Review: How to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally

These are notes from a presentation given by Dr. Jason Fung on December 13, 2013.

• T2D is progressive.

• As you take medicine, the sugar comes down some, but over time (~ 6 mos) the effect wears off. You then have to start taking a second or third medication to manage it.

Metformin  -> Metformin + Glyburide  -> Insulin -> More Insulin  -> More Insulin

Common treatment progression for T2D

• Over the years, your sugar might go up or it might go down, but your diabetes is getting worse.

• Many people incorrectly assume their diabetes is getting better if their sugar is going down.

• The heart of diabetes is insulin resistance.

• Insulin Resistance is the disease; high blood sugar is the symptom.

• Conventional treatment for diabetes is actually treating the symptom (high blood sugar) and not the disease.

• Studies show that even when patients’ sugar levels are well managed, they still get all of the complications of diabetes – heart disease, stroke, eye disease, kidney disease, etc. (because sugar is just a symptom)

• Analogy: Taking Tylenol when you have an infection, can bring down your high fever (symptom), but it doesn’t make you better.

• As you eat, blood sugar goes up and insulin is released to take the sugar into the tissues. This is normal.

• Insulin causes insulin resistance, which results in more insulin being produced, which results in greater insulin resistance, and so on. It’s a vicious cycle.

• In the case of diabetes, the current standard treatment (insulin) is treating the disease with the same thing that causes it!

• Analogy: This is like treating an alcoholic with alcohol.

• Doctors have wrongly assumed that this is a chronic, progressive disease. Yet, when bariatric surgery is performed, diabetes is cured in 90% of cases.

Treatment Considerations

1. Key to treatment is reducing insulin, not increasing insulin.

2. Diabetes is a dietary disease – needs a dietary treatment.

3. Diabetes is a curable disease NOT a chronic disease.

A simple way to lower insulin is intermittent fasting.

• The body has the ability to store energy in 2 ways.

  • Sugar – glycogen

  • Fat – unlimited stores

• At mealtimes, we store energy for use later.

• The problem, in the case of diabetics, is that there is too much glucose stored in the body and nowhere else to put it, so it “spills over” into the blood.

• Intermittent fasting causes the body to gradually begin burning the stored glucose, reducing blood sugar levels and insulin.

• Hyperinsulinemia can lead to diabetes, high triglycerides, low HDL, hypertension, and fatty liver. (metabolic syndrome)

Top 6 Ways to Reduce Insulin

1. Intermittent fasting

2. Reduce dietary refined carbohydrates

3. Eat a high fat diet (natural fats)

4. Fiber

5. Vinegar

6. Spices and herbs

The 35 minute presentation can be watched below.