I have been a type II diabetic for around ten years.
I have been on Metformin off and on for years. At one point my doctor had me up to 2000 mg per day. Early on the Metformin seemed to work, but as the years have gone by I realized it does nothing for me. If I stay on a strict diet I can keep the blood sugar down somewhat but not into what the medical industry says is an acceptable level.
I have my A1C tested on a fairly regular basis and with a controlled diet I am usually around a 7. On a daily basis my blood sugar can fluctuate between high 130s all the way up to 190 when I’ve been bad. One day of going nuts skyrockets the fasting blood sugar the next morning.
About four weeks ago I started on the carnivore diet, and even with that I was still popping a fasting blood sugar in the 140 to 160 range on many days.
I started researching on nitrogen oxide’s affects on the body, and during that research came upon a video about iodine and its affects on the body. I decided to start taking iodine to see what it would do. Mind you I was not looking for something to combat the diabetes.
However, within about three days the fasting blood sugar was going down. At about one week I couldn’t explain why that was happening because I wasn’t necessarily sticking to my carnivore diet strictly, and I would usually see a large spike when I had been bad. Those large spikes were not happening.
I sat down and started contemplating what had changed. The only thing that changed was that I had started taking four drops of iodine daily. I have come to the conclusion that my insulin resistant diabetes is the result of an iodine deficiency. I still try to watch my diet, but I have had about three days that I knew I had gone overboard, and yet the highest fasting blood sugar I have popped is 130. For me that is a nothing burger. I am also off the worthless Metformin.
I have since learned that because of the depletion of iodine in our soils 80 to 85 percent of the US is iodine deficient. If you are Type II Diabetic due to insulin resistance iodine would be worth a try in my opinion. You have nothing to lose by giving it a shot. The iodine I am taking is one of the Lugol's 2% solution brands. I have read the Nascent Iodine is a better option, and I have some coming but have not tried the ionized version yet.
I hope this can help some of those in the community. If you give this a try and works or doesn't work for you let us know.
I wrote several papers about the keto diet in college. The gist of it all is that all carbs (no matter the source outside of fiber and sugar alcohols, of course) are converted into sugar during digestion. Some break down more rapidly than others causing a rapid increase in blood sugar levels followed by a rapid increase in insulin as a response. Some break down much slower causing a gradual increase in blood sugar with a gradual insulin response.
Causing a sharp raise in blood sugar/insulin response repeatedly over time is what leads to insulin resistance and subsequently type 2 diabetes if nothing changes. Over time, your body has to produce and release an increasing amount of insulin in order for it to have the same effect that a little bit used to. Eventually, this wears out your pancreas and it becomes unable to continue producing insulin.
Your body breaks down carbs first, converts them to glycogen, and uses it to repair your body as well as replacing depleted energy that was stored in your body. Whatever is leftover is then stored inside of your fat cells for use later. If you're constantly consuming large amounts of carbs and fat, then the leftover carbs, protein, and fat all get stored in your fat cells for later.
The ketogenic diet reverses this. The carnivore diet would be a form of ketogenic diet. It doesn't happen immediately, just like getting to where you are didn't happen immediately. A doctor in the 1910s to 1920s stumbled upon it when trying to come up with a way to help his patients with epilepsy. He found that a fast followed by a carb restricted diet either reduced the frequency of seizures or eliminated them altogether. It wasn't until many years later that the weight loss effect became known.
Carbs are inflammatory and cause many health issues. The tin foil hat version of history points towards the 50s and 60s as the turning point in history leading to the obesity epidemic seen today. What changed? A congressional committee was looking into why so many of their colleagues were starting to have heart attacks. Using bad science (or purposefully bad science), fat was given the blame.
What was the recommended diet after that study? Think about the food pyramid introduced in the early 90s. Their recommendations were for a little bit of fat, moderate protein, and a heavy dose of oats and other carbs as the majority. Remember, all carbs except fiber and sugar alcohols are turned into sugar inside of your body. Does fat make you fat? Nope. Carbs do. The pyramid is upside down from what it should be.
Think about all of the diseases that are increasingly seeing record numbers since then. What changed? We replaced fat with sugar. What does cancer love? Sugar.
If you want to reverse type 2 diabetes/pre-diabetes and lose a massive amount of body fat and keep it off, then follow a keto diet. 50g or less of carbs per day, moderate protein, and as much fat (preferably good fats) as you can stomach. As long as you limit your carbs (I do 20-30 per day), get some protein and enough fat, calories won't matter so much. Your body will stop using sugar for fuel and begin breaking body fat down into ketones for fuel. Your body will break down its fat stores, and your fat cells will shrink as a result. You won't get sugar highs and crashes. Your labs will improve drastically. You'll feel the best you ever have once the sugar withdrawals subside.
As a side note, type 1 diabetics shouldn't do this at all. Following a keto diet will lead to a fatal condition for type 1 diabetics called ketoacidosis, though I'm sure you all are already aware of that.
This is as brief as possible of an overview of keto as well as the obesity epidemic. It goes much deeper if you're interested in learning more about it. I'm super ADD, so hopefully I wasn't all over the place 😁
^ Adding to this:
Correct.
More specifically, the congressional committee was headed by Sen. George McGovern, who was a vegetarian.
Most of the experts the committee heard from said fat is NOT the problem, but carbs ARE the problem.
McGovern ignored them, and the result was the inverted food pyramid (you should invert it and do the opposite of what it suggests).
But before McGovern ...
Was in the 1950's, a man named Ancel Keys. Perhaps one of the most disgusting and dishonest people who ever lived.
He claimed to have done a study called the "7 Country Study" (or 6 countries, depending on if you count England and Wales as 1 or 2).
He claimed to show that there was a direct correlation between high fat consumption and high heart disease/heart attacks in a country.
This was the 50's. There were only 3 TV stations, all in NYC. He went on all the TV shows and pushed his narrative.
Americans suddenly became afraid of fat and started eating more carbs and fake foods (margarine instead of butter, etc. -- margarine is made from plant oils, not animal fats).
BUT ... Ancel Keys lied. He actually studied 22 countries, and cherry picked just a few to show his correlation. When other researchers noticed this, they called him out and showed that there was actually no correlation at all between eating saturated fat and heart disease.
But there IS a strong correlation between eating sugar and heart disease, and smoking (a big thing in the 50's) and heart disease.
We learned later than Ancel Keys was funded by Rockefeller.
He was also funded by the sugar industry -- documents have since surfaced proving this.
Ancel Keys was also the one who came up with the Mediterreanan Diet. He pushed it has a great diet because he took a vacation to Italy and thought everyone looked good. No other reason. No research at all!
Finally, guess who came up with the Daily Recommended Allowances for the various vitamins and minerals?
Ancel Keys.
Even today, his false ideas are taught as gospel in medical schools, which is a primary reason why medical school graduates become doctors who have no clue at all about the connection between nutrition and health (or sickness).
Protip to others: New to keto? You need lots of water and you'll probably be pissing every 2-3 hours if not more. Also fun side effect: Less pooping + cleaner pooping! * YMMV
Yep keto is an electrolyte balance diet.