Thirty-seven million Americans have diabetes; countless more are prediabetic and do not yet have a diagnosis. Type 2 diabetes used to be called “adult onset” ddiabetes, but so many children are now developing the disease that the term is outdated. Based on the trajectory of the numbers, what Americans have been doing clearly is not working. The conventional approach to diabetes is to treat it with medications and interventions rather than looking at the root causes.
How Chiropractic Impacts Type 2 Diabetes
Your nervous system controls every organ, tissue, and cell in your body. It even influences the release of insulin and the clearance of glucose from your bloodstream. Second in command is your endocrine system, which is drastically affected by lifestyle choices like diet, exercise, and exposure to toxins. If there is interference to your nervous system or dysregulation in your hormones, your body functions less than optimally, and dysfunction and disease ensue. MaxLiving doctors seek out root causes by applying the 5 Essentials. This includes Core Chiropractic, Nutrition, Oxygen & Exercise, Mindset, and Minimizing Toxins. Applying these principles gives the body the best chance to heal and repair from a diagnosis such as type 2 diabetes.
Stop the Blood Sugar Roller Coaster
Unfortunately, the conventional advice regarding nutrition and diabetes essentially keeps you diabetic. Eating the same things that contributed to the diagnosis in the first place is ineffective. Preventing diabetes or reversing the diagnosis altogether requires some significant lifestyle changes. These changes are simple but are not always easy, and they definitely go against the grain (pun intended).
The number one contributor to insulin spikes is processed carbohydrates. Sadly, Americans eat a lot of them. Yet strangely, people with diabetes are encouraged to keep them as part of their diet. According to the American Diabetes Association’s website, current nutritional advice instructs people to fill half of their plates with non-starchy vegetables, a quarter with protein, and the last quarter with carbohydrates. (1) Besides the recommendations not specifying which types of proteins and carbohydrates one should consume, it encourages diabetics to eat the very foods that result in large swings in insulin and glucose. The roller coaster effect requires your body to do much more work and prevents your body from healing and repairing. Ideally, you want to keep your glucose as steady as possible (meaning no large spikes and subsequent plummets) throughout the day.
Diabetes and Inflammation: The Hidden Connection
Chronic inflammation is at the root of every major disease process, and diabetes is no different. Inflammation can start as a spark but quickly turn into a raging inferno. This process flips your genes into a diseased state and eventually results in a diagnosis. Poor diet and lifestyle choices rapidly deteriorate health and quality of life.
A diet full of processed carbohydrates, a plethora of grains, excess sugars, damaged fats, and poor-quality proteins leads to high blood sugar levels and insulin signaling dysregulation. Next comes weight gain, chronic inflammation, and a diagnosis such as diabetes. Diabetes then leads to more weight gain and inflammation, and the cycle continues. It becomes imperative to stop the process in its tracks.
When it comes to inflammation, it is essential to discuss a process called glycation. Glycation is when a glucose (sugar) molecule attaches to another type of molecule (like a protein, fat, or DNA). Once this process happens, the second molecule is glycated and, by default, damaged to some degree. Glycation is a normal process that occurs naturally as we age. However, we can pump the brakes or step on the gas. When someone eats an abundance of sugar, the process is accelerated. The A1c test, widely used to detect and monitor diabetes, is an indicator of the glycation level in your body. While it is not a foolproof diagnostic tool, it takes a snapshot of your red blood cell proteins over the last two to three months. The higher your A1c level, the more glycation is happening (along with increased blood glucose levels). This process contributes significantly to inflammation in the body.
Best Foods for Type 2 Diabetes & Blood Sugar Control
Generally, to stabilize blood sugar levels and keep inflammation at bay, eat a whole food-based diet and as close to the source as possible. While your body is battling dysfunction, it is important to eliminate processed carbohydrates and drastically reduce or eliminate grains, sugars, and high-sugar fruits. It is also important to source the highest quality, most natural animal products available. These animal products include grass-fed beef and dairy, free-range chicken and eggs, and wild-caught fish. The MaxLiving Advanced Plan focuses on high-quality protein, good fats, and most carbohydrates from vegetables, beans, and legumes. While some people can tolerate fruit better than others, the Advanced Plan includes only low-glycemic fruits like berries, Granny Smith apples, lemons, limes, and grapefruit.
The Best Type of Exercise for Blood Sugar Control
If there were a drug out on the market that could claim a 58% improvement in diabetes, it would be a blockbuster. The fantastic thing is that lifestyle changes have proved to do just that. In a study of over 3,000 participants, researchers compared the drug metformin, lifestyle changes (including diet and exercise), and a placebo.(2) The outcome was astonishing. The group who applied the lifestyle changes reduced the incidence of diabetes by 58%! The subjects taking metformin reduced the incidence by only 31%. The lifestyle changes outperformed the drug intervention, yet the conventional approach to diabetes is to prescribe drugs and ignore lifestyle.
Another study showed that just two weeks of high-intensity training consisting of just ten minutes of work per day resulted in “lowered average blood glucose concentration, reduced postmeal blood glucose excursions, and increased markers of skeletal muscle mitochondrial capacity.”(3)
MaxLiving’s MaxT3 exercise program is an excellent way to add high-intensity, short-duration metabolic conditioning to your daily routine.
Taking Control of Type 2 Diabetes Naturally
By applying the 5 Essentials in your own life, you can not only avoid a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes; you can simultaneously prevent many diseases, build your immune system, slow the aging process, and change your future for the better. These principles never fail. While we may fail them, they never fail us.
References:
- https://diabetes.org/healthy-living/recipes-nutrition/eating-well
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1370926/
- https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00921.2011
Facebook
Instagram