Interview of Dr. Madan Gulati (MD – Ayurveda)
Interviewer: Hello friends! Welcome to our show “Swasthya Gyan Health Diary”. Friends, in today’s modern and busy lifestyle we’re unable to take care of our health. Due to which, we invite lethal diseases like diabetes, obesity and hypertension in our body at a very young age. The reasons for this are our eating habits and lifestyle. Today, we’ll talk about Diabetes which in today’s world has started affecting kids also. With a solution for this problem, we have amongst us Ayurveda Gold medalist, Dr. Madan Gulati. Dr. Gulati, we heartily welcome you to our show. Firstly, Dr. Gulati, tell our viewers about what diabetes actually is?
Dr. Gulati: Madhumeh or diabetes mellitus is a very common issue nowadays. If we take a look at the world data around 300 million people are suffering from diabetes. Madhumeh is made from two words Madhu and meh. Madhu means honey and meh means urination that means when you start passing urine that looks like honey and is sweet. In modern sciences also, the words diabetes (to urinate) mellitus (honey like) mean the same. India is known to be the capital of diabetes mellitus. 1 out of 5 people is suffering from Diabetes mellitus. It’s a lifestyle disease rather a multi systematic disease. Diabetes is a silent killer. It affects the entire body, from the toe nail to the tip of your hair, it hollows out your body just like termites eat and hollow a tree. Diabetes does not spare even a single organ be it our eyes, our kidneys. Basically it’s a life threatening disease and is like a spouse from whom we can’t separate. We have to be our own doctor and technician and tackle it in a much disciplined way, only then it can be handled. Some great personalities like Pakistan cricket team captain Wasim Akram, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Dr. Ambedkar all suffered from Diabetes. Therefore, it’s nothing to worry about. I’ll share with you a way to win Diabetes with a holistic approach. If we’re physically, mentally, socially and spiritually healthy then we can easily win over Diabetes. According to Ayurveda, it’s a non-curable disease. You have to learn to live with it as it is a lifestyle disease.
Interviewer: Dr. Gulati, tell our viewers about the symptoms of Diabetes?
Dr. Gulati: Diabetes is basically of two types, 1. Juvenile diabetes- this affects children. Pancreas produces beta cells in which islets of Langerhans produce insulin and Alfa cells produces glucagon. In kids, insulin production is improper and hence, we categorize it under insulin dependent diabetes in which the patient urinates frequently, gets tired easily and has a huge appetite followed by excessive thirst which is known as Polydipsia. But, these symptoms are not usually seen in Diabetes type 2 patients because it is a silent killer, rather a sweet and silent killer. People with mental stress are attacked by Diabetes type 2. They tend to over eat or eat sweets more often because they can’t see the symptoms. The sugar level is quite high in Diabetes type 2. The above mentioned symptoms are very common in Juvenile diabetes. Type 2 diabetics are obese and after 40 -50 years of age, it is known as non- insulin dependent diabetes. Type 1 or insulin dependent diabetics are just 5% of the total people affected and the remaining 95% are suffering from diabetes type 2 in which the body becomes insulin resistant. Patients diagnosed before 25 years of age are affected with Diabetes type 1. What is diagnosed after that age is Diabetes type 2 and those patients are obese also. It is a metabolic syndrome and in diabetes type 2 we, sometimes can’t see many symptoms. It involves carbohydrate metabolism, protein metabolism and fat metabolism, it should be called Diabesity. Today, we classify it as Type 3 diabetes which includes diabetes along with obesity.
Interviewer: Dr. Gulati, please tell our viewers about insulin?
Dr. Gulati: The father of diabetes, Joslin who discovered insulin. Till the time insulin was not discovered, people died due to it. Since, the time insulin has been discovered so many lives have been saved. The type 1 patients have to take insulin for their entire lifetime. Sometimes, insulin production decreases even in patients with type 2 diabetes. In that case, we have to put them on insulin as well. My research on diabetes has always been on its diet. The most important factor in diabetes is Diet. D I E T is how we spell it. D stands for diet, food is the base of this disorder, and if we improve our diet we can get a permanent cure for diabetes. I stands for insulin and drugs and E stands for exercise and education and T stands for testing and monitoring, we should get ourselves timely tested. If we omit the D from DIET, then IET has no meaning similarly chucking out I also leaves the word DIET meaningless. If we strike out E then also DIT remains which also has no meaning. But, if we get rid of T then what we’re left with is DIE. If someone has been diagnosed with Diabetes he should get his kidneys, cholesterol, eyes etc. tested frequently to monitor his condition. People who lead a disciplined life never get any complications. The parameters I believe in are that if your fasting blood sugar level is till 125 without any medicines and post prandial is below 200. Though above 180 starts showing in our urine. Without medicines I believe if the sugar levels are what I just mentioned. Diabetes is also known to be a conspiracy just like in schools it was said the student who scores at least 33% will be considered pass and then it was raised to 50% but then the student who scores 49% will also be considered fail. Therefore, WHO shuffled the parameters and said fasting blood sugar levels till 125 will be considered normal. If we say patients with sugar level 100- 110 will be considered diabetic than a lot of patients will fall into the category of Diabetics. That according to me is a way of selling medicines and I’m not in favor of it. If we follow a proper diet that can help in controlling diabetes. I would like to share a Diet chart