Natural solutions for diabetics

[Raine]

Someone I know has opted to go raw to try to wean themself off of 27 medications. Everything is going well except the insulin some days is in the low 100's and other days is spiking to 300.

She's been off the insulin for almost 3 weeks but has started taking just a little bit to try to level things out.

Do anyone have suggestions on a natural/raw way to deal with her desire to get off of insulin?

[ShelShel]

I had gestational diabetes with my last preganancy for 6 months. Not good. However, I was able to keep it under control with my diet. First, she should eat small meals...every two hours to keep her sugar levels even. Second, never eat a piece of fruit with anything else. It will spike her levels every time. ;) These are the two things that helped me maintain my insulin levels. Hope this helps a little. I know others will have more info than I do.

[exurb]

My close friend (not raw) is diabetic and kept just ballooning fatter and fatter on the injectible insulin.

This wasn't medically advised, but a couple of years ago she toughed it out on a regimen of really cutting the calories, exercising regularly (one to two hour walk every night with the walkman on, walking at lunch hour) and not doing the insulin. Her sugars were riding high which is not very good for you for other reasons, but she just let them ride high-ish for a while (controlled with her serious efforts by exercise and diet) and managed to lose 70 pounds, then when she got to the bottom end of her weight, she found she didn't need insulin at all, could get by with metformin. Also in the process, other imbalances and issues corrected themselves.

BTW she got food ideas from pro-ana sites as to how to keep cals really low. :o She said she thinks it is impossible to lose weight on insulin, so that strategy worked for her, and at her lower weight she found things greatly improved.

Have you checked into Gabriel Cousens program of rehabilitating diabetics, maybe there is some information available that could help.

Also after I read some medical info on Syndrome X = metabolic syndrome = pre-diabetic state (you could google), it made a very good case that adult onset diabetes is caused by certain types of food our society is eating... those are all basically eliminated by the right kind of balanced raw diet. So I would think that there is a strong case to eliminate the stuff that overburdened your body in the first place.

I would generally go high veg with good minerals (I picture eating say a big coleslaw), not afraid of good healthy raw fats like nuts and avos, moderate on the fruit and choose carefully on the fruit (I'd probably do fruit first thing in the am to get the sugars up, then take it easier on it later in the day). I would also say sleep is very important, and exercise appropriate to her level of fitness/function. I've heard stuff like cinnamon helps moderate blood sugar, but I really don't know how valid that is. Also Jerusalem Artichokes, containing inulin (not insulin), have been said to be helpful, but again I really don't know.

Hopefully there's some info available on Cousens program. He took diabetics in to his resort and put them through a program, I think it was 30 days.

[Raine]

Exurb - thanks so much for this info. She is staying away from fruit and sticking to vegetables and she is very overweight. BUT, she has dropped 20 pounds in the 2 weeks she's been eating raw!

The exercise is a bit of a challenge due to a broken leg that is almost healed. She is doing water workouts in her pool so that's a good thing.

Any info like yours is so appreciated!

[luckitri]

I am married to a diabetic. He can sometimes lose weight with the insulin but not recently - it was blowing him up. Now he is a guinea pig, lab rat, for an experimental inhaled insulin and it is really helping him. juliebove has written much about diabetes on here in the past and she has been very helpful to me. I have looked into resources such as Gabriel Cousens and have received no information that I could use - you have to pay your money and it is a resource I simply don't have. Now that my husband is no longer at deaths door due to the inhaled insulin he is belligerently defending his SAD high fat diet despite the fact that he is a triple bypass patient. I started feeding the dogs raw and he can see the drastic improvement in them but his conclusion has not been my desired one. I wanted him to reconsider our RAW but nooooooo - he takes it as proof that animal protein is just as necessary for him as it is for the dogs! Many people are just not willing to throw out their misconceptions or take a risk to feel better. They are brainwashed that their animal proteins cannot be skipped even for a day.

If raw can totally cure diabetes I wish that the how of it could become public knowledge because mine and my husbands experience dovetails with julieboves and that is that raw does not cure diabetes in these 2 cases - although I do wish that dh had tried it longer.

