Contradicting the ignorance and misinformation from doctors, big pharma, and the grain industry
Billions of dollars of drugs are sold to remedy type 2 diabetes. The more I studied nutrition and the human body, as well as much reading of boring studies, the more motivated I became to move away from drugs and towards lifestyle changes and an increase in hope that I can actually cure this problem. It has now been two years since I made that decision.
Some background
I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in late 2016.
It impacted my body in many ways, including:
- Loss of much muscle mass; so fatigue and loss of strength.
- Inflammation - expressing mostly as joint pain. Began around 2008.
- Nerve damage - about half of the area of both feet were numb and/or tingly, random sparks/tingles of various feelings, including pain throughout the body (felt like insect bites), and numbness in other areas. This included impotence! I started noticing these symptoms in early 2016. The only way I could sleep was to use a huge - and increasing - amounts of alternating between ibuprofen and acetaminophen, which barely worked. Eventually I discovered that consuming oil from weed before bed insured sleep.
- Low energy.
- Foggy brain - I didn't notice this until it changed. Clarity now!
- Drastically deteriorating vision, including the beginning of cataracts.
- In 2017 my A1C tested as 15.5. A1C is a measurement of blood/glucose level average over a 3-4 month period. 15.5 is considered extremely high.
- Super low testosterone levels. I didn't know about this until 2018.
I had felt the approach of these symptoms for over a year prior to diagnosis and suspected something was up but was afraid to face it.
My diet leading up to this was vegetarian plus occasional fish, chicken, turkey, and eggs. I often went a week or more without consuming any animal products. I didn't have much of a taste for meat - especially fatty meat - so I ate it rarely. I had not eaten beef, pork, lamb, or drank milk in over 26 years prior to the diagnosis. I ate an unrestricted amount of bread and pasta. I ate an unrestricted amount of rice, too. I didn't know how the body converts carbs into sugars and the load they put on the liver and eventually, the rest of the body. I certainly didn't know how this can lead to insulin resistance!
Experimenting on myself
There's this thing, this "web" of information out there. I used it to research diabetes, human metabolism, nutrition, exercise, and some related topics. Once I scrolled past the big pharma, big grain, and big corn funded "studies" and advice, I found there were thousands of cases where people not only remedied, but reversed the course of their diabetes and many other metabolic diseases with diet and exercise! Yay duck duck go as a search engine!
So on February 1st of 2018 I started an experiment. Keto (high fat, medium protein, low carb), intermittent fasting (one meal a day, hereinafter "OMAD"), and 20 to 30 minutes of walking or weight lifting (alternating) per day. I used a spreadsheet to track every meal, every intake of meds, and every exercise session.
After four days:
- All muscle, joint, and "phantom" pain was gone! Suddenly, I could dance and do Kung Fu for over an hour straight and have zero joint pain, which I had not experienced in years!
- I could sleep without drugging myself!
After a few weeks:
- Dry, scaly skin on my face gone.
- Higher testosterone - more energy, drive, and confidence.
- Some of my nerve damage has gone away, as in I can feel more parts of my feet now!
- Consistently high energy levels.
- Unintended side effect: I lost quite a bit of my body fat. As of today, I've put two new holes in my belt and cut three inches off the tip! And yay, muscle stands out far more!
After one year:
- I had gotten my metformin and glyburide intake down to half of what had originally prescribed.
After two years:
- A1C down from 15.5 to 6.2! FYI, ~6.0 is "normal". UPDATE May 2021: A1C at 5.9! Finally stopped all meds.
- All feeling in feet has returned.
- Penis working much better! UPDATE: now 100%!
I remember a conversation with the doctor who first diagnosed me: "But doc, what if I just improve my diet and exercise more?"
His reply: "You already eat healthy. It's probably genetic. Your blood sugar is far above the norm. This is very bad. You will die if you don't take these drugs (glyburide & metformin)."
The second doctor, over a year later, when asked the same question, gave a similar answer but did concede that he had seen patients cure themselves with lifestyle changes. "But, that is off the record."
Pros and cons of Keto
Short for ketogenesis. Please be sure to read the caveat at the bottom of this article! Please also study up some on keto in case you bring to the table a belief of the anti-keto grain-n-pharma-industry-perpetuated-myths about things like "eating meats and fat is bad," "our bodies need carb input," "LDL causes heart attacks," "coconut oil is bad," "long term effects are damaging," "salt is bad," etc. Follow the money trail.
Some Keto myths
"I have to stop eating bread, pasta, pizza, ice cream, and other yummy treats!"
The Truth: Nope! There are an increasing number of products using:
- Monk fruit powder, stevia, erythritol, allulose, and other healthy sweeteners.
- Almond flour, coconut flour, and even cauliflower for pie or pizza crusts.
"Hypothyroidism, reduced bone mineral density, kidney stones and gallstones."
