Diabetes Reversal Program

Diabetes Reversal Program (DRP) or Safe Diabetes Management Program (SDM) is an intelligent blend of treatment that influences increasing natural insulin secretion, combined with the lifestyle modification programs after risk analysis under the guidance of the integrated team of doctors and specialist such as physician / Diabetologist, Functional Medicine expert, an Ayurveda physician, Naturopathist and a therapeutic yoga specialist. Role of each disciplinary may vary. However, a careful scientific blend of each of them, contributes to the effective design of the program, which is tailor made to your body (please note, the root cause and etiology of disease may vary from person to person).

Each diabetic individual is evaluated and monitored for appropriate personalized diet, which addresses nutrient deficiencies, removal of toxins (detoxification) and encourages overall metabolic corrections. Focusis also on mechanical and physiological corrections through therapy yoga and stress/ emotional management, along with options to administer various noninvasive pancreas and abdominal stimulating Ayurveda and hydro therapies. This helps to reduce stress/fat/other associated symptoms, which synergistically help in reducing blood sugar. In some, reduction is drastic in a short period, while in other sit is gradual or slow. The combined positive impact of these interventions help our Physician/Diabetologist to gradually taper down the dosage of medicine, thereby reducing the dependency of medicine, after careful evaluation,screening and risk analysis methods followed scientifically.

After the program, we also ensure the individual follows healthy lifestyle pattern as per the guided principles that the team follows and regularly monitors blood sugar levels, HbA1c and other blood parameters based on the stage of diabetes

What is Diabetes Reversal Program?

Diabetic Reversal Program (DRP) is the idea of reversing the basic pathophysiological mechanism of Diabetes Mellitus by combining the strengths of various treatment protocols of different medical disciplinary in order to address the root cause, reduce the symptoms and improve the overall health parameters. The focus at WELLBEEING is on correcting the imbalances that are caused in the body due to disease progression

Diabetic control vs Diabetes reversal – the science behind it

In normal physiology, insulin is primarily released in response to elevated blood sugar. The goal of diabetes treatment is to control blood sugar – it is very toxic to the body at high levels. In the case of type 1 diabetes, blood sugar control is through insulin replacement & carbohydrate control. For type 2 diabetics, the goal is to control blood sugar by decreasing carbohydrate intake and increasing the effectiveness of insulin or to increase the volume of insulin.

However, one of the most reliable parameter to check the progression of the disease is HbA1c (which represents an ‘average’ of the blood sugar over a 90-120 day period)

Diabetes control:

The problem is most people think that the way to improve this number is by increasing the dose or number of medications, adding insulin, or increasing the amount of insulin. Many researches have proven that Diabetes will not improve by adding more medications. It won’t improve by adding insulin (Ref: The New England Journal of Medicine: Effects of Intensive Glucose Lowering in Type 2 Diabetes | NEJM)). These methods only improve the symptoms associated with diabetes (blood sugar levels, HbA1c, etc.) but do not improve the disease process or progression of disease

Diabetes reversal:

The only way to improve your diabetes is to decrease the need for insulin and to make the insulin you have more efficient. This is accomplished by controlling carbohydrate intake (balancing the ratio of carbs, protein and fat intake), increasing the efficiency of insulin, increasing the efficiency of the pancreas, and optimizing the endocrine systems that help regulate blood sugar. However, we do not advise on sudden removal of medicine intake in case of chronic diabetic patients. A gradual tapering down of medicine, as we track and reduce the disease progression, address the root cause and thereby reduce long-term risk.

