The Full blown Silent Epidemic

Type 2 Diabetes is a condition that affects millions of Americans over their lifetime. Type 2 diabetes is so rampant that more than 10% of the American population is diagnosed with it, while about 30% of the remaining people have prediabetes. Of that 30%, it's estimated that 90% of that 30% are completely unaware of this fact. Therefore they never take action in time. From my own clinical experience, I can say that the number of unaware pre-diabetics and diabetics is most likely a little higher than reported. I am often the first to diagnose a patient with pre-diabetes or diabetes or inform them that their pre-diabetes has now evolved into type-2 diabetes.

It is said that type 2 diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions for all Americans, however for the Black community, we are in the middle of a full-blown silent epidemic, and we have the onslaught of dialysis clinics stacked in our neighborhoods to prove it. As of 2014, the percentage of African Americans diagnosed with type-2 diabetes was 13.5%, and the estimates for pre-diabetes surpass the 30% range. This means that on average, in a room of three African Americans, at least one for sure but maybe two have an HA1c that would put them in the diabetic range. This is a huge problem.

The Two Common Misconceptions

However, before moving on to the solutions, I need to shed light on two aspects of this topic and would love for it to be spread throughout our community.

Most people believe that type-2 diabetes runs in their family. They believe that this was something that was bound to get them eventually because they were genetically cursed. "Mama got it; daddy got it, so I know I'm going to get it." You've heard me say this before, and I will continue to say it, but we have to throw that thinking into the trash can of history because it serves us no good, and it's extremely detrimental to our future generations.

The next issue comes from the medical side, and it's the constant pushing of an outdated and played medical ideology that type-2 diabetes is a chronic and progressive disease. I mean, it's just amazing how deep the denial and finesse is when it comes to this particular topic. Many of my colleagues will start doing what I call "Medical Splaining" to excuse their actions to continuously push rhetoric that is, at the least, not the complete truth. The most common medical advice given to “diabetics” is to live with it and manage it with medications to slow down its pace, but eventually, it will progress, and it will get you.

However, that pathway is not only disempowering, but it's also not the truth. The stigma that type 2 diabetes is a chronic and progressive disease has been debunked by multiple studies, as well as my clinical practice, bringing up the amazing truth that this condition is not only preventable, but it is also reversible - the point being that type 2 diabetes is NOT a life sentence. It’s the consequence of inappropriate lifestyle choices, but all hope is not lost. Diabetes, pre-diabetes, and insulin resistance are reversible, and here is how.

1- Eat real whole foods

Your body is constantly remodeling itself. Studies show that about one percent of your body cells are renewed daily. These cells will either manifest themselves in you as stronger and more vibrant cells, or as weaker and older cells.

So how can you assure that you give your body the best chance to bring forth the stronger and more vibrant cells, that will, in turn, translate over into health? By wisely choosing the materials/foods you give your body to use for rebuilding, which is, in fact, real whole foods, especially leafy greens.

Whole foods are merely natural foods in their natural state, free from any additives and unprocessed. Meaning they have not been altered or if any very little. Not only will these foods satisfy your hunger, but they will also be naturally rich in real nutrients, that synthetic nutrients simply can’t compete with. In addition to their nutrients, many have shown have properties that are anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, and being anti-cancer.

If you want to experience high-performance health, whole foods with a strong emphasis on plants, especially leafy greens are where it’s at. As healthy as the labels will claim, “food” that comes in a wrapper, package, box, or through a window, with additional ingredients, such as preservatives and additives, are just not real whole foods.

2- Just say NO, to the Standard American Diet!

Here is where a lot of discipline is required. A lot of people resort to a sweet treat, some chips and a can of 50 cent soda as comfort food or even to fill up a craving but in the long run the consumption of all that junk adds up to extra fat and weight that can lead to unfavorable health conditions, diabetes type 2 included.

What you need to know and understand is that type 2 diabetes is NOT a medical condition, it is a Dietary/lifestyle condition. You don't treat dietary/ lifestyle conditions with medications since a lack of medicines was not what caused it in the first place. The equation for type 2 diabetes looks like this, "Refined foods + frequent eating + lack of movement = insulin resistance over time." This is lifestyle all day. By adjusting and improving the variables above, we will now be able to improve and or reverse diabetes.

Over and over again, you've probably heard me say that " the Standard American Diet is a disease, it is a dysfunction of nutrients. Why? Because it’s at the root of these preventable/ lifestyle conditions. It's almost impossible to achieve the status of diabetes without the use of process foods. More than one-third of the population is obese, and around 70-80% have some level of insulin resistance, and this is what causes it: the standard American Diet. Uncontrolled amounts of highly refined and heavily processed "foodstuff," that causes metabolic havoc on our bodies.

Processed foods are the nutritional version of colonization that launches an internal war on your physiology. This daily attack of processed foods will cause the body to protect itself via insulin resistance, increased blood pressure and cholesterol, along with other protective adaptions that will be demonized and treated as diseases. However, these adaptations are merely protecting us from ourselves. The real question is what kinds of foods we should consume for optimal health? There are different kinds of diets and ideologies out there but our goal at H-BAMN to get us back to whole foods, at least 70% plant-based. If you choose to incorporate animal sources in your diet as a part of the other aspect of that ratio, then make sure it's organic.

