Reversing Type 2 Diabetes Using Natural Therapies

By Susan DeLaney, ND, RN

Natural remedies can help reduce or even eliminate the need for insulin in Type 2 diabetes patients.
Photo by .:[ Melissa ]:. via Flickr, used under the Creative Commons License.

Conventional medicine recommends exercise, a healthy diet and losing weight to prevent the development of Type 2 diabetes. But these same measures, along with a few supportive supplements, can also reverse the disease process. After many years of eating highly refined foods and excess sugars, one's nutrients stores are depleted. My real focus in reversing Type 2 diabetes becomes one of restoring health through nutrient rich foods. It is unfortunate that the conventional practice of medicine operates from the perspective of disease management and not the restoration of one’s health. With treatments that only manage the disease symptoms, the progression of the disease continues even with excellent control of blood sugars. Blindness, peripheral neuropathy, and heart and kidney disease are the long term consequences of a disease only held in check by medications.

In one patient's case, just eliminating all processed foods for one week, such as cereal, bread, pasta, crackers, pizza, cake, cookies--anything that made from a refined grain or sugar--reduced the need for insulin shots by 50%! He was able to maintain the reduction in his insulin doses by restricting these foods and eating high-nutrient foods such as eggs, meats and healthy fats such as butter, cheese, nuts and avocado. Beans became a daily staple of his diet, along with greens and any fruit and vegetable he desired. Daily exercise of his choice for 30 minutes each day was also initiated to improve his glucose levels.

Typically diabetics have low vitamin D levels, which is really just “the canary in the mine” indicating that they are low in all of the fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K. The fat soluble vitamins (not really vitamins but pro-hormones) act together to help regulate many aspects of the immune and endocrine system. Using cod liver oil (high in vitamins A and D) along with High Vitamin Butter Oil (high in vitamin K2), these food-based supplements begin to restore these deficiencies. The diets of traditional people eating their native diets contain 10 times more fat soluble vitamins than the western diets of today. Restoring healthy fats to our diets, as well as eliminating trans fats and all refined oils that help deplete our fat vitamin stores, will help nourish the body and reduce the need for diabetic medication.

Along with the introduction of healthy fats, I also use a fermented powdered food from fruits and vegetables taken twice a day as a supplemental shake to increase the nutrient levels, speeding up the healing process. After six weeks, my patient was able to drop his insulin by 75% with a weight loss of 8 pounds. He continues to take metformin for his elevated blood sugar levels, but after 3 months is off all insulin. Along with the reduction in his insulin levels, his Hemoglobin A1C levels have dropped from 8.8 to 7.0.

Continuing his nourishing diet and supporting his system with food based supplements should totally eliminate his need for medication in the future. Restoring health prevents the development of chronic disease and reduces the need for expensive medication. It is possible to reverse, not just manage, Type 2 diabetes using natural therapies.