Benefits of Integrative & Functional Medicine approach in Diabetes (Type 2)

Life style Disorder take long time to cure the disease and body to become healthy. WELLBEEING offers synergetic treatment benefits of diabetic individuals by various personalized programs, which helps in

• Correcting the root causes – both insulin resistance or insulin synthesis (more trials undertaken by IIMF-Institute of Integrative Medicine Foundation)
• Correcting Daily food and exercise habit
• Guiding individualsto continue healthy discipline of lifestyle life-long (refer our annual support programs)
• Removal of toxins from the body
• Addressing the micronutrient deficiency and gut health (correcting metabolic deficiencies by creating an environment for better digestion, metabolic correction and assimilation)
• Avoiding or reducing further complications of the diseases such as eye & vision problems, kidney issues, heart problems, vascular problems, nerve damage, impaired immunity, etc.
• Building the confidence in diabetic patient instead of victimizing themselves
• Avoiding the economical burden of long term medicines and hospitalization
• Protecting long term health
• Reduce the antidiabetic medicine dosage or stopping the medicines over a period of time under the guidance of a Diabetologist / Physician
• Avoiding the side effects of long-term medications
• Helping reduce the progression of the disease
• Increased microcirculation improves rejuvenating the cells, builds healthy body and skin
• Reduces the overall aging process and improves the quality of life

Many of the diabetic individuals who have undergone the program have conveyed benefitssuch as reduced stress levels, reduced fatigue, increased productivity due to increased energy levels, enhanced skin glow and reduced drooping)

All you wanted to know about Diabetes Reversal program

What is Diabetic Reversal? (Reverse Diabetes)

Reverse diabetes is an integrated medical program comprising of a unique blend of conventional and complementary (alternative) medicine approach. The program essentially empowers the patient with an opportunity to reverse the progression of diabetes and therefore restore normal health. It prevents long term risk, organ failures, emergencies and hospitalization. It reduces long term dependency on medicine, enhances quality of living and aging process.

Why should one take up Diabetes Reversal?

Inevitably being on a medication for Diabetes and not addressing the root cause leads to both increased dependency on medication and complications on the long term. By taking up the program, the customer can achieve the following

• Reduce dependency and dosage of medication
• Avoids the adverse effects of uncontrolled blood glucose level on vital organs (kidney, liver, brain, heart, eyes and nerves)
• The need for medication could be avoided in recently diagnosed diabetics in the program
• For those at risk of diabetic or pre diabetic phase, the program can prevent the progression to diabetes.

Who is this program for?

This diabetes management or Diabetes Reversal Program is specially designed for you, if

• you have been diagnosed with diabetes recently or have it for few or many years
• you have type 2 diabetes (type 1 can be managed)
• you have been taking tablets for years or on insulin
• you are of any age, from 10 to 100 years
• you are an executive, student, home maker or a senior citizen

Is this a new concept in India?

While diabetic reversal has been attempted independently by various alternative medical systems, integrated approach is ideal as it will have more objective influence on addressing the root cause and restoration of long-term health. Integrated medical programs have been designed and practiced in other parts of the world (North America, Europe, Australia) in the recent past with significant success rates in reversing the disease process. WELLBEEING’s diabetic reversal program is a unique program involving multi-disciplinarians, evaluated and practiced scientifically over many years now.

Who should consider Diabetic Reversal program?

The program has been found to be beneficial across the entire spectrum of diabetics - those with early diabetes, long term diabetes and severe uncontrolled diabetes. Preventive Diabetic program is designed for those who have a high score on risk (both genetic and lifestyle related) for avoiding the onset of diabetes.

How long the whole process will take place?

It is a minimum of one month, 60 days, 90 days, 120 or 150 days program based on the stage and severity of risk of diabetes, which essentially is a passport to trigger the reversal process. Post this duration of treatment plan or program, an annual supervised follow up program is offered under the guidance of a qualified doctors; Therefore, providing an opportunity for diabetics to adopt a well-informed, fear-less and quality living. The reversal program is customized, personalized to each diabetic person based on the duration and severity of the diabetes. However, the tapering down of the medication may vary from person to person.

How can Diabetes be reversed?