PS: Dh can no longer have any fruit as he has to check his sugar several times a day and he can always see a direct result of unsatisfactory numbers every time he has fruit. I believe that I have Syndrome X but I am losing weight on raw although my stomach is still disproportionately larger. I am eating fruit now that it has cooled off but other than cucumbers and tomatoes I could eat no fruit in the summer.

PPS: or is it PSS: or hey PSSST: We bought a supplement at the health food store called "Blood Sugar" (with Gymnema) by Nature's Way and it had the cinnamon and many other good things in it. It worked very well for him for a few weeks. I don't know what was going on but his diabetes was rapidly changing so that many things only kept his sugar down for a couple of weeks and then stopped working for him - including various types of injected insulin. Anyway this product is very good and the staff at the HFC told me that people really depend on this product. I would recommend a try.

[TheWildChild]

I too am diabetic, on insulin, and oral medications as well. It is not impossible to lose weight on insulin (I'm doing it) but it is more difficult. I am following this thread with interest, as I would also like to at least reduce the medication I need to control my sugar despite exercise and diet restrictions. Like your husband luckitri, I would be given new prescriptions or ideas to try that would start to show success for a couple of weeks, then stop working. Diabeties does run strongly in both sides of my family though. my grandmother was an insulin dependent diabetic for 37 years. I remember her having to boil her needles and sharpen them! :eek:
She was also a healthy weight and watched every bite that went into her mouth. Some of my best recipes are things I remember from her.
Good luck and thank you for this thread!

[Helen Of Tennessee]

My Sensei (martial arts instructor) has diabetes. He knows I eat high raw and we've talked about how it would help his diabetes. He finally started eating apples for his dinner. This was his only changed he made. For 2 weeks he ate nothing but apples for his dinner. For the first time in 2 years his blood sugar levels leveled out (I think that is the term) and he felt the best he had in 2 years.

Here are some other great testimonies of those who had diabetes. Some of them you can contact to see what they ate:

Marylyn Szakacs - diabetes
http://www.livingnutrition.com/articles/diabetic.html

Lynda Carter
http://aliveandraw.com/carter.html

My Story – Diabetes Conquered!!! By Janice Welsh
http://eatfreshfood.com/_wsn/page2.html

James Martin
http://www.ecopolitan.com/eco-life/testimonials/james-martin

Cyrus Khambatta
http://www.organicathlete.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=249&Itemid=63

Kaytka Speaks – Well Informed Daughter gives Mother new life
http://www.waldorfhomeschoolers.com/savemom.htm

Ransford (Randy) M. Hyman Sr. - Diabetes, Kidney Failure, Kidney Transplant, Obesity, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol
http://www.livingfoodsinstitute.com/testimonials.htm
(scroll partway down page)

Grains – root of problem
http://www.mercola.com/2003/aug/2/diabetic_warrior1.htm

Sample Program for Healing Diabetes Type I:
28-Day Healing Program - this can be repeated until desired results are obtained.
http://www.startthehealing.com/Q_diabetes.html

I also have numerous testimonies for Type 1 diabetes.

[TheWildChild]

Thank you Helen! :)

[luckitri]

Thank you again Helen. Cyrus does not come up. My hubby is militant that he needs a guy because guys bodies are different and have different needs. I think that is reasonable. I have contacted those who have email and they never wrote back. The others - well, its that little thing of money again. I need more information. If he did carrot juice like Lynda Carter did - well the sugar would be through the roof.

[Helen Of Tennessee]

Hi Luckitri,

I couldn't get on Cyrus' link either. I even went to the main home page link and couldn't access that. I'm hoping that there is just a technical problem and it will be available soon.

I've e-mailed you some more info I got off another board. I need to get permission from the person who did the research and put it all together before I could put it on the board here.

As for guys . . There is Victoria Boutenko's son who had juvenile diabetes:
http://www.rawfamily.com
http://www.consumerhealth.org/articles/display.cfm?ID=20030810073725

I need to get a guy from my church to write out his testimony. He has had juvenile diabetes for 25 years. He eats almost all raw and his night time insulin has been cut from 40 units to 8 units and his dosage he takes 3 times a day at meal times has been cut back by 2/3rds.

