Laziness...

I have become lazy with the diet. I went 13 days without taking a bit of insulin and I stopped eating my kimchi and sauerkraut. Since then I have had to take small doses of insulin. The probiotics found in these foods are essential for restoring healthy gut flora so it makes sense that without them my gut would allow leakage which would then trigger the immune response to attack my pancreas and destroy more insulin producing Beta cells. I guess I had better get back on it! I'm not worried though. I didn't expect myself to be perfect with the diet all the time.

The Cure

I have seen many people asking a very important question. Does the GAPS diet cure type one diabetes? The answer to this question will depend on how you will define the word “cure” for yourself. As for myself, I know that the western diet filled with quick carbs, sugars, starches and highly processed food assisted in making me sick. However, my diet was not the only thing. Type 1 diabetes runs in my family. My great grandfather had it, my mother has it, my niece has it and now I too have it. I am at a genetic disadvantage when compared to the average Joe and my body simply can not handle the western diet like others can. So for me, a cure does not mean that I can eat all the junk in our western diet and react the same as anyone else. To me a cure means that I can allow my body to heal itself to its own potential and if I take care of myself and watch what I put into my body I can live a happy and healthy life free from insulin and/or other medications. I don’t care that someone else can eat a double decker cheeseburger and be just fine. I know that my body is genetically different from others and that it comes with its own complications but also its own strengths. Now I do expect for myself to one day be able to enjoy an occasional burger or slice of pizza, but these can not be the staples of my diet. Besides, why would I ever want to return to the diet that was the catalyst to my poor health. So, for those who are considering the GAPS diet, you need to ask yourself what a “cure” would be to you. I am personally enjoying the diet as well as the results. I eat great healthy homemade fresh food, a LOT of meat, and at the moment I am taking 1/20^th the amount of insulin my doctor prescribed to me and my sugars are better regulated. I look forward to the day that I will be able to quit my insulin completely.

My daily glucose levels and insulin intake

The link below shows my daily glucose levels and insulin intake since the day after I got out of the hospital. As you can see, after about a month on the diet it was as if someone hit a switch and I immediately had to start reducing my dosage and my sugar levels were better regulated. Nothing had changed in my diet or lifestyle when this change occurred. I will continue to update this document with my glucose levels for those who wish to follow my progress. I couldn't figure out how to make the link below a hyperlink so just copy the link and paste it in your web browser. I'm new to this...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiLEXyhjQnACdHM5UzhkUVcwbjZ1WW0ybEVEdkRKN3c&usp=sharing

Dropping out of Diabetes

First of all, I want to tell anyone who might be reading this that I am not a writer. Also, any information presented on this blog is my opinion and my experience and is not given as medical advice to anyone. I wish to simply give you the information and allow you to know about my experience. I do feel that this information is valuable to everyone because as many of the professionals I have spoken with have stated, “I am proving the medical industry wrong”.

I have type 1 diabetes. I do not like saying “I AM” type one diabetic because A) It does not define me and who I am and B) I believe that diabetes occurs by lifestyle, so diabetes is something you do and not what/who you are.

I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes on February 12^th 2013. Looking back at the events before this date I should have known long before. Since the beginning of the year I could not keep hydrated. I was always thirsty, I could not quench my thirst no matter how much water I drank and I always had to pee. I was getting up 4-5 times every night to use the bathroom. Then, shortly after the dehydration started I began getting muscle spasms in my calves. I could no longer stretch in the morning upon waking up because if I did I would get very painful cramps in my legs. This went on for a while and I did some minor research online and I decided that it could be a number of other things. I hoped it would eventually just go away. In March I got constipated, then after a few days I started to vomit. This went on for several days and got to the point that my esophagus burned so bad I couldn’t ignore this anymore. It was like the worst case of heartburn I have ever felt only it would not stop or go away. I was in no shape to drive so I had my wife take me to the emergency room. Upon arriving at the emergency room the nurses knew exactly what the problem was. I was in ketoacidosis. The nurses knew this because they could smell it on me. One nurse even asked my wife if I had been drinking because of how I smelled. Side note: I don’t drink, so she found this particular question interesting. Also, I don’t remember much of this because I was close to going into a coma (according to the doctors and nurses at the hospital) I remember arriving at the hospital and then I remember being in the Intensive Care Unit wearing one of those sheets that only cover your front side and leave your back side exposed. I don’t remember anything in between.

So four days later I get out of the hospital. I jumped right in to a change of diet. The first things I eliminated were white foods. White rice, flour etc. are too refined and turn to sugar very quickly in your body. I soon found that even whole grain made my sugar jump extremely high so I decided to cut that out as well. By this time my mom had introduced me to the GAPS diet. I tried to research how the GAPS diet would benefit a type one diabetic but the information was extremely limited. All I could find were vague references about how someone heard that it seemed to help someone on a blog or that someone they knew was trying it. No solid information for diabetics no matter where I looked. There was significant evidence however of many people having wonderful success reversing their "incurable" autoimmune diseases. So, my intent is to provide diabetics with the information based on my experience as a diabetic on the GAPS diet in my efforts to completely drop out of diabetes.