A person becomes diabetic when his cells in the body require more insulin than normal in order to transport the sugar from the blood into the cells. This is commonly referred to as ‘insulin resistance’. This problem is caused due to lifestyle factors (lack of physical activity, wrong food habits and stress). Reversal of diabetes is therefore possible only by correcting these causative factors rather than lowering blood sugar alone.

The conventional allopathy medication most often help correcting the blood sugar alone (only a symptom) but not addressing the root causes, which is insulin resistance. Therefore leading to increased dependency on the medication as diabetes progress, and eventually postponing the risk (effect of increased sugar level on the vital organs).

Integrative Medicine approach at WELLBEEING on the other hand addresses both correction of the symptom (sugar level) and the root cause (insulin resistance). This approach therefore enables reversal of the disease process itself.

What is done at WELLBEEING?

A visit to WELLBEEING will help to understand all your and your family’s health concerns. WELLBEEING is an organization that has established the reversal of diseases like Diabetes in over 500 cases. Similarly over 2000 cases of many other disorders like hypertension, thyroid, back pain, de addiction, PCOD, infertility, neurological disorders, joint disorders, etc.

You could visit WELLBEEING center or book our on-line program. Our Wellness Advisor will help you explain the reversal process with evidences. You could also visit www.wellbeeing.in for many testimonials of our patients who have availed these services

Compiled by doctors at WELLBEEING Integrated Health Center

Limitations of Conventional approach

Under the conventional system, practitioners wait until people have full-blown type 2 diabetes before initiating treatment. Little is done to alter the course of the disease in the prediabetic stage when the body is more responsive to diet and lifestyle changes.

Diabetes, is a disease of misplaced life style. In spite of medical advancements, lifestyle disorders like Diabetes is still being controlled conventionally with medicines alone, which often addresses the symptoms largely, and not necessarily the root cause. Long-term use of medicine to treat diabetes – type 2 have side effects too. If healthy lifestyle is not managed well with stringent guidance, the dosage of medicine is gradually increased (as the disease progresses) which eventually may lead to increasing the risks of neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy, etc. (organ failure such as failure of functions of kidney, eyes, heart, etc.) there by increasing the risk of hospitalization

Today diabetes affects more than 135 million people worldwide and that number is expected to increase to 300 million by 2025. India has the largest number of Diabetes patient in the world. As per the data published by the International Diabetes Federation in the year 2006, the number of people with type 2 diabetes in India is around 40.9 million and this is expected to rise to 69.9 million by 2025. In India, about 10% elderly people aged 65 or more are suffering from diabetes.

Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, or diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease that affects your body's ability to produce or use insulin characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which leads to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves in long run.

Types of Diabetes: 2 types

Type 1 Diabetes/INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETES Type 1 diabetes beginsin childhood, is an autoimmune condition. It happens when the organ is damaged and doesn't make insulin or problems with cellsin your pancreasthat make insulin.

Type 2 Diabetes/ INSULIN INDEPENDENT DIABETES Either insulin not enough or your body doesn’t use it like it should. That stimulates your pancreas to produce more insulin until it can no longer keep up with demand. Insulin production decreases, which leads to high blood sugar.

Causes:

• Overweight and obesity
• Not being physically active
• Insulin resistance
• Genes
• Eating a lot of foods or drinks with sugar and simple carbohydrates
• Artificial sweeteners (sugar free sodas, sugar free foods) intake
• Stress and stress hormones

• Increased thirst
• Frequent urination
• Extreme hunger
• Unexplained weight loss
• Presence of ketones in the urine (ketones are a byproduct of the breakdown of muscle and fat that happens when there's not enough available insulin)
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Blurred vision
• Slow-healing sores
• Frequent infections, such as gums or skin infections and vaginal infections

Functional medicine is a science-based approach to preventing and treating diabetes that is focused on diet and lifestyle changes, and is the most effective first-line strategy for managing type 2 diabetes. It is an effective way to prevent, treat and manage type 2 diabetes

Control Carbohydrate and need to change the quality of carbs after determining which carbs work for you, based on your ethnicity, nature of your body and your eating habits.

