How to Empower Yourself Around Your Own Health Care
By: Bob Wuest
Tags: Self-awareness, Body, Safety, Health, Empowerment

Diabetes

Following a series of blood tests and chest x-rays for a persistent cough I had had, the doctor told me I had diabetes. She also said my chest x-ray indicated pneumonia.

As I wrote earlier, I’ve had bouts of pneumonia before, and I had none of the symptoms. Yes, the persistent cough was the reason I’d come to the doctor — but it was more of an irritant than the painful, sputum-laden cough of pneumonia. (Instantly I was skeptical enough to go to another clinic for a second opinion — which did not yield a pneumonia diagnosis or anything else to be concerned about).

Back to my story. To combat the diabetes and pneumonia diagnoses, the doctor started furiously writing prescriptions for two separate antibiotics and Metformin — a daily maintenance drug that (as I discovered with my subsequent research) lowers insulin levels in the blood. Since diabetes is a sign of the body resisting insulin, the common allopathic response is to cover up that root cause by pharmaceutically lowering insulin levels. As with all foreign chemicals introduced to the body, Metformin comes with its own set of common side-effects — among them physical weakness, weight gain, diarrhea, muscle pain, abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting — to name just a few.

Photo by JOSHUA COLEMAN on Unsplash

As she wrote the scripts I said, “Diabetes is a condition resulting from lifestyle and obesity. I will deal with it on that level, rather than with drugs”.

She ignored that remark and continued writing prescriptions. She handed them to me, and scheduled a follow-up appointment three weeks later. No mention whatsoever of what foods to avoid, need to lose weight — nothing.

Suffice it to say I didn’t go back. And left her prescriptions unfilled.

I started a program of fasting and diet change that produced results quickly.

30 days after starting this fasting/diet program I sought to get another blood panel to verify if my 15-lb weight loss was moving the needle on the diabetes blood markers, and if my rather radical program was causing any problems elsewhere. I also wanted to find a health partner to help coach me through the diabetes recovery process. I was referred by a diabetic friend to an endocrinologist, and made an appointment.

I had tracked my weight and fasting blood glucose numbers almost from the first day after receiving my first diagnosis, and had created an Excel spreadsheet with all the blood chemistry and lipid profiles from my most recent 5 blood profiles. That showed me that this most recent diagnosis was an anomaly — rather than a progressive condition. (Likely from a 40-lb. weight gain over the previous year, most due to pandemic boredom eating).

When I lined up those 5 blood profiles next to one another one thing stood out: no two labs were identical in the normal ranges given for each individual blood indicator.

In other words, the normal range for white blood cell count was 4–10 from one lab, and 3.5–12 from another, and a different range from another lab. Among over 50 items, few “normal” ranges were identical from one lab to the next. (Is this objective science, or subjective art?)

I brought all these charts and graphs to my appointment with the endocrinologist. I shared why I’d made the appointment — to check on my progress, with her help.

Without looking at anything but the most HbA1C marker (the primary indicator of diabetes) she told me I had a severe case of diabetes. No shit, Sherlock. She showed zero interest in my weight loss or blood glucose charts, which showed remarkable progress over 30 days. Nor did she review my previous 4 blood panels for any sign that the diabetes had been sneaking up on me for years. Just one damned number — from which she stated her diagnosis and started writing prescriptions.

Each time I tried to point out the progress I’d made she interrupted me, going on about how important it was that I start taking Metformin immediately. After three interruptions in which she heard exactly nothing I had to say, I interrupted her to say (probably with irritation in my voice): “Doctor, can you please listen for me for a minute?”

This surprised her, and she shut up. “I have researched how to reverse diabetes without drugs. I have started a program that has had excellent clinical success in doing so. My progress charts show that it’s been very effective in just 30 days. I intend to continue on with that program. I have no interest in your prescriptions, so you can stop writing them”.

Mouth somewhat agape, she asked, “Then why are you here?”

I told her exactly what I’ve written here — I wanted a new blood panel, and a medical partner to help me interpret the results and cheer me on.

“So all you want is a blood panel?”, she asked. “Yes ma’am, and your help in reviewing them”.

She pulled out a pad to order blood work. She ordered only one blood test — for HbA1C. “Doctor, I don’t want just that test. I want a complete lipid panel and blood chemistry workup to check the effect on my program to date. All of these tests on my spreadsheet here.”

Simmering now, she altered the blood lab order. “Is that it, then?” she asked as she handed it to me. “Yes ma’am, thank you”. She stood up, and opened her office door for me without another word.

Needless to say, I didn’t see her again. Since the control ranges for each blood number appear next to the actual test result, it’s not rocket science to determine whether my levels are within or outside of normal range.

After 60 days I wanted another blood test. I found a lab that would do so without an office visit or a doctor’s order. That will be my go-to site in the future, as I no longer have any expectation of finding a doc who won’t want to push unwanted pills on me.

The rest of the story (now 90+ days after my initial diagnosis) is that I’ve dropped 30 lbs (and counting), and reversed my diabetes — without drugs. I’ve written about the very successful program I used based on my research.