This lesson was shared to answer the question of those who asked me, “Ben, how did you get yourself off oftaking insulin after struggling with your blood sugar numbers?”
It was unfortunately common for me to test and get numbers between 220 and 380 on my glucose monitor and that scared me.
I felt like nothing I did was helping me get those numbers down, even going to the gym and lifting heavy weights and I would train 2 or 3 times a week for a two hours plus.
When I was first diagnosed as a Type 2 Diabetic or a T2D over 7 years ago I would constantly bombard my good friend who is also a T2D for longer than I was about the disease.
I also did a lot of online research and finally decided it’s time to get a book on the subject. I landed on, “The Diabetes Code” by Dr. Jason Fung, book two in the series starting with the “The Obesity Code”, where he broke down in plain English the causes of T2D and why doctors who prescribe insulin are only treating the symptoms and not solving the problem, they are not addressing the root cause. What makes T2D happen in the first place?
Why T2D happens? Back in the early days of humans when we were cave dwellers, we didn’t have the options that we have today, all these food choices.
Food could be scarce at times, think harsh winters. We have evolved a body that wants to keep us alive for as long as possible.
When you eat a low-calorie, low-fat or none fat diet, your body recognizes that and adjusts your metabolism slowly so that over time, your body is shutting down your “none essential systems” to conserve the energy you are getting.
However, when you became sick and were unable to eat at all, your body evolved into a completely different solution. One that heals itself and goes into its fat stores to sustain your body until you have healed.
If your body started to shut systems down in these periods when you were sick and stuck in the cave, and were there was no food at all the way it does for lower calorie and fat intake senerio, then when we finally did heal and leave the cave, we would have no energy to hunt for that food. Remember, the body wants to keep us alive at all costs.
So, what did I do to get off of the Insulin already? This answer is going to be controversial and some may even call it extreme.
I am here to tell you that it works, and I am proof! The only thing that worked for me, and I believe that if you are a T2D then this can work for you as well.
Typical disclaimer, always let your endocrinologist or doctor know exactly what you’re doing before starting anything like this because your medication will have to be adjusted and you’re Blood Sugar Levels or BSL will need to be closely monitored as hypoglycemia is almost sure to happen while doing what I am suggesting without the drastic medication adjustments.
The first thing I did was I stopped poking my fingers with the lancets, squeezing, and oozing out a drop of blood to measure my BSL a few times a day. How are you supposed to know if at that moment your numbers are stable, or going up, or headed down, or all over the place like a daily volatile stock chart?
Going to a continuous BSL monitor like the 14-Day Freestyle Libre gave me the insight that I needed to know how what I am eating and its effect on me specifically. This monitor can store your results for 8 hours to see a constant graph of how your blood is doing. The reality is this and it’s so important to realize this next sentence. You can not manage what you do not measure!
Well, I took a page from the cave-dwelling ancestors before us and used the oldest diet method known to man. I’m fasting! No calories at all, just water or green tea with no sugars, milk, or creamers of any kind. First, I tried the intermittent 16 hours fast, but that didn’t work for me. I decided to up the game to the 36 hours fast every other day. Man, what a dramatic effect on my numbers that had, and honestly what a money and time saver not having to worry about meals on those fasting days as well! Now there is a ton more detail to this that’s hard to get into here. The book can be your guide to stopping your insulin as well. Full disclosure, I stopped taking glipizide and metformin completely as well. Now I cut the medication over time and by constantly monitoring what my blood sugar levels were, don’t’ stop the meds cold turkey, have a plan with your doctor, and stick to it. I also take vitamins B-12 and Chromium supplements, I just buy them on Amazon.
T2D is a horrible disease, it’s been described as a slowly progressing form of cancer. It took 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years for you to get your body to this horrible state it’s in now if you are a T2D or pre-diabetic. Don’t think you will be able to fix this ailment over-night, in fact, you will have to be consistent with your fasting and be extremely patient, it took me over a year and a half to get my blood more to normal states after 30 plus years of abusing my body with my low-fat and non-fat and high carb and high sugar diets. I also made many mistakes along the way which took me a while to figure out and adjust.
I hear so often, “oh my gosh, fasting is so hard, I can’t do it.” To that, I say, choose your hard.
You can risk your health and life, struggle with taking shots of insulin and bombarding your body with years and years of chemicals and risk losing an arm or leg, losing your ability to see and going blind in one or both eyes, to have a low-quality end of life and meet an early death.
The alternative is to take action and do what works, to stop the suffering and treat the root cause of this disease and not bandaid it with what the pharmaceutical industry has concocted to keep you sick to make money. “Global diabetes drug market is expected to surpass 76 Billion US dollars by the end of the year 2024.” According to the associated press.
Think the drug companies want you to get better?
Feel free to comment below or send me a message from the healthwealthandrealestate.com website on the “Get in Touch” link at the top of that web page and please like and subscribe to the channel so that you don’t miss any future educational videos. Cheers to a medication-free future for you as well!