I was diagnosed with T2 about a year ago. My blood sugar was 682 the day I found out! I was put on insulin and once numbers were more under control then Avandamet and Byetta. I have since removed myself from both of them in order to try to gain control naturally (I'm one of those noncompliant patients, I think treating the problem is much more important than treating the symptoms). My numbers hover anywhere from 100 to 150 now. But I want better control. Anywho...I wondered if anyone has been able to gain control strictly with exercise, eating properly, vitamins/supplements. I've been reading a book called Reversing Diabetes and it's provided me with great information...although I do take a lot of it with a grain of salt. His diet makes more sense than the "diet" I was given by Diabetes Educators. Basically told I can eat anything I want as long as it fits into the number of carbs I'm supposed to have for that meal/snack. Reversing Diabetes promotes high fiber, low glycemic - very little bread, no high carb veggies & fruit like corn or bananas, "natural" sugar (like Stevia). Supplements like Chromium and Vanadium as well as a good multivitamin and of course, exercise. That just got me to wondering if I could find anyone who is actually doing something similar and had good results. Also does anyone happen to go to a Naturopathic MD versus and endicronologist?
Hm.. Personaly i am a T1 but neither do i know anyone who is trying to do this personaly, but i've been told that it's hard to do, doesn't do it as well as some might expect (though i don't know your expectations) and is rather unhealthy.
This is what i've gathered: if you don't use any sort of medication then you need to work out (go to the gym or do course running). Why this is hard i've been told is that you need to do it every day on regular basis and frequently. Try to make a schedule for this.
Food has to be included in schedule as well. You've spoken about keeping in the carb limit - that's correct you need to find out how much your organism can deal with since people like you who have had diabetes for a rather short time still can have it reversed (didn't hear it being reversed after more than 2 years and that last wasn't confirmed)
Count everything in - proteins are needed to keep you healthy and especialy count fat. That's a great influence to your sugar levels. If you thought eggs for egzample don't influence your sugal levels then you are wrong, they do. Let's say 3 or 4 eggs will give you quite a boost on sugar levels (ate some, injected a normal ammount of insulin and had 23mmol/l later) it's just that fat works a lot later.
So long things short: make sure your work out is stable and frequent, you eat accordingly (if you eat quite a lot of fat either extend your exercise or put it off an hour or 1.5h) and you count in everything.
At times it may seam difficult but stay positive and don't be afraid to stray a little from the base sugar levels keep it arround 6-8mmol/l (sorry, still not familiar with thei awkward messurment units you used though they are converted on the net and i've posted a link to it somwhere on the forums)<br><br>Post edited by: Vytautas, at: 2008/02/10 12:53
Hi Karchie, welcome to the forum Vytautas has given you an answer that is complete, so I only would like to say that I hope that you will enjoy this forum
Yes, my dad used natural methods to control and finally defeat his diabetes.
My dad (DeWayne McCulley) was a T2, with a BS of 1337, DVT, 4 insulin shots a day, and other complications. But we (his mother and I) put him on a raw food diet, and his BS returned to normal within a month, and within 4 months he had weaned off the insulin.
We focused on green and bright-colored veggies, plant oils, wild salmon, filtered water, beans, etc. and avoided the bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, and even the grains, especially the cereals and breads. My dad, being an engineer, also increased his BG testing to 7-8 times a day, and used the data to customize his nutritional program.
After he fully recovered, the American Diabetes Association invited him to share his story with an ADA diabetic support group. When members of the support group improved their BG levels, they (and I)encouraged my dad to write the book (Death to Diabetes -- The 6 Stages of Type 2 Diabetes Control & Reversal) to help more diabetics.
Note: Natural methods (e.g. whole foods) is better because the drugs only address the symptoms of the diabetes, and never address the underlying biochemical and hormonal imbalances that fuel the disease. That's why you have to always take the drugs -- because they never fix the root cause of the problem. Whole foods contain many of the missing nutrients that the (damaged) cells require to initiate the repair process.
Cynthia
p.s. Now, my dad is helping even more diabetics with his workshops and teleseminars. See attachment for a photo of my dad speaking at a diabetes medical conference.
Great to hear it worked for your dad. Insulin is not a drug or medication but a natural hormone made by the human organism and was intended as a means to control Type 1 diabetes. It is not a cure since there is none so far. Type 2 is different. It's more a weaker form of Type 1 since everything is fine with the diabetic except for the factor that his body has difficulty assimilating insulin where it is needed. That is often cause by bad diet, obesity combined with age. If you change your diet and drop weight at a steady enough rate you can fix the problem if it hasn't persisted for say 10 years (not sure how long).
