Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus…a fascinating chronic disease!
In 2015, with a fasting blood glucose of 125 mg/dL and an HbA1C of 7.5%, I joined the group of hundreds of people worldwide with a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus has been defined by WHO as a chronic, progressive disease characterized by elevated blood glucose. According to WHO, Diabetes of all types can lead to complications in many parts of the body and increases the overall risk of dying prematurely.
My diagnosis came as no surprise, as my Dad died of the complications of this disease a few months before I got the tests. Admittedly, I was dreading but was almost certain what the results would be. I knew I was going to have the same disease, and it was only a matter of time. After all, I learned in medical school that this type of disease runs strongly in families. If your parents have it, you are most likely to have it too.
“Your Genes are your destiny” was what I thought.
My Dad’s death was the very reason I took the tests. Just to get the confirmation. To put it out there!
He was diagnosed of this disease when he was in his 30’s. From the time of his diagnosis until his death 4 decades later, he had been a “good” patient who complied religiously with his maintenance medications. He was on insulin and other pharma meds to lower his blood sugar until his death.
He lived what we then thought was a “healthy lifestyle”. He did not smoke and would only drink a glass of wine occasionally. He followed the nutrition advice that he was given, he hardly stayed up late at night. He did not have an exercise routine but walked as much as he could.
Despite all these, his blood sugar only went higher as the decades passed and so did the dosages of his maintenance medications.
He was a very hardworking person and worked until the day he died. However, years before he died, he had already complained of significant decline of energy, weakness, brain fog, joint pains, tingling and numbness of his distal extremities. He had many bouts of low blood sugar, at certain times, the levels got too low to warrant hospitalization.
To me, the irony was, despite compliance to all the modern and expensive medications, his blood sugar was never really controlled and would rise and fall drastically. Obviously, he was never cured of this disease, and in the end, he succumbed to a heart attack or to very low blood sugar in his sleep, most likely a complication of either his disease or medications or both.
The greater irony was, I finally confirmed that I had the same disease for which I would have to take the same treatments my Dad was given. I was destined to follow my Father’s path. BTW, I also found out that I had the chronic diseases of my mother as well. More about this on a previous blog post
To have a chronic, progressive and lingering diseases for which I would have to take medications for a lifetime; medications which were not going to cure me anyway and which in the end, I may still have disability or die prematurely.
Very, very, Scary thought.
What I find fascinating about Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 is despite the funding of big pharmaceutical businesses, and the extensive researches being conducted, there is still no CURE available in the medication arsenal of Conventional Medicine.
Another fascinating thing is the number of people in the world who have this disease, now numbering more than 400 million worldwide and the number of people who have died directly because of it, more than 4 million worldwide.
Another Fascinating thing about it is, once you have Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, you are more likely to develop other chronic diseases as well. I will write more about this in subsequent posts.
So is there really NO CURE?
I took to the internet to gather as much information as I could outside of Conventional Medicine. I found many but got confused in the sea of information.
Somewhere in between, LIFESTYLE factors have been brought up as a way to get cured. But which lifestyle?
I found conflicting, confusing and oftentimes biased answers.
Providentially, my husband and I were both introduced to a wellness project that introduced us to a new paradigm of thinking. It led us to new information that challenged what we thought we knew.
I became very interested in this wellness project because I finally found in it a possibility of complete cure from the disease without resorting to pharma medications or insulin injections. Finally, there was this possibility that I would not have to be in the same illness path as my Dad!
After that, I decided to join the wellness project that primarily focused on the RIGHT lifestyle habits, and support of a community of wellness seekers like myself. I learned that some of the lifestyle factors that my Dad practiced did not support improvement of his disease. On the contrary, some of them, nutrition in particular, served to worsen his disease.
Amazingly, it did not take long for me to achieve the results I wanted. I was able to reverse my diabetes in less than 6 months!!! Side benefit is I also lost a lot of excess fat and weight, and felt much more energetic.
My most important takeaway after having done the project — contrary to what I thought before:
My Genes do not have to be My Destiny! Genes are but tendencies.
I learned There is another factor far more powerful than Genetics. It is the day to day habits we have –the lifestyle we live. This is why Lifestyle is known as Epigenetics. Which literally means, lifestyle is ABOVE genetics.
What is even more powerful is this: The concept stated above is not true only for Type 2 Diabetes, but for most other chronic diseases.
Chronic diseases for the most part are LIFESTYLE DISEASES! Therefore, the CURE is found in the RIGHT Lifestyle as well.
True enough, fast forward to this day, I have maintained normal blood sugar, HbA1C and weight by consistently maintaining the Lifestyle I have developed with the project 5 years ago.
Today, I am passionate about sharing this project to others who are like my Dad and myself.
I am passionate about finding other wellness seekers who want to protect themselves from the curse of family history of Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 and other chronic diseases.
That there be less tragic stories like my Dad’s and more of transformation stories like mine today and in the future, is what I truly desire.
That is why this blog exists….and this is why for the next few weeks or so…I will be sharing more information to you about Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus! If you have this disease or if any of your loved ones have it, may you get just as fascinated as I have been. For this will lead for you to thirst for more information and eventually take ownership of your disease.
Be safe and well,
