Decoding Obesity & Diabetes for kids with Dr Priti Nanda Sibal

So I've been into healthcare for last 25+ years, and I have seen that healthcare is one of the most rewarding spaces one can be in. Especially in today's times, because the diseases which we were taught 30 years back, you know, that they cannot be reversed, we can do nothing about it, lifelong we will have to take medicines for it, is no more true. So how many of you really think that actually what I'm saying is true? When it comes to healthcare and the way we look at healthcare So why I'm saying that is because being an allopathic doctor, now I practice functional medicine. So functional medicine basically works on the functioning of our body. What we believe in is that if we improve the functioning of our organs, automatically the diseases will go away. So of course, the topic for today is Daring the Diabetes and Obesity and Diabetes in Children. 124 million children worldwide are obese. One out of every child is obese today. This is huge. Since 1975, we have seen 10x growth in obesity. Obesity is not a disease on its own. It leads to non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis, diabetes, cardiac diseases, and many, many more diseases—stroke, death. So as I said, almost 1 in 4, so almost 22% of our children are overweight or obese. And interesting to note here is that, you know, obesity—we feel obesity is a personal responsibility. How many of us think that way? I think all of us, right? Why? Because we've been trained and told that obesity is a personal responsibility, and if you try to work on it, you will definitely lose weight. But that is not the case, and obesity leads to diabetes, high blood pressure, bone and joint disorders, reproductive disorders, PCOD and all, high cholesterol, CAD. Hence, obesity is now not a disease, it's a global epidemic. If you look at how mankind has been evolving, we never used to have a tummy. But in the last decades, decade after decade after decade, right, our tummies are increasing in size, which is creating a lot of problem for us. Of course, to know whether we are obese or not, simple test which we can do is weight in kgs over height squared in meters. And if your BMI is more than 25 you are obese. So please, in your family, in your office, with your colleagues and friends, do this simple test and first find out whether you are obese or not. Because agar aap obese ho, tabhi toh point hai uspe kaam karneka. Agar aapko patai nahi hai ki aap obese ho, toh aap uspe kyu hi kaam karo ke? Right? So let me share a story of a boy. I couldn't find slides, so I've replicated it with different slides. But you know, I was in VLCC 6 years back, and what made me start thinking about functional medicine or doing my own work was this child, 11 years old, whose mother brought him to me in VLCC and said, we want your help to make him lose weight. So I was taking the history and asked him since how long he's been obese. She said from childhood. So I said, what suddenly changed that you are here? She said today morning the doctor has diagnosed him as a diabetic and he has a fatty liver, right? So let's look at this boy. I'm sure if at 11 he came at that condition, at 5 years he had a healthy liver. Right? But over the years, as he became obese, his liver got inflamed and scarred. And in few years, his liver will become like this. You know, today there is a huge list of children who require liver transplants. And why do we reach this stage? We reach this state simply because when we become obese and we try little, little things, after some time what happens is all these thoughts start circling in our mind. I cannot change. I am weak enough in my willpower. Nobody will help me. I cannot change. I am not attractive. I'm lazy. I need the chips and chocolate. I cannot do without that. I cannot change. And this becomes a vicious circle. And at this point of time, parents also start losing hope because they are judgmental. They think that the child will resist and they don't want to take that much of this thing. And they say, it's not our responsibility. Right? But we must remember here that childhood obesity does not start from what you eat. It starts by what your mother eats when she is pregnant. And I'm not blaming anybody here, you know, but I'm trying to just create this awareness that it's not today which is making the impact. It's, it's your whole— when you were conceived to when you were born and what you are doing today, all of it makes a difference. At 12 years, you are an ambitious boy. At 20, you have a fatty liver. At 30, you have diabetic, and you have diabetic foot complications. 40, you have a cardiac arrest. And this is how your life can be if you are obese and you are not doing anything about it. So this is— I'm not— I've not showed this that I scare all of you, but I've showed this to tell you that Fighting childhood obesity, attacking the kilos, being in the war against weight, and fighting the flab is no more our choice. It has become a necessity. So let's do it. Break through the resistance and let's build a healthy future and a healthy India. So what do we do if we have to do this? Generally what happens is, you know, we all feel that there should be one tool for all the nuts and bolts. How many of you think there should be one tool for all the nuts and bolts? If you think yes, one tool should be there and is there, give me a yes in the chat box. But unfortunately, that's not the case. Dietitians have made their tools, psychologists their tool, biologists their tools, sociologists, doctor, pharmacist— everybody has their tools. But what we require is all of them coming together and all the tools to be used together. And that can happen only if we come into customized care, personalized health. And that's what we do in functional medicine. So let's see what is new, which I think most of us don't consider or don't know, which can be our solution toolkit. For the disease. So all these obese children generally have insulin resistance, but first thing we have to find out is, do they have any deficiencies? You know, if they are deficient in vitamin D, children will be obese and will become diabetic. So which vitamins are important in obesity? A, C, K, E, D, B, B1, and B6. Vitamin D, most critical. Signs are bone pain, excessive sweating, being overweight or obese, psoriasis, mood swings, high blood pressure, tiredness and fatigue, digestive problem, impaired immunity. And of course, vitamin D deficiency can lead