rightly so because the problems associated with diabetes can be quite serious and should of course be avoided. Apart from probably simply making one’s life statistically shorter than the average population as well as less enjoyable, diabetics are the most common victims of kidney failure, lower limb amputation and adult blindness.
Other serious concerns are nerve damage, heart disease and stroke, the world’s biggest killers. Fortunately adult onset diabetes is called so because it can take many years, 20, 30 or even more to slowly develop before one is diagnosed accordingly, Having said that, the average age of discovering that one is now officially diabetic has been alarmingly coming down over the last few years. The average estimated age for the onset of adult diabetes is 54 to 55 years old. Young ones are however not completely risk free, as it is also estimated that 12 out of 100,000 people will develop adult onset diabetes much earlier with the average age of this group being only 14 years young! Worrying figures? Of course.
However, even though there is the risk that one day in the not too distant future this condition could also become a teenagers’ and perhaps even a childhood condition, at least for the moment we know that in most cases one has many years before its official diagnosis to try and do something about it.
How? Well we all know that prevention is better than cure but the difficult part is that it is generally not so easy to work hard at eating healthy, deprive ourselves of foods and drinks to which the world as a whole is addicted, to try prevent a condition that you may never ever develop and miss out on all the fun. After all, your last blood test may actually have shown your fasting blood glucose levels to be well within the goal posts shown on the report and there is a chance that it may not deviate too greatly as time goes on and as you age. At least this is probably how most of us rationalise.
Case Study no. 14 – Stephanie’s personal testimonial. With Bruno’s help, in the last 18 months I have been able to lose 50 kgs, clear my skin and rebalance my whole body. My whole life has changed thanks to Bruno’s well-balanced approach to health. I have struggled all my life with my weight and many doctors have told me that to lose weight would be almost impossible due to hormonal imbalances, however, with Bruno’s supplements, he has been able to improve my hormone imbalance and help me drop nearly six dress sizes. I have also been able to subdue the anxiety and depression I suffered before. Every appointment he monitors closely what the whole body is doing and suggests adjustments in diet/supplements to make sure everything in the body is healthy. I have never felt healthier, fitter or been as slim in my entire life and I know I owe it all to Bruno and his amazing naturopathy knowledge and skills. It’s set me up for the rest of my life to never want to go back to the way I was and also being able to maintain all that has been accomplished. Stephanie D. |
COMMENTS: Stephanie’s dogged determination to get rid of her unwanted weight was made a lot easier by her strict compliance to The Marevich Way program of correct eating and supplements. Her regular exercise routine also contributed greatly to her fantastic results. Improving her sugar metabolism made this great effort more possible as hypoglycaemia will make it almost impossible to control ones serotonin, leptin and dopamine hormones making the addiction to sugars very difficult to break. This then perpetuates the “try to diet” followed by hunger,frustration, boredom and depression followed by seeking relief by overindulging in the wrong foods again followed by guilt and putting on more weight and eventually the decision to go back to the diet again, making the cycle almost impossible to break. One of the most common expression of gratitude that we hear from many patients isn’t “thank you for getting rid of my migraines” or “thank you for giving me a perfect skin” (results which by the way we have a great deal of success with), but instead “thank you for helping me remove the shackles that had me enslaved to sugar. These days I no longer need it and I can decide what I want to do, no different than eating a tomato or a cucumber”. By taking these actions during a relatively young age Stephanie has very importantly reduced her statistical chances of diabetes and thus other possibly serious conditions in the future. |
What if I told you that the probability of diabetes can actually be determined way, way before you are 54 or 55 years old in most people? And not only by looking at your fasting sugar levels as these may take many years to creep up above the recommended figures.
It can even be determined a lot earlier than when first hearing from a good doctor that your blood glucose, although within the range, is beginning to creep too close for comfort to the high range and starts to suspect a pre-diabetic condition. Yes, although diagnosing pre-diabetes is still better than having waited to find out that your blood glucose is skyrocketing and you have been diabetic for who knows how many years, even the event of pre-diabetes could have been foreseen many years before. If one is pre-diabetic, they are not just outside the periphery of a war zone, they are already where bombs are being dropped and already at a high risk of being injured by the same projectiles as the ones intended for those in the middle of the conflict.
