Having high-blood sugar levels and insulin resistance is a bad combination. They increase systemic inflammation, DNA-damaging free radical levels and cellular aging, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, obesity and risks of heart disease, diabetes (no duh) and cancer. I’ve covered these issues over the years in numerous posts on this website and on the IOE FB fan page.
Obviously, you need to work with your physicians to control your blood sugar levels if you have pre-diabetes or diabetes. Medications may need to be prescribed.
Here are two tools I recommend to my patients to help them figure out how to keep their blood sugar levels in the normal range throughout the day:
1) Keep your GLYCEMIC LOAD (GL) to under 100 total points per day:
The glycemic load tells you how rapidly and how much your body will convert any particular food or drink into sugar. Importantly, the GL also takes into account the quantity of that food.
You will need to add up the GL points for each item of food or drink you eat, and by the end of the day try to keep the total to 100 or fewer points.
I use the following website to look up the GL for various foods and drinks: http://nutritiondata.self.com
Search for the food or drink item of interest. Once you find it on the list, select it. Then choose the serving size in the drop-down menu. You will then see the GL points listed in the box (as indicated in the photos, below.)
STEP 1: Search for the food or drink item of interest
Step 2: Select the item from the list
Step 3: Select the serving size of the item. The glycemic load will appear in the box (see photo.)
2) Monitor your blood sugar levels with a blood sugar meter:
First, you’ll need to purchase a home glucose monitoring device/testing kit to do this.
You want to know your fasting blood sugar level. This is the measure of your blood sugar first thing in the morning, before you eat or drink anything. I consider normal between 75-100 mg/dL.
You also want to check your blood sugar level 1-2 hours after you eat a meal. I consider normal between 75-120 mg/dL.
You should also ask you physician to order a glucose-insulin tolerance test. This test is done at your doctor’s office or local lab. Read why I think this is such an important test, here.
Read about berberine, a non-prescription natural supplement that can dramatically lower blood sugar, increase insulin sensitivity and has anticancer activity:
http://authoritynutrition.com/4-supplements-as-powerful-as-drugs/
You CAN completely reverse pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes:
If you are pre-diabetic or have type 2 diabetes, you need to do everything you can to normalize your blood sugar levels.
You absolutely CAN reverse this condition, but it requires making healthful lifestyle changes and no single thing is going to do it.
The main problem that you have to fix is to reduce systemic inflammation, the main cause of insulin resistance (which leads to pre-diabetes and diabetes.)
To do this, you’ll need to follow the steps above (limiting your glycemic load points and monitor your blood sugar levels) and focus on these lifestyle goals:
- Eating an anti-inflammatory diet
- Exercise (3-5 days per week, building muscle mass increases your insulin sensitivity)
- Maintain a normal waist-to-height ratio (2/3 of adults in the U.S. are overweight. The most inflammatory of all fat in our body is the central fat, around our waist and belly.)
http://www.health-calc.com/body-composition/waist-to-height-ratio
- Getting enough sleep (7-9 hours for most adults)
- Reducing chronic stress (30-minutes of daily stress reduction is what I recommend for my patients)
https://integrativeoncology-essentials.com/2012/04/anticancer-lifestyle-stress-reduction-101/
- Minimizing exposure to toxins (check out ewg.org to search for cleaner personal care and household cleaning products.)
Learn More About Reversing Insulin Resistance, Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes:
- I highly recommend Dr Mark Hyman’s website.
