I was reading this on my tudiabetes home page: “You have no recent activity. Why not start something?” and thought, “Why not?”…
I’ve posted a few comments here and there in tudiabetes stating the benefits of a primarily raw, natural foods based diet (lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains) in combination with adequate daily exercise resulting in my success in being able to stop taking Metformin (after many years and rising blood glucose). I’ve received comments back stating that I must be lucky, or that I must have a mild case. One even implied that I don’t work full time in order to exercise as much as I do. At first, I resented these comments. I am a full blown type two… no doubt about that. I work full time… no doubt about that, either. I think what really bothered me is that these people so easily dismiss what clearly works for thousands of us and apparently they don’t want to hear why it works. I could go on and on as to why it works, but if I’m the only one who is saying it, I’m afraid not many will listen.
The reason I’m posting this is because I’m growing weary (of the negativity I’m getting) of trying to help other type twos realize that you can live a very healthy and long life, if you just take the time to learn and live what has worked for thousands of others.
1.) I’m looking for other type twos who control glucose with healthy low carb, high nutrient, raw natural foods based diets in conjunction with mild, daily exercise. Not so much to suggest that the naysayers are wrong, but to encourage them to take another (very hard) look at what clearly works.
2.) Also, I’m interested in knowing if there are other type twos controlling with diet and exercise who have given up trying to help others because of all the resistance.
Let’s hear your story on how you got off the medication. Mainly how you shifted from making excuses to finding solutions. What say you?
12 years ago I applied your ideas with a reasonably balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, fish and low calories and infinite exercise at least 2 hours per day of moderate mountain biking or equivalent. I lost 85 lb to below my high school weight. I felt much better.
But I was not able to get the BG readings into the normal range and this eventually destroyed my pancreas.
A small amount of insulin would have been precious at that time or possibly be useless to stop the destruction of the pancreas, since you dont get to replay life ( at least not in our dimension, see Everett’s multidimensional universe theory) one will never know.
There may be a lot of diabetics that have still have somewhat functioning pancreases that would benefit from your ideas. If they can maintain the BG and body weight in the normal range at all times with your ideas then they should go for it.
The only fly in the ointment as I can see: “Will this approach prevent some people from supplementing their own insulin and causing their pancreas to kick out”. Would be interesting what research has been done so far.
I think that learning about healthy diet and exercise routine is important for ALL human beings. Not only diabetics, not only type 2 diabetics.
Research shows that there are many types of type 2’s and maybe even many types of type 1’s. So I tend to shy away from claiming that something could solve everyone’s problems.
Wouldn’t it be more productive to encourage healthy lifestyle with or without medication?
I have type 1 diabetes. I used to be “anti-medication” before I was diagnosed. The insulin that I inject plays a very important role. So much so that if I miss it for a few hours, I am nauseous and damaging my body severely. Obviously a type 1 diabetic’s need for insulin is an extreme dependence. But the point is that my diagnosis forced me to accept that sometimes medicine is necessary. But medicine is not a substitute for healthy diet and exercise habits.
So your mission is a noble one and your advice is needed. But perhaps rather than emphasizing that people need to get off their medications, you could emphasize the benefits of the diet that you follow. If people try it and are successful, perhaps they will be able to stop taking medication as well. More importantly though, they will be living healthier.
Hope that we continue to brainstorm good ideas here. I hope that your profile page won’t say that “You have no recent activity” for a while!
I’m sorry to “come across” this way, but for one, it is the only way… and two, it’s not my way… It’s Nature’s way. I started learning this stuff from Dr. John McDougall long before becoming diabetic when he had a radio talk show and pointed out that the healthiest people on the planet lived in remote areas where refined food products rarely get to, lived off the land, and were physically active. Too bad I didn’t listen then. Perhaps McDougall was too passionate also, and came across as I do to some others. Or maybe I just had to learn the hard way as most of us do. Subsequently, I have learned pretty much the same thing from a wide variety of sources… David Mendosa, Patrick Quillin, Joel Fuhrman, Neal Barnard, and a host of others. They all have these things in common, high nutrient, low refined carb diets in combination with moderate daily exercise/physical activity. Why? Because it’s the most effective way of dealing with type two diabetes.
I had two teachers in my 14 year schooling history that stood out as great educators. They were just as passionate about their knowledge as I am about mine. I acknowledge that my delivery isn’t as smooth and refined as it ought to be, but my message is consistent, valid, and sound. Maybe instead of telling me what’s wrong with my approach, you might point out how I might put the com in front of the passion and bludgeon people less. Few people (that I have talked to) have poured as much heart into the passionate pursuit of this knowledge as I have.
I’m very sorry you have fibromyalgia. I was diagnosed July 18th, 2005. Thought I was dying. Overcoming major depressive disorder, which preceded the fibro, taught me pretty much the same thing you learned about the show going on… “Life is long, the road is rough. If a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough”. Keeping a full time job with fibro, is tantamount to torture. But, what else are you going to do?
