Picture of Arien van der Merwe: YouTube
Managing Diabetes and Related Health Challenges
Arien van der Merwe
Human & Rousseau
ISBN: 9780798169417
- Also available in Afrikaans - see picture of cover below
Ten questions: Arien van der Merwe on the book Managing Diabetes and Related Health Challenges.
Arien, you are a medical doctor, and you are also registered with the Natural Healers Association. Do you have a traditional approach to medicine, or a more holistic one? What is your philosophy?
I practise natural, integrative medicine and I’m registered with the NHA as a trainer in ethnomedicine, which is a holistic approach including body (herbal remedies – also traditional herbs, nutriceuticals, healthy eating, enjoyable exercise), mind (mind training to change old brain networks of belief in disease, deep relaxation practices to quieten the monkey-chatter mind), emotions (releasing trapped emotions that cause disease) and soul (the authentic human being whose natural state is to be happy and well).
You recently wrote a book called Managing Diabetes and Related Health Challenges. Why did you write this and why is this field of specific interest to you?
I was asked to write the book by NB Publishers (Human & Rousseau became the end publisher) because of the sheer numbers of people with this health challenge. I insisted on adding "and related health challenges" to the title, because diabetes (high blood sugar) hardly ever occurs on its own, but is accompanied or preceded by high blood pressure, increased waist circumference (insulin resistance), high triglycerides and LDL-cholesterol (harmful one) and low HDL (good one) – all of these are part of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). Depression is often part of the symptoms. I also developed MetS while writing the book!
Metabolic syndrome can be recognised by the following common symptoms:
- Increased waist circumference: abdominal (waist) circumference more than 102 cm in men, and more than 88 cm in women
- Increased triglycerides: 1,7 mmol/L* or above
- Increased LDL cholesterol: > 3 mmol/L
- Increased HDL cholesterol: < 1,0 mmol/L for men; < 1,3 mmol/L for women
- Elevated blood pressure: 130 mmHg systolic; 85 mmHg diastolic or above
- Increased fasting insulin indicating insulin resistance (dependent on laboratory specific values)
- Increased fasting glucose: >5,5 mmol/L
* mmol/L = millimoles per litre – measurement for very small quantities.
I used this as my own journey into healing to prove that it can be done.
Is your book written especially for people living with diabetes, or also for people living with depression, to which you referred briefly earlier? How are these conditions related?
It is written for any person who has, or who knows someone who has, any of these symptoms:
Symptoms of diabetes
- Diabetes might be present for many years without any symptoms.
- Early symptoms might include extreme thirst and frequent urinating, also at night. If you eat anything sweet, and experience extreme thirst or tiredness afterwards, it’s important to have your fasting blood sugar tested.
- Frequent candida (thrush) in the mouth or vagina, or frequent other infections, or sores on the skin that don’t heal.
- Tiredness for no apparent reason.
- Blurred vision.
The integrative approach will be of benefit to anybody. The section on how trapped emotions lead to disease is also, of course, applicable to any health challenge/disease, as are the stress management and lifestyle recommendations.
Many families are affected by diabetes (1 or 2). A young boy I know who seemed healthy was recently diagnosed with diabetes 1; a less healthy grown-up I know, with diabetes 2. Have both types of diabetes been everywhere around us all the time – or why do we hear so much about it nowadays?
These are examples of the chronic diseases of lifestyle (CDLs) so prevalent in modern times. Because of our lifestyles, high levels of stress and especially all the trapped emotions causing distress, more and more people are diagnosed with various of the CDLs. The system would then depend on the specific trapped emotions or the area of an existing genetic weakness.
No sweets, no chocolate, no cake ... ever? Is diabetes a lifelong death sentence?
It isn’t. My book is a message of hope that this disease can be managed and even healed. It’s not about no sweet things, but to really limit those to maybe once every 10 days and also controlling the quantity and emphasising complex carbohydrates rather than refined sugar; also replacing with healthier sugar substitutes (eg xylitol and stevia) and other options (such as the chocolate recipe that’s on my website).
Is the Banting way of life a natural cure for diabetes?
Banting is not for everyone, but its limitation on sugar consumption is good for those with diabetes. I recommend a LCHF (low carb, healthy fat (= plant oils, especially coconut, olive, avo)) eating plan.
Please elaborate a bit on relaxation, meditation and sleep. Of much importance, or not so much?
Sleep is essential for rest, recovery and replenishment of body and mind (7–8 hours of sleep per day in quiet and darkness). It is of the utmost importance to practise some relaxation or meditation every single day, even for 10 minutes to start off with. We have to do something to calm our hectic, busy left-brain mode (beta and high beta brainwave rhythm or pattern) into becoming calm, peaceful and still, to move to alpha rhythm or right-brain mode and from there to whole-brain functioning.
How would anybody know whether they have diabetes – or what are the warning signals to change your lifestyle even before you are diagnosed?
Going for annual check-ups is essential – prediabetes can be diagnosed before fasting blood sugar goes really high. Always include fasting insulin as well, and lipid profile including homocystein, C-reactive protein (to measure inflammation), blood pressure of course, and weight (including WHR and BMI). Most people with type 2 diabetes are overweight, stressed and eating the wrong foods. However, it is not always the case, and the diagnosis can occur in people with really healthy lifestyles. Those with insulin resistance are inclined to find losing fat weight around the abdomen very challenging.
You write “dis-ease” rather than “disease”. Please will you explain why?
“Dis-” means “un-”, therefore a body that is not at ease. It’s so important to remember that our natural state is to be at ease, healthy (and happy!). What we have to do is learn how to return to this natural state, and that is what my book is about.
Disease is a natural part of life, is it not? Which diseases do we need to manage and which ones do we need to embrace because we cannot change them?
Disease is not natural! Health is natural and we have to unblock the old beliefs (including wrong world views and our own beliefs in sickness).
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