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7 Actions Pre-Diabetics Can Take To Avoid Type 2 Diabetes

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Pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose are all warning signs that a change in lifestyle and nutrition needs to happen in a person’s life! If individuals continue with the same nutritional habits and lifestyle after any of the above risk factors have been identified, it is inevitable that these individuals will develop type 2 diabetes.  Diabetes leads to heart disease, blindness, peripheral neuropathy and many more life threatening illnesses. Read more about the effects of type 2 diabetes on the body here.

Signs and Symptoms of Pre-Diabetes

The table below shows the blood sugar measurements that need to be found on two separate occasions or occurrences to be diagnosed as pre-diabetic. The numbers below are from the American Diabetes Association.

Signs and Symptoms of Pre-Diabetes (data from American Diabetes Association)
A1C or HbA1CFasting Blood SugarSymptoms
Normalbelow 5.7%less than 100mg/dl
Pre-diabetesbetween 5.7% and 6.4%between 100 and 125mg/dlIncreased thirst and more frequent urination may or may not be present
Diabetesabove 6.4%more than 126mg/dlIncreased thirst and more frequent urination may or may not be present

What To Do If You Are Pre-Diabetic?

1. Overweight

If you are overweight, in particular if you carry some extra weight around your waist, you are at risk for diabetes and you want to know what your A1C is. The optimal fasting blood sugar should be in the lower 80’s. If your blood sugar were higher than 90 twice taken consecutively, I would not wait to take action. The earlier you do something, the easier it is. You will need to analyze the causes of your weight gain. Is it emotional eating, depression, medication side effects, lack of physical activity, or an elevated toxic burden?

2. Physical Inactivity

If you are inactive physically, realize that being inactive increases your chances of insulin resistance. Just try to use your car less and walk to places that you can walk to. If you have an office job, stand up for 5 minutes every hour or add a standing desk in your office. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Every small effort creates a more active life.

3. High Blood Pressure

If you have high blood pressure. A blood pressure of 140 /90 is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes. High blood pressure and diabetes respond to nutritional changes and exercise. See this high blood pressure case study for one of our residential program patients.

4. Low HDL and High Triglycerides

If your HDL cholesterol is low, less than 50, and your triglycerides are high, above 80, you have an increase risk of diabetes. Besides dietary modifications and lifestyle changes some supplements such as niacin and tocotrienols can be very helpful at decreasing your cholesterol.

5. Toxic Load

I you have been smoking and drinking excessively, taking pharmaceutical drugs, eating processed foods and conventional foods for over 40+ years chances are that your toxic burden is elevated. Cadmium, mostly found in cigarettes, has been found to be one of the causes of insulin resistance. You may want to consider finding a naturopathic or integrative doctor who can assess toxicity and heavy metal load and who can assist you with a detoxification regimen.

6. Sugar and Refined Foods

Sugar comes in various forms and is ubiquitous in processed food. White sugar, brown sugar, agave, high fructose corn syrup, white flour in pasta and bread, added sugar in processed foods, sodas, all these forms of sugar raise blood sugar levels quickly and are associated with diabetes. Sugar is addictive and leads to overconsumption. If you have a problem with sugar it is better to treat it like a drug, and eliminate it completely. Sugar from fruits is okay if your blood sugar is normal. Sugar from fruits is okay if your blood sugar is normal. Try a sweetener alternative like stevia.

7. Detoxification

Don’t wait to do a detox (read about detoxification medicine). Eliminate sugar, simple carbohydrates, jump on your bike and start preparing your food from fresh organic vegetables, nuts and seeds and drink pure non-chlorinated water.

8 Easy Lifestyle Changes for Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes

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Diabetes is a Not a Chronic Illness. It Is a Curable Disease!!

Type 2 Diabetes is caused by insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone secreted by the beta cells of the pancreas into the bloodstream in response to the ingestion of food. Insulin transports glucose in the blood to the cells of the body where glucose is used by the mitochondria for energy. Insulin and glucose penetrate the cell membrane through receptors that in abnormal circumstances become blunt over time causing the accumulation of insulin and glucose in the blood. The blunting of insulin receptors is due to inflammation of the cell membrane. This lack of response is called insulin resistance and the result is hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia. The constant high sugar level in the blood over time develops into diabetes, a so-called chronic illness.

Insulin and Glucose Uptake

Insulin inside the cells trigger the uptake of glucose from the blood serum, providing energy for the cells and lowering blood sugar. With cell inflammation insulin receptors on the surface of cells do not respond to insulin in blood serum and are unable to take up the insulin which in turn does not allow for the natural trigger for the cell to take up glucose from the blood resulting in high glucose and insulin levels in the blood.

