Sumeet: We got a question right now from Sarah in New Jersey. She says, “Is there a way to you know reduce or improve the levels of insulin naturally? Can anything be done? So once you have Diabetes and you know you are your pancreas is not producing insulin at an optimal level, is there a way to turn that around? Is there a way to do something to help pancreas?

Edward: There are some medicines that are actually, medications that are designed to actually help your pancreas put out there more insulin in your system. It's by nature it is sending a signal to the pancreas of okay you need to release more insulin. 

Yeah so they do exist they're out there and yes they are also part of the arsenal for people suffering Diabetes yes. 

Sumeet:  Are there natural things that you can do to, or are there natural food or anything in at home that you can do to control diabetes or you know slow it down? Is there something that we can do at home? Like let's say if someone is diagnosed with prediabetes or let's say even yeah let's say prediabetes. So what should the person be doing? 

Edward: Well to begin with the most common topic that you would hear from your doctor is of course increase your physical activity. Physical activity actually burns calories and glucose in your system actually is the fuel for your cells to operate. So, the more fuel you're spending the less glucose will be circulating in your blood. So physical activity is always a good idea. 

Limiting the intake of high calorie meals also has a great impact on the amount of glucose that you produce you know after you ingest them. And basically yes it's always about making some lifestyle changes that allow you to have better control of it. 

Sumeet: Got it. So basically you're saying ultimately it boils down to how you can improve your life overall in general to control it. But is there a way to reverse it? Is there a way because a lot of people search about it that hey, can Type 2 Diabetes be reversed? 

Edward: To this point there may be a chance. Of course it is a case by case situation. Prediabetes can be reversed to begin with if you're not diabetic. So that means that you can do something to control the amount of glucose in free glucose that floating in your system. Once you're diabetic that means that the metabolic disorder has already occurred.

There is a chance that may be reversed. There is a better chance that can be effectively controlled and therefore you can live a more or less normal life. I'm sure that some people, I mean there are some success stories out there from people who were insulin dependent diabetics and after observing lifestyle changes, feeding habits and staying away from high calorie foods, they have stopped taking insulin altogether. 

So I don't think I'm not sure we can call that cured because that means that if they fall back into their old habits they may develop again. But it may be reversed to a point where you don't need to get insulin to live your life more normally. 

Sumeet: Okay so basically you control a lot of these factors that are controllable and see if it can improve things right? 

Edward: Of course yeah of course I would not advise to do that on your own with your doctor of course but if you can observe those changes and then under the supervision of your physician, we have seen cases where the physician actually gives a green light for a patient to stop taking diabetes medications because they seem to be okay. 

Sumeet: Oh wow so very very interesting right I mean if someone can get to that level that would be awesome. One of the questions that was asked when we said, hey you know we tried to inform people that hey you can actually submit your questions and one of the questions that was asked was, are there certain kind of food that you should be avoiding completely? What kind of vegetables or fruits that you should be avoiding when it comes to Diabetes? 

Edward: Yeah of course when when you're diabetic that means that you have you're prone to absorb more calories or more carbohydrates than usual or you are prone to actually not being able to put the calories that go into your system. So it is always advisable to not consume any high sugar meals. Speaking of fruits for example fructose yes there are some sugars that are better than others in terms of you know health for health purposes. 

So fructose which is the sugar that is present in fruits, yes I think it's probably the better of them but not necessarily the best for diabetics. So yes, you got to make sure that you are going to consume fruits that are not high calorie fruits not high sugar fruit. So you need to avoid anything that is sweet to in order for you to get a better control of your sugar levels yes. 

Sumeet: So it's not that if you go all natural it helps your body it's basically you have to really look at sugar even in the natural things right. So for example I was told a long time ago that,  hey switch from sugar to honey and that will help you with your blood sugar blood glucose level which is not correct right because honey is again sweet. 

Edward: Yes well it has to do with the complexity of the sugars that you are eating. So there are sugars that are more dangerous or sweeteners are more dangerous than regular sugar and for example the problem right nowadays is in this industrialized environment nowadays,  there's a lot of processed foods that contain edulcorant sugars that may not be the best suit for you. So we're talking about high fructose syrups that are super they are not expensive they give you good you know good flavoring give you the sweet flavor to it and who doesn't like sugar I mean it's actually sugar it says there is more addictive than cocaine you know there's a study some that was published a few years back and so sugar may be addictive and the more sugar you get the more sugar you want.

So if you eat high sugar high sugar content food there is a chance that down the road if you're not careful and you're not active enough and you have the genetic predisposition to it,  you may develop diabetes. 

Sumeet: Right yeah I mean processed food is is very very dangerous from what I've heard is because they can hide sugar in different ways that you won't even know that is the one of the seven process food, refined food, refined sugars, because I believe what they do is you know the term that you use is very interesting, it's a complex complexity of the sugar that you're consuming. 

When you are having refined that white sugar I read that you basically are making it highly available to your body that means you consume that white sugar and it just transforms into glucose, floods your body with glucose immediately. Is that correct?

Edward: Yeah the problem with refined sugar, refined anything, it is basically brought down to the basic component of it. So sugar just refined sugar is just sugar, just a carbohydrate versus when you have the sugarcane you know the other the brown sugar when it's not refined it does contain sugar yes indeed but it also has some minerals in there some other nutrients that came with the sugarcane juice that it was brought on. So you do get some nutrients out of that one. 

So if you're going to take sugar I think it's best if you do it on refined sugar brown sugar if you must. But that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't give you permission to eat a lot of that because it's more nutrient laden than just refined sugar. 

Sumeet: Got it got it makes sense.

If you missed Sumeet and Edward's discussion on Diabetes Management, you can still watch The CoBionic Talk Show full episode here  -->  https://www.facebook.com/cobionic/videos/191289390570220