Ears, Hearing

Over a long career, Dr. Brookler, an ENT doctor, slowly switched to putting more and more focus on insulin resistance and blood sugar control as key factors in the treatment of inner ear problems, such as tinnitus.

To be clear, there is far more involved with hearing and with tinnitus than simply insulin resistance and glucose metabolism. This interview presents some of his experience and a lot of speculation.

Still, this interview is very interesting and raises the question of whether it would be good to have research done to check out some of his observations and opinions. Much of what he expresses is not part of mainstream medical thinking at this time. However, he is not alone is questioning the practices and testing protocols regarding insulin resistance and its possible harms. The person interviewing him, Ivor Cummins, is an engineer who has developed a strong interest in metabolic health and nutrition issues – and has some controversial opinions of his own.

In terms of diet, I must point out that at one point he refers to a low fat and low carbohydrate diet. Combining low fat plus low carb is, by definition, a very low calorie diet, which is generally not suitable to be used, except in uncommon circumstances where short-term rapid weight loss is worth both (1) the known poor long-term outcomes and (2) the risks, including risks of future re-bound weight re-gain and future increased disruption of appetite control. (He does mention that he did not do the dietary counselling himself, but referred his patients to outside, more expert and experienced professionals – where hopefully they knew not to recommend low-fat plus low-carb as an ongoing dietary pattern.)

I include this video for consideration as part of the current very active and broad discussion about re-looking at insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, what levels of abnormality of insulin/glucose/metabolism bring risk of harm, which lab tests are best to use, and what the full range of possible medical consequences are, etc.

For more info, see the related post on thefatemporer.com  LINK