to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, insulin resistance, and much more. Magnesium. Magnesium deficiency again leads to obesity and type 2 diabetes, and we are now becoming really deficient in magnesium. Migraines, osteoporosis, poor sleep, anxiety, fatigue, muscle pain, heart palpitations. Chromium, exceptionally, exceptionally important for type 2 diabetics. For insulin— for having proper action to insulin. And the symptoms are difficult concentrating, irritability, depression, headaches, strong feeling of hunger, fluctuations in blood sugar, muscle weakness, increased urination, increased cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood. Now, key roles of chromium are: it helps amplify insulin signal, it curbs appetite, it contributes to bone maintenance, it helps preserve calcium and hydroxyprolamine, maintains healthy cholesterol levels, and is a great antioxidant. Omega-3, you know, we do a test of omega-3 which has shown me that the ratio which should be 1:2 actually goes to 1:220 also in some children. So if one thing, if you have to correct, or two things, they are vitamin D and omega-3. And the moment you correct them, you will feel much better. So again, omega-3 has lots of symptoms including dry skin, lack of concentration, poor sleep quality, brittle fingernails, memory problems, additional After deficiencies comes the toxic nutritional landscape we are living in. Now, before that, I will want to show you this screen. Can you see something? You can see that this child— this is a child's report. This test is called a lego scan, and it's a non-invasive test. It uses spectrum photometry. You use that machine on your hand, and in 3 minutes you have the report in front of you on the laptop. But it is very, very authentic because in blood test we cannot do all these. Look at this, the chromium is so low, the phosphorus is so low, and even the others are on the lower side. The moment we correct chromium in this child, the cravings will go away, he will start losing weight, and then we can take it forward. Now the second big reason after deficiencies which we ignore is heavy metal toxicity. So we have polluted air, we have polluted vegetables, we have pesticides, PCBs are creating havoc in our body. And in addition to that, we have high levels of aluminum, cadmium, silver. So all these in yellow are high in this child. Now this is a report of type 1 diabetic child. Right? In blood also, the aluminum has come high in this child, right? So imagine if you have heavy metals which are impacting the mitochondrial function of your body, how can you not be obese or diabetic or not be fatigued? And this is type 1 diabetic young child who has so many heavy metals. So we really have to set this right. Of course, in these children, what can help? So if these are children, infrared sauna goes a long way to remove toxins, promote weight loss, and improve your sugar levels. It's a very, very healthy, natural way of removing toxins. And giving you the benefit of health. Another thing which we can use these days to decrease weight and to maintain sugar levels is ozone therapy. So see, there are studies which show that Air pollution actually impairs your glucose homeostasis and make you diabetic. And ozone therapy helps as a therapeutic agent to control your sugar levels, improve your gut health, increase your oxygen in the body, and help you lose weight. Also improve your fatty liver. So this is the functional web which I will want all of you to try and remember, you know, whenever we are looking at obese child, a diabetic child, so that we don't just keep using one screw, we use all the screws together. And help the child become healthy. Environmental inputs— so diet, nutrition, exercise, trauma, and as I said, toxins. Oxidative stress, of course, it can be handled beautifully with some supplements like omega-3 and with ozone therapy. Detox and biotransformation— as I told you, sauna can really help us with this. Hormone balancing, mind and spirit, very, very important. So I told you, we get into that circle of I cannot change. We have to get out of that circle so that our neurotransmitters get balanced and our body starts to balance itself, come back in shape. GI imbalance, very, very, very important role for this. And immune and inflammatory imbalance. So it is extremely important that all these conditions are taken into account so that we can actually work on this epidemic of obesity and diabetes. And finally, but most importantly, I have seen this Ben's approach working very, very well for my diabetic children and for my my, you know, obese children. This includes breathing, exercise, nutritional supplements, diet, stress, and sleep. So there are a lot of studies which have been published in Indian Journal, International Journal of Medical Research, International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Journal of Stress Physiology, wherein they've shown that if you do deep abdominal breathing 3 months, 3 times a day for 3 minutes, you lose weight and you balance your sugar levels. Exercise, we all know it's very, very important. Some functional foods like tulsi, drumstick, methi seeds, cinnamon are very good in such situations. Supplements like alpha-lipoic and berberine can be used. And the last S is the most critical. You know, these days what happens is children don't sleep on time and children don't sleep with lights off. They have their Wi-Fi near them. One night of irregular sleep can make you insulin resistant. And insulin is a fat-storing hormone. So if you become insulin resistant, what will happen? You will become obese, you will become diabetic. And therefore, sleep and stress really cannot be corrected unless that is corrected. So I know I've gone very fast. I know some of the things would have just gone over your head, but I just wanted to share that there are a lot of new advancements today. The way we look at these diseases, the way we make the plan for these children to reverse these diseases is completely different. Much more effective and easy to follow with no judgment in it. I will stop sharing my screen now and I can take questions if you have any. So before I take questions, anybody who wants to share, did you learn one new thing today? Okay, so Gunjan says yes. Thank you. So I have some questions here. I'll take this and then you can unmute yourself and ask. Anubhav: Sister is type 1 diabetic. Anubhav, I do a program on type 1 diabetes. I have a webinar at 7 PM today. Okay. Uh, see if you want— yeah, you can join it.

