‘What we do is not purposed for rich and fat people who want to lose weight. We prevent people’s health, 60-70 percent of our patients are under 30 years old with body-mass index over 40, which is scary’
In an interview for "24 Hours" the anesthesiologist docent Dimitar Gugutkov, director of Doverie Hospital in Sofia, has presented a therapy for pre-diabetes, which achieves two unique effects. On the one hand, it stops pre-diabetes by making the body produce carbohydrates by itself using its own fat and on the other we observe an impressive weight loss in overweight people - patients lose up to 30-50 kg. The program is inspired by a team of anesthesiologists, endocrinologists, gastroenterologists and nutritionists in the USA and enriched with an author's upgrade.
Docent Gugutkov, you have created a therapy that both stops pre-diabetes and leads to an impressive weight-loss for overweight people. What is the first step that patients that have started the therapy, go through?
The first thing that the patient gets is regulation of their hormone levels, not just insulin, but all the counterinsular hormones, or the hormones that counteract insulin. They are female and male sex hormones, thyroid hormones, as well as adrenal hormones - adrenaline, norepinephrine, cortisol. We do not use insulin in the therapy, but regulate the levels of insulin, so the levels of these hormones are also regulated. The second thing - we regulate the levels of insulin resistance, which is one of the diseases of the 21st century. Insulin resistance is a reversible process and in our program we regulate it so that it is gone.
How many people suffer from insulin resistance?
Approximately 5-10 million people worldwide on annual basis happen to have insulin resistance. In Bulgaria only that number is couple of ten thousands.
What you achieve with the program?
A very important thing is that we regulate the hormone levels, we do not destroy them. We cure diabetes, do not cause it and that is an important thing to note. Overweight is a disease and we must fight it. About 300 000 people achieve diabetes annually. If we succeed in protecting 2-3 thousand people not get sick that would be a salvation not only for these people, but a salvation for the country itself. There will be 2-3 thousand people less who have diabetes. What we do is give people health, not take it from them. In most of the cases overweight causes diabetes, high blood pressure, problems with the musculoskeletal system and hormonal imbalance. We should not think that hormonal imbalance is something natural. On the contrary – this is the disease of the XXI century.
It seems that recently there are more and more young people suffering from overweight. Is that for real?
60-70% of our patients are under 30 years old with body mass index over 40 which is frightening.
What is the reason for that?
Many things, but first of all is the way of eating. For many different reasons most of our food consist of carbohydrates. They are a killer of the human organism. Second, our way of life is increasingly immobile. When we take fast or slow carbohydrates, it is natural that a large part of them goes to the fat depots and puts a very heavy burden on the liver. In some cases that burden is even heavier than the one caused by alcohol. The third one, which is of great importance, is that we do not take care of our health, but seek a doctor only when we are sick. Let's translate the words "healthcare" and "illness treatment". We should go to the hospital to maintain our health, not when we are sick to treat our illness. We want to create prevention. Many people come to us only for prevention, they are not even overweight, nor have pre-diabetes or diabetes. They only come for detox, for vitamins, minerals, microelements and glutathione to protect their health. What we do is not for rich and fat people who want to lose weight, we create health prevention for all people. We prevent thousands of people from getting diabetes, from hypertension, from diseases of the thyroid gland, from diseases of the musculoskeletal system.
Some media claim that you use medicines for diabetes. Is that true?
Absolutely not, we do not use diabetes medicines. We are not in competition with the drugs that are prescribed by the health fund. It has quotas that it uses, we use the quotas that are in the cash market. All our patients pay out of their pocket for the treatment. They do not use public resources. It's not true that we do it for people who just want to be more beautiful. A lot of untrue things are said in the public space.
How long does the program last?
It depends – from four weeks up to six months.
What does it depend on?
On the patient’s health condition, on the laboratory tests, on the decisions that doctors make.
What are the effects of the program?
People feel much better and this can proved via laboratory tests, they say they feel 10-15 years younger. I give an example with myself - I am the first patient
Weight loss is the last thing, because in the first place we prevent people from getting diabetes. Many people do not have the will to lose weight on their own. With severe fasting, an effect can be achieved, but the weight returns very quickly. For them, this is the only alternative, they have no other. The only alternative is also for people with immune system problems. All the minerals, vitamins, microelements, amino acids important for the body are in very small amounts in food, sometimes even missing, so there is no way to get them. I'm a doctor that deals with enteral nutrition and paraenteral, that's intravenous nutrition, so that it's balanced and gives us everything we need.
Leave a comment