Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Diet and Exercise May Reverse Diabetes Without Drugs

One in four Americans has some form of diabetes or pre-diabetes, and the go-to treatment is typically drugs that target your blood sugar levels. Yet, the cure for type 2 diabetes has nothing to do with giving insulin or taking drugs to control your blood sugar.
In one four-year-long study, overweight and obese diabetics placed on a calorie-restrictive diet along with nearly three hours of exercise per week fared much better than controls. After one year, 11.5 percent of the program participants no longer needed medication to keep their blood sugar levels below the diabetes threshold.9
Another recent randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial, published in the American Diabetes Association’s own journal Diabetes, found that a turmeric extract (curcumin) was 100% effective in preventing the development of type 2 diabetes in prediabetics over the course of a 9-month intervention.10
I also believe following the dietary recommendations laid out in my free Nutrition Plan can provide far better results than those achieved in this study. The truth of the matter is that type 2 diabetes is a fully preventable condition that arises from faulty leptin signaling and insulin resistance, both of which are directly diet and exercise related. It is NOT a disease of blood sugar.
Once you understand that, the remedy becomes clear: to reverse the disease, you need to recover your body's insulin and leptin sensitivities. The best way to accomplish this is through proper diet and exercise, as detailed in my free Nutrition Plan. There is no drug that can correct leptin signaling and insulin resistance...
Prevent and Even Reverse Diabetes with These Lifestyle Changes
Avandia is soon going to become much more widely available, but before you consider it as a viable treatment (regardless of where you stand on the debate over its heart risks), try revamping your lifestyle first. Adhering to the following guidelines can help you do at least three things that are essential for successfully preventing and treating diabetes: recover your insulin/leptin sensitivity, normalize your weight, and normalize your blood pressure:

  • Severely limit or eliminate sugar and grains in your diet, especially fructose. Following my Nutrition Plan will help you do this without too much fuss.
  • Exercise regularly, including high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Exercise is an absolutely essential factor, and without it, you're unlikely to get this devastating disease under control. It is one of the fastest and most powerful ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance.
  • Avoid trans fats.
  • Get plenty of omega-3 fats from a high-quality, animal-based source, such as krill oil.
  • Optimize your vitamin D levels. Recent studies have revealed that getting enough vitamin D can have a powerful effect on normalizing your blood pressure and that low vitamin D levels may increase your risk of heart disease.
  • Optimize your gut flora. Your gut is a living microbial ecosystem, full of both good bacteria and bad. Multiple studies have shown that obese people have different intestinal bacteria than lean people. The more good bacteria you have, the stronger your immune system will be and the better your body will function overall. Fortunately, optimizing your gut flora is relatively easy.
  • You can reseed your body with good bacteria by eating fermented foods (such as fermented vegetables, natto, raw organic cheese, or raw milk kefir) or by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement. 
  • Address any underlying emotional issues and/or stress. Non-invasive tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can be helpful and effective.
  • Get enough high-quality sleep every night.
  • Monitor your fasting insulin level. This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You'll want your fasting insulin level to be between 2 and 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin sensitivity is.

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