with my viewers. If a person check their sugar level and it’s below 125 and 180 for fasting and random respectively than they can strictly follow this diet chart and recover from diabetes permanently without medicines. Drink coconut water on an empty stomach but make sure you don’t gulp it down in one go but sip on it slowly and take around 15 to 20 minutes. You can take a small piece of ginger along with tulsi (holy basil) leaf or mint leaf. You can soak a few fenugreek seeds in water overnight and consume that water in the morning followed by coconut water as it is considered to be one of the best medicines and the reason why I asked you to sip it slowly is because gulping it down increases the glycemic index. A diabetic patient should just eat fruits till 12’0 clock. Fructose is useful but white sugar is poison. Milk and milk products, meat should be totally stopped by diabetic patients. I’m talking about patients with diabetes type2. Fruits of any type can be consumed by them till 12PM. If we restrict milk consumption in type 1 patients than the casein present in milk which are similar to beta cells in insulin. Sometimes, in order to kill the casein molecules we tend to kill the beta cells. If we curb the intake of milk and milk products, meat, chicken etc. in kids suffering from type1 as mentioned in Ayurveda. Along with this, we should avoid taking refined foods be it rice, sugar or any other refined foods and packaged foods. If you have banana and a dry toast than banana is certainly better. You should choose natural foods over refined foods. If your weight is 80 kgs than your diet should consist of 800 grams of fruits and you’ll notice your glycemic index will not shoot up but if you make a milk shake than that will have adverse effects. In moderation, you can consume grapes also. Add dry fruits with it. I always ask my patients to soak 10-15 almonds, 1-2 walnuts, a few raisins and cashewnuts overnight and consume it the next day. God has given the power of raising cholesterol levels just to animals and that is done by the intake of milk and other dairy products. The nuts I mentioned have a very low glycemic index. Your lunch should include a plate full of salad majorly consisting of leaves like coriander, spinach, mint, curry leaves etc. The consumption of leaves should be at least 100 Gms and the rest can be anything from radish. Carrots, cucumber, tomatoes etc. The more uncooked you eat the better it is and I call it the DIP plate i.e. Disciplined Intelligent Person’s plate and second is the VIP plate which consists of the foods that please you. It can consist of a chapatti, some rice with vegetables . You can take lentils and pulses in lunch and its better if you consume whole pulses and avoid pulses and lentils at night. For evening snacks, you can take a small amount of coconut or some peanuts or sprouted Bengal grams, moong, fenugreek, wheat. I often tell a very nice formula to my diabetic patients which is 4 tbsp. of moong, 1 tbsp wheat and fenugreek and 1 to 1 and a half tbsp. Bengal grams. This is useful to avoid heart attacks as some diabetic patients might have cardiac disorders also and as these attacks are silent and cause no pain. Therefore, sprouts can be of great help to avoid heart attacks. Similarly, for dinner eat a plateful of salad and avoid radish and lentils at night. You can eat vegetable soup at night or eat climbing vegetables like bottle gourd, ridge gourd, turnips, little gourd, Moringa and bitter gourd are also very useful. Consumption of Indian gooseberry is very helpful. Diet plays a huge role in curing diabetes. Diet is the basic efficient tool to ensure sugar control. Go for a morning walk and go after sunrise. It will give you Vitamin D and you’ll have ample amounts of oxygen in the morning. It’s a multifactorial disease, it affects all the systems. A diabetic patient should walk for at least 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening. And in the evening, do your walk before the sunset. By following all this you can permanently cure diabetes. The father of diabetes said that diabetics can live the longest life as they get disciplined. The head of the Brahma kumari Institution lived for 93 years and he was a diabetic. So, it is possible to lead a healthy and long life with diabetes also by improving our lifestyle and diet.
Interviewer: Dr. Gulati, what message would you like to give to our Diabetic patients?
Dr. Gulati: I would first like to make you aware of the complications of diabetes which are very dangerous. 15% diabetic patients have to undergo foot amputation. To prevent that diabetics should take care of the symptoms like numbness in feet due to diabetic neuropathy, if it affects the eyes it causes weak vision leading to blindness. Diabetes can cause kidney failure, cardiac disorders like myocardial infarction. If we have any such emergencies than maximum patients have a history of diabetes. Diabetic patients should take care of the complications which include myopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy, retinopathy, vascular diseases. Diabetes starts affecting all the systems when it’s gone beyond control i.e. over 200 or 300. With the help of a few Ayurvedic herbal formulations which have fenugreek, bitter gourd, jamun. We have a medicine named Dia-Finito which has a very simple composition that is Saptarangi (Salecia), Mamejiva (Enicostemma littorale), Dry ginger, Black pepper, long pepper. Then there is Madhumehantak churna which also has Saptarangi apart from other herbs and these are really good. Other formulations are Dia-beta and Fenugreek which is a miracle. I can’t stress enough on how useful fenugreek is, soaking a few fenugreek seeds in water overnight and consuming it in the morning keeps a check on cholesterol, obesity, and carbohydrate metabolism.
Interviewer: Friends, I hope that you would have noted down all the important information given by Dr. Gulati. Tomorrow, we’ll be back with a solution for another problem. Till then Dr Gulati and I will take your leave. Namaskar (Greetings)!
