Hey Dad...

Just how many diseases do you have? Jaden asked

On September 30th 2006 I turned 45. I was 50 lbs over weight (215 lbs) and I was not in a state of well-being. No energy...and no health. I had just wrapped up another 2 year battle of ulcerative colitis and had a general feeling that I didn’t have long to live and that my health was downhill from here.

Then...over the next six weeks I lost 25 lbs (I was not on a diet...I was eating fast food, meat, potatoes, chips and pop...the typical North American diet). I had an unquenchable thirst and I was up all night urinating. I would go to bed at 10pm...and at 11pm I would get up, pee and then drink an 8 oz glass of water and go back to bed. Then at 12:00am the same. This would go on all night...1am...2am ...3...4...5 until it was time to get up and go to work.

Finally, while out for dinner one night with my wife, I drank my coke...her coke...and about 6 glasses of water. That was not right...thats when I decided a doctor’s appointment was long overdue.

A quick visit to the doctor and he said, “Well...it could be a number of things. Let’s start with a blood test.” It was Friday and I felt ok so I thought I’d go for my glucose-fasting test Monday morning. At the end of the same day on Monday my doctor (Denis) personally called my house and left a message on my phone to make sure I come see him first thing in the morning.

I called his office the next morning at 9 am and his secretary said “Oh no... A blood test takes a week to come back”. I told her that Denis called me yesterday and told me to come see him today...right away. “Oh my God” she said “you’ll have to call his personal secretary as soon as she gets in at 9:30.” I hung up the phone and my wife called me 10 minutes later. She said “Your Doctor just called and asked to speak to you. I told him you were at work. He freaked out and said 'What? he has to get here right now...he has to go to emergency'.” Well, that was spooky to say the least.

When I arrived at his office he told me that I have diabetes and that my blood sugars were so high that the reading was off the scale. My fasting-glucose was over 20 mmol/L. A normal fasting-glucose is between 3.6-6.0 mmol/L. Anything between 6.1 and 6.9 is considered ‘glucose impaired’ (you are well on your way to getting diabetes) and anything above 7 mmol/L is diagnosed as having diabetes.

He asked me again how long I had been urinating every hour all night long and I told him it went on for about 5-6 weeks. This really stumped him. He said “What I can’t understand is why you’re not in a coma or dead? Why hasn’t your body gone toxic?”

What he meant was Diabetic Ketoacidosis ‘DKA’. When the body can’t burn sugar any more it burns fat which results in a huge amount of ketones (fat waste), weight loss and severe dehydration. Ketones can be so toxic that if you don’t treat DKA right away it can lead to shock, coma and death.  I shrugged my shoulders and said I didn’t know. What I didn’t tell him was I had just healed my ulcerative colitis by taking a teaspoon of DMSO (Dimethylsulfoxide) every night before bed.

DMSO kept my system clean from DKA because it is one of the biggest free-radical scavengers known to man. What I didn’t know at the time was...it saved my life as well. But, because DMSO is shunned by the medical community I decided not to tell him. He said I was severely dehydrated and needed to go to emergency and that they would IV some fluids into me.

So...off to the hospital I went. My blood glucose was 17 mmol/L when I arrived and after 2 litres of Ringers lactate, a shot of insulin, and 5 hours later... my blood glucose only dropped to 16. I understand now why the insulin never dropped my blood sugars but at the time I was very confused and considered myself screwed.

I believe the doctor only gave me a shot of insulin to confirm that I don’t have Type l diabetes. If I had ‘Type l’ it would have dropped my blood-glucose down to a normal range. The hospital doctor said “we’ll just have to see in a couple weeks when your blood stabilizes as to how much medication you’ll need but in the mean time I’ll start you on Metformin and you should attend the diabetic classes where they teach you all about diabetes and diet.”

One week later I had all my blood tested again. It was now the middle of November and I started my classes. One afternoon a week for three weeks I was brought up to speed on Diabetes. Well...I was only taught what the Canadian Diabetes Association would allow the nurse and dietatician to teach me. I learned a lot about treatment and what they recommended to eat but what I wasn’t taught was how to ‘control’ my diabetes...that would come later.

I’ll quickly go over my blood where it was at this point...

The A1C test is what your average blood glucose has been over the last 90-120 days. Glucose attaches itself to hemoglobin inside the red blood cell. The more glucose in the blood stream the more glucose is attached to the hemoglobin. Because the red blood cell only lives for about 3-4 months the test is averaged over that time frame.

