What is Diabetes mellitus? High level of sugar detected in a blood test.

If you have any of these symptoms, you may have diabetes: Excessive thirst, frequent urination, intense hunger, a pot belly, unexplained weight gain or weight loss, tingling sensation or numbness in hands or feet, lethargy and fatigue in daily activities. Incidentally detected fatty liver, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are companion diseases of diabetes. 

What causes diabetes?
The common notion is that diabetes runs in families- if your parents had it, you have a high risk of getting it. The blame is conveniently put on the genes running in the family.

The real cause of diabetes: Diabetes is of two types-
Type 1 DM is an autoimmune disease that manifests in first two decades of life and has a strong genetic predisposition.
Type 2 DM is the prevalent form in the society seen after the age of 35-40. This is a lifestyle disorder caused due to overeating, unhealthy food choices, poor lifestyle and sedentary behaviour. Yes, genetics play a minor role in increasing the risk but food and lifestyle choices are the key factors which decide your blood sugar levels. It often runs in members of the same family because they have similar eating patterns and food choices.
Complications of diabetes: Uncontrolled blood sugar over long period of time can affect multiple organ systems. It can damage the nerves causing loss of sensations or neuropathy in limbs and gut, cause frequent infections, non-healing ulcers, loss of vision due to retinal damage, early cataract, increase the risk heart attack and high blood pressure, stroke, fatty liver, cirrhosis, obesity, kidney disease and even cancer.
Can diabetes be reversed? Yes!

Treatment of diabetes: There are two ways to manage high blood sugar.
1. Modern medicine uses drugs and insulin injections which keep the sugar levels within normal range on test reports. However, the number and dose of medication keeps increasing, adding to insulin injections in few years. It does not halt the disease progression and ultimately one lands up with one or more complications of diabetes in few years.
2. Second way is to reverse the condition naturally with correct food and lifestyle choices. This targets the root cause, stops disease progression and helps getting off medication. 

To reverse diabetes naturally let’s first understand how sugar is digested in the body.
Food you eat is converted to sugar which is absorbed in the blood as glucose.
This signals the release of insulin hormone from pancreas. Insulin pushes the blood glucose inside the cells where it is converted to energy. The excess unwanted glucose in blood is converted into fat which is stored as a reserve in the liver and around the belly for future use.

Three important factors which regulate your blood sugar are- What you eat, When you eat & your lifestyle choices!

A. What you eat:
Food devoid of fiber and rich in sugar & carbohydrates causes sharp spikes of blood glucose. This includes processed & packaged foods like cookies, namkeens, chips, breads, bakery products, aerated energy drinks and bottled juices. They are made from refined wheat flour (maida), vegetable seed oils and have high concentration of refined white sugar and preservatives.
Vegetable seed oils are by products of waste seeds and include palmolein oil cotton seed oil, rice bran oil, soyabean oil, canola oil and hydrogenated fats. Not only do these make packaged foods very addictive for the brain but are sources of omega 6 fatty acids that are highly inflammatory for the body. They damage arteries causing high BP, diabetes, high cholesterol, fatty liver, cirrhosis, heart attacks, brain stroke, dementia, autoimmune disease, infertility, cancer and much more.

Next time read the ingredients before you buy a pack of biscuits or chips from the grocery store.

B. When you eat: According to ancient systems of medicine, the digestive fire or ‘Agni’ slows down after sunset. Food eaten late evening takes longer to digest and contributes to high blood glucose. It also weakens the digestive fire overtime which causes accumulation of toxins in the body.
A habit of frequent munching every two hours produces repetitive spikes of glucose and that of insulin in blood. Overtime insulin receptors on cells get saturated and stop responding to it, despite the high insulin levels in blood. Insulin hormone puts the body in storage mode and redirects the excess blood glucose to the fat stores leading to weight gain. This is a state of insulin resistance.
 
Overtime the capacity of pancreas to produce insulin also gets exhausted. At this time, insulin injections are prescribed by doctors to control high blood sugar. As levels of insulin in blood are already high, these injections add fuel to the fire and increase the degree of insulin resistance.
The unwanted glucose floating in the blood damages the end organs like blood vessels of heart, brain, kidneys, eyes, liver and multiple tissues leading to complications of diabetes.

C. Lifestyle choices:
The constant stress of fast paced life, lack of physical activity, sedentary habits, staying awake late at night and inadequate sleep take a toll on the body and mind.

The secret to reverse diabetes:
A. The modern medicine concept: Eat medicines to lower blood sugar and eat food every hour to prevent glucose falling to dangerously low levels. The truth is, the medicines keep increasing over the years, so does the disease and its complications.

B. The concept that really works: Diabetes is a dietary disease; it has to be reversed with right diet and lifestyle choices.

Steps to reverse diabetes:
Step 1: Diet
Eliminate all processed & packaged food, refined white sugar, bottled drinks, juices and refined wheat flour from diet.

Wheat and white rice should be replaced by millets. Millets are fibre rich whole grains replete with macro and micronutrients. They keep you full for a longer time and release glucose in blood stream slowly preventing a sharp spike. Along with millets, diet should include organic, locally grown, seasonal green and coloured vegetables, fruits, legumes, pulses, seeds and nuts like walnuts & almonds.

Refined oils should be replaced with cold pressed mustard oil, sesame oil, coconut oil and desi ghee. These are sources of good fat or omega 3 fatty acids.

Step 2. Practice Intermittent fasting (16:8) everyday with two meals a day. Here eating window lasts for 8 hours during the day, between 9am to 5 pm. Fasting window starts after sunset and lasts for 16 hours overnight. This allows the body to digest all the excess piled up sugar and burn the fat stores. Blood glucose falls and so does the insulin. This helps to slowly reverse insulin resistance and overtime body starts responding to insulin hormone.

Step 3: Water fasting once every week for 24-36 hours helps to burn the stored fat in the liver and the belly. This fat is converted to energy for the body to function during periods of fast, while it detoxifies itself naturally. All the organ systems start repairing themselves.

Longer water fasts upto 5 days observed once every few months bring magical results in diabetes, fatty liver, high BP, cholesterol & obesity as they are branches of the same tree. It is a powerful remedy to reverse any chronic disease.

What can be consumed during a water fast: Water, pinch of salt in lukewarm water, coriander cumin fennel decoction (CCF), herbal decoction (prepared from curry leaves/mint leaves/basil leaves/ cinnamon). Caffeinated drinks like tea, coffee, honey should not be consumed. 
Break your fast with a light easy to digest meal like vegetable soup or millet porridge.
Caution: Diabetics on drugs must monitor their blood sugar levels on the day of fast and modify the dose of medication accordingly, keeping the doctor in loop.

Step 4: Physical activity
Daily practice of Yog asanas and walking helps to boost metabolism and burn all the sugar and fat.
Step 5: As stress has become a constant companion in the modern world, daily practice of Asanas, Yog nidra and Pranayaam help to attain a calm mind.

Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 is a dietary disease and it has to be reversed through right food and lifestyle choices, not through tablets.

Adopt ancient practice of Fasting, whole grains like Millets and practice of Yog asanas- Say goodbye to diabetes! All it takes is discipline of the mind…