Yes, I'll ask my sister also to join in. So my basic question was regarding her only. Recently, uh, like a month back, she, uh, she had— she got COVID in the second wave, and a month back she had a problem of proteins getting wasted from her body. When she was in her childhood, and that problem has come back again with her. And along with her type 1 diabetes, the treatment is not going that fast and the healing process is too long. So in that case, is there some other kind of therapy or solution to this?

Yeah, so Type 1 diabetes reversal is very difficult, but yes, managing it beautifully is possible.

No, she stays in Kirti Nagar, but I stay in Gurgaon, which is not far.

Yes, so she can stay with you. So ozone therapy can work really well. That is minimum effort with maximum reward, right? But we can Yeah, but we can always fix a consultation and see how we can help her.

Once I know her reports, I will be able to tell you better because her current treatment is something because the doctor said we cannot give you steroids as of now because of your diabetes. So she's been going to the hospital every week for some drip that they are putting and they're making her take to keep the protein-based thing in control, I guess.

Right, so parallelly we can do something so that, you know, the other things settle down. Okay, let me have a look at her reports, join the webinar today, and then we can see what we can do. Done. Yes. Okay, can we reverse diabetes? Of course, yes. Type 2 diabetes is completely reversible. It depends how far you have come, and that's what will decide how long it will take to reverse it. But it is completely reversible. After COVID, many people have digestive diseases. Yes, after COVID, digestive diseases have increased. After COVID, diabetes has increased. After COVID, fatigue has increased. And of course, these things which I've said, you know, sauna and ozone are giving very, very good results in high-dose vitamin C drips in these patients. In fact, I am currently treating a few of them, uh, but, uh, these would be needed because otherwise with oral things we are not getting very good response. Type 2 diabetes can make you lose weight if your sugar levels do not stay in control. Get your HbA1c checked and see whether your medications are optimum and what are your sugar levels.

So I'm controlled. Okay, I have one more question. So my father's side is a history of diabetes and both my elder sisters have it. One is on the borderline and one is type one diabetes. So is there a very high possibility that I'll also get it?

Could be, but genetics is only 29%. Okay, right.

But how do I keep a check of it?

Yeah, so for all this— no, always get your HbA1c checked and liver function checked, vitamin D and hemogram. Okay. Your liver functions should be in mid-range, not the lowest, not the highest. Right, your HbA1c should never be more than 5.4. Okay, your BMI should be less than 25 always. If you have abdominal obesity, diabetes is not far. Luckily no, right? Good. And of course, always check your fasting insulin whenever you get your blood test done. Okay, okay. So if you maintain your fasting insulin between 5 and 6, that's perfect, because before you become diabetic, you will have insulin resistance. And if you catch it there, you will be able to reverse it and never become a diabetic. All right, thank you. Okay, yes, how to deal with sudden hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia? So of course, if you— this question comes from whom? Who has asked this question? And can I have some background regarding this question? Miss Purnima, I guess. Yeah, so Purnima, can you give me some background?