Then again.... One thing I'd like to know: after defeating diabetes with this diet, did your father move back to a regular diet or does he continue to use this stated diet?
Thank you for your response. Let me try to clarify some of your comments:
Re: "Type 2 is different. It's more a weaker form of Type 1"
Actually Type 1 and Type 2 are two entirely different diseases -- one (T1) is an autoimmune disease, and the other (T2) is a metabolic imbalance. Type 2 diabetes was misnamed because years ago it was thought to be the original form of dabetes (Type 1) because of the similar symptoms. As a result, some Type 2s died from an overdose of insulin because of this misdiagnosis.
Re: "you can fix the problem if it hasn't persisted for say 10 years (not sure how long)."
The issue is not time -- we have clients who have been diabetic for more than 10 years, and they no longer require any meds. The nutritional protocol initiates the body's cell repair process, to repair the trillions of cells with damaged or inflammed insulin receptors. Once the glucose transport mechanism is repaired, the cells are able to pull glucose from the bloodstream into the cells.
Once of the key areas that my dad addresses in his book is the pathophysiology of the disease at the cellular level -- to help dispel many of the myths and misunderstandings about diabetes. As a result, it was easier to devise an optimum nutritional protocol for most T2s that can be customized by using post-meal BG readings -- since everyone's body reacts differently to certain foods.
Re: "did your father move back to a regular diet or does he continue to use this stated diet?"
My dad can eat whatever he wants -- because the damaged cells have been repaired. For example, he can eat ice cream, and his BS returns to normal within 1.5 hours. However, he realizes now that many of his favorite foods were toxic. However, because of his biochemistry background, he has been able to transform many of these toxic foods into healthy foods.
Similarly, some of his clients, who have achieved Stage 5 or Stage 6 of the program, can eat their favorite foods without triggering high BS readings.
You can listen to their testimonials or the comments from medical doctors on our website, on Amazon.com, or YouTube.
Hope that clarifies any misunderstanding.
Cynthia
p.s. There are some myths and misunderstandings about Type 1, but I'm not as knowledgeable as my dad when it comes to talking about Type 1.
p.s. The picture is my dad being interviewed on TV, after several diabetics in an ADA support group either came off their meds or reduced their meds, including one T1.
p.s. The audio file are excerpts from a radio interview with a medical docotr, a cardiologist, who stated that my dad cured himself of diabetes. My dad tried to disagree but the doctor was emphatic.
Thanks for you insight! Great information! Hopefully, one day I'll really understand this disease...I've read so much about it but still really don't understand the biology of it.
That's amazing what your dad has done! I'm going to google him and try to get his book. I started low carb eating a few weeks ago and have seen great improvement in my numbers but I also want to be as well educated on Diabetes as I can be.
"he has been able to transform many of these toxic foods into healthy foods" - how did he do that??? Can he do it to french fries?!? Kidding...
Re: "I've read so much about it but still really don't understand the biology of it."
Hi Karchie,
You're not alone -- I hear this a lot, when I'm helping my dad during his diabetes workshops and lectures. And, it's not your fault that you don't understand the biology! I am impressed at the amount of research and reading that people such as yourself do to try to improve your health.
Unfortunately, a lot of what is documented is either confusing or misleading. One of the more common things that people say during my dad's workshops is that no one had ever explained the biology of the disease in a way that everyone could actually understand the disease. I think that my dad was able to do this because when he worked in Corporate America one of his many jobs was as a technical trainer, where he had to break down very complex circuits and software to explain them to technicians. He realized that it was not imortant to impress his audience with his techncial knowledge -- it was more imprtant to increase their knowledge so that they could do their jobs better as techncicans. He is now applying those same principles with diabetics.
KEY POINT: One of the reasons why there is so much controversy, confusion, and contradiction about diabetes (and other diseases) is due to the "lack of concise knowledge". Once you acquire the knowlledge, then, no one can "BS" you about what to do or not do when it comes to successfully fighting a disease like diabetes.
If you consider "diabetes" to be your "enemy", then, you need to understand EVERYTHING about your enemy -- its strengths and weaknesses -- in order to defeat your enemy. Unfortunately, if you do not understand your enemy, then, your enemy will eventually defeat you.
Cynthia
p.s. Once you comprehend what "fuels" the disease vs. what "starves" the disease, you can defeat the disease.
p.s. Attached is an example of one of my dad's flow charts -- it's not one of his better ones, but it helps to "depict" how disease "develops".
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Vytautas has given you an answer that is complete, so I only would like to say that I hope that you will enjoy this forum 
