in today's video we're going to be talking about whether or not you can reverse
type 2 diabetes type 2 diabetes is a condition where your blood sugar levels are always elevated
this is a problem because chronically high blood sugar can cause a long list of other side
effects including nerve damage vision problems and heart disease as of 2019 over 450 million people
have diabetes worldwide with over 90 percent of cases being type 2 diabetes and that number
is expected to reach 700 million by the year 2045. type 2 diabetes is a serious problem
not only for your health but also for our health care system more and more people are
being diagnosed with diabetes every year and we are seeing this disease manifest in people who
are younger and younger type 2 diabetes used to be called adult onset diabetes because it
was only seen in adults that is no longer the case but why are type 2 diabetes rates skyrocketing and
is there anything we can do about it can type 2 diabetes be reversed most people who are diagnosed
with type 2 diabetes are told that it can only be managed and that the disease is progressive
but the truth is is that type 2 diabetes is reversible when you address the root cause
it is entirely possible to lower your fasting blood sugar and there are hundreds of studies
that support this claim with participants being able to get off their diabetes medication entirely
so in today's video we're going to talk about what causes type 2 diabetes and how it can be reversed
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kait i'm a health coach and
i post videos on a high fat nutrient dense way of eating if you like this video please give it
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diabetes and type 2 diabetes specifically has become an epidemic and the reason that
type 2 diabetes is such a concern is because the risk of complications
and developing other diseases is very high type 2 diabetics are at a greater risk of heart disease
liver disease kidney disease nerve damage stroke and more if you have type 2 diabetes
it is really important that you address it before it progresses to these other diseases and if you
are pre-diabetic or insulin resistant you can address it even sooner so we're going to start off
today talking about what causes type 2 diabetes and how to know if you are at risk of developing
it if you haven't already and then we will get into some steps you can take to reverse it what
causes type 2 diabetes as i mentioned earlier type 2 diabetes is characterized by high blood sugar
to be diagnosed you will have to have a fasting blood sugar reading of 7 millimolars per liter
or 126 milligrams per deciliter for reference a normal reading is below 5.6 millimolars per liter
or 99 milligrams per deciliter anything in between is an indicator of pre-diabetes
but what causes blood sugar to rise and stay high and why do we consider type 2 diabetes to be a
progressive disease there are several reasons why your blood sugar might rise acutely and
this is completely normal high intensity exercise stress and certain foods can all cause blood sugar
to rise and when blood sugar goes up our pancreas releases insulin one of the main rules of insulin
is to keep blood sugar within a normal range so our blood sugar goes up insulin is released
and the insulin helps to shuttle the excess sugar to our cells where it is used for energy
like i said this is all completely normal there is nothing wrong with blood sugar rising acutely
but where it starts to become a problem is when blood sugar is constantly being spiked up when
blood sugar is always high the pancreas is constantly pumping out insulin and in a
healthy individual the excess insulin is enough to deal with the excess blood sugar so fasting
blood sugar levels remain within the normal range while insulin is elevated but here's the thing
long before you become diabetic you will become insulin resistant insulin resistance precedes
type 2 diabetes by on average up to 15 years so diagnosing and addressing insulin resistance
can stop it from ever leading to type 2 diabetes yes you heard that right if you do not address
insulin resistance it will eventually progress to type 2 diabetes when insulin is high for
long periods of time our cells start to become resistant to it they start to become less and
less responsive to the signals of insulin which means they are accepting less and less blood sugar
and there comes a point where the cells in our body become so resistant that the excess insulin
being pumped out is no longer enough to manage blood sugar and this is when we will start to
see our fasting blood sugar levels elevate and we will be diagnosed with either pre-diabetes
or type 2 diabetes so if we know that we are insulin resistant we can stop it before
it ever gets to this point the problem is is that physicians do not routinely check
insulin levels they routinely check blood sugar levels but as i already mentioned blood sugar
levels can remain normal even if someone has high insulin and is insulin resistant some of
the signs of insulin resistance include difficulty losing weight skin tags and excess abdominal fat