The Truth: Not enough B, C, potassium, calcium, D2/K3, magnesium, and zinc. Keto done wrong. Unless you love fatty meat, love liver, and get a lot of Sun, supplements are super important. I fall in that category. I also eat a tablespoon a day of coconut oil because I can't get enough fat otherwise. New: cooking with ghee.
"Constipation."
The Truth: I've only had issues with that when I eat too much cheese. I know many low carb bread recipes use a lot of cheese and cheese is known as very "keto," so I see why some people are getting constipation. Especially with combined with: an unexamined keto diet may not supply enough fiber. I eat some kale about every other day and add a flax-based fiber powder to many dishes. Kale is loaded with powerful antioxidants like quercetin and kaempferol, Omega 3. But also, heh, I drink a lot of coffee and tea, which I believe helps keep the flow going. Disclaimer: I'm not necessarily recommending high caffeine intake.
"High risk for some cancers."
The Truth: I bet this is because - if you study only the surface of keto you may avoid various anti-oxidant veggies and fruits, for fear of carbs/sugar. The thing is there are many greens, nuts, and even fruits that are keto-friendly, including kale, berries, pecans, macadamia, and walnuts because of their fat/fiber/carb ratio being good. I don't even eat red meat, heh. Mucho bacon, turkey, chicken, and SALMON. Some beans but carefully.
Want more detail? Here's an article I wrote specifically about those myths:
https://steemit.com/health/@scottermonkey/practical-keto-basics-and-myths
The article also lays out a simple "how to" and links to many products I recommend.
What is autophagy and why does it matter?
The short answer: Autophagy repairs cellular damage. New studies are even showing it can slow or even reverse some of the effects of aging! Important: For it to work, a person needs to give their digestive system breaks. Nothing drastic is required. OMAD (one meal a day) works great for this!
Some sciencey bits: There is an important "garbage removal and repair" process our bodies do naturally, if given the chance, called autophagy.
Autophagy is the major eukaryotic degradative process for cytosolic organelles, long–lived proteins as well as misfolded protein aggregates, playing an important role in development, adaptation, starvation, tumor suppression, and aging as well as innate and adaptive immunity. Although mostly referred to strictly as a degradative process, autophagy is also often described as a renewal process; a pathway by which metabolites generated through autophagic degradation are reused either as sources of energy or building blocks for synthesis of new macromolecules.
You can quickly and easily get into autophagy
A few days into my intermittent fasting (put first and only meal off until noonish or even 3-4pm) with high fat, medium/low protein, and very low carbs and I put my body into a state of autophagy. The high fat intake means less or even no cravings. Apparently, I converted my body into a "hybrid" system (it's natural state) that can easily utilize fat and ketones as well as the carbs it has been trained to use for energy.
Other benefits?
Many! I can't stress enough that by the end of day 4 ALL my joint pain was gone and I was able to sleep without drugging myself every night! That pain stayed gone - with the exception of twice during this 91 days where I ate too many carbs and the knee pain came back. Both times it took 24-36 hours of getting back on the super low carb train to remove the pain again. Other changes I've noticed include higher and more consistent energy, obvious loss of body fat, and more clarity of thought. Oh and I'm not wasting money or time eating so often, which means I'm getting more done.
IMPORTANT Caveats
- Exercise: I did - barely - step up my exercise. Between 30 and 60 minutes of walking or a similar amount of biking, daily. Been getting back into Kung Fu training. Weight lifting every other day. But the point of this caveat is: I believe at least half of this amount of exercise is essential for this lifestyle to work well.
- Water: Drink more! Then drink more! And keep in mind that water can wash many important nutrients out of your system, so...
- Make sure you are getting enough of the essential nutrients! Carbs are not essential nutrients! Your body, through a process called gluconeogenesis, makes as much glocuse as you need. Again, refer to https://hive.blog/health/@scottermonkey/practical-keto-basics-and-myths for a more detailed list of the vitamins and nutrients you need most. All B vitamins, C, D, Potassium, magnesium, and zinc are high up on the list. Oh and it is best to get them through consumption of whole foods and only through supplements when absolutely necessary. With the current state of soil-for-growing and animal feed, sadly, this is an issue. So I tend to consume quite a few supplements.
Finally, as of November 2019, my A1C was down to 6.2!
Please question all information from big pharma-influenced American Cancer Society, American Medical Association (AMA), USDA, and FDA! Big pharma wants doctors prescribing their drugs and they bribe and lobby heavily to keep these agencies under their boots. If you don't know what regulatory capture is, look it up. It's insidious and it's a big part of why government regulation doesn't work.
Disclaimer
I'm not a nutritionist, doctor, physicist, oceanographer, astronaut, or monkey therapist, so don't go believing anything I say. Don't even follow my advice, which this isn't.