3- HIIT Diabetes where it hurts

The growing number of people who have obesity can be attributed to mainly two things. The first thing is consuming processed foods, which we’ve pinned above. While the other thing is a sedentary lifestyle, which, simply put, is the lack of movement and physical activity.

For my patients and clients, I usually recommend walking daily or HIIT. HIIT is a methodology that I prescribe to all my patients, but more especially for those who are pre-diabetic or have type 2 Diabetes. For my patients who choose to implement it, it does wonders for their health.

So what is HIIT? Well, it's something that we all use to do at some point in our life. Whether we were playing hide and go seek, freeze tag or riding our bikes playing chase, we all at some point habitually did HIIT. In fact, doing HIIT seemed to come so natural to us that is was baked into our play. It was never something that had to be taught.

HIIT is Going TOP SPEED for a short burst followed by a short rest period in between followed by several more rounds of going all out. Essentially, this is fancy talk for being a kid again! Although a very popular method among kids, the health effects of HIIT are anything but child’s play.

You see, type 2 diabetes and HIIT are inherently natural enemies. HIIT gives the pathology of diabetes extreme difficulty when trying to persist as a disease. High-intensity interval training has been shown to override this insulin resistance momentarily, thus making the muscle cells very much sensitive to the glucose present in the bloodstream, without the use of insulin, which in turn done consistently, will increase insulin sensitivity, while also improving uncontrolled blood sugar levels.

The reason this happens has been well documented. Each cell has glucose transporters (GLUT4) which are usually activated by insulin to allow glucose into the cell. However, HIIT sends your muscles into beast mode, because the INTENSE contraction of the muscles, will now simulate the GLUT4 transporters, absorbing glucose whether insulin is available or not. Why, because in order for your cells to participate in this intense workout, it will use the glucose that it already had, while needing more to continue.

Clinically, I have seen this work multiple times with my own patients who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. When I give them a prescribed workout plan of HIIT, along with these other strategies, their HA1c and several other markers for diabetes improve.

4- FAST

Fasting is everything and Fasting is my gospel. Due to the successful miseducation from the pharmaceutical, medical and health care industry, many of us are taught to believe that diabetes is all about blood sugar and blood sugar control, hence the need for medications that help keep you nice and managed within a certain range. Although the constant presence of high blood sugar level is a problem, this is the inappropriate focus of the condition due to the fact that high blood sugar levels are merely a result of the underlying issue, which is insulin resistance.

Due to the constant exposure and presence of insulin, our cells have made the intelligent decision to down-regulate insulin receptors so that there is not a continuous influx of glucose inside of an already glucose stuffed cell. This downregulation of insulin receptors then leads to the build-up of glucose in the bloodstream. All of this is a protective mechanism that is actually protecting us from ourselves. How do we call off this protective mechanism? By ceasing the onslaught of food so frequently. This is why every month we hold a space for the community to come together to engage in a 24-hour FUBU Community Fast, while also bringing awareness to the accelerated deterioration of health in our community and how we can stop and reverse this issue.

5- HERBS ARE FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATION

This step mainly focuses on the supportive aspect of pre-diabetes and diabetes type 2 reversal. We have to collectively re-remember that nature holds most of the answers to much of our health issues, and this is especially true with diabetes. Along with all the other steps, an accurately designed, naturally-sourced herbal supplementation can really help.

There are several herbs, vitamin, and minerals that are particularly helpful with decreasing blood sugar while increasing insulin sensitivity.

Bitter Melon- Bitter Melon has long been as an herbal treatment of many ailments, including diabetes. It contains three substances vital to diabetes - charantine and vicine which both produce blood sugar-lowering effects and polypeptide-p which is an insulin-like compound.

Cinnamon Bark Powder- Cinnamon has an insulin-mimicking effect which allows glucose entry into cells and at the same time, it can increase insulin sensitivity.

Gymnema Sylvestre- This plant is rich in gymnemic acid which works by making sugar taste less appealing thereby lessening sugar cravings and consumption. It also has anti-diabetic properties and has been termed “gumar,” which means “destroyer of sugar” in Hindi.

White Mulberry Leaf Powder- The powdered leaves of white mulberry have been shown to reduce blood sugar levels by improving glucose tolerance and decreasing insulin concentrations.

This is just to name a few, but there are so many more herbs out there that would have a similar effect on blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. The problem with consuming these beneficial herbs on a daily basis is that it would be unpractical and costly. However, if you can find these ingredients in an all in one supplement like our Blood Sugar Support, then I would highly recommend taking it on a daily basis.

Our Blood sugar suppor t is made of more than ten natural ingredients that are hand-picked because of their actions against diabetes, glucose tolerance, and insulin sensitivity. It’s not only natural and fully absorbable, but it also doesn’t have any adverse side effects.

These five simple steps can help anyone prevent diabetes and with best efforts, even reverse type 2 diabetes. It doesn’t happen overnight though, it can be a long, tough battle, but what matters is the commitment and diligence put towards reaching the end goal which is health. Type 2 diabetes is not a dead end road, it is reversible, but you have to put in the work!

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