The A1C works as a memory. Even though your blood sugars might jump up and down the red blood cell carries the memory of how much glucose has ‘glycated’ with your hemoglobin. People that do not have diabetes have about 5% of their hemoglobin glycated.

For someone with diabetes and higher blood glucose levels, the A1C level will be higher than normal. A 1% change in the A1C reflects a change of about 1.67 mmol/L in average blood glucose. So...because my A1C was 11.6% that meant that my average blood glucose for the three months prior to that date was 19.4 mmol/L....extremely high.

Diabetics also get out of control lipids. My cholesterol, LDL (low-density lipoprotein), and Chol HDL ratio were all above the reference level and although my Triglycerides were within the normal range it did come back high-lighted because it was still higher than it should be. It was also high-lighted in my lipid profile that I was a ‘Lip Risk Factor’. I would assume that they are talking about all the complications that arise from having high lipid readings.

High LDL and triglycerides are associated with a thickening and hardening in and on the walls of arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis, which is the principle cause of coronary heart disease and other forms of cardiovascular disease. This was something I had to get under control and back to normal as soon as possible.

As November came to a close... and as early December brought excitement of a new beginning for me...something was wrong. My sugars would not come down to a normal range. I attended all 3 classes and followed the Canadian Diabetes Associations food guide faithfully and to a tee. I would test my blood sugars three times a day and it was always around 12 mmol/L. Sometimes it was 9 and sometimes it was 16 but for the most part it hung around 12.

This was not good. I was literally rotting from the inside out. Just like a banana, as it ages, its sugar content increases. It starts to ripen/rot from the inside out. The black spots on the surface of the banana’s skin are the acids from the breakdown of the banana’s cells. This is something you see on some people’s skin as they get older. The age spots on their skin are showing a ripening or rotting. This is also why gangrene happens to some diabetics. The legs literally rot right off the body.

As the middle of December rolled around I was on my way into White Rock. My son was in the back seat. He always sat in the middle seat and I always had the rear view mirror adjusted so that I could look at him when he talked. We were talking about diabetes when he interrupts and asked me “Dad...? Just how many diseases do you have?”

I laughed, well....let’s see. I used to have Asthma and Eczema, I have...off and on Ulcerative Colitis...I have Alopecia Universalis, and now Diabetes, I also suffered from Hay Fever and I am Lactose Intolerant. Also, I had just had all of the lipomas (about 24) surgically removed from my body. My God...something defiantly had to be done.

As Christmas approached I was not happy. I knew the CDA (Canadian Diabetic Assoc.) was not going to control my diabetes so I had to start looking elsewhere. I booked an appointment with my Naturopath but in the meantime my wife had bought me a book for Christmas that would change my life forever.

The name of the book was ‘The pH miracle diet for diabetes’. It took me one week to read it and at the end of the week I went out and bought all the groceries to start the diet. On January 1st I started the diet and the next day...that’s right... in one day my blood normalized. It was around 6 mmol/L and my blood has never been out of normal range since. The prescription of Metformin ran out the second day of the diet and I never renewed it. There was no need.

In mid January I went to my first appointment with the diabetic specialist since he saw me in the hospital. I told him how the CDA was not fixing my diabetes but since I started this alkaline diet my blood has been completely normal and that I am not on any prescription drugs. He was surprisingly excited and was curious as to what my A1C was. He wanted me to go get tested right away. I asked him when my next appointment was and he said in 3 months.

I suggested... because I have just begun this diet and because the A1C is an average over 3-4 months...why don’t I get my blood tested just before I come see you again? He thought that was a good idea and said “I’ll see you in 3 months”

By the beginning of February I had lost another 25 pounds but this time I felt awesome. I felt 20 years old again. I had energy like I hadn’t felt since I was young. I weighed in at 162 lbs and I had a lot of joy going out and buying a whole new wardrobe. To be able to pull on a pair of 30 inch waist jeans and not have to suck in my stomach was pure pleasure every morning. I couldn’t wait to get my blood tested for my appointment early April.

On March 19th I went for my blood test... 

Every result was in perfect range. My doctor couldn’t believe it. “What was the name of that book?” he said.

As I walked out of his office his secretary called out to me “Brent, you need to make another appointment!”

I smiled “No...I won’t be needing one!”

I turned to walk out I thought to myself ‘I am alive... and this is the new beginning, the spark of life that I so hungered for ’.

When I tell people that I controlled my Type ll diabetes in 1 day they will either raise their eyebrows and look at me like I’m crazy or they will argue with me that there is no way you can control diabetes in one day forever. When I tell them “the minute you start exercising and eating the right foods...is the minute you start regulating your blood sugar!!"