Fortunately, my passionate pursuit of knowledge has taught me several very effective ways of forcing that disease into remission without drugs as well. Email me if you’re interested in sharing thoughts on fibro.
I like your message. To me, though, a type one having to take insulin is not quite the same as taking “medication”. Medication is something that is foreign to the body, in my book. Otherwise, you’re right on. Everyone should get an education similar to the one we’re forced into, so that they might make better choices in their diet.
I don’t believe I said people need to get off their medications. If I did, I was wrong. What I mean to say is, we should work toward reducing the need for medication. Yes, I’m fortunate that my body is still able to produce some insulin, but I respect my limitations enough to keep the refined carb intake low enough, and exercise sufficiently, to keep the insulin resistance down to where I don’t overwhelm my system.
I too, hope we can keep bringing ideas to the forefront and fine tune this thing in such a way as to make it easier and more palatable to more people.
This subject of pancreas (beta cell) failure in type twos has fascinated me for some time. I can’t seem to get a consensus as to why it happens. So far, the only thing I’ve been able to pin it down to, is the prescribing of sulfonylurea drugs. Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.
It would help me a great deal in my ongoing pursuit of knowledge if you could share more thoughts on this. As far as I can tell, after a year of being without the Metformin and at age 57, my insulin production is adequate for the lifestyle I lead. My numbers are stable and I feel pretty good (except for the occasional bouts with fibromyalgia as mentioned elsewhere in this topic).
Sulphonyurea drugs are real ■■■■ in my opinion as they give you no control whatsoever. Insulin is much preferable form that point of view. I suspect that suphonyls might harm the pancreas but we are likely never to get any proof of that because of the potential law suites or egg on peoples faces.
The most likely thing that keeps on killing your pancreas is the BG not in the normal range. Also it could be that some of the so called type 2 are in fact autoimmune victims and in some people the damage stops and in others it destroys it completely.
Metformin in some people is very good I met a diabetic that lost 65 lb on metformin. This may permit him to continue on with a life style such as you suggest.
In my case taking metformin did nothing improve to my BG control. The average and standard deviation of my BG readings was exactly the same with and without metformin. In other words it net benefit was zero.
So the only option I had 11 years ago was your approach as the Canadian way did not allow you to be on insulin until your pancreas was destroyed.
I will wonder to the day I die if a little outside insulin in the begging in addition to a healthy lifestyle would have kept me out of the present nighmare.
Do whatever it takes to keep as healthy as you are now. Sorry about the fibromyalgia.
I’m not sure where you’re buying your food or exactly what you’re buying, but as long as it’s healthy, great. I cringe at my $75.00 to $100.00 a week grocery bill, but I guess that’s not bad when compared to others.
I’m so happy for you to not only retain your enthusiasm in this tough time, but actually set an example for Erez to follow. The other day, I had a fleeting dream about building a camp for type twos with a lodge, conference room, cabins, hiking trails, huge vegetable garden, everything (except TVs, video games, etc). We would work out together, have games, competitions, gardening, preparing foods, share stories, the whole nine yards. Now, if only I had a few million…
Hey there - I’m T1 so I can’t really comment on getting off medication. But I loved your line re “shifting from making excuses to finding solutions” - felt like you were speaking directly to me.
(Serendipity?)
Well, I don’t know about your spiritual side, but I believe that message came to me from God, Himself. Overcoming depression, was one of the toughest times of my life. I learned a lot about living. Shortly after depression, I had terrible chest pains and flu like symptoms that landed me in the ER twice. No, it wasn’t my heart, it was later diagnosed as fibromyalgia. Having fibro is one of the worst things imaginable. It won’t kill you, just makes you wish you were dead.Throughout all this, I learned that making excuses, taking medication, etc… wasn’t going to get me where I wanted to go. That’s when I made up my mind to seek my own methods of healing. Researching up to two hours a day for over two years into a huge variety of sources, led me right back to where I should have gone in the first place. Mother Nature. There are no easy fixes, you just have to eat the foods our bodies were designed to eat and exercise the way our bodies were designed to … every day whether you want to or not. In some ways, type ones have it better, in some ways not. Either way, we all can benefit from knowing, caring, and sharing.
“Reducing medication” can be a life saving concept at time. By using more insulin to control my blood sugar I was getting uncontrollably hungry and headed to 500 lb or death whichever came first. I switched to very low carb (with occaisional cheating to eat a kiwi or small orange) cut the insulin from 75 units to 55 per day with better blood sugar control. And I feel less hungry so I may be able to cut calories or spend 1/2 day in the gym or both.
Everyone is different. What would help me is to understand specifically what you eat over a 1 week period by meal. This is currently my biggest struggle with diet. What, specifically, to eat. If I had the specific items, I could test it out (“eat to the meter” as Jenny says) and let you know if anything improves.
My a1c improved dramatically with just the low-carb change. If raw natural foods makes an improvement, then that would be great. But, unfortunately, I don’t know what that means without some specific per meal examples.
