Breaking Away

Breaking Away from Diabetes and Conventional wisdom

     I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 12 years ago. Since that time I have been evaluated by six or seven different doctors. Never, in all my conversations with all those doctors, was I told, "Brian, you can get off your medication and reverse the symptoms of diabetes by changing your diet." Not one time.

     If nutrition ever came up it was to say that a better diet would help the medication "control" my diabetes. Keep it from raging out of control. Other than that the sum total of my interaction with doctors has been an exercise in increasing dosages and adding new medications. This is a pretty typical scenario for diabetics in America.

     To be fair to everyone of those doctors - good, competent and decent people all - I was not a compliant patient. My diabetes was uncontrolled. I can well imagine the futility with which they regarded someone like me. Perhaps they did talk themselves blue in the face to several patients before I darkened their door. By the time I came around I was just one more hopeless case.

     But it's hard for me not to be a little angry at their lack of evangelizing. Did they just not believe I could do it? Did they want to avoid an uncomfortable conversation? Or did they, the doctors, those near demigods to most of us, just not know that eating a whole food plant based diet could reverse diabetic symptoms and eliminate the need for most it not all of my medicine.

     Perhaps its all of these things. But it's certainly the latter. I broached the subject with a couple of them. One told me he did not believe eliminating animal products had anything to do with lowering blood sugar. The other was incredulous. She asked what in the world I was reading and tried to set me straight. Medication was the answer, she said.

     There are reasons for these doctors' reactions which I won't get into in detail for now. Suffice it to say a) doctors get reimbursed for prescribing pills and procedures, not consultations. b) most docs are limited to 15-20 minutes with each patient.  c) Most medical schools in America teach nothing or at least very little about nutrition. And finally, d) many of those same medical schools are funded by pharmaceutical companies. (for more info on this read the books suggested below)

     But for those struggling with type 2 diabetes (or heart disease, or any life threatening disease), do yourself a favor. Go watch Forks Over Knives.

     Here's a powerful testimonial from a physician who was as unhealthy as his patients. All the major diseases ran in his family. He moved to a whole food plant based diet and changed his life.

     That's a good place to get started. Then you can read Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes. Put The China Study on your list and you'll see this is rigorous science not the latest health rage.

     Right now I'm reading "How Not to Die" by Dr. Michael Greger. Get on his email list. You'll get his video series from nutritionfacts.org. He'll explain how a plant based diet can prevent and even reverse all the major diseases.

     This particular video is about the effect of a plant based diet on a group of diabetics who had elevated A1c numbers.


     Heres a little teaser.

 

These colors represent (from bottom to top) non-diabetic, pre-diabetic, and uncontrolled diabetes. The vertical numbers are the 13 patients A1c numbers. The horizontal numbers are the number of months each patient participated.

Here you can see where each patient was on the diabetic scale. A few are pre diabetic. Most are struggling with uncontrolled diabetes. A couple of guys and gals are way up there in the rarified air I once occupied. 

With an average of 7 months of eating a plant based diet every single patient left the realm of uncontrolled diabetes. Many actually got into the non-diabetic zone, including the two who were the worst off. (Dr. Greger is careful to mention that this graph only shows those who stayed on the diet. Some, evidently, found it to difficult. That's a topic for another time.)

But most of all, I'm here to tell you from my personal experience that it works. Everytime I undertake it in earnest, it drives my blood sugar down and I begin to shed pounds and medication.
And here's the biggest surprise of all. The food tastes great!  The food I use to eat was like a bad movie, loaded with over the top elements. Sure it was thrilling for the moment, but in the end it left me uninspired. Today my food is more like one of my all time favorites. Breaking Away. Everything about it inspires me. And if you're in the grip of uncontrolled diabetes or heart disease, the title is appropriate for what eating a whole food plant based diet will do for you.

Be a Cutter. Cut your medication in half. Cut it out of your life altogether. 

Dad: What is this?

Mom: It's sautéed zucchini.

Dad: It's I-tey food. I don't want no I-tey food.

Mom: It's not. I got it at the A&P. It's like...squash.

Dad: I know I-tey food when I hear it. It's all them "eenie" foods. Zucchini. Linguine. And fettuccini. I want some American food, dammit! I want french fries!

Why I Backslide

Jon-Erik (5'10ish") Emma (5'4ish") Ben (5'7ish")
Maria (5'3ish") Me (5'8ish") Simon (5'8ish")
Not pictured is Adam (5'8ish")

     We Nissens aren’t a tall lot. We're somewhere south of the national average and somewhere north of Frodo Baggins. 

