Diabetes is a condition in which there is an abnormal response to insulin and/or inadequate insulin production causing high sugar levels.

There are two types of problems in diabetes – insulin insufficiency and insulin resistance. Insulin insufficiency is caused when glucose is present but not enough insulin is produced and the remaining blood sugar is not converted into usable energy.  With insulin resistance, glucose and insulin are both present, however, cells are not replenished with energy because they become coated with fats and toxic waste.

Most diabetes are either type 1 or type 2. In fact, almost 95% of all diabetics are type 2 which is also called adult onset because it usually occurs in adults 40 and up. Type 1 diabetes encompasses the remaining 5%.

 

Common Symptoms of Diabetes

• Frequent urination
• Excessive thirst
• Extreme fatigue
• Blurry vision
• Slow to heal cuts and bruises
• Excessive hunger in spite of eating
• Weight loss – even though you are eating more (type 1)
• Tingling, pain, or numbness in the hands/feet (type 2)

Diabetes Statistics

Here are a few statistics on the impact of diabetes on the population and the financial costs.

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. According to the American Diabetes Association, more than 30 million Americans have diabetes, with someone being diagnosed globally every 21 seconds.¹

84 million Americans have prediabetes and are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. An astounding 90% of those 84 million people are unaware they are prediabetic.¹ That’s one in three American adults.

In 2015, diabetes was the 7th leading cause of death in the United States, with 79,535 deaths. This finding is based on 79,535 death certificates in which diabetes was listed as the underlying cause of death.² It was also listed as any cause of death on 252,806 death certificates in the same year.² Diabetes causes more deaths a year than breast cancer and AIDS combined. Having diabetes nearly doubles your chance of having a heart attack.

Not only does diabetes cost many their lives, it also costs it’s victims an astronomical amount of money.  The total cost of diabetes and prediabetes in the U.S. is $322 billion. The average medical expenditures for people with diagnosed diabetes were about $13,700 per year. About $7,900 of this amount was attributed to diabetes.³

Medical Treatment

Though the medical system considers diabetes an incurable disease, doctors still prescribe oral medications (pills) and insulin to diabetics with no hope of a complete recovery. ¹¹

 

The Cure is in the Cause

In Psalms 42:11, David writes,

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”

Is it possible that instead of seeking the underlying cause of illness in order to cure ourselves, we seek to only remedy the surface discomfort? As David searched his soul, so are we to search ourselves for the root of our physical ailments, trusting God to guide and heal us.  Once we uncover the cause, we are then able to better identify a cure for disease.

When attacked by disease, many will not take the trouble to search out the cause of their illness. Their chief anxiety is to rid themselves of pain and inconvenience…  People need to be taught that drugs do not cure disease. It is true that they sometimes afford present relief, and the patient appears to recover as the result of their use; this is because nature has sufficient vital force to expel the poison and to correct the conditions that caused the disease. Health is recovered in spite of the drug. But in most cases the drug only changes the form and location of the disease. Often the effect of the poison seems to be overcome for a time, but the results remain in the system and work great harm at some later period. ¹²

 

Main Causes of Diabetes

 

Overweight
Fat on the body. In a 2015 study 87.5% of adults with diabetes were overweight or obese.⁴ It is estimated that 90% of type 2 cases could be prevented if people could attain their ideal weight and maintain it. Overeating and weight gain usually create an unhealthy environment for the development of diabetes.
9 out of 10 diabetics are overweight.

Inactivity
40.8% of adults were physically inactive.  Inactive being defined as getting less than 10 minutes a week of moderate or vigorous activity in each of the physical activity categories of work, leisure time, and transportation. ⁴

Sugar
James Anderson, M.D., professor of medicine and clinical nutrition at the College of Medicine, University of Kentucky studied the effects of diet and its effect on blood sugar levels. Dr. Anderson was able to turn lean, healthy young men into mild diabetics in less than two weeks by feeding them a rich, 65 percent fat diet. A similar group, fed a lean 10 percent fat diet plus one pound of sugar per day, did not produce even one diabetic after eleven weeks when the experiment terminated. ¹³

Sugar does indeed wear out our pancreas as time passes.  However, it is not the main cause of diabetes. So what is the primary culprit?

 

Fat – The Real Culprit

Excessive fat in the diet and in the body is to blame for the onset of diabetes.

The leanest beef is 29% fat.  Chicken is 23% fat. Beans are 4% fat.

A 2010 review of all existing studies found that just one 50g serving of processed meat — including bacon, sausages, hot dogs, salami and processed deli meats — per day increases your chance of developing diabetes by 51%.