Um, yeah, I, uh, hi doctor. Hi. Actually, I have a leg child near, uh, who's live nearby. So they have this issue of, you know, like, glucose level high, glucose level low. So, uh, child unconscious.

So what we can do? So the child is type 1 diabetic? Yes. Generally, I have a YouTube channel, Food, Medicine, and Lies. By Dr. Preeti Nanda Sibal. Uspe maine Rule of 15 karkaek video daliye for these patients jo hypoglycemic ho jaate hai, bar bar, or kaise unka sugar jab bapisi nahi ata hai. Generally, jab apki cheezen ho rahi hoti hai, fluctuations, to apke gut mein koi nahi koi infection hota hai, ya apko koi nahi koi heavy metal toxicity hoti hai. Means I do an online program for type 1 diabetics And I have seen if they get infected, which is viral, so one, watch that video, share that video with them. It very, very nicely explains what is it that you have to do when the child is becoming hypoglycemic. Second, catch hold of a functional medicine doctor. Whosoever is near you and get some testing done and work on the gut health also. Because going forward, growth impact and/or complications. So better to work at least on the areas we can work on. Okay, food, medicine, and lies. I am giving you the spelling. In the chat box, and Rule of 15 is the name of the video. In fact, they will find some other relevant videos also on this link, so it is good if you share this link with them. Yeah, sure, definitely will share with you. Yeah, yes. Any other questions for me?

Hello, doctor. Yeah, hi Varun. Yes, ma'am, what is an A1C?

HbA1c, that is the average of 3 months glucose sugar levels. 5.4, preventive health case. Okay, so that we have scope to reverse it before we become diabetic.

Ma'am, there is one more question on the chat, uh, If there is a history of diabetes in the family, will my children have it by a parna?

Not necessarily, but high probability for multiple factors. Environment be same, genetics be same, lifestyle be almost same, unless some major changes. No, but as I said, genetic is only 26 to 29% in diabetes. So environment, lifestyle will have to play a role for your children to become diabetic.

Now one more question, uh, looking at the today's environment means the pollution and everything, so does that enhance diabetes or obesity in a, in a person or something?

Oh yes, big time. I showed you the slides. No, if you have heavy metals or if you have toxins in your body, where will the toxins get stored? It's only fat which is our friend, and fat stores the toxins inside the cells so that our body doesn't get— you know, we don't have symptoms every day. Okay, so the more toxins, the more fat is needed. And it's a vicious circle. Also, the food today is not as nutritious as it was before. I never— we never used to see deficiencies of magnesium, zinc, chromium, selenium. It is so hard for me to find when I do their testing, I do their oligoscan, people who have optimum chromium. So if you have cravings and you have less chromium, then there's no point trying to use your willpower all the time, no? Yeah, better take a chromium supplement for 6 weeks, get that sorted, and you will see that your cravings will go away.

And a lot of doctors say that the sweets or mitha khanes is not the reason to get diabetes?

Of course, because all carbohydrates and all proteins convert into glucose in the body. How many of you are science students here? Not me. Not me. Okay, but we all have done 10th, right? Yeah. In 8th class or 7th class, we used to have this chapter wherein we were taught the food may carbohydrate, fat, protein. And we were also taught carbohydrate or protein glucose, or fat metabolize. Okay, so having sugar is not a problem if you have it in limits. Females can have about 3 teaspoons of sugar and men 5 teaspoons. Provided you are active, you are not having a sedentary life. Okay, so you can plan your eating schedule in that way. Fat is your friend. Please, please, please don't take fat out of your diets. Use good fat, use good desi ghee, use good white butter. And have tasty, delicious food, right? Perfect. Any other questions for me?

Anyone, any other questions?

Perfect. So we are running a scheme for this month in our clinic where we are doing consultation for diabetics at just ₹199. Anyone of you, if you will be interested, you can just connect at the number which was there at the last slide, or you can connect with Vishakha and you know, book it with her. Till 30th November you have this offer. My regular consultation is ₹5,000. So if you think you have somebody whom you will want to, you know, show with reports and all, please take— make time in next week and use this opportunity to discuss your health. Yeah, and thank you very much. Have an awesome Sunday, and thanks for joining in today.

Thank you for your time, ma'am. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot, everyone, for joining. Hope it was a good session for everyone. Thank you.

Bye-bye. Bye. Take