Whilst the fasting glucose level is one indicator of impaired blood glucose metabolism, what your glucose does after you have had your first meal and broken your fast is also vitally important but unfortunately very disregarded and under-monitored by most health professionals.
Let us say for the sake of the example that you are still a long way away from the statistical age of onset of diabetes, 54 to 55 years old. Let us say that you are somewhere between 18 and 50 years of age and your fasting glucose is somewhere well within the required 4 to 6 mmol/L , say a very good level of 5. Let us say that you had a blood test only because you like to keep a check on your health or because you have one of the many conditions that drive people to see doctors, and had a general blood test done to gather further information to help identify the source of your condition. It could be as simple as not feeling so well or energetic lately, suffering with the occasional headache or some other pain or an irregular hormonal system down to being afflicted with another already identified condition such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, blood pressure, high cholesterol levels etc. etc.
It is almost certain that with a fasting blood glucose level of 5, your physician would not even bother to suspect that there may be anything untoward with your blood glucose. Unfortunately, as we will see, this is a flawed assumption and a dangerous one at that because, to a trained physician, your other health problems or the reason that you went to see him should raise suspicions that the fasting level may not be completely indicative of what your glucose metabolism is up to.
You see, even though your fasting glucose may be a very comfortable 5, the blood glucose does not remain like that for the rest of the day. Blood glucose goes up and down the whole day depending on when and what you are eating and drinking, your exercising habits or lack thereof and how hard you are making your adrenal glands work.
After say breakfast, from a normal 5 mmol/L, the glucose levels will go up, depending on what you are eating and how much sugar or carbohydrates are in your breakfast to anywhere between 7 to 8 mmol/L and then it should gradually over the next five to six hours glide back down to the starting, pre-breakfast fasting level of 5 using this example. Unfortunately these days, fewer and fewer people seem to fit this pattern.
Most blood glucose tests of non-diabetic patients these days reveal blood glucose levels that rise pretty much as expected but fall down much more rapidly than desirable |
It is not unusual to see patients who undertake the standard two hour glucose tolerance test (GTT) at a laboratory where their fasting blood glucose is measured first upon their arrival, are then given a drink containing 75 grams of glucose, and then over the next two hours have their blood glucose tested hourly again, that they have in fact already returned to fasting, some three or four hours earlier than they should have. Some will have even returned to fasting earlier than the two hours after drinking the glucose, and their blood glucose will actually have dropped below the 5 mmol/L used in our example, at times as low as 3.5 mmol/L or even lower. They will generally know it because they will not be quite feeling completely like “they are there” and may even at times take several hours to recover. Years ago, doctors would quite regularly request a five hours glucose tolerance test (GTT) which would reveal a lot more information regarding how their patient’s body handled glucose.
Today’s two hours test is mainly performed to see whether you are actually diabetic as yet or not quite, in which case you may be asked to come back and have it checked again in a few more months, to see whether your train has arrived at the station as yet or not.
This rapid fall of blood sugar in every day’s life does not go unnoticed by most people. It is often experienced following a carbohydrate loaded breakfast as is quite common these days. Breakfast cereals with low fat milk and god forbid a few spoons of sugar, followed by a glass of fruit juice or a cup of coffee, is as bad as it gets. The glucose will be absorbed so quickly in the blood that its count will skyrocket, often as much as the energy will. All this quick energy without hardly having to wake up the stomach and the liver who are still recovering from last night’s dinner, from their slumber.
Quick energy, and almost baby food not requiring any real effort from our already lazy digestive tract – what could appear to be better? Unfortunately the quick raise of our glucose comes at a price. Because this kind of eating style, rich in carbohydrates, may have been our way of feeding our bodies for a number of years already, the cells in our body no longer absorb the sugar as well and as fast as they should from our blood. This causes our pancreas to have to release more and more insulin to stimulate our cells to absorb the glucose. More information about this in the next few pages. For now, enough to say that the excessive build up of insulin can eventually cause the glucose to become absorbed too quickly from the blood into our cells, causing it to fall sharply, often below fasting levels within a couple of hours.
At that stage the brain that, although weighing only about 2% of our body’s total weight actually uses some 50 to 70% of the glucose in our blood, will begin to make it very clear that if it is expected to work, it wants you to procure some more sugar, and it usually wants it now!
