What I am doing about diabetes...

If I could design a medical practice that would be perfect for me, it would combine traditional medicine and alternative medicine. I believe we need both viewpoints and areas of knowledge to have the best healthcare. I had been to my medical doctor and had blood work done and a diagnosis made. Now it was time to talk to my chiropractor.

Dr. Kloor had two sheets of information ready for me, and he assured me that he has been using this system for years and that it works very well if it is followed (as he eyed me questioningly!) This would be a one-month program to start with. One sheet had my allowable foods: basically as much as I wanted of vegetables and meat, fish, fowl, and eggs. I also could have a few other things like pickles, olive oil, butter, all nuts except peanuts. No processed grains, white flour, sugar or sugar substitutes. No rice, no bread, no potatoes, no sugar, no fruit. Just for one month. The vegetables were arranged in three columns according to carb content. All my carbs had to come from vegetables. And there was this important instruction: Each of your meals must include some protein.

The second sheet outlined the four supplements he wanted me to take at very specific times of day - Diaplex, Cataplex GTF, Inosotol, and Pancreatrophin PMG.

"And exercise," he said to me sternly. "I can't do that for you. You have to do it yourself." Oh, dear, I thought to myself shrinkingly...

So home I came with my two sheets of paper and my bottles of supplements...and I began. My blood sugars that day were:

192, 222, and 157.

Only vegetables and meats. Almonds for snacks. Homemade olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing. Most days I have had 2 scrambled eggs for breakfast with a sliced tomato. Delicious leafy salads for lunches -- mixed dark greens, mushrooms, cucumbers, bell peppers, radishes, and chicken or beef with my dressing. (I have really developed a liking for that tangy vinegar.) Supper has been chicken, beef, or pork with a vegetable or two, and I have left the potatoes or rice or macaroni or whatever for the others. The cookies I baked for the church potluck beckoned me from the Ziploc bag on the counter, but I ate nary a one!

I have been pretty slow in adding in the exercise. The weather has worked against me some of the time, but I have just had a struggle to get all of the pieces of the puzzle to fit, especially when at the beginning I was so draggy and tired. But for the past two weeks now I have been walking briskly for 20 to 30 minutes several times a week.

My friend Cheryl has a good handheld laser unit which she has been using for various health issues, and she offered to lend that to me. Her doctor's office told her the proper settings to use to assist with pancreas function, and so I was able to add two of those treatments to the diet and supplements. (I was very interested to see that using the laser gave me a permanent drop of about 25 points in my blood sugars.)

Today I went back to see Dr. Kloor. After catching up on my progress, he cut my supplements in half. Since we have encouraged the pancreas to work better by reducing its stress (less sugar and bad stuff to deal with) and by supporting it nutritionally (better food choices and supplements), it is now time to see if we can taper off the supplements and still maintain these better blood sugar numbers. The diet continues the same for 10 more days, and then I will do a phone consult with him. If my blood sugars are doing fine, we will start adding in a little fruit. Oh, that will be wonderful!

So...where am I now?? I've lost over 10 pounds (still more improvement to come on that). My energy is much, much better! And here are my blood sugar numbers for today:

124, 116, 118.

Still some work to be done, but

a drastic change in 5 weeks!

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