Seven Steps to Help Your Body Recover from Diabetes

The good news (about time!) is that most individuals with Type II diabetes are able to reverse or dramatically mitigate their disease with the proper steps. If you’ve been around my blog much, you might be able to guess what I’m going to suggest:

1.                   Get Insulin Problems Under Control– Diabetes is triggered by insulin resistance and regaining proper insulin sensitivity can help reverse the process. Limit consumption of sugars, grains and processed carbohydrates and focus on healthy proteins, fats and green veggies.

2.                   Get Your Fats in Good Balance– Overabundance of Omega-6 fats in the diet is a contributing factor in diabetes. Pay attention to your intake of  Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats and try to get them closer to a 1:1 ratio. For many people, supplementing with a good quality Omega-3 oil can help while dietary adjustments are being made. Avoid Omega-6 seed oils and their sources (these are used at almost every restaurant). Eat fatty fish like salmon and sardines for the Omega-3s.

3.                   Fix your Gut– Not the beer gut, your intestines. Grains and toxins cause damage to the intestinal lining and facilitate leaky gut syndrome. Depleted beneficial bacteria in the gut caused by poor diet, antibiotic use or being bottle fed as a baby can make the problem worse. Remove the grains, avoid toxins whenever possible and take a high quality probiotic to help the intestines heal. As a note: some people will have continued damage to the gut with exposure to grains, especially gluten, as little as only every 10 days or even every 6 months.

4.                   Exercise– Even the mainstream medical community recognizes the advantage of exercise, as it increases the muscles ability to use insulin and over time can help fix insulin resistance. All exercise isn’t created equal though and fortunately, smaller amounts of high intensity exercise have been shown to have a better effect on insulin levels (and weight loss) than an hour of daily moderate cardio. According to the Healthy Skeptic: “A pair of studies done at McMaster University found that “6-minutes of pure, hard exercise once a week could be just as effective as an hour of daily moderate activity“, according to the June 6, 2005 CNN article reporting on the study.” I recommend high intensity exercise anyway for its various health advantages, and it is great for diabetes control. too.

5.                   Lose Excess Weight– Obesity and Diabetes often go hand in hand, and while the debate still rages on if one causes the other, studies show that losing weight can help mitigate diabetes, and also lowers your risk of getting it to begin with. Certain dietary and lifestyle improvements can help you lose weight and are beneficial for diabetes reversal as well.

6.                   Reduce Stress–  Stress raises cortisol and can lead to hormone imbalance, insulin issues and increases risk for certain types of disease. Work to reduce your sources of stress from lack of sleep, exposure to toxins, mental and emotional sources and poor diet. Getting quality sleep every night can help reduce stress hormone levels and is great for blood sugar.

7.                   Supplement– Supplements can help your body heal from diabetes, especially while your body works to gain proper insulin reactions again. Supplements often associated with helping diabetes symptoms and improving the disease are cinnamon, omega-3 fatty acids, alpha lipoic acid, chromium, coenzyme Q10, garlic, and magnesium.