Reversing Diabetes Success Stories

Type 2 diabetes is completely reversible through Intermittent Fasting and cutting carbs. With the right information and support, anyone can do it. I hope these stories inspire you to give it a try.

Mar 28, 2023

Most medical professionals rely on drugs instead of diet to treat diseases such as Type 2 diabetes because they think people are too weak to change their diet and lifestyle. Perhaps a few people will refuse to change. But most people have the drive to conquer their health problems when given the proper tools. If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of those people. Dr. Fung’s book The Diabetes Code is full of stories of people who fasted and cut carbs to save their health.

But first, did you know the ideas surrounding Intermittent Fasting have been around for over 120 years?

Edward Dewey was one of the first physicians to recommend Intermittent Fasting, though he didn’t call it that. In 1900, he published the book The No-Breakfast Plan and the Fasting Cure where he suggested that a healthy eating pattern is to forgo breakfast and eat only two meals each day. He says:

“The no-breakfast plan with me proved a matter of life unto life. With my morning coffee there were forenoons of the highest physical energy, the clearest condition of mind, and the acutest sense of everything enjoyable. Not being able to give my patients clearly defined reasons for the general and local improvements resulting from a forenoon fast as a method in hygiene, it had to be spread from relieved persons to suffering friends; and according to the need, the sufferers from various ailings would be willing to try anything new where efforts through the family physician or patent medicines had completely failed; it was spread as if by contagion, among the failures of the medical profession.”1

Can People Really Make Long-Term Difficult Changes?

Can people reverse Type 2 diabetes when our food environment is surrounded by this?

Thankfully, there are many stories of people who did change. These stories remind us of what people can do when they take healing seriously. I’m sure these people used to love carbs or they wouldn’t have Type 2 diabetes. But when someone believed they could conquer their health challenges, they were able to make a radical change.

Here’s one such story:

Richard, 76, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes about a decade ago. In addition, he had high blood pressure, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, an irregular heartbeat, and chronic kidney disease. Six years later he started on insulin (36 units daily), in addition to two oral hypoglycemics, yet his A1C remained elevated at 8.4%.
I [Dr. Fung] met Richard just after he started taking insulin. Following The Fasting Method Program, he began a low-carbohydrate, healthy-fat diet and a 24-hour fast three days a week. Within a month he was off insulin, and after six months he was completely off all his oral medications, as well. His urine albumin-to-creatine ratio, a measure of diabetic kidney damage, dropped by two-thirds; he lost 13 lbs; and his waist size shrank 12 cm. Today, Richard’s A1C is 5.4% without medications, which classifies him as nondiabetic [not even prediabetic.]2

Now that’s what I call a doctor who takes his vow seriously to do no harm. Fung helped Richard come off insulin injections and two other medications, improve his kidney disease, lose weight, reduce his waist size, and no longer be diabetic.

The only downside to this story is that big pharma lost a lifelong customer. So sad.

This next story shows just how much people can push themselves if they have someone cheering for them:

When we first met Bridget, 62, she had a ten-year history of Type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and high blood pressure. She was severely insulin resistant, requiring a total of 210 units of insulin every day to keep her blood glucose under control. She weighed 325 lbs, with a waist size of 147 cm [58 in] and a BMI of 54.1.
Determined to get off insulin, she started with a seven-day fast but felt so well and so empowered that she continued for another two weeks. By the end of 21 days, she had not only stopped all her insulin but required no diabetic medications at all. To maintain her weight loss, she switched from fasting continuously to fasting for 24 to 36 hours every other day. During this time her A1C was 6.8%, which was actually better than when she was taking insulin.
Before starting The Fasting Method program, Bridget had very low energy levels and could barely make it into my office on her own two legs. Once she started to fast, her energy levels improved significantly and she was easily able to walk around. Her dress size dropped from a 30 to a 22. Bridget has been off insulin for three years now and has maintained a total weight loss of 63 lbs over that time. Her blood pressure normalized and she has stopped taking medication. [Another lost customer.]3

Bridget, a diabetic of ten years, had the self-control, self-discipline, and motivation to FAST FOR 21 DAYS STRAIGHT. This allowed her to come off of insulin and all medications in just THREE WEEKS!