This will cause most people around about morning tea time to go for a cup of tea or coffee with a biscuit or perhaps a fruit, which will just bring the blood glucose rapidly back to where it was before, either because of the ingested sugar or the adrenal stimulation.
Others, whose digestive tract is just beginning to recover from the large or late dinner last night, will not feel in the mood for any foods despite their brain’s supplications. In that case, the brain will actually take over and instruct the adrenal glands to release adrenaline. Adrenaline has several functions and one of those is to convince our liver, the container of stored glucose in the form of glycogen, to convert it back to glucose an release it into the bloodstream. So, some people will have a cup of tea or coffee for morning tea and others who don’t, will have instead adrenaline and glucose donated by their liver. Either way, food or no food, the sugar level will rise again and give us another leg-up to continue with our brain and muscular activities for a few more hours.
It is often after lunch, commonly between 1.00 pm and 3.00 pm that what seemed a good idea and helpful with our energy and focus in the morning no longer now appears to be so. Some people will feel tired, some will feel a brain fog and find it hard to concentrate or motivate. Others have learned that another good cup of coffee will give them the final energy boost required to see the working day out. Others, with more determination and perhaps also greater adrenal storage to help them transit through the rest of the afternoon will still manage to squeeze those last few drops of adrenaline through sheer motivation and desire to accomplish their day’s work. They will not notice until the day’s work has ended, have come back home and the motivational carrot or need to push themselves has been removed, that they are pretty bankrupt as far as energy is concerned.
Case Study no. 15– Nadine’s personal testimonial. My first migraine was at the age of ten and so started my long battle with migraines, fatigue and digestive problems. In ’98 I injured my spine and discovered that I was allergic to codeine, morphine and other mainstream medications. This led me to pursue natural medicine. I started with Chinese medicine but found myself getting migraines just from the smell of the herbs in the clinic. I eventually found naturopathic treatment and was so impressed that I started to study natural therapies, but my migraines, all over the body pain and fatigue became unbearable, to the point that I could not continue studying, so I had to settle for a nutritional degree instead. At this point I believed that I was in the heart of natural therapies and was living the lifestyle. Unfortunately I was so fatigued that I could only manage to be awake for three to four hours a day. My legs would feel like they were bags of sand and I struggled to stand and walk. Then I was told about Bruno Marevich at Australian Naturopathics. I agreed to start on Bruno’s products and give The Marevich Way treatment protocol my best. I immediately felt different. At that time, being still a newly graduated nutritionist I researched all of Bruno’s designed own supplements and tried to understand why these products made me feel better than all the other top of the line ‘Practitioner Only Products’ which I had taken for many years. The answer is that a Bruno has stuck to the fundamentals of naturopathic philosophy and has managed to create a combination of products that make it easier for the client/patient to take. A basic seven products rather than the 26 or more that I had been using prior to visiting Bruno. I currently may get a migraine three or four times a year, rather than weekly. I was also able to lose weight despite my back pain and chronic fatigue. My fatigue and pain are still work in progress and I cannot deny that whatever adjustment or addition of vitamins Bruno has made has been truly spot on for my progress. The support and mentoring that I have received from Bruno has not only helped me and the people that I have referred to Bruno, but also in my clinic with my own clients whom I treat and get great results with by following The Marevich Way. Thank you Bruno. Nadine A. |
COMMENTS: There is nothing like trusting so much on the treatment protocol that you are following for yourself, as Nadine does, that you also want to help your own patients and family with the same products and protocol. There are not many other greater indicators or reassurances of a product’s benefits that a patient could receive than that. Next time you see a health practitioner ask if they are also on the same health gaining or disease prevention program and products as they are recommending for you. If the answer is yes, you may probably not be able to be in better hands. Nadine is also very open with declaring that her present health, particularly fatigue and pains are still not as good as what she would like them to be, despite no lack of time and effort having been spared to ameliorate them. Nadine’s case study is a useful one because it is a little different to almost every other one in the book, apart from perhaps Pam’s case study number 17. The moral of the story is that despite every patient I have ever placed on The Marevich Way protocol having improved, the great majority many times exceeding even my or their own expectations, for some – fortunately a very small minority – the improvements are there but not as much as we would have liked. Again, the overall number of these patients can probably be counted on the fingers of my and perhaps your hands only. Not bad out of tens of thousands, considering that even these few patients still happily admit to feeling better than before. I never wanted the book to include the case histories of the most successful patients only, but a fair cross-section that will give the reader a better and more realistic view of the benefits of natural medicine. Not everyone gets fixed ‘forever and on the spot’ although it often seems that way. After all we are all surrounded by ongoing environmental stresses which not everyone will ever be capable of dealing with equally as well. Also, health should not only be viewed as a destination. It is indeed a journey. Getting well is not always a guarantee that we will remain that way forever. Anything that can be repaired can also be broken again unless we continue to care for it. Good news just on hand from Nadine, almost as my completed manuscript for this book is about to be handed over to the publisher for printing, is that the new trails we have made with the balancing of Nadine’s supplements appear to be giving her even better results. |
Energy, in biochemical terms, is the fuel that keeps us going and in health terms, energy is the “currency for healing”. No fuel in the car, the engine shuts down. Poor or no energy in our body, poor or no healing nor repair. When my patients come back for their follow-up visit, apart from the usual questions on how they are handling the program that I have put them on, the most important question I can ask them is how their energy is going.