Follow Ketogenic diet that causes the body to rely on fatty acids and ketones for fuel, rather than glucose. A ketogenic diet has been found to improve HbA1c, promote weight loss, reverse kidney damage, and improve blood lipids and cardiovascular health in type 2 diabetics.

Getting rid of Gluten in type 2 diabetes increases the functional capacity of beta cells, the pancreatic cells responsible for making insulin, and improves glucose tolerance. Gluten increases intestinal permeability, causing leaky gut and systemic inflammation;

Eating more protein improves blood sugar control and satiety (the feeling of fullness)

Specific food intake: There are specific functional foods for diabetes which the nature has given us with plentiful variety that help in treating diabetes proving that food can indeed serve as medicine. Our doctors will recommend these after screening and identifying the deficiencies and examining the gut health.

Improving gut health: Several prebiotics and probiotics have been investigated for their gut health-promoting, antidiabetic effects:

Other corrections: Further, guidance on exercise(sedentary lifestyle is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes) with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) being the central part of treatment plan, circadian rhythm-normalizing tips to enhance sleep quality, good breathing exercise and meditation and yoga are simple and effective for alleviating stress.

Avoid Environmental Toxins: Accumulating evidence suggests that BPA, phthalates, and persistent organic pollutants contribute to diabetes, which is why it makes sense to reduce your exposure.

Diabetes is Ayurveda known as ‘Madhumeha’ considers its treatment in 3 stages: Early, Acute & Chronic stage. Ayurveda being science of balance, for maintaining metabolic balance, Ayurveda recommends that 1//3 rd of the stomach should be for food, 1/3 rd for water and the remaining 1/3 rd for empty promoting caloric control to prevent obesity and host of complications as a result of it. The recommendation for food consumption is to eat only when one feels hungry, preferably 2 meals a day without snacking in between.

In every aspect of Ayurveda treatment, first approach will be stopping the causes of the diseases. i.e consumption of unwholesome food is another factor contributing to the insulin- dependent diabetes. Excess consumption of wholesome food or little consumption of unwholesome food, both are as bad. Lack of exercise or movement / sedentary lifestyle, over sleeping, lack of cleanliness / hygiene, suppression of natural urges are some of the serious contributors of Diabetes in adults (imbalance in lifestyle habits). Emotions, being psychophysiological phenomenon leads to neuroendocrinal changes affects the autoimmune response (through adrenalin and glucocorticoids) which results in hypo/hyper glycemic conditions.

Management approaches in Diabetes in Ayurveda is of 2 ways.

A. Prevention: Food, lifestyle change, and therapies that avoids and restricts to control the Glycemic variations

B. Medical management: includes avoidance of aetiological factors (Nidana parivarjana) by avoiding certain type of food. Depending on the patient – obese or lean, specific type of elimination therapies (Samshodhana chikitsa) or Palliative therapies (Shamana chikitsa) are considered. In some symptoms of Diabetes like tiredness, body ache, reduced sleep etc. few external therapies like therapy body treatment (Abhyanga), (Pouring of warm oil to the forehead to stimulate neuroendocrine glands (Dhara) etc. are considered.

Drug therapy - In Ayurveda most of the drugs indicated in diabetes mellitus may act on beta cell of pancreas thus improve insulin production/ increase insulin sensitivity. The following drugs/ formulations are useful to control type II diabetes mellitus. In case of type I diabetes mellitus, these drugs/ formulations may be used as a supportive therapy in addition to conventional insulin therapy to prevent long term complications

The role of naturopathy is to correct the body’s imbalances, by developing more healthy dietary and lifestyle regime, we can reestablish the status of health. The body’s natural healing mechanism can be strengthened and stimulated by using specific exercises like yoga, food and diet, acupuncture and other therapeutic approaches.