By the way, I’m not encouraging anyone to fast this long. This was medically supervised which is vitally important for those using insulin. My point is to bring up the lengths that people will go to for healing when encouraged.

This also shows how important it is to find the right doctor. The same person who was handed pills for ten years by a doctor who believed she was incapable of making diet changes, is the same person who, when she switched to a doctor who believed people can change, showed incredible determination to become well.

Then, she had the self-discipline to continue with alternate-day fasting after that. Furthermore, she continued fasting for three years and counting (as of the writing of the book). I’d guess that when she sees other people eating carbs, she doesn’t feel the slightest bit sorry for herself but is only thankful she found Dr. Fung.

But how sad that many doctors view people like Bridget as incapable of making hard changes.

Isn’t it distressing to read this story and think what life would be like if Bridget hadn’t found Dr. Fung—still injecting herself with high doses of insulin and barely able to walk. But sadly, there are very few doctors teaching patients about Intermittent fasting. There are many Bridgets growing sicker and sicker, getting limbs amputated, dying from kidney disease, but Mmmm, they get to keep eating those delish carbs that are slowly killing them.

Why Many Doctors Don’t Recommend Diet Changes to Type 2 Diabetics

I got into an online discussion the other day with a doctor who specializes in treating obesity and diabetes. I was lamenting the fact that more doctors don’t encourage their patients to reverse their diabetes by cutting all carbs and fasting. Instead, they hand them pills and tell them that diabetes is a permanent and lifelong condition. Most tell them to reduce carbs a bit but the truth is that once the disease is full-blown, a small reduction in carbs won’t reverse it. They need to adopt a total war on carbs.

This doctor responded to my lament by saying that patients aren’t able to stick to strict diet changes, and that’s why he doesn’t recommend them. He knows of a few patients who tried cutting out carbs but then gave up after a few weeks.

So then you gave up, doc? You gave up trying to help them reverse their disease state?

Then he said something eye-opening to me. He said, “After all, people really enjoy their carbs.” He thought he had dropped a real humdinger, something that no one could deny.

Well, do you know what else people really enjoy? Keeping their limbs. Yep, it’s true. People do not enjoy having their limbs amputated because their diabetic ulcers became infected. Diabetes clogs the vessels that should bring blood full of disease-fighting immune cells. And when enough blood can’t get to an infection site, the whole limb has to be cut off. True story.

You know what else people enjoy? They enjoy not having their life cut short by 15-20 years and being active and free of pain the last decade of their life instead of dealing with nerve pain. People also tend to enjoy their eyesight. And having kidneys that work. Meds barely slow the progression toward these risks.

From the CDC.gov A Snapshot: Diabetes in the US:

Do You Believe People Were Born to Conquer?

I quickly realized that this conversation was not just about a difference of opinion about how Type 2 diabetes should be treated but it was about a fundamentally different worldview. I realized that I believe something radically different about my fellow man than this doctor does.

And that has everything to do with why I write about health.

I believe that my fellow man is capable of remarkable achievements. Think about the cathedrals in Europe that medieval man built.

Am I supposed to believe that mankind, as a race, can construct magnificent structures that take hundreds of years yet is incapable of skipping breakfast and must stuff carbs in his face even when that puts him in a disease state? People scale Mt. Everest, make ground-breaking scientific discoveries like autophagy, have composed musical masterpieces, and solved complicated math problems. But we’re supposed to believe there’s no point in encouraging them to give up carbs and fast when they have a serious disease because we already know that they can’t do it?

The mainstream medical community treats us like we’re a bunch of two-year-olds who need to have our animal crackers and juice every two hours, followed by our pills that barely counteract the damage.

But I know better.

I know that you, my friend, are capable of doing hard things when your health depends upon it. You are capable of delaying eating. You are capable of removing something from your diet that is ruining your health.

For those whose lives will be cut short and whose quality of life will be greatly compromised by carbs, you are absolutely capable of making a change.

It turns out, one in two Americans needs to make this change. Yep, one in two Americans has either prediabetes or diabetes. Eight out of ten with prediabetes are undiagnosed. That’s because many doctors don’t order HbA1C as part of the yearly bloodwork. I don’t know why.

Again, from CDC.gov’s page A Snapshot, Diabetes in the US

I believe that not only are you capable of saying no to something that’s destroying your health, but you can do it without feeling sorry for yourself. You can even do it while being thankful that a simple solution exists.

