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Natural Awakenings Tampa Florida

Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

Apr 30, 2021 10:00AM ● By Les Cole, MD
A bunch of fruits, vegtables and meat with a glucose monitor next to it

To start this topic, we will talk first about how your cells work. Your genes do only one thing. They carry the code (or design) for proteins. Everything that happens in your cells, in your body, gets done by your proteins—they are the machines of your cells. Think of your body as a factory whose job is, through these protein machines, to make YOU and keep you healthy. Making those machines and then keeping them in good repair is job number one!
 
If you have Type 2 diabetes, it is because you have too much insulin. How does that happen? There are only a few things that cause your pancreas to produce insulin. Sugar is the major stimulator. Insulin is a hormone of growth, so-called anabolic. It pushes sugar into all your cells for energy and into your liver and muscle for storage to use later. It also pushes the extra sugar you eat that cannot be stored (your sugar storage tank can hold only so much) into your liver to convert it to fat. It then pushes this newly formed fat into your fat cells. That is by far the greatest function of your insulin, but it also pushes digested protein you eat (amino acids) into your cells to make new proteins (job one from above), so protein you eat also stimulates your insulin secretion. Finally, as noted above, insulin pushes fat (both that converted from sugar and fat you eat) into your fat cells for storage, but unlike sugar and to a lesser extent protein, eating fat does not stimulate your insulin at all!
 
So, when you eat too much sugar and too many processed carbs, you are causing more insulin production and you fill up your sugar storage and then begin to store fat (gain weight). If you continue this process, eventually your sugar and fat storage get too full, and it takes higher and higher levels of insulin to try to push your excess sugar and fat into already overstuffed cells—you are “insulin resistant” at this stage. Following this, your blood sugar and triglycerides go up and you develop Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver (and other organs) and hyperlipidemia. The high blood sugar irreversibly attaches itself to your protein machines (called advanced glycation endproducts-AGEs), incapacitating them—a wrecking ball to the machines inside your body-factory. This leads to all the damage that occurs to your body: loss of limbs, eyesight, kidney and heart function, and early death as a result of diabetes. The high triglycerides cause damage to your pancreatic islet cells that make your insulin and eventually you cannot make your own and must take insulin shots to live.
 
You can reverse your Type 2 diabetes by lowering your insulin and repairing your protein machines simultaneously through food choices and a Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD). Not only is this possible, but it has been proven in multiple scientific studies. But there is a point of no return; before you let that happen, reach out for the help which is now available.
 
Providing the ways and means for optimal health, naturally, Dr. Les Cole is available for consultation on the FMD and so much more, at St. Petersburg Health & Wellness, located at 2100 Dr. MLK Jr. St. N, St. Pete. For more information and to schedule an appointment, call 727-202-6807 and/or visit StPeteHW.com.