Did you know the rate of diabetes has increased by 700 percent in the last five decades?

That’s right. Right now, over 70 million people -- one in four Americans -- have either diabetes or pre-diabetes! 

It’s an epidemic of epic proportions that just keeps getting worse, and yet it’s one of the most avoidable chronic diseases there is. 

Are You Headed for Diabetes?

First, it’s important to realize that there are two types of diabetes. Type 1 is insulin-dependent diabetes, also commonly referred to as juvenile diabetes. Type 2 is insulin-resistant diabetes, which is far more common of the two.

90-95 percent of all diabetics have type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes is diagnosed by a fasting blood sugar test. In the U.S., the measurement used is mg/dl, and if your fasting blood sugar is above 125 mg/dl, then you have full-blown diabetes. If your blood sugar is between 110 to 125 mg/dl, you’re considered pre-diabetic.

However, I firmly believe that these criteria are not rigid enough and that your blood sugar should not be in the triple digits. Ideally, you’ll want it to be about 80 mg/dl to prevent health problems.  Once you reach triple digits, you have a problem even though you’re not officially diagnosed as diabetic or pre-diabetic.

Unfortunately, conventional physicians are largely ignorant about diabetes, and do not understand how to properly treat it.  In fact, the traditional recommendations from the conventional medical community are causing people to die prematurely.

Why Conventional Treatment is Dead Wrong

What they fail to understand is that even though you’re diagnosed as diabetic by a fasting blood sugar test, blood sugar is NOT the problem. It’s merely a symptom that arises as your body attempts to keep itself in balance.

The real, underlying problem is insulin resistance, along with faulty leptin signaling. This is caused by miscommunication within and between cells -- usually related to the communication between the cellular receptors for insulin and leptin. 

When your blood sugar becomes elevated it is a signal for insulin to be released to direct the extra energy into storage. A small amount is stored as a starch called glycogen in your body, but the majority is stored as your main energy supply -- fat. Thus, in this regard insulin's major role is not to lower sugar, but to take the extra energy and store it for future times of need.

Insulin lowers your blood sugar as a side effect of directing the extra energy into storage.

This is why treatments that concentrate merely on lowering blood sugar for diabetes while raising insulin levels can actually worsen rather than remedy the actual problem of metabolic miscommunication.

Please understand that if you only implement strategies to treat your blood sugar level, you are destined for premature death. Taking insulin is one of the WORST things you can do, as it will actually make your insulin and leptin resistance worse over time. 

Dr. Ron Rosedale, an expert on leptin physiology and one of my early mentors in this area, has written several great articles for my site on this subject. He also developed the appropriate acronym: D.I.E. to illustrate what’s happening in conventional diabetic treatment. 

Doctor Induced Exacerbation.

Yes, most doctors make diabetes worse and accelerate the death process. 

Diabetes Can Significantly Reduce Your Lifespan and Quality of Life

Not only does type 2 diabetes increase your overall risk of heart disease, the condition can also bring on fatal and non-fatal heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events an average of 15 years earlier than in those without diabetes.

And, aside from the potentially deadly side effects of diabetes drugs, the additional health complications that diabetes fosters are numerous, and quite serious, including:

• Heart disease and stroke – Death from heart disease and risk for stroke is two to four times higher among people with diabetes
• High blood pressure – 75 percent of diabetics have high blood pressure (130/180 mm Hg or higher)
• Blindness -- Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 20 to 74 years
• Kidney disease – Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure. In 2005, more than 45,700 people began treatment for end-stage kidney disease in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and another 178,700 were living on chronic dialysis
• Nervous system disease -- About 60 to 70 percent of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of nervous system damage such as: impaired sensation or pain in hands or feet, poor digestion, carpal tunnel syndrome and erectile dysfunction
• Amputations – In 2004, 71,000 lower limb amputations due to diabetes were performed in the U.S.
• Dental disease -- Almost one-third of people with diabetes have severe periodontal disease
• Pregnancy complications -- Poorly controlled diabetes before conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy among women with type 1 diabetes can cause major birth defects in 5 to 10 percent of pregnancies, and spontaneous abortions in 15 to 20 percent of pregnancies

Fortunately, nearly 100 percent of type 2 diabetics can be successfully treated -- meaning you will no longer have the symptoms of diabetes, or the high risk of developing the above health complications -- if you are willing to implement the recommendations I provide below.

Type 2 Diabetes is Curable in Nearly Everyone Without Drugs!!

If one is compliant with these recommendations the likelihood of successfully going off of drugs and having normal blood sugars is close to 100%. Treating type 2 diabetes is simply a matter of implementing some basic strategies to improve your insulin and leptin resistance:

Exercise. Exercise is an absolutely essential factor, without which you’re highly unlikely to get this devastating disease under control. It is clearly one of the most potent ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance.

I have put together an entire video of my recommendations for a very comprehensive exercise program, which I will publish in the near future, so stay posted.

Typically, however, you’ll need large amounts of exercise, until you get your blood sugar levels under control. You may need up to an hour or two a day. Naturally, you’ll want to gradually work your way up to that amount, based on your current level of fitness.

Eliminate grains and sugars. For the last 50 years, many people have been following the nutritional recommendations dictated by conventional health agencies, which advise a high complex carbohydrate, low saturated fat diet. The end result has been a 700 percent increase in diabetes in the same time frame and many have come to view diabetes as an incurable chronic disease…

This is clearly not true, but it’s the inevitable result of seriously flawed dietary recommendations.

Instead, you’ll want to eliminate foods that your body will react to by creating insulin, which includes all types of sugars and grains -- even “healthy” grains such as whole, organic grains. This means avoiding all breads, pasta, cereals, rice, potatoes, and corn (which is in fact a grain). You may even need to avoid fruits until your blood sugar is under control.

Eat right for your nutritional type. Even doing all of the above steps might not be enough unless you balance your protein, carb and fat ratios for your unique and specific genetic biochemistry. You can read more about nutritional typing here. 

Monitor your fasting insulin level. This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You’ll want your fasting insulin level to be between 2 to 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin receptor sensitivity is.

The recommendations mentioned above are the key steps you need to achieve this reduction.

Optimize your vitamin D level. Interestingly, optimizing your vitamin D levels can not only help improve type 2 diabetes if you have it, but can likely eliminate the risk of type 1 diabetes (along with autoimmune diseases and autism) in your children if you are pregnant. It’s also vital for infants to receive the appropriate amounts of vitamin D in their early years for these same reasons.

Ideally, you’ll want to do this by exposing a large amount of your skin to appropriate amounts of sunshine (or a safe tanning bed) on a regular basis, year-round. Your body can safely create up to 20,000 units of vitamin D a day this way.

However, if neither of these options are available, you clearly want to use an oral vitamin D3 supplement. But remember, if you chose to take an oral supplement it’s essential that you get your levels tested regularly by a proficient lab to make sure you’re not reaching toxic levels, and are within the therapeutic range. Maintaining your vitamin D levels around 60-80 ng/ml can significantly help control your blood sugar.