According to a study published by the American Diabetes Association, people who eat high amounts of animal protein—which is high in saturated fat—are 22 percent more likely to develop diabetes. Another important fact to note is that fatty foods tend to increase blood sugars for people with type 1 diabetes.

Many cross-sectional or case-control studies have compared dietary fat intake of diabetic patients and healthy subjects. In the multinational, multicentre study of the Mediterranean Group for the Study of Diabetes, dietary surveys were conducted in 6 countries. The results showed that recently-diagnosed diabetics had both higher relative intake of total fat and SFA from animal fat sources compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, subjects with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes had significantly higher intake of saturated fat compared with controls. ¹⁴

Fenugreek and Blood Sugar Metabolism

Fenugreek is shown to normalize blood sugar metabolism by modulating the rate of carbohydrate digestion.5 Further research indicates that fenugreek seems to stimulate insulin production and improve blood glucose control.^{6, 7}  In one study, the addition of 15 grams of fenugreek seed powder into a meal consumed by people with type 2 diabetes reduced the postprandial rise in blood sugar.⁸ Further research found that a three-month regimen of 2.5 grams of fenugreek twice a day reduced blood glucose.9 In a double-blind study, 1 gram per day of an extract of fenugreek seeds for two months improved some measures of blood sugar control and insulin function in people with type 2 diabetes.¹⁰

 

Reversing Diabetes

1. Exercise – It is recommended to walk moderately for 30 minutes twice each day and eventually, work your way up to one hour to intensify your results.
2. Drink a Lot of Water – Water dilutes sugar. Upon awakening, drink at least 16_oz. of warm or room temperature water. A diabetic should drink enough water until the urine is clear. (Even if they are urinating excessively). It is best to drink water gradually throughout the day and not all at once.
3. Avoid Refined and Processed Foods – They are usually high in fat and sugar and low in fiber, which are all precursors to high blood sugar levels.
4. Eat More Fiber Rich Foods – 80% vegetables, eat fruits sparingly (starting off with citrus fruits) and whole grains. Fiber stabilizes blood sugar. Try to avoid sweet fruits in the morning and at night.
5. Avoid Cholesterol and High Fat Foods – This includes meat and dairy. This means a full plant based diet is best to reverse high blood sugar. Based on a study published in Diabetes Care, a diet low in saturated fat will improve insulin function.
   A plant based diet is far more reasonable than continuously taking medications, shortening your life span and possibly facing amputation. These are just a few implications of living with diabetes.
6. Fenugreek – Consume fenugreek in powder, tincture or tea form on a daily basis, resting from it one day a week; on Saturday the 7^th day.

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References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2017. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services; 2017
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Underlying Cause of Death 1999–2015. CDC WONDER Database. http://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html. Updated December 2016.
3. American Diabetes Association. Economic costs of diabetes in the U.S. in 2012. Diabetes Care. 2013;36(4):1033–1046. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23468086
4. National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2017
5. Hannan JM, Rokeya B, Faruque O, et al. Effect of soluble dietary fibre fraction of Trigonella foenum graecum on glycemic, insulinemic, lipidemic and platelet aggregation status of Type 2 diabetic model rats. J Ethnopharmacol 2003;88:73-7.
6. Broca C, Manteghetti M, Gross R, et al. 4-Hydroxyisoleucine: effects of synthetic and natural analogues on insulin secretion. Eur J Pharmacol 2000;390:339-45.
7. Madar Z, Abel R, Samish S, Arad J. Glucose-lowering effect of fenugreek in non-insulin dependent diabetics. Eur J Clin Nutr 1988;42:51-4.
8. Bordia A, Verma SK, Srivastava KC. Effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc) and fenugreek (Trigonella foenumgraceum L) on blood lipids, blood sugar, and platelet aggregation in patients with coronary artery disease. Prostagland Leukotrienes Essential Fatty Acids1997;56:379-84.
9. Narsingh Verma, Kauser Usman, Naresh Patel, Arvind Jain, Sudhir Dhakre, Anand Swaroop, Manashi Bagchi, Pawan Kumar, Harry G. Preuss, Debasis Bagchi Food Nutr Res. 2016; 60: 10.3402/fnr.v60.32382.  Published online 2016 Oct 11. doi: 10.3402/fnr.v60.32382
10. Gupta A, Gupta R, Lal B. Effect of Trigonella foenum-graecum (fenugreek) seeds on glycaemic control and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a double blind placebo controlled study. J Assoc Physicians India 2001;49:1057-61.
11. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3830370/
12. Ministry of Healing, pp 126
13. Dynamic Health, pp 51