I told this over on Trending Politics but it appears I was a bad boy and was banned from there so I will try to recount what I wrote over there.

I have been diabetic for probably around 25 years. Or more likely longer, but I was diagnosed somewhere around then. I have been on insulin for at least 15 years, maybe longer, really don't remember when I started.

Six months ago, about a hundred pounds over weight, using 90-100 units of insulin a day to control my blood glucose levels (only modestly well), my wife and I were both overweight and sick. Oh we didn't really feel all that sick, because at the time we were scuba diving daily (I do about 150-200 dives a year), but the years went by and we got sicker and sicker. And fat. We were tired of it and wanted to make a change.

So we changed our diet. I will save all the details unless someone wants to hear more, but these are the benefits I can remember right off hand that a diet change made for me specifically and a lot of the same for my wife. What kind of diet? It is really a lifestyle rather than a diet, but it is something between a ketogenic diet and a low carb/high good fat diet.

The benefits:

Went from using 90-100 units of insulin R and N a day to ZERO. Yes "0", in two weeks. Blood sugar levels while on insulin 120-130 fasting and (hopefully most of the time) under 200 after meals (when I was "bad" maybe 250 or 300). I have not had a drop of insulin since mid March and my fasting levels are around 115 with after meals usually around 135 and almost never over 150. All with diet change. I was on metformin up to a few weeks ago but now take NO diabetic medicine. THAT was the biggest improvement. All 100% from diet change.

I have had cortisone shots in my left knee and was looking at knee replacement somewhere down the road. About a week after diet change my knee was feeling better (carrying dive tanks and dive gear daily for myself and my wife - it was definitely bothering me) and after two weeks barely felt it and after a month no more knee pain. None since. From diet change, nothing else. By the way, the pain went away before much weight loss. It was the lower inflammation, not the weight, that made the difference. Of course getting weight off helps too.

I have had three lower back operations and the last one about 20 years ago my doctor told me I needed to change occupations. I didn't but but my back has been a weak point and forced me to become a farm manager rather than a laborer. It has always bothered me to a degree if I treated it kindly (didn't do much) and if I abused it was in bed for a day or two. I was rarely without at least minor pain. Gone. All gone. From diet change. I handled and mixed 2/3 of a pallet of 80# quickcrete (around 30 bags) over a two day period recently with no back pain. I would have been in bed for a couple days had I tried that seven months ago. I'm actually thinking about spending more hours on the tractor again. Have not been able to do that for over a few hours at a time for many years.

Have always had aches and pains in muscles and joints, arthritis in hand joints. All that pain gone. Hard for me to believe, so I don't expect anyone else to believe it, but the pain is gone. I did not know what to be pain free meant till I changed my diet and got the sugar and fast carbs out of what I eat.

Off blood pressure medication. Off kidney disease medication. Off any diabetic medication. Have not had the Cealis bottle out for 6 months. Take no medication at all but do take a few supplements like potasium, magnesium, salt, Vit K2-D3 and a multi vitamin. The first weight shed when the sugar and carbs go out of the diet is water weight and with it goes a lot of electrolytes. So having proper hydration is very important during the first two weeks till the body gets accustomed to the new normal.

Lost 90# so far. Was 270 at my heaviest. Still very active but had given up racquetball (knees and back could not take it any more) but still very active scuba diving. I'm at 183 right now and do not care to lose any more weight but would not mind shedding another 10# of fat and replacing it with muscle. With the new found health, I am playing racquetball, even picked up a basketball (gave that up 15 years ago because the pounding just killed my back and knees) again. When you are not a hundred pounds over weight, a person actually feels like exercising. All from diet change and getting off that frigging insulin. Insulin therapy is the worst thing for someone who is already insulin resistant (insulin resistance, type II diabetes, metabolic syndrome - goes by several names but all the same root cause). But I did not know that. My doctor did not know that. He still doesn't. He said, blood glucose a little high, adjust insulin up 3 units at a time as needed. I started out at 15 units per day and ended up fifteen or so years later at 100. Insulin causes weight gain. They did not tell me that. Being over weight makes type II diabetes worse. See anything wrong with that???? I did not know. I do now. I could don my full diving gear with tank and weight belt, could wear it around everywhere all day, and be carrying no more weight on my knees and back than buck naked when at 270#. Amazing. All with a change in what I eat. Or more precisely, what I don't eat.

Tingling in my feet. Yes I was starting to get nerve damage in my feet. Only noticed it at night when trying to go to sleep, but it was there, like my feet were "hot". I often slept with the covers on me but off my feet because of it. All gone. Reversed. No feet tingling. All because of a change in diet.

There is probably more, but that is all I can think of right off hand. My wife was not diabetic (yet) but she is down about 35# in the same time and my daughter is down 50#. They are both out for a two mile walk right now. Six months ago it was hard to get them to walk from their house to the shop. Now they do it for fun, because they FEEL like doing it. They had kind of hit a little bit of a plateau in their weight loss, but they have done some fasting (16-36 hours) and that has jump started them to loosing again.

Speaking of eating, we have never went "hungry". Wife did a 36 hour fast yesterday. She had a few hunger pains around normal meal time, but they passed in about a half hour and she was not exceptionally hungry when she broke her fast and ate a meal. But I digress, fasting is another subject. But with our diet change we never went hungry. We eat all we want basically. We just avoid certain foods that spike our insulin levels. When insulin is high, the body can not burn body fat. Insulin, among many other functions in the body, is a growth hormone. One of its primary functions is to take excess glucose out of the blood (what is not used for immediate energy) and stores it for a period when no food in consumed and the fat turns into ketones and other fatty acids for fuel when the glucose levels get low. Keytosis SHOULD happen every night, sometime during the night, when the body runs out of glucose from supper and has not "break fast" when we eat again. If a person eats a carb before bedtime snack, it likely never makes it into ketosis. What does that mean? The body never burns body fat. That is what happens when body fat is "burned". It it converted in to ketones and fatty acids which nearly all the cells in the body can use as energy (blood cells can only use glucose, but the liver can produce all we need via gluconeogenisis from fat). INSULIN HAS TO BE LOW TO BURN BODY FAT. If we eat 6 or 10 times a day (meals and snacks), insulin never goes low. Fat accumulates but does not get burned. I never knew that. Average weight gain for a diabetic that goes on insulin therapy is about 25# with no additional caloric intake. I never knew that. We now normally eat two meals a day, lunch and supper. Rarely have snacks and if we do it is not carbs (pork rinds, meat sticks, cheese are our favorites). We are not hungry because we ate enough protein and fat at the previous meal. Fat satiates, carbs make you hungry a couple hours later.

Our story. No foo foo juice. No membership. Selling nothing. Just the results we have seen by what we no longer put in our mouth.

John

Note: the above is for insulin resistance and type II diabetes. Type I is a different cat. It is a lack of insulin and requires insulin shots. In other words, too low insulin. A type II that has progressed so far that their pancreas has completely blown up and no longer produces insulin would also fall under this category that requires insulin injections to sustain life. The vast majority of type II create loads of insulin. It is just not utilized properly. It needs lowered to reduce insulin resistance, not raised even more like diabetes drugs and insulin therapy mostly does (metformin is an exception).