Three ways to reverse insulin resistance: eat low-glycemic (protein, vegetables, healthy fats, no sugar or refined carbs), exercise 30-45 minutes daily plus strength training twice weekly, and take berberine, cinnamon, and chromium. A vegetarian woman with an A1C of 13 dropped it to 5.7 in six months using this approach, losing over 30 pounds.
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The first thing is the diet. So we take away the things that spike the insulin because that's feeding into this whole vicious cycle. So obviously we want to avoid simple sugars and carbohydrates as well as alcohol, because alcohol turns into sugar. So we really want to put you on a diet that's going to stabilize your blood sugar. So when we do that and you focus more on eating proteins and vegetables and healthy fats like avocados and nuts, that totally reduces your blood glucose levels. So you're not having these spikes up and down all day. Your blood sugar is kind of stable meal to meal. So guess what happens? Your pancreas doesn't have to produce as much insulin, so your hunger goes down. I mean, you can still have some carbs like from berries and yams, so the insulin goes down. And then all of a sudden, because the cells are not overflooded with the insulin, they start opening up. The second thing we can do is exercise. Like I mentioned, exercise is going to naturally open up those insulin receptors. So I'd recommend 30 to 45 minutes of cardio every day. You can split it up into 2 sessions if you want, and strength training 2 to 3 times a week, because the more muscle mass you have, the more insulin sensitive you are. So that's the second thing. And the third thing you can do is to take some natural supplements. So the 2 that I use in my practice are berberine and cinnamon and chromium. You're smiling as you say this. Well, I think because I've seen such radical transformation in patients. So I have seen— okay, I'll share one of the most fascinating stories of my career. I met a lady, she was vegetarian, And her hemoglobin A1C when I first met her was 13, which in other words, her fasting glucose was over 300. She was a very poorly controlled diabetic, and she was adamant that she did not want to take any pharmaceuticals. I was quite concerned when I met her if that was even possible, and I knew that the high blood sugar was damaging all her organs. Her fasting insulin when I first met her was like 35. Incredibly high. But she followed everything I asked her to do.
The diet, the exercise, and these supplements.
Yes. And we had a few, you know, setbacks here and there where I had to make adjustments with her diet. But by 6 months, she had lost over 30 pounds, and her hemoglobin A1C was 5.7, which is like normal. And her insulin was 8, which is also pretty close to normal.