Regardless as to why they have come to see me in the first instance, heart problems, blood pressure, migraines, etc., etc., their energy status is always the most important indicator to me as to how they are improving metabolically and how well they may be on their journey of healing and recovery.
Let’s examine a little more how all of this actually works, and why it happens in the way that I have just explained.
Once the glucose from our simple or complex carbohydrate foods has been digested into glucose and absorbed into our bloodstream, this is just the beginning of our body’s responses which are defined as our carbohydrate metabolism.
Consider the blood circulation as a highway that delivers all of our nutrients including glucose to the many trillions of living cells all over our body in every organ, muscle and tissue, head to toes. The nutrients therefore do not really belong in the blood, they are meant to be transported inside of the cells. The blood circulation therefore delivers the raw materials and fuel absorbed from the intestines into the many trillions of microscopic but complex factories, our cells.
Usually these nutrients, once delivered to the front step of the factory, require help – “forklift trucks or conveyor belts” to take them inside the factory for specialised processing depending on what they are meant to be used for. If they are not brought in from outside the factory, say the footpath, then the footpath will soon become so full that this build-up of uncollected deliveries may become a hazard for the passing traffic and at the same time, the lack of fuel and raw materials inside of the factory will reduce and bring to a trickle its activity and output.
Applying this simple analogy to our intestinally absorbed glucose which gets delivered to our cells via our bloodstream – when our glucose levels have gone higher following a meal, our pancreas, senses it and release its insulin directly into the bloodstream. The major job that this hormone, insulin, needs to accomplish is to give instructions to our cells to absorb the glucose in the blood for their internal processing into energy, i.e. open wide the front door of the factory and empower the forklift trucks and conveyor belts to get the deliveries off the front footpath and inside the factory.
Insulin achieves this by binding itself on its receptor found on the membrane that surrounds and encapsulates our cells. This begins a series of protein activation cascades which allow the glucose to enter our cells from the blood.
Insulin is the key that opens the door of the factory to allow the glucose piled up on the front footpath to be transported into the factory.
If the pancreas is incapable of producing enough insulin or the cells have become desensitised and require greater amounts of insulin, the glucose may not get absorbed by the cells for use as fuel, and remains in our blood where its levels increase to heights which can be damaging to various organs and their functions.
As explained earlier, fortunately, in adult onset diabetes, as the name suggests, the condition does not occur overnight. It is a long and laborious task lasting many years of us consuming sugar containing foods,, expecting our pancreas to work all sorts of hours, every time we feel like a snack, and for the pancreas to eventually decide that it has worked more hours than it was at first employed to work and is now getting tired and is no longer capable of withstanding the demands and long hours it could when it was young. The combination of reduced insulin being released by our pancreas into our blood and cells which actually demand even more insulin than they used to is the basis of the process known as adult onset diabetes.
Nothing terribly new in any of the above explanations for the most common causes of diabetes. Most common because there are always other factors that may affect the process such as genetic predispositions, body weight factors, exercise, other hormonal factors, etc., and modern medicine is quite well aware, in deep scientific detail, of how this all works as well as to what the risk factors for diabetes are.
