Dr. Ernest A. Ehrhardt is the founder of the Ehrhardt Center for Integrative Medicine – a medical center based in New Jersey with a team of health care professionals who perform cutting edge treatment and research of Type II Diabetes and weight-related disorders.
NS Question (Andrea): To what extent does Type II Diabetes effect Americans, and how prominent is the condition in today’s health care system?
Dr. Ehrhardt: Type II Diabetes has a gigantic influence in the world. Current estimates suggest nearly 365 million people are afflicted with the disease. Millions more don't even know that they have the disease.
In the allopathic medical approach, Diabetes is viewed as a basic sugar disturbance. From this perspective, patients are led to believe, “If I stay away from sweets, I’ll be ok.” In reality, the condition is more complex. My work and research takes the conversation a bit further by investigating the critical relationship between blood sugar, systemic oxygen levels, and organ system nutrition. It is true that all food turns to sugar or sugar alcohol in the body, but that does not mean that all sugars can be used as energy. Depending on what you eat, how you combine specific food types, the time of day you eat, and certain other factors, that same sugar can hinder digestion, bind up vital nutrients, and cause organ malnutrition. This process, over time, impedes digestion, and the distribution of systemic energy, causes cardiovascular problems and many of the other imbalances that lead directly to Diabetes. Localized organ system malnutrition causes to a number of widespread debilitating conditions, which is why it has also become the focus of my team's research and successful reversal of Type II Diabetes.
NS Question (Andrea): What sort of innovative research has the Edrhardt Center for Integrative Medicine been undertaking with regards to Type II Diabetes? What have their findings been?
Dr. Ehrhardt: Type II Diabetes is not just a glucose disturbance. Metabolic health and disease prevention are effected by many aspects of nutrition including sugar and salt intake, but also the age and type of foods eaten, food combinations, enzymatic activity, and gastric motility. In simple terms, the harder it is for your body to derive nutrients from food, the less it will be able to regulate the systemic balance vital to prevent disorders like Diabetes.
The goal is to maintain a diet containing foods with nutrients that are readily available and easily accessed by your body. For example, if you are selecting a meat product in a store and notice that it is hard or contains lines of marbled fat, that is a selection that is going to be harder on your digestive system than, say, a leaner and fresher cut. Raw food is also more difficult to digest. By lightly steaming vegetables, their nutrients become much more absorbable during digestion. Remember though, raw and live foods contain proteins called enzymes, which assist your body in physical and chemical digestion. Steam or cook fruits and vegetables for too long, and you denature these important proteins, making digestion that much more difficult.
The primary issue is that if you are eating food that you can’t digest, you get no ‘message’ or communication from that food about how it can best be used in your body. No message equals no nutrients, which equals no energy. As a result, you end up eating more food to make up for increased nutrient deficiencies. This over-eating effects your blood glucose levels, promotes weight gain, digestive resistance, and many multi-systemic imbalances. Over time, this translates to oxygen deprivation, pancreatic pressure, and circulatory disturbance- all contributing factors to the onset of Type II Diabetes.
NS Question (Andrea): Is the consumption of fat related to Type II Diabetes in any way?
Dr. Ehrhardt: The short answer is, "Yes". Sugar hardens fat in the digestive track, which impedes digestion and leads to energy deprivation. In additon, if you eat something that is salty, that’s going to raise your LDL cholesterol. If you eat something fatty on top of eating something salty and sugary, you are essentially swallowing a cement ball – not good for your digestion!
NS Question (Andrea): What can people without Type II Diabetes do to prevent the disease?
Dr. Ehrhardt: First, work with health care provider who can perform forensic metabolic testing on you. This is one of the best and most critical ways to highlight metabolic imbalances at their earlier inception. In addition, watch for the following three aspects in things in your foods:
- color
- texture
- odor
NS Question (Andrea): Is being overweight connected to Type II Diabetes?
Dr. Ehrhardt: Absolutely- but really everyone is at risk. If you have a fast sympathetic nervous system and you’re not sleeping well, you are reducing your energy reserves and putting yourself at risk for a heart attack. Heart damage reduces circulation, reducing also oxygen levels throughout the body, which promotes nerve damage and organ resistance. At this point, blood sugar and insulin levels become much more difficult to normalize, which causes disruptions in your sleep patterns. Thus, the vicious cycle starts all over again.