It doesn’t matter if a doctor tells you that you won’t be able to stick with it. You can prove him wrong.

And even if your stakes aren’t quite that high yet, and you’re just fighting a few extra inches around the middle, I believe you’re capable of putting off eating for a few hours each day to make a 16-hour fast. We don’t need to put food into our mouths every moment the idea occurs to us. We’re stronger than that.

Of course, this doctor is speaking from common knowledge when he says a few of his patients tried cutting carbs but failed after a few weeks. No surprise there. People need encouragement and a battle plan. They need a map. They need a lot of support. They need someone telling them that it’s normal to do really well at something hard and brand new for a few weeks and then cave. That doesn’t mean you never try it again. It means you start again, and this time you see if you can make it a month, or two months before you cave.

And maybe on the third try, you’ll make it six months before you mess up. But by then, it’s easy to start again. Because now you have fewer sugar cravings and feel less cranky and sluggish. Now you’re on a roll.

Yes, you had a few false starts. That’s normal. Now you can go longer periods without eating and you don’t feel shaky. You’re starting to appreciate other flavors besides just sweets. Your pants are feeling looser. You have fewer headaches. You have more energy to run around in the yard with the grandkids. You feel like you’re ten years younger.

Don’t let your legal drug dealer tell you that you’re too weak to change, and you need round-the-clock carbs to be happy. “Better take these expensive drugs. Wouldn’t want you to feel a little hungry now and then.”

Show them what you’re capable of. Make your doctor ask you what you did. Make your friends and family ask you what you did and why you’re suddenly so different.

Why do you seem so much more upbeat, have so much more energy, and look so much healthier?

Are These Carb Recommendations for Diabetics or for People Trying to Become Diabetic?

I about had a conniption fit when I saw the CDC’s recommended menu for a Type 2 diabetic:

TWO HUNDRED GRAMS OF CARBS??? For someone who has a disease that’s caused by carbohydrate overload? Now that’s one way to have a patient on diabetes meds for life. Oh, I almost forgot, people must have their carbs.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) gives slightly better advice. They recommend diabetics fill their plates with 1/4 carbs.

However, these diabetic guidelines do solve one great mystery. I was in a discussion with a clinician a few weeks back who told me that medication is as effective as diet at treating diabetes. I explained the many studies that show full reversal from Type 2 diabetes by diet interventions. No medicine does this. But he insisted that they were taught in med school that medication was as effective as diet.

I kept puzzling over this, completely unable to understand why med schools would teach something so preposterously and demonstrably false. And why would anyone believe something so easily disproven?

But then it dawned on me as I was reading the above website food guidelines.

Ah-ha. Now I understand! At last, I see the light!

Medication is just as ineffective as THEIR diets at reversing diabetes. Now it all makes sense. They speak to me from within the given assumption that people must have their around-the-clock carbs. In this twisted world, diet and medication are equally good at keeping a lifelong pharma customer. I agree.

They aren’t comparing medication with the dietary intervention of cutting nearly all carbs and fasting, that clinics like Dr. Fung‘s use to put over 30,000 patients into remission.

Summary

There’s no real question that fasting and/or diet changes work. The question is: will you do it?

A study published in the journal Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases titled “High protein diet leads to prediabetes remission and positive changes in incretins and cardiovascular risk factors” concluded:

Our studies showed that subjects on the HP [high protein] diet had 100% remission of prediabetes compared to only 33% on the HC [high carb calorie reduced] diet with similar weight loss.

Imagine if a drug could do that. But no drug can or ever will. Thankfully, we have better options.

FAT: A DOCUMENTARY

For anyone interested in how our food messaging surrounding saturated fat and cholesterol went so wrong for 60 years, you’ll find this documentary fascinating.

In fact, I’m going to be really bossy for a sec and urge everyone to watch this. I know it may not initially sound the like the most exciting movie pick, but it’s told in such a compelling way. Plus, this is your health that’s at stake. Listen while you’re driving, working out, cooking, or cleaning. I’m convinced it will draw you in. It may just change the entire way you eat.

Until next week, fast first and then feast to show the world what we’re capable of delaying the joy of eating for our good,

Leslie Taylor

Fast Well | Feast Well

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