[girlsmiley]

I wonder when this documentary will come out ...

http://www.rawfor30days.com/index.html

[sungoddess]

that documentary trailer made me cry... i can't wait to see the film

[luckitri]

My co-worker who I almost never see just spent a week at Gabriel Cousens Tree of Life. She could not praise it enough! She was in heaven. Unfortunately she has been trying to get work there and it just never works out for her. I wish it would because she is a dedicated raw foodist and she likes to help others and she really deserves it.

[juliebove]

I have diabetes. I have severe insulin resistance. I take meds and currently could not do without them.

If this person is spiking to 300 they obviously needs meds or insulin or both.

Why were they taking the insulin? If type 1, they need to take it or they will die. Type 1's do not produce insulin of their own and there is no diet in the world that will make them take it.

If type 2, people are put on insulin either because they do not produce enough on their own, or when all else fails. People with type 2 usually have insulin resistance and this is why they need meds. Now not all type 2's use meds. I've been on them, off them, on them again, now on more than ever. It's a progressive and ever changing thing.

I also have other medical conditions that complicate things for me. Such as swelling that causes me to need a diuretic. Diuretics cause loss of BG (blood glucose) control. It is also thought that I have delayed stomach emptying, but I am waiting to see a specialist about that.

[ReneeSC]

*Hoping not to repeat much here; if I do, I apologize

I WAS a blood sugar mess. I was up, I was down, I was raging, I was going blind, I was Syndrome X and filling up with cysts , I was ..... UGH.

Enter Raw.

'Nuff Said.


In the beginning of raw - last September - I was having a tough time stablizing on morning fruit smoothies. I was compensating with handfulls of raw nuts. Not really a good combination, I found out. It kept me raw, anyway - as if that was the golden key for me at the time or something, however, I learned a GREAT deal during my first 30 Day Challenge.
So much, that I can have conversations with doctors, and they LISTEN!

I've yet met a raw doctor who would advise a total drop in insulin in a patient. I wouldn't advise it, either. Weaning down is the most safest way, although I'm sure, as I've read here, others have gone "turkey cold" or changed at the bottom. Overall, please take care in redacting your meds.

After I worked out my intake of natural sugars and natural proteins for me, and began the daily work outs, I now am working on things like proper hydration, proper sleep, and the proper amount of fasting from evening until late morning/early afternoon. Oh, and definitely - as my husband and I found out - bathroom saunas with skin brushing.

Everything works in concert, ya know?

Listen and pay attention to your body - investigate different healing foods for you ( and they may only BE for YOU ), and I'm sure you'll start seeing the miraculous results many of us have already began to experience.

There are some who do not believe in juicing for themselves anymore, and surely wouldn't advise it for a diabetic. I found that for me, I can juice root veggies and sweet apples as long as I've had a fortified salad ahead of time. The protein/oil barrier still must be there for me right now. I suspect, as I keep healing, that one day I can juice whatever I want, whenever I want, and it won't bother me a bit.

I'm still hanging onto the results of the Johns Hopkins study ( oh, I wish I could find that publishing date ), where they watched the mutated/diseased genetics of successive mice progeny reverse into healthy genes as they kept feeding these animales pure, fresh-pressed, unpastuerized apple juices.
As someone mentioned - use cinnamon! You can sweeten fresh applesauce with it, also, and from what I've experienced and others - BAM - down the sugar does. However, be aware that it could drop it too low in some people so make sure that if you have to monitor your sugar digitally, you do that until you get the right amount of cinnamon for you.

If you can't grate your own, Frontier Brand carries some.

[luckitri]

Thanks Renee. I have never heard of cinnamon having pesticides or needing to be organic. I have no idea how it grows. I just assumed that it was similar to citrus in that it does not attract pests the other things do. I just was worried about it being irradiated for long shelf life. Do you recommend that brand because I am wrong and it needs to be organic?