Can High Blood Sugar Be Reversed?
I recently returned from the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) annual meeting. In attendance were thousands of nurses, doctors, and Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs).
If we put the most brilliant medical minds in the country together in one place at one time to address unhealthy blood sugar, we’d get some real progress in slowing and stopping this disease, right? Well, maybe not.
The obvious questions
I was there hoping to hear answers to some of the most common questions newly-diagnosed type 2 diabetics have:
“Is high blood sugar reversible?”
“If it is reversible, what foods do I need to restrict to achieve that?”
To my surprise, I didn’t hear either question asked. I listened intently for “reverse type 2,” “eliminate processed sugar,” or “restrict fruit or whole grain foods”, but these phrases were also suspiciously absent.
How could this be? Was I really attending a conference with thousands of the best medical minds in the country, only to find that they missed the most pressing questions a person with high blood sugar has?
We know what causes elevated blood sugar and how to reverse it, but the conference focused largely on more efficient insurance reimbursement strategies and new technology in insulin pumps than it did on helping patients get well.
It was disheartening to see thousands of the best medical minds in the country seemingly resigned to treating diabetes symptoms, not hoping to reverse or slow the progression of this disorder — let alone instructing people how to do it.
A growing crisis
Make no mistake: the people at this conference are good people. They are medically trained. They are competent and professional. So how is it that they only talk about treatment of an ongoing health challenge without even thinking of solving the problem? If high blood sugar causes bodily damage, and it does, why not address the cause instead of just treating the symptom?
The American Diabetes Association released new research on March 22, 2018 estimating the total cost of diagnosed diabetes has risen to $327 billion in 2017 from $245 billion in 2012. That is a 26 percent increase over a five-year period. It doesn’t take a doctor or a financial whiz to see that not only are these numbers financially unsustainable, the health of Americans is truly in crisis.
How much money is $327 billion, anyway?
Well, it would take 3,270,000 people earning $100,000 per year to equal that amount of money. Think about that. Over 3 million people, each working for a full year at $100,000/yr. and then handing over all they earned. That is $327 billion.
Or, enough to provide Medicaid for all 28 million uninsured Americans — with over $200 billion left over!
$327 billion would build 294,000 homes and end homelessness in America, plus we could power 714,000 homes with solar energy, plus run fiber internet connections to 8.3 million households and still have $250 billion left over!
$327 billion is a lot of money.
That is what this insidious disorder is costing us financially. It isn’t just costing us our standard of living, it is costing us our lives.
There is a way out. The path to healthy blood sugar lies in knowledge and discipline. It means healthier whole food choices like above-ground vegetables, some protein with every meal (meats, eggs, cheeses, nuts), and generous amounts of fats (olive, avocado, flax,hemp, and borage oils). It means reducing meals to two meals per day, or for some, just one. It means fasting for up to 20 hours/day. It means getting as much physical activity as you can.
Read, learn, talk to others who have traveled this path. The knowledge is there. The answers are there. The hope is there.
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