Miryam Ehrlich Williamson

Introduction
Despite the billions of dollars spent on research and development of new medicines and technology for diagnosing and fixing our ailments, our health in the industrialized world is nothing to crow about. True, by the end of the first half of the 20th century, science had shown us how to survive a host of infectious diseases that used to kill people by the thousands each year. We have vaccines to protect us from influenza, pneumonia, and poliomyelitis. Thanks to antibiotics, a bacterial infection doesn’t have to be a death sentence.

However, instead of dying from infection, we die of heart attacks, strokes, and cancers. Chronic diseases such as diabetes are increasing at alarming rates, as is obesity. Too many of us develop autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and mood disorders such as depression. You might think that this is because having conquered infection we have left ourselves open to a host of chronic ailments that were always present, but which people used to die too young to contract them. In fact, the diseases that plague us today were almost nonexistent in ancient times, and were still rare at the beginning of the 20th Century. Some of them remain unknown to this day in what we like to call “primitive" societies.

There is no disease or disorder that can’t be made worse by poor diet. And there is none that can’t be improved by changes in lifestyle, especially where nutrition is concerned.

This book is about the effect the way we live has on our health and well-being. It is about a dietary mistake that has become almost universal in Western society and about changes you can make beginning today to reduce or eliminate the symptoms of illness that trouble you. Some 25 percent of the world’s population can eat anything they please and never have to think about their weight or the health consequences of their dietary habits. The rest of us need the information this book contains. It is about insulin resistance, a condition in which our cells reject instructions from insulin, the most crucial of our bodies' chemical messengers.

Here you’ll learn about the relationship between insulin resistance and the dietary mistake we all make. You’ll learn how that mistake causes those of us who are insulin resistant to suffer health problems that were unknown to our early ancestors--obesity, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, arthritis, some types of cancer, diabetes, and more. You’ll find guidelines for determining whether you are insulin resistant and, if you are, what you can do about it. You’ll learn of various diet plans insulin resistant people can adopt--not conventional weight-loss diets, but changes in eating habits that you can sustain for a lifetime. You’ll be able to compare these plans and decide which suits you best.

As you read this book you will meet people who have helped themselves to a healthier way of life--people who are successfully dealing with the diseases and disorders associated with insulin resistance. You will read their stories and learn from their experiences. They will inspire you, but even if you know them personally, you will not recognize them here. In order to protect their privacy--and to encourage them to share even the most intimate details of their health and lifestyle--names and other identifying features have been changed. But each of these stories is of a real individual, someone who is happy with what he or she has discovered and eager to help you to a similar success.

Insulin resistance is implicated in a great many diseases and conditions unknown in early times, and still unknown in societies where diets are low in carbohydrates and processed foods are unknown. The list that follows may grow as time goes by and science teaches us more about the action of insulin in insulin-resistant individuals. This is not to say that every disorder on this list is caused by insulin resistance, although some are. The relationship between cause and effect is one of the more vexing questions in medicine. Until successive independent studies show beyond doubt that input A is always followed by result B, doctors are reluctant to say that A causes B. This is as it should be. The point here is that some people afflicted with any one of the conditions listed have experienced a reduction in symptoms, if not an outright cure, by changing their lifestyle so as to reduce their bodies’ demand for insulin. In the chapters that follow you will read about the ways in which insulin resistance can cause or contribute to the problems listed here.

Conditions associated with insulin resistance
Autoimmune disorders including arthritis and multiple sclerosis
Cancer in some forms
Candidiasis (yeast overgrowth)
Celiac disease (sprue)
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Compulsive overeating/food addiction
Depression
Diabetes (Type 2)
Digestive disorders: heartburn, GERD, irritable bowel, inflammatory bowel disease
Gallstones
Gestational diabetes
Heart disease
Hyperlipidemia (abnormal levels of blood fats)
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Infertility
Obesity
Osteoarthritis
Panic/anxiety attacks
Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
Reactive hypoglycemia
Thrombosis (blood clotting disorder)

That's quite a list, isn't it? For future reference, I suggest you place a mark beside each one that you have experienced. Chances are, if you have checked one, you have checked more than one. If you've felt there was nothing you could do about them, that chronic illness was your fate, you may be in for a pleasant surprise. Diet and lifestyle might not eradicate your condition, but they can make you healthier.

The first step in your quest to control insulin resistance is to accept that your condition is not your fault. Heredity plays a large role in insulin resistance. Second, know that the current low-fat, high-carbohydrate dietary fad is not good for you. Third, while you may never be able to eliminate all tendency to insulin resistance, understand that you can stop it from doing further damage and, in many instances, reverse its effects. You can do this without experiencing hunger or feeling deprived. And you will see results in a gratifyingly short period of time.