Weight Loss & Type-2 Diabetes

I just wanted to talk a little bit more about Type 2 Diabetes. I\'d mentioned it a couple times, and insulin resistance, and people keep asking me about it. Because what\'s happening, is a lot of people that have had Type 2 Diabetes that have been following the method for maybe six months, and their blood sugar\'s in check and they no longer need medication and they\'re losing weight. So a lot of people are asking, what\'s the relationship with Type 2 Diabetes and my approach and the FAT programs and things like that. And I first discovered the relationship — well, really with myself because at one time I was borderline, according to Dr. Atkins, I was borderline Type 2 Diabetes, and now I never have an issue with it whatsoever. My blood sugar is totally perfect.

But, I remember when I first lost the weight back in 2004, I was on a publicity tour here in Australia, and after I was on a radio show a lady called into me, her name was Amanda, and she said, \”I really want your book,\” and I hadn\'t written a book yet. And I said, \”As soon as I have the book I\'ll send it to you.\” And she called me every six months for a year and-a-half because it took me that long to write the book. And finally in February of \'07, I had a first draft of the book finished that I sent to her.

And then she called me six months later and said, \”You know, I\'m 69 years old. When I started reading your book I was 300 pounds and I had Type 2 Diabetes where my blood sugar was 19 and 20 and I was taking medication for it.\” 19 and 20 is close to nerve damage. That\'s really a very high level. You should be around 6. And she said, \”Now I\'ve lost 110 pounds and my blood sugar\'s 5 and 6 and I never have to take medication anymore.\”

This is a 69 year old lady. And I thought to myself, \”Wow, if nothing else ever comes of this, there\'s a 69 year old lady out there that\'s just got a whole new lease in life.\” And I was really excited by that. I really kind of looked into the relationship, and since then we\'ve had Helen call in and she used to take medication for her Type 2 Diabetes, she doesn\'t take medication anymore, and I\'ve had so many people tell me that their blood sugar, very quickly, is normalized.

The two just go hand in hand, huh, Jon?

Well they really do, and the reason they do, and this is the important point, is that Type 2 Diabetes is a very severe case of what\'s known as insulin resistance. It\'s a result of something that doctors call metabolic syndrome. And metabolic syndrome is a whole class of symptoms that include elevated triglycerides, high blood pressure, elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines, and insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance means the cell of your body are just not listening to insulin. That\'s what it means. They\'re resistant. And so what happens is, if the cells of your body are not listening to insulin, your blood sugar gets very high because the purpose of insulin is to lower your blood sugar. So if your cells aren\'t listening to insulin, you can\'t lower your blood sugar. And if insulin resistance gets really bad, it\'s classified as Type 2 Diabetes.

So the cure for Type 2 Diabetes, the solution, is not so much taking more insulin which is was people frequently do, but the solution is to get your cells to listen to insulin, to become more sensitive to insulin. Because if your cells are more sensitive to insulin, then insulin can do its job and your blood sugar can get lowered.

But the reason your cells don\'t listen to insulin is because the FAT programs are on. See, one of the things that happens when the fat programs are on is your body stops listening to insulin. If you were out in a famine, and remember the key reason why we have FAT programs is to protect us against famines, so if you were in a famine your body would stop listening to insulin.

So, we have stress now today that causes this same type of chemistry that activates these FAT programs, and your body stops listening to insulin. And when that happens, when that gets bad enough, you get Type 2 Diabetes.

And then a vicious cycle kind of happens because then your doctor, and this the proper treatment because you have to deal with the blood sugar because your blood sugar is too high and your body isn\'t listening to insulin, your doctor gives you insulin medication. And he has to do that and you always should listen to your doctor\'s advice and you should always do what your doctor tells you, but what happens is, that will lower your blood sugar, taking more insulin, but it also makes the insulin resistance worse. In other words, it makes your body stop listening to insulin even more. And so it\'s a vicious cycle. The problem is, your body isn\'t listening to insulin, and taking more insulin will make your body listen to insulin even less.