Type 2 diabetes does not have to be a chronic illness. It is considered a chronic illness because conventional treatments have failed to reverse it. The problem is that conventional treatments address hyperglycemia which is a symptom and do not do anything to treat the cause: the high insulin levels in the blood and the blunting of the insulin receptors.

If you have type 2 diabetes and take Metformin, your health outlook for the future is poor. Here are some of the things that will happen to you:

  • You will become rapidly deficient in B vitamins, in particular vitamin B12.
  • You will end up with peripheral neuropathy, cardiovascular disease, kidney failure and blindness.
  • More and more medication will be prescribed to you and eventually you will end up taking insulin in an attempt to force glucose into the cell, but you already have too much insulin and that is what causes the problem!!

So what is the solution to the problem? Treat cellular inflammation that blunts not only insulin receptors but also thyroid and other hormone receptors on the surface of the cell membrane.

How Do You Eliminate Cell Inflammation?

Reduce SECRETION OF INSULIN and TOXICITY. The cells get inflamed with exogenous toxins and continuous over exposure to insulin. Over exposure to insulin in itself creates resistance.

8 EASY LIFESTYLE CHANGES FOR INSULIN RESISTANCE AND TYPE 2 DIABETES

  1. Eat less food, less often and eat real organic foods.
  2. Stop eating the foods that increase insulin such as white pasta and bread, beef and chicken.
  3. Stop eating grains and soy and dairy products that contain high levels of glyphosate, the deadly chemical from Roundup that is contained in our entire food supply unless it is 100% organic.
  4. Detox from heavy metals! Studies show that cadmium damages insulin receptors, and arsenic causes insulin resistance.
  5. Detox from pathogenic bacteria and viruses that create inflammation in all the cells of the body.
  6. Get all the trace minerals and vitamins that are so essential for our metabolic process and proper detoxification.
  7. Reset your system with intermittent fasting to overcome plateaus in your weight loss.
  8. Fast for a longer period of time 10 to 21 days to detoxify at the cellular level entirely and start a new life with proper foods and loving lifestyle habits! (see video at end of article resources)

Start being proactive for your health and heal yourself from diabetes. Do not rely on drugs that get you sicker and sicker. For your education below are some information that will help you to reduce insulin secretion and decrease blood sugar levels

  • Insulin index of food, which is different from the glycemic index that you may know.
  • Recipes to detoxify your body with low insulinemic foods that will keep your blood sugar down and restore receptor sensitivity.

Reversing diabetes does not take very long with a whole food diet rich in vegetables in particular green leafy ones, low in carbohydrate (grains and starchy foods in particular white processed) and high in good fats (flax oil, coconut oil, seeds and nuts). You may be told that a diet rich in proteins with a lot of meat and fish such as the paleo diet is adequate to keep the blood sugar in the lows. However the glycemic index of food is not what matters. What matters is the action of foods on insulin and it turns out that beef and fish have and equal power to white bread and white rice to raise insulin levels.

The raw food diet is so good for diabetes! It uses fresh organic nutrient and enzyme rich vegetables, seeds and nuts and excludes animal products. Try some of the recipes below and watch your blood sugar go down!

Resources:

Insulin Index of Food

Article from American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: Insulin Index of Foods

Recipes:

Raw Sweet Potato Mushroom Burgers

Posted: April 11, 2015

Diabetes Friendly, Blood Sugar Regulating Ingredients: 1 Large Clove of Garlic 1 Small Sweet Potato, Cut Into Chunks 8 oz Mushrooms, Finely Chopped ½ Cup Red Onion, Chopped ½ Cup Pumpkin Seeds Ground Into Flour Some Nutritional Yeast or Miso 1 Tbs Dried Sage 1 Tbs Rosemary (Fresh, Chopped Fine) Black Pepper For Serving Topings: […]

Omega-3 Vinaigrette

Posted: May 27, 2014

Apple Cider Vinaigrette Ingredients: 4 Tablespoons Flaxseed Oil 2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar 1 Clove of Garlic (pressed) Fresh herbs of your choice finely chopped (cilantro, basil, tarragon, parsley, etc.) Preparation Combine all the ingredients together and either mix all manually, or place all the ingredients in a small food processor or a handheld blender […]

The Ultimate Green Juice

Posted: December 22, 2013

The following green juice recipe is Dr. Max Gerson’s recipe. It is extremely rich in iron and other minerals and very high in chlorophyll. If there is one new habit you should include in your daily routine then that is to drink one green juice a day. Green Juice Recipe Ingredients: Escarole 1-2 leaves Lettuce […]