if you suspect you might be insulin resistant ask your doctor for a homa ir test this will test both
fasting blood sugar and fasting insulin and let you know if you are insulin resistant okay so
this is all great but what causes blood sugar and insulin to be elevated in the first place
well as i already mentioned several factors can impact our blood sugar levels but really the
most important one that we need to focus on in the context of reversing type 2 diabetes is the
foods we are eating our modern diets are loaded with foods that raise blood sugar significantly
the worst offenders are processed food and drinks these foods are refined sources of carbohydrates
and these raise blood sugar levels significantly and quickly and we are all eating so frequently
we are constantly snacking on these foods between meals or grabbing a drink from starbucks and this
means that our blood sugar levels and our insulin never have a chance to come back down to baseline
during the day and when we look at what diabetes medications are designed to do
they are designed to lower blood sugar so if there were other things you could do
besides medication to lower your blood sugar wouldn't you do them and that brings us to our
final topic for today and what you probably came to this video for how to reverse type 2
diabetes as we have already discussed the root cause of type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance
when our cells resist insulin our insulin levels remain high and this will eventually
lead to high blood sugar and type 2 diabetes so by addressing insulin resistance you can both prevent
and reverse diabetes but how do you do this really the goal here is to keep blood sugar levels low
and stable by doing this you reduce the amount of insulin your body needs and this means both
the insulin your body is making as well as any insulin medication now i want to make a quick
note here because yes if you follow the steps i am about to outline your need for diabetes medication
will reduce significantly and yes this is a good thing but because your need for these medications
will reduce so rapidly if you continue to take them in the same amounts that could be dangerous
so it is really important that you are working closely with your doctor and adjusting your dosage
as needed in one study done on 28 participants with type 2 diabetes who ate a diet aimed at
lowering blood sugar after 16 weeks out of the 28 participants seven were able to discontinue
medication entirely and 10 were able to reduce it the study concluded because this diet can be very
effective at lowering blood glucose patients on diabetes medication who use this diet should be
under close medical supervision or capable of adjusting their medication and this leads me
to my next point the foods that raise blood sugar and that raise insulin the most are carbohydrates
processed carbs are the worst but even whole food carbs can have a significant blood sugar impact
especially since your body is already not managing blood sugar well so eating a low carb diet is
extremely effective for lowering blood sugar and reversing type 2 diabetes and we just saw that
outlined in the previously mentioned study after only 16 weeks almost one-third of participants
were able to get off their medication entirely and these results have been replicated many times
one review paper that looked at 12 randomized control trials wrote dietary carbohydrate
restriction reliably reduces high blood glucose does not require weight loss although it is still
best for weight loss and leads to the reduction or elimination of medication it has never shown side
effects comparable with those seen in many drugs if we can keep blood sugar and insulin levels low
and stable our cells will become more sensitive to insulin again and as the insulin resistance
starts to reverse fasting blood sugar will lower and the need for blood sugar lowering medication
will reduce as well so the moral of the story is yes type 2 diabetes can be reversed and the most
effective way to do this as supported by hundreds of studies is to reduce carbohydrates in your diet
this can mean eating a low carb diet or a very low carb ketogenic diet if you want to know more
about getting started on the keto diet make sure to check out my keto for beginners series that i
released last week anyways guys that's all i have for you today if you did enjoy this video make
sure to give it a thumbs up and comment anything down below and if you are not already subscribed
make sure to do that i upload two videos a week mainly on low carb diets insulin resistance sleep
occasionally some vlogs and some what i eat in a day videos you won't regret subscribing i promise
thank you guys for watching and if you did enjoy this video you might also like my video where i
looked at studies comparing low carb diets to low fat diets in the context of insulin resistance
that video is really interesting you can check that out right here if you want to catch up on
my most recent upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my keto diet and carnivore
diet coaching programs you can find them here thanks again guys i'll see you next time bye