The reason for this book endeavouring to impart a basic, hopefully reasonably clear view and understanding of diabetes, is to use this fairly well documented and understood condition to make it easier for the reader to understand hypoglycaemia, an even more widespread and yet less well understood and medically accepted health problem.
Therefore, if diabetes has reached, according to medicine, epidemic levels, hypoglycaemia can then be compared, in numbers, to the pandemic bubonic plague that decimated Europe in the fourteenth century.
An estimated half of the world’s population is at this earlier-than-pre-diabetic, hypoglycaemic stage. The chances are quite strong, as statistics imply at the moment, that hypoglycaemia will develop into pre-diabetes and then into diabetes.
The CDC predicts that “1 in 3 could have diabetes by 2050 unless major changes happen” |
As explained, just because it develops earlier than pre-diabetes, hypoglycaemia should not be mistakenly thought of as just a minor problem that may never develop into anything more serious than the occasional tiredness or mid-afternoon yawn. Most patients that come to see me and other health care professionals will rarely, if ever, come because they know or suspect that they may be hypoglycaemic. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of patients I have ever seen who came into our clinic, sat in front of me and said words to this effect “the reason for coming to see you today is that I am hypoglycaemic and I need your help to better manage this condition”.
The reason for patients visiting us will normally be because they either:
- Have not been able to be diagnosed by medicine as to the reason for their condition, or are not satisfied with the diagnosis.
- Have been diagnosed correctly by their doctor with one of a many common or not so common chronic medical conditions and would prefer not to take drugs for the longer term if possible as they are concerned by their known and unknown side effects.
- Have been diagnosed and also treated for various lengths of time and by several physicians but have not been seeing satisfactory improvements.
- Have been recommended to us by one of the many caring doctors who these days understand that the prolonged use of drugs alone may not necessarily be in the patient’s best health interest.
- Or, they are not aware of any health problems and want to keep it that way as “prevention is better that cure”.
And yet, the common story which they inevitably reveal when I dig deep and the patient expresses how they really feel beyond what they simply think they should say that fits their current medical diagnosis, inevitably almost always points to hypoglycaemia being associated with the condition.
The list of symptoms that hypoglycaemia may produce is practically longer than one’s arm, and includes a surprisingly large variety of problems, including tiredness, headaches, dizziness, depressions, mood swings, irritability, insomnia, digestive disturbances, phobias, lack of sex drive, limited attention span, muscle and joint pains, various forms of addictions and hyperactivity and bedwetting in children. Almost all hypoglycaemic also suffer with candidiasis, a condition which indicates an overgrowth of the yeast candida in the gastrointestinal tract and is a potent source of allergies such as asthma.
In fact hypoglycaemia has been called “the mimic of all diseases” |
When we consider that in 1920 the average person consumed 11 kilograms of sugar per annum and in 1990 that had spiralled to 120 kilograms, it is perhaps not difficult to see why so many suffer with symptoms from sugar metabolism problems.
Patients at our clinic are also assessed for sugar metabolism imbalances with the help of Eye Diagnosis (an advanced form of iridology) and at times additional glucose tolerance tests are obtained. They are treated holistically and often begin to report dramatic improvement to their symptoms, including much increased vitality within a few short weeks – often in days and at times practically the day after.
But it does not end there, because as stated earlier, energy is the currency for healing. As the blood-sugar level improves with the correct diet and supplements, the original problem that brought them to the clinic also improves. A better sugar metabolism helps the body get healthier. A healthy body can take care of any problems better and more easily than a body that is not healthy and is lacking in energy.
Hypoglycaemia can therefore be improved by modifying our diets and assisting with natural supplements to help improve our metabolism. At our clinic, we are strong advocates of a hypoglycaemic diet for almost every patient we see and we continually see patients achieve high energy and optimum health by improving their body’s blood-sugar metabolism.
Patients will regularly report within a few short weeks that they have better energy morning to night, sleep more deeply all night long and get up in the morning feeling refreshed and, for the first time they remember, feeling eager to get out of bed and start the day invigorated and motivated. The changes that we often see in people’s lives are quite phenomenal as they no longer feel physically and mentally weighed down – they sense that their bodies are healing and feel even more encouraged when, visiting their doctors, they get told “I don’t know what you are doing, but whatever it is, it is working so keep on doing it”.
