Let me start off by saying we have been totally wrong about our understanding and treatment of Type 2 Diabetes till recently.
- Did you know that you have a 5-10 year window where you can act to prevent the development of diabetes in the first place?
- Did you know that once you are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, it can be reversed with diet and lifestyle interventions?
- Did you know that organ damage continues to happen even if you don’t address underlying insulin resistance and inflammation, even if you have blood sugars under control with medications?
- Did you know there are only two classes of drugs that actually work for diabetes, and this does not include metformin or insulin?
Diabetes is the number one cause of kidney failure and end-stage renal disease and so the number one cause for patients needing dialysis or kidney transplant.
Our understanding of diabetes has been skewed and our treatment approaches have been totally misplaced.
Diabetes is a dietary and lifestyle disease and so without addressing diet and lifestyle, NO amount of medication is going to reverse it.
Diabetes is due to insulin resistance and having too much sugar and resultant high insulin in the body.
So the traditional diabetes treatment which includes drugs that increase insulin and insulin injections itself only makes the problem worse.
There are only two classes of medications that really help in diabetes, one that prevents the addition of more sugar to the body by blocking the sugar absorption from the intestines (acarbose) the other class of drugs that get rid of the excess sugar from the body through your kidneys (SGLT2). All the other medications including insulin, sulfonylureas just shift the glucose from one compartment to another and it is essentially like a bandaid.
Time and again multiple well-designed studies, these are randomized control studies which are considered the highest evidence of the standard of care, have shown that in spite of strict diabetes control the complications like heart disease or kidney disease progression could not be avoided confirming that we are not addressing the underlying problem.
Diabetes is associated with inflammation which is the underlying problem propagating heart and kidney disease. It is a well-known fact that hsCRP, IL6, STNFr2 which are all inflammatory markers are quite elevated, and worse they increase when you treat diabetes with insulin injections.
Are you ready to commit and take care of your health? I have been successful in reversing diabetes (again type 2) and my patients have been able to come off insulin and diabetes medications. If you are suffering from diabetes, please review our programs and schedule a strategy call to work with us. We can help.
Dr. Nandana Mapakshi is a medical doctor, nephrologist, and functional medicine practitioner. She founded Functional Kidney Care to help her optimize patients’ kidney health and overall wellness using a personalized, comprehensive approach powered by the principles of functional medicine, which treats the whole person, not just symptoms.