Hi Ellis

This is Pat RN MSN student nurse practitioner in Los Angeles- responding to Dr.
Whittiker ...and Your conversation regarding
diabetes testing.

I understand Dr. Whittikers approach- and I also understand your
approach. However You- and Dr. Whittikers patients are "different
types" of patients.

You are the "ideal" patient- who cares about the disease process-
and wants to control it. BUT YOU ARE RARE.

Dr. Whittiker deals with the non medical public that simply wants a
"pill" once a day- they are NOT interested in really controlling
the disease by adjusting their medications IMMEDIATELY based on
blood results.

Quite frankly- I think this is the best advice that Dr. WHittiker
can give the general non medical public that simply doesn't care.

Dr. Whittiker does not have patients LIKE YOU......or his advice
would probably be different

Pat RN MSN



Ellis: Hello Pat... The problem is that Dr. Whittiker's message
is not directed to the general non-medical public that simply
doesn't care. His message that diabetes 2 is simple to manage is
directed to Diabetes Type 2 patients. They are all sick, and
they all have Diabetes 2.

My advice that you should bring down your blood glucose whenever it
is high is correct for persons with diabetes type 2, and for non-diabetics, and
for persons with diabetes type 1, and everybody
that still breathes... It is correct whether you are diabetic,
or whether you are not diabetic. It is correct because every time
that your blood glucose is above 100 mg/dl you are doing a little
bit of damage to your body... and there is no other way to know
it, other than to CHECK YOUR BLOOD GLUCOSE.

For example... I am not diabetic... I checked my blood glucose and
it was 108 mg/dl...

Because I knew this, I acted... I injected 2 iu fast insulin and
one hour later my blood glucose was 93... (it will continue to
drop to about 85...) That is 15 points lower than 108, and it is
15 points lower in one hour...

If I had not injected, my experience is that it would have been
about 103 one hour later... If this was room temperature, just
think how much better 93 degrees Fahrenheit is than 103 degrees Fahrenheit. So
I saved my body a tiny bit, for one hour, one
time... But I have done this same thing 15,000 times in 8 years.

(You don't want to inject insulin? You are mistaken, but O.K.,
don't inject insulin...

But you should drink a glass of water, and you should do some
exercise like walk around the block... and you should not eat
anything else until your blood glucose is lower...)

Ellis: Dr. Whittiker is referring to DIABETES PATIENTS... His
patients that consult with him about diabetes ALL HAVE DIABETES...

So he should be strict. The problem here is that Dr. Whittiker
himself is TOO LENIENT on HIMSELF, so this makes him A BAD EXAMPLE
for his patients to follow. Diabetes patients should not "mess
around" they have to be strict on themselves or else they are going
to suffer the consequence a few years later.

In fact, that is precisely the problem with diabetes and blood
glucose: you behave bad TODAY and you don't feel bad today... your
PUNISHMENT comes MANY YEARS LATER... so there is very little
connection between cause and effect, so it is difficult to see
that there is a direct cause and effect.

Dr. Whittiker is happy if his patients will live to age 80... I
am NOT happy if his patients live to age 80, I want them to live
to age 100... Some of his patients could have lived to age 100,
but they will die at age 80, and he will feel he "did his job."

But it isn't just living 20 years longer that is important... If
you are going to live to age 80, you are already weak at age 75,
and progressively weaker at age 76, 77, 78, and 79...

If you might live to age 100 but you are killed by a truck at age 80,
you were STRONG and HEALTHY when you were age 75, 76, 77, 78, 79,
until the day you got killed at age 80.

That's what's so important about being strict. You live better
while you are still alive.

Look at what Dr. Whittiker says:

==============Dr. Whittiker:

Dr. Whittiker: The mistake doctors make is telling all their
patients with type 2 diabetes whether they're on insulin or not
to test daily and in many cases, to test multiple times a day.

==============
Ellis: TO TEST MULTIPLE TIMES EACH DAY IS CORRECT ADVICE. Dr.
Whittiker says it is "the mistake doctors make..." It is not
a mistake, HE is making the mistake...

===========Dr. Whittiker:

Dr. Whittiker: Not only is all that incessant testing unnecessary if
you're not on insulin, it's debilitating. Think about it. When you
test your blood sugar, do you make any changes in your treatment
program?

================

Ellis: What a dumb question to ask... OF COURSE YOU MAKE CHANGES
IN YOUR TREATMENT! Absolutely. If not, there is no reason to
check. Dr. Whitikker doesn't understand what testing is all
about.

===============Dr. Whittiker:

Dr. Whitaker: Do you use testing to identify foods that drive up
blood sugar and eliminate them from your diet?

==============
Ellis: Of course. YES!

==============Dr. Whittiker:
Dr. Whitaker: Does testing alter your medication dosage? If not,
what's the sense of it?