Kelly, do you know the reason why that is? The reason why, is — imagine you\'re at a concert and the music is really loud. What happens to your hearing?

It just goes deaf.

So the problem is your body\'s not listening to insulin, and then when you start taking insulin medication your body listens even less. So you\'ve got to get your body to listen to insulin, and that is the key.

Everything in my approach helps your body become more sensitive to insulin, because stress, just the stress of modern day life for some people causes insulin resistance because the chemistry of that stress is so similar to a famine. So dealing with the stress is the number one thing that will help your body become more sensitive to insulin.

And so, a lot of people say, \”After just listening to the CD my blood sugar has normalized.\” And the reason is, because their stress levels are going down. So if their stress levels are going down their body is going to become more sensitive to insulin. So that\'s the first thing.

The second thing is, by taking Omega 3 Fatty Acids every day, the cells of your body get covered with a very permeable fat because the membrane of our cells is a fatty membrane, and Omega 3 Fatty Acids have a very permeable membrane that allows for proper communication between the hormones like insulin and the cells. So taking Omega 3 Fatty Acids helps your body become more sensitive to insulin.

Live food helps your body become more sensitive to insulin. Protein, which I recommend, helps because it keeps your blood sugar stable so you don\'t get wild blood sugar fluctuations which cause wild exaggerated insulin responses, because the exaggerated insulin responses will then make your body less sensitive to insulin.

So as a kind of byproduct of this whole weight loss approach that I\'ve put together, a lot of people are telling me that their Type 2 Diabetes is being reversed. I mean, it\'s an incredible kind of byproduct of the program.

Somebody was asking me why would they give insulin, and you just explained it, but somebody is asking me why give them insulin. You just gave a great example of being at a concert and your ear shuts down. I get that. But why is the treatment more insulin?

The question that you asked is a very good question. Why give more insulin? You have to give more insulin because the purpose of insulin is to lower blood sugar. So if your body\'s not listening to insulin and your insulin levels are high, if they\'re not listening to insulin your blood sugar is going to be too high. So you have to take even more insulin to lower your blood sugar. It\'s the only way to get your blood sugar down.

But it\'s not the cure. As a matter of fact, it makes the problem even worse. It makes the problem worse because your body becomes even less sensitive to insulin. Because the more insulin you have, the less it\'s going to listen to it just like the louder the music is at a concert the more deaf your ears are going to be.

When your weight got stabilized where you wanted it, your blood sugar became normal. Didn\'t it?

Totally. As I mentioned, it was Dr. Atkins that told me that I was borderline Type 2 Diabetes.

And at what point did it normalize for you?

I wasn\'t checking my blood sugar all the way through, but I could tell that it normalized because I stopped having sugar cravings and I stopped getting tired all the time.

And insulin is the hunger hormone, right?

Well not necessarily. It\'s not that, it\'s just that if your body\'s not listening to insulin, what happens is you get wild blood sugar fluctuations. So your insulin levels stay too high, and then when you haven\'t had enough to eat and your blood sugar goes down, you can\'t raise your blood sugar again. That\'s the problem.

So because you can\'t raise your blood sugar again, you get sugar cravings just an hour or two after you\'ve eaten something. Whereas, if you\'re not insulin resistant and your insulin levels are not too high, when your blood sugar goes back down you can raise it back up again.

When your insulin levels end up being too high because you\'re insulin resistant, you can\'t raise your blood sugar and you get these low blood sugar episodes and low blood sugar causes sugar cravings and exhaustion. So what happens is, people are typically tired and hungry an hour or two after they eat.

So I could tell from my own experience that stopped happening. I stopped getting these incessant sugar cravings and I stopped getting tired an hour or two after I ate. So you can tell when your blood sugar is working properly and when your body is becoming more sensitive to insulin.

But for some people it happens immediately, some people it takes months. It really depends on what the problem is and how long the problem\'s been around.

Oh I see. So it matters how long you\'ve been insulin resistant.

It does matter. It matters not only how long you\'ve been insulin resistant by why you\'re insulin resistant.

I see. It has a great deal to do with it.