Why doctors and medications will not reverse your diabetes (Treating symptoms vs. cause)

“Diabetes is unique among serious chronic diseases, in that, it is the only condition where the patient with only a small amount of help from your doctor and no heroic interventions can achieve normal health. It is up to you to achieve normal health…no one is riding to your rescue.” Blood Sugar 101-Jenny Ruhl

Doctors and drug companies will not reverse your diabetes. This is not to take away the importance of your relationship with your doctor or medications he/she may prescribe in the treatment of your diabetes…it is to highlight the fact they you, not them, hold the key to reversing your diabetes.

However, you must understand, by the time you have been officially diagnosed with Type 2 or Pre-Diabetes, you have already been living in a “diabetic state” characterized by the overproduction of insulin (a.k.a. hyperinsulinemia) for the past 5-15 years. For many, you are already in an advanced state of hyperinsulinemia which is already beginning to show itself in the form of high blood pressure, weight gain/obesity, impotence and heart disease.

At the point at which you doctors says, “We have a Problem!” You have now lost the ability to produce enough insulin in order to keep your blood sugar levels within normal limits. Key: Elevated blood sugar is typically the first symptom that alerts doctor/patient to begin some sort of treatment in order to keep blood sugar levels down. However, high blood sugar is the SYMPTOM and NOT THE CAUSE.

Pretty much every drug that will offered up to you from this point forward will be directed at the symptom—lowering your blood sugar. A good example of this would be Metformin. Metformin will lower your blood sugar on average 1.1% (NEJM Journal Feb 2012). So if you have been diagnosed with an A1c of 7.8%, it may reduce your A1c to 6.7%. That is good… elevated blood sugar has its own distinct set of risk factors that we will cover later.

However, while this drug, and pretty much every other drug directed toward diabetes, may help lower blood sugar some…it will fail to address the underlying cause of overproduction of insulin and the subsequent development of insulin resistance. Your diabetes will continue to progress while we pretend it is curing it, but in reality we are only masking the symptoms.

There is HOPE! As we understand the causes of diabetes/obesity, then we begin to understand the solution. The cause of diabetes/obesity is the overproduction of insulin driven by the foods we eat and the lifestyle we live. As we begin to reduce, or eliminate, these drivers of overproduction of insulin then we will begin to slowly reverse the production of insulin, which in turn, will also begin to lower blood sugar levels.

We are not being critical of physicians and medications but the reality is that there are limitations in both. Doctors can only spend so much time with a patient. (U.S. Average 14 minutes—Medscape). The monumental task of reversing diabetes contains a “time component, a education/information component and a support component.”

The life and lifestyle a diabetic has led up and to the point of their official diagnosis is what ultimately caused their diabetes. In order to succeed at reversing diabetes they will have to re-write their future and make meaningful changes that will result in a healthier, more vibrant life.

To think a physician can spend 14 minutes with a patient and completely download the necessary information, tools, resources and support for one patient, much less 300 patients, while managing the rest of his/her practices is simply not possible. For many, this dilemma leaves them with no other option than to simply write a prescription in hopes of keeping blood sugar levels in check.

Lastly, diabetic medications certainly have a place in the treatment of diabetes. Elevated blood sugar (glucose toxicity) is a toxic environment for cells, organs and tissue. Left unchecked, it will damage major organ systems and will eventually eliminate your ability to produce insulin (beta cell burnout). However, high blood sugar is still the symptom of a much greater problem…hyperinsulinemia. Medications and drugs do not address the underlying cause of diabetes.

You are the solution! The key to reversing diabetes will lie in your knowledge and ability to reverse the over production of insulin and insulin resistance. Diabetic Strong will give you the knowledge, information and framework to successfully manage your diabetes.

Diabetic Strong Workshops and Coaching Classes will provide you with a proven approach to managing diabetes and fat accumulation

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