Ellis: YES, OF COURSE IT DECIDES WHAT DOSE OF INSULIN I WILL TAKE,
IF I DECIDE TO TAKE INSULIN. THE SENSE OF IT IS THAT I TAKE ACTION
IMMEDIATELY TO BRING MY BLOOD GLUCOSE DOWN TO 80 OR 90 MG/DL.

ELLIS: MY ADVICE TO DIABETES TYPE 2 PATIENTS: DO NOT GO TO THE
WHITAKER WELLNESS INSTITUTE. THEY ARE GIVING YOU AN EASY PATH,
AND THEY SMILE AND YOU THINK SUCH EASY ADVICE COMING FROM SUCH A
GREAT DOCTOR MUST BE CORRECT... AND YOU WILL LIVE O.K. IF YOU TAKE
THE EASY PATH FOR 20 OR 30 YEARS... AND THEN YOUR DIABETES WILL
HAVE ADVANCED MUCH MORE THAN IF YOU HAD GONE TO SEE DR. BERNSTEIN
WHO WANTS VERY STRICT GLUCOSE CONTROL.




Dr. Whitaker: While a finger stick is a snapshot of your blood
sugar at a given time, the A1C test gives a broader picture of
average blood sugars over two or three months. This allows us to
evaluate how well a patient's treatment program is working and
to make adjustments, if necessary.


ELLIS: THE PATIENT NEEDS A SNAPSHOT, TO TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY.

THE BROADER PICTURE IS INTERESTING, AND IT HELPS TO EVALUATE HOW
THE ENTIRE PROGRAM IS GOING, BUT IT CANNOT GIVE THE INFORMATION
THE PATIENT NEEDS RIGHT AWAY TO TAKE ACTION TO BRING HIS BLOOD
GLUCOSE TO HEALTHY LEVELS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.

Dr. Whitaker: Our "adjustments" don't include drugs. In fact, we
wean virtually all patients off their oral diabetic medications.
This is another "diabetes myth," that all patients need drugs to
lower their blood sugar.

ELLIS: THIS IS NOT A MYTH. THIS IS A FACT. DR. WHITAKER, LIKE
MANY DOCTORS, THINKS THAT "NATURAL" IS BETTER... AND HE BELIEVES
THAT TAKING INSULIN IS "NOT NATURAL"... HE IS SCARED OF INSULIN
BECAUSE HE DOES NOT USE IT HIMSELF. EVERY DIABETES PATIENT SHOULD
GO TO A DOCTOR WHO IS DIABETIC HIMSELF, AND WHO TAKES INSULIN
HIMSELF. ANY OTHER DOCTOR PROBABLY DOES NOT UNDERSTAND INSULIN.

I THINK MOST DOCTORS, INCLUDING DR. WHITAKER, SHOULD TAKE INSULIN
HIMSELF, WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE DIABETIC. NO MATTER WHAT YOU
HAVE HEARD OR WHAT YOU HAVE READ, TAKING INSULIN IS VERY EASY,
VERY SAFE, AND VERY GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH, AND VERY VERY
INEXPENSIVE.


I AM NOT A DOCTOR, BUT I HAVE TAKEN PERHAPS 12,000 BLOOD GLUCOSE
TESTS IN 8 YEARS, AND I HAVE INJECTED INSULIN 3 OR 4 OR 5 TIMES
EVERY DAY FOR 8 YEARS, WHICH IS ABOUT 15,000 DOSES OF INSULIN
WHICH BROUGHT DOWN MY BLOOD GLUCOSE FASTER THAN OTHERWISE... I
AGREE ON MOST TOPICS (EXCEPT THAT I TAKE INSULIN AND I AM NOT
A DIABETIC) WITH DOCTOR BERNSTEIN, WHO IS THE STRICTEST DOCTOR I
KNOW.

I HAVE SAID BEFORE: THE ONLY DOCTOR WHOSE ADVICE I FIND IS
CORRECT IS DR. BERNSTEIN. IF ANOTHER DOCTOR HAS CORRECT ADVICE,
HE PROBABLY LEARNED IT FROM DR. BERNSTEIN. IF ANOTHER DOCTOR
DISAGREES WITH DOCTOR BERNSTEIN, INVARIABLY HE ALSO DISAGREES
WITH ME, AS IN THIS CASE.

DR. WHITAKER OFFERS HIS PATIENTS AN EASY ROAD, BUT THERE IS NO
EASY ROAD. HE IS MISTAKEN TO BELIEVE THAT HB-A1C RESULTS CAN
GIVE TIGHT BLOOD GLUCOSE CONTROL, OR THAT THIS IS ALL THAT IS
NECESSARY. IT WORKS, FOR ABOUT 20 OR 30 YEARS, BECAUSE DIABETES
ADVANCES SLOWLY... BUT I PREDICT THAT AT AGE 65 OR 70 HIS PATIENTS
WILL ALL BE IN BIG TROUBLE. - ELLIS