As far as body weight is concerned, a person who eats too much or too fast will suffer nerve damage over time along with the previously stated complications- this can be reversed hoever. When you eat quality foods, digest them well, and retrieve energy from them, the proper messages or communicated between cells throughout the body, which cause nutrients to be distributed to various cellular systems effectively.
Sugar and salt are the cause of many illnesses. Combined in high amounts, they cause damage to your nerves, which makes it much harder to feel and react to the language of symptoms spoken by your body. Learning to eat right and feeling good is little more than a process of responding appropriately to the messages that your body sends you.
NS Question (Andrea): Are there any supplements people should be taking to avoid Type II Diabetes?
Dr. Ehrhardt: For my patients, I first make sure that proper enzymatic breakdown of food is taking place, so I will recommend a good digestive enzyme so the patient can break down the food and get from it the vital energy it contains. After all, the primary function of food is to provide energy. I prefer and recommend enzymes that are enteric coated (ones that open up in the small intestine). They should contain amylase, protease, and cellulase, along with acidophilus and pancreatin, which is a specific enzyme that is distributed and synthesized in the pancreas. An enzyme is a protein that is responsible for catalyzing the breakdown of large molecules. Ezymatic activity is critical to extracting energy from food and distributing nutrients to the many cells of the body. For this reason, enzymes are an essential component of any successful supplimentation regiment. In addition to enzymes, all humans need vitamin C, particularly because we can’t naturally synthesize it ourselves. This too is a very important suppliment to take for immune system support and disease prevention.
To maximize the benefit of any suppliment, I suggest to stay away from excess salt. After all, insulin is a salt, and when you ingest excess amount of salt, you effect the function of insulin receptors that regulate your hunger, satiation & appetite. Maintaining moderate salt use will increase your energy, promote the ideal build up and break down of tissue, and create a steady state of homeostasis.
NS Question (Andrea): What about sea salt that is rich in minerals?
Dr. Ehrhardt: Again, Sea Salt is still salt, and should limited in its use. If you don’t regulate your salt intake, it will quickly raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol.
NS Question (Andrea): How much salt should we be consuming a day?
Dr. Ehrhardt: The FDA recommends 1500 mg of salt a day – I feel this is too much. Due to the heavy use of salt in frozen, canned, and fast foods, you should limit your use of salt as an added ingredient or seasoning to a maximum 1200 mg- 800 mg is even better. Even just 800 mg of salt use a day, combined with a diet rich in excess animal protein, is a significant amount of salt.
I recommend a purge formula to protect for people who do consume too much salt. Take a tablespoon of lemon juice and mix it in 20 oz of water. Drink this after your meals. It will purge excessive salt that you have consumed and will lower your LDL cholesterol and sugar. Try this 2 times a day maximum after lunch and dinner. It is not a panacea, but it will significantly help to purge sugar and salt from your body, and help with the absorption of water and nutrients. In addition to that lemon water, you should be drinking plain, pure water – half your body weight a day in ounces. (if you weigh 200lbs, you should drink at least 100oz of water). This will help you to have more regular bowel movements and keep your digestive system healthy.
NS Question (Andrea): How do Probiotics help with Type II Diabetes?
Dr. Ehrhardt: Probiotics assist in the maintainance of intestinal flora. They help to evacuate waste and get toxins out of the body. Proper waste movement, healthy flora and biotin levels, and good absorption of B vitamins will all help the immune system to function ideally.
NS Question (Andrea): How do conventional approaches to treating and investigating Type II Diabetes differ from integrative medical models?
Dr. Ehrhardt: I do a lot of forensic chemistry and analysis. Everything I research and study is based upon energy and the distribution of energy from food. When people eat too much of any food, nerves lose oxygen and become numb. Certain lipids and B vitamins help to protect the nerves, but everyone is different.
Depending on the patient, I will either recomment a general digestive enzyme or a more individualized mixture. Of course, it is important to first make sure that the patient is eating the right foods, drinking the right amount of water, and has good eating mechanics. I also address food combinations to optimize digestion. Eating heavy foods like proteins first, followed by vegetables and carbs promotes ideal enzymatic activity and metabolism.
NS Question (Andrea): Thank you for enlightening us about Type II Diabetes prevention, Dr. Edrhardt!