Case Study no. 16 – Glynis’ personal testimonial. After a motor vehicle accident in 2001. I started using painkillers and anti-inflammatory tablets almost daily for back pain. Later, I moved on to the ‘heavy’ painkillers and increased the dosages of the painkiller and the anti-inflammatory, and all this under the supervision of a neurosurgeon. I also started to take sleeping tablets and when the Drs decided not to prescribe them any longer, I was already addicted. This went on for seven years and in 2008, I collapsed and was hospitalised. I had to have surgery on my spine, and the neurosurgeon informed me that the operation would only be a ‘pain reliever’ for two years, and I would need more than one operation on my spine and neck to sort out my problems. I had the surgery and after a long recovery, the pain was back, and so, I started the cycle all over again, and more tablets were added to the list, including tablets for anxiety, depression, and muscle relaxants. One day, I told a friend how sick the medication made me feel and the horrible side effects that the medication had caused. Among other things: migraines, headaches, gastro and liver problems, rapid weight gain, dry mouth, insomnia, palpitations, sweats, tiredness, ulcers and high blood pressure. She advised me to see a naturopath, whom I contacted immediately out of sheer desperation. The first visit with Bruno Marevich will always be stuck in my mind. He immediately diagnosed most of my health problems just by looking into my eyes. I was in awe that his diagnosis was so accurate without having told him what was wrong with me, but I very much doubted when he told me that I would feel like a new person after his program. In my mind I replied “yeah right”. I started a six months program using the natural products and supplements prescribed by him, and also weekly Myorthotics sessions, whilst I continued to take the supplements prescribed by Bruno. Under his guidance, after two months I was able to stop taking the antidepressants and sleeping tables and after another month, I stopped taking all other prescription medication. I currently only take the supplements and products that Bruno prescribed. I don’t need the prescribed medication because I am pain free and feel like a new person. His products are all natural and thus did not cause me any side effects. Rather, they reversed all the bad side effects of my prescribed medicines. I have been pain free for months, sleeping well, lost weight, my cholesterol and sugar levels are down and most of all I can actually enjoy my life. I have started walking four kilometres three times a week. something which I have not been able to do for 13 years!! Bruno has supported me and guided me through this program, The Marevich Way, unlike my doctors who could not have cared less. He also showed a personal interest in my wellbeing and guided me step by step through the program. Thank you for your help Bruno Marevich, the journey was well worth it!!! I will continue on this path as long as possible. Glynis D. |
COMMENTS: Glynis’ reaction to the drugs employed to bring some relief to the consequences of her motor vehicle accident and the surgery unfortunately also brought a long number of side effects. After identifying Glynis’ poor digestion and absorption of food and nutrient issues in her stomach and intestines, her sugar metabolism imbalances, and the way that these were combining to aggravate her spinal condition, we had already started Glynis on her way to recovery. The right diet and supplements quickly started to work at correcting her overall state of health, I refer to it as “putting the body back into a healing mode”. Because a healthy body takes care of everything better than one that is not healthy, together with the help of Myorthotics treatments (gentle muscle and ligaments support technique) Glynis’ bad back symptoms, the major concern that brought her to the clinic, began to rapidly improve. Soon, a person who had been in almost constant chronic pain for many years and who other experts could not help, was capable of enjoying long walks and exercise which in turn assisted with her weight and even further back stabilisation. The connection between the gut and the sugar level, and other seemingly unrelated parts of the body like the spine is rarely seen as significant or as asset for healing by modern medicine. This is partly understandable if we consider this statement with medical eyes only. Whilst not impossible, trying to find a reasonable, plausible and convincing, either biochemical, neurological or hormonal connection that could explain to a team of scientists or doctors the reasons for Glynis’ massive improvements, would not be so easy. Not so easy, because not everything that happens in the body – its miraculous ability for healing, the additional benefits of a mind that is no longer depressed due to fluctuations of sugar related hormones and neurotransmitters and a patient who is now beginning to see a light at the end of a long and painful tunnel – can be explained by simple anatomy, physiology and biochemistry and science. At least not so well, not right now anyway. |