     When our oldest was a child he told our pediatrician that he wanted to be six feet tall. Dr. Melaragno put his hand on our son’s shoulder and kindly broke the news. 

     “Jon-Erik. You don’t get a great dane from two chihuahuas.”

     Ouch. That hurt. I was so annoyed, I almost bit his ankle.  

     

     There’s a reason our family’s height, or lack thereof, is on my mind. 

     Every time I’ve embarked on a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle the results have been powerful. In a matter of a few months I've dropped thirty pounds, lowered my blood sugar and eliminated most of my medications. 

     But last night Maria asked me an important question. 

“Why do you think you stop doing it?” 

     I’m not sure I can identify the reason, but I can identify a certain healthy behavior I abandon prior to each backslide.

     I stop measuring. 

     Why? The answer can be found in the door jam of our first home.

     One of the hardest things to leave behind when we moved from our first home was the haphazard record of our children’s ever-changing height. There was something powerfully nostalgic about that door jam. It told a decade-long tale of our five children chasing down Mom and Dad. Sharpie scars noted each new milestone. But high above those crowded dates and numbers there was only one mark for Mom and Dad. Obviously. I mean, what’s the point of measuring something that’s stopped changing? 

     And there you have it. For me, once blood sugar drops to a consistent and acceptable level, the thrill is gone. Once your scale needle drops to your high school weight plus a respectable 10 pound “adjustment for inflation”, motivation grinds to a halt. You stop measuring. And once that happens it's like Gerald Ford stepping off of Air Force One.

     The fiber in apples and spinach is replaced by the fat, salt and sugar in enchiladas and the cookies. A few weeks later you don’t really want to measure anything. You begin living in that strange world in which the consequences of your behavior seem distant or unimportant. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Someday you’ll pay. 

     So this time I’m determined to keep measuring. I’m stubborn. I’m tenacious. We chihuahuas are like that. 

I'm a 10! :(

     Last week I had a visit with Natalie, my Physician's Assistant. She told me I was a 10! I was stunned. I mean, I had lost a few pounds but, wow. A 10?

Well, that's how it felt when she told me.

     CUE RECORD SCRATCH!

     She was talking about my A1c number!

     The A1c is a test that measures a person's average glucose level over the past 2 to 3 months. Here's some perspective from WebMD on what a "10" means.

     For people without diabetes, the normal range for the hemoglobin A1c test is between 4% and 5.6%. Hemoglobin A1c levels between 5.7% and 6.4% indicate increased risk of diabetes, and levels of 6.5% or higher indicate diabetes.

     So, while in everyday life a "10" is associated with perfection, when it comes to the A1c a "10" is associated with the possibility of future blindness, neuropathy, and even amputation. And in the short run it means your doctor wants to add an injectible medicine to your daily regimen. Translation: When it comes to the attractiveness of my current health situation, I'm more Dudley Moore than Bo Derek.

     And it's my kidneys that are suffering. I'll explain it this way. Diabetics can't make use of all the valuable glucose in their system, and when too much glucose hangs out in your bloodstream with no good place to go it's like a bunch of aimless teenagers hanging out in the streets at night. Sooner or later that loitering gang - once filled with so much promise and so much positive, useful energy - are going to mug your kidneys.

     So we struck up a bargain, Natalie and I. I've got three months to shave 3 points off my A1c. She made it clear that fixing runaway numbers with diet alone was not her plan A, but she was encouraged by the fact that two years ago I quickly got down to 7.1 by changing to a vegan diet. And, as she rightly said, "It's your body. I can't force you."

     Now comes the great test.

      Dr. Neal Barnard, who briefly appears in the excellent documentary "Forks Over Knives" (which will make you punch the next hamburger you meet) claims that diabetes can be reversed without drugs. Through diet alone. Sometimes I wonder if my particular case is too far down the road, but my earlier efforts have proven that, at the very least, a vegan diet can produce dramatic change. And quickly, too.

     In fact, I have been amazed at how forgiving my body is. I removed meat, dairy, and all processed sweets a few weeks before meeting with Natalie and since that time I've lost 9 pounds and my blood sugar numbers have dropped dramatically; almost all are within range and, at Natalie's instruction, I've reduced one of my medications by half.

     But can I ever be a 5? For the first time in my life I'm working really hard to be come half the man I am today.