Naturopathic approach revolves around the theory of vitality and the cascade of changes occurring in the body in the form of reduced elimination, assimilation and absorption, which greatly influences homeostasis in the body. We focus on a holistic remedy with an understanding that stress (physical /mental), poor dietary habits, lack of physical activity, environmental causes are responsible for the whole physiological disarray. An altered microbial environment within the gut can trigger beta cell destruction in Diabetes. Naturopathic interventions include fasting and diet therapy, intended to bring about both physiological and psychological wellbeing, which is majorly altered in diabetic patients. Paleolithic diet, vegan diet, avoidance of emotional eating and select hydrotherapies and relaxation therapies (eg: massage therapy reduces anxiety levels, stress, pain, muscle tension and improves glycemic control) helps in the overall physical and mental benefits in diabetic patients

Our doctors will evaluate, guide and monitor the following for you :

• Review food record
• Goal setting (calculate calorie and carbohydrate targets based on your BMI)
• Individualize glucose monitoring plan
• Individualized functional food prescription (handout
• Problem solving: understanding blood sugar highs & lows, effects of stress, managing sick days, etc.
• Revising goals based on BMI changes
• Staying motivated
• Overview of whole food nutrition
• Understanding on the quality of foods: Glycemic Index, types of fats, carbs, wild & organic foods
• Eating behavior presentation and discussion
• Diabetes physiology, staying healthy & avoiding complications

Our diet consultation includes: Macro-nutrient balance, Select low GI carbohydrates by paying attention to fiber and whole foods, Select foods that provide maximal micro-nutrient intake per calorie, Based on individual needs, select foods that have function beyond calorie or nutrients, Learn to select healthy fats.

Yoga reduces Sympatho-adrenal system activity (stress), promotes vagal stimulation (better stress management, improved blood pressure and feeling instantly relaxed) and modulates neuroendocrine response (which helps in modulating certain cells that release hormones into the blood in response to stimulation of the nervous system), which directly or indirectly helps in managing your negative emotions better.

Any chronic disease like diabetes leads to a decrease in quality of life. Poor quality of life may affect compliance with treatment. Researches have shown that practice of comprehensive Yogic breathing program significantly improves physical, psychological, and social domains, and total quality of life, by increasing the feeling of well-being with practice of yoga.

Specific type of Yoga and Pranayams have been found to have a rapid and significantly greater effect on gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (which attributes to body’s immunity). Hence, regular Yoga habit protects immunity, which means protests from viral or bacterial infections and shows longer-term health effects.

Diabetic yoga focuses on specific asanas that helps in diabetic individuals. Randomized controlled studies showed that in a 6-month period, practice of comprehensive yogic breathing had beneficial effects on heart’s health (cardiac autonomic functions) in diabetic patients, compared to those who were on standard therapy alone. Sudden cardiac death in diabetes being quite common, practice of specific yogic breathing program can be useful.

• Yoga also helps in weight loss (weight related to type 2 diabetes) and reduction in waist circumference increasing psychological well-being, compared to those who do walking.
• Mood affects food intake: Depression and/or anxiety are risk factors for the development of diabetes and vice versa. This may occur due to genetic, epigenetic or environmental conditions.
• Regular practice of yoga has been shown to be beneficial in reducing depression and anxiety and therefore may affect diabetes in an indirect manner.
• Many studies have proven the beneficial effect of different methods of yoga on glycemic control and lipid profile in diabetes.
• Leptin (a type of hormone responsible for fat stores and changes in the energy balance) has a pro-inflammatory role while adiponectin (a protein derivative which has anti-inflammatory and insulin-sensitizing properties) has anti-inflammatory properties. Leptin was found to be significantly higher among diabetic who were not practicing yoga, compared to regular practitioners of yoga. Frequency of yoga practice had significant negative relationship with leptin. Adiponectin levels were higher among practitioners of yoga. This shows that more intensive yoga practice could have beneficial health benefits by altering leptin and adiponectin.