By Dr. Hans Diehl
The diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes has often been perceived as a death sentence because of its impact on health and lifespan. Diabetes, over time affects every major organ in the body and is largely responsible for markedly increasing the risk of blindness, kidney disease, amputation, heart disease and stroke, and erectile dysfunction.  Currently, every second American adult either has full-blown diabetes or has been diagnosed as a person with pre-diabetes.  But we can go now beyond merely treating the symptoms of diabetes.  The highly respected ACCORD study showed that tight control of the glucose levels actually increased morbidity and mortality.
So we must go beyond just treating the symptoms of diabetes, or managing its blood sugar levels with drugs and injections. Almost all pharmaceutical agents increase appetite, thus increasing weight, thus worsening the diabetic condition and requiring more medications. This only continues the vicious cycle of more drugs, more weight, and a worsening of the diabetes with its devastating health impact, shortened lives and a higher economic burden.
There IS hope. A new approach is emerging that has helped close to 10,000 diabetics enrolled in the CHIP (Complete Health Improvement Project).  This diet-centered lifestyle intervention lowers blood sugar levels within days.  It is an approach that was used more than 80 years ago but it was overlooked and forgotten.  Today the evidence is quite stunning when we use a diet very low in fat, oils and grease but high in unrefined complex carbohydrates. The body usually recovers, and within four weeks about 75% of patients with Type 2 Diabetes on drugs and about 50% of these patients on insulin will have normalized their blood sugar levels while being off their medications.
Dr. Singh, as published in the respected Lancet Medical Journal as far back as 1955, had 50 of his 80 insulin-using Type 2 diabetics off insulin with normalized blood sugar levels within 6 weeks by using a very low fat, yet very high, unrefined starch diet.  We are now beginning to understand some of the mechanisms that will be carefully discussed in more detail in my presentation on March 2.
The answer to this largely lifestyle-related disease is not found in pills and shots. To disarm and reverse this rapidly expanding killer disease, we need to go beyond pills and shots.  We need to alter the causes of this disease.  That involves our lifestyle, and especially our dietary lifestyle of “sweets and meats” and of “junk and bunk”.
Type 2 diabetes has tripled in the United States over the last 30 years. This is not a genetically induced disease, because it takes about 300 years to change the genetic make-up of a nation.  However, a healthier lifestyle will turn this disease around, not only preventing it but also disarming and reversing it, often within days.  The very lifestyle that will heal the diabetes, will also extend to healing heart disease, hypertension, overweight and other chronic diseases.
Dr. Diehl will be making this presentation at a luncheon on Friday, March 2 at 12:00 – 1:15 pm at Wirick Hall at the Nazarene Church, 2611 Third Street, Tillamook. There is no charge for this event. Please RSVP for the meal to 503-815-2270 or gabelgl@ah.org. Sponsored by Tillamook Regional Medical Center.