X-Message-Number: 13270 From: "George Smith" <> References: <> Subject: Re: Anecdotal comment on Sear's dietary approach Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 10:11:48 -0800 Professor Ettinger called for additional feedback on Barry Sears' "anti-aging" claims which are based predominantly as I understand it upon his "Zone" diet. I can state that I personally know of at least two human patients (I am not one) who have pursued the dietary principles Sears advocates and found measurable results. One patient was borderline diabetic as determined by a complete blood workup including a four hour Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT). The other patient also had serious problems with blood sugar spiking as confirmed by the GTT and other clinical testing. In less than 90 days since the dietary change over, these problems have ceased to present themselves in ongoing testing and completely normal sugar handling has reasserted itself in both cases. The physician who oversees this approach is accustomed to seeing this kind of response for many years, as he explained in a private interview with me. He considers Sears' specific diet far too complicated for most of his patients to follow and, instead, recommends the same general approach but with the generous use of personal on site at home blood testing with a glucometer following the ingestion of questionable foods. For example, one of his patients I know personally cannot eat any apples (and most fruit) without having a wild blood sugar response within minutes, but she can consume (authentic) maple syrup (!) without any such abnormal response. There would seem to be a critical need for cusomizing the diet based upon the specific responses of the patient. Everyone has a slightly different metabolism, it would seem. I recognize that this is anecdotal evidence in nature, however the treatment is based on conclusions drawn from numerous studies both in the Americas and especially Europe. All I know is that I have personally seen dramatic results in two cases I know and have no reason to doubt the truthfulness of the treating physician's resport to me regarding his overall clinical experience with the majority of his patients. George Smith Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13270