Podcasts about my a1c

Dr. Hoffman's vacation cruise highlightsWhich is better for me, NTFactor or Mitopure?My A1c went up since taking Crestor. Should I stop taking it?

Please Subscribe and Review: Apple Podcasts | RSS Submit your questions for the podcast here News Topic: Ruminating on soil carbon: Applying current understanding to inform grazing management Show Notes: Think Fast: The 252nd Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying Dry Fasting Club Podcast Dr. Ruscio MCAS Diet Questions:    Mast Cell Activation Syndrome Angie writes: Hello Robb and Nicki - I have been listening on and off for a couple of years, and I appreciate your perspective and how rational and fair you are in your approach. Some background, three and a half years ago I got pregnant and early in the pregnancy I identified that I needed to manage my blood sugar with diet, which I successfully was able to do. About a year after having the baby I was diagnosed with methane SIBO, and went through a long treatment, which was successful and improved my gut symptoms drastically. After this, my cholesterol levels and insulin resistance score improved quite a bit. The past year and a half , I have been wearing a continuous glucose monitor, knowing that I am vulnerable to type II diabetes, and in hopes that I will be able to improve my blood sugar and regulate my menstrual cycle. I think it is also be important to mention that I have had poor gut health since I was a child, I suspect I am on the spectrum of PCOS - as I have an irregular cycle which is consistent with those patterns, and I have high cholesterol and have since I was 18 years old, I tend towards inflammation, and I would say I have about 15# to lose. Despite all my efforts by ensuring quality sleep, eating low carb - unprocessed and high quality foods, weight training 3x per week, managing my stress with meditation, and walking 5-7000 steps per day, things are not improving. I have also tried berberine and various other recommended supplements and there is ZERO improvement. My A1C three years ago was 5.3 and most recently it is 5.7. The week before Christmas I had the flu, 104*F fever for four days, congestion and a cough. A week after having the flu, I noticed that my head, shoulders, chest and other parts of my body seemed to be getting hot and itchy like hives, plus I was having bloating and constipation/diarrhea, and physical anxiety (like tight chest, pulse in the 90s). Plus, my blood sugar was spiking after eating a low carb meals and in other situations that didn't make sense. At a certain point I tried to help myself by taking electrolytes and extra whole food vit C. and things continued to get worse. A couple weeks ago my blood sugar was going up to 125-130 and sitting there all day, even if I walked or exercised, and then it would go down to 90-100 after I went to bed. This has happened a couple other times before, and I could not identify why this was the case. All this time I was eating under 40g or less carbs, around 140g protein, and 100g+ fat. As my symptoms got worse, I was led down the podcast rabbit hole of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, and histamine intolerance, which I had learned about years ago but didn't necessarily think I fit into this category. In hindsight, I am realizing that Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and or having high histamine loads in the body, may explain some of the very unexplained and inconsistent patterns I have observed while using the CGM over the past year and a half. Some examples are, blood sugar spikes up to 130 after taking supplements (!), blood sugar spikes up to 160 after eating low carb soup with bone broth and vegetables, spikes after low carb meals that I would include ferments or drinking hot chocolate (made with collagen, coconut milk, salt, cacao and stevia). And maybe, it explains why my blood sugar will go up to 170-200 with any intense exercise, and my inflammation takes days to recover from. And I am wondering now, if it is why I am seeing no improvement with my insulin resistance, even after consistently (not perfectly) doing all the things that are supposed to help with insulin resistance. Have you explored the relationship between insulin resistance/type II diabetes and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome? As I look back at my health journey this is starting to look very possible to me, but I am not a scientist or medical professional, and know that there is so much I do not understand . And, I am wondering if you have explored this for yourself at all? But then still my question is! What is to be done? Lymbic system retraining? Somatic experiencing? Making sure the body has balanced and adequate minerals? Low Dose Naltrexone? At this point I have tried many different things, and man, if I knew what to do I would do it. I am so curious what you guys think, and would be so grateful to hear from you. Angie   MCAS and histamine after exposure Jacob writes:  Hi Robb and Nicky, First thank you very much for the podcast. It's really helpful to hear all the different approaches to the health questions people raise. On last episode you mentioned you might do the next episode on MCAS. Personally I have post viral POTS and some sort of MCAS after my 2020 COVID infection. LMNT helps me avoid POTS symptoms and if I completely avoid histamine from food I do great, with basically zero issues. I found that I can even take grass fed beef liver pills before I have a meal with histamine and it seems to help me avoid the issues. I have two questions. First, do you have any experience on how the liver pills help me to not get beat up when I take them prior? It seems to have something with natural DAO but to be honest it's sortof a black box. I have basically no clue how much I'm ingesting from a DAO standpoint. I was taking the Ancestral Health beef liver pills and taking 6 capsules before the meal. That seems to help. My second question is the more important one. How the heck do I deal with a histamine exposure. If I get got, I have anywhere from 24-48 hours of brain fog, extreme fatigue, malaise, and depressed/depression feelings. If there were something that I could do post exposure to abate this while I recover I would be extremely grateful. I found that if I take antihistamines (my rheumatologist recommended citrizine) that it helps *some* but not really enough. Thank you! Jacob  Dry Fasting Andrea writes: Hey Robb and Nicki, I was hoping you might talk about dry fasting. I recently listened to a Dark Horse podcast where Brett and Heather talked about their experience dry fasting and have become quite interested in it. Since I greatly value your ability to look at these things reasonably and scientifically, I was hoping you could share your thoughts on the subject. Thanks Andrea   Sponsor: The Healthy Rebellion Radio is sponsored by our electrolyte company, LMNT. It turns out that electrolytes don't need to be brightly colored and full of sugar...in fact, the brightly colored and highly sugared concoctions on store shelves often contain very few electrolytes…the sodium, magnesium, and potassium that your body needs to perform at its best. That's why we created LMNT! Become an LMNT INSIDER and buy 3 boxes and get the 4th box free! As always, LMNT offers no-questions-asked refunds on all orders - so you can try  LMNT 100% risk free.  Click here to get your LMNT electrolytes  

Please Subscribe and Review: Apple Podcasts | RSS Submit your questions for the podcast here News Topic: ‘There's A Movement Happening': How Trump's Alliance With RFK Is Winning Over Wellness Influencers   Show Notes: Science, Myth, and Madness: The 241st Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying RFK Jr Speech Stem Talk episode 170 with guest Charles Serhan on pro-resolving mediators Questions:    Peptides for injury recovery Greg writes: Hi Robb and Nikki Big fan and avid LMNT subscriber for two and a half years. I have been battling patellar tendon pain on and off for about ten years. Of recently, it has been constant in my left patellar tendon for about two months now. Any loading of the joint causes searing pain . Once warmed up it's more manageable especially with knee sleeves but I really can't do any loaded squats anymore, so I have moved to more deadlifting and sled work. My question is in regards to nutritional supplements to support tendon repair. I have been doing a higher dose 20-25g per day of grass fed hydrolyzed collagen, and I want to give it a couple months to see if it makes a difference, but have been intrigued with the rise of peptides, specifically BPC-157. Any insight on peptides in the lense of tendon repair and anti inflammation? Would love to get back to running more and Olympic lifts. Thanks!   LDL Increase after starting Keto Walt writes: After starting keto in January my LDL has increased steadily to 139 mg/dl. I started this diet, ostensibly, to improve my health. (Being a type 1 with two cardiac stents) My A1C improved greatly and my blood pressure normalized with a small intervention from 5mg of Bystolic in the a.m. I was on a lot more BP meds prior. All good, right? My cardiac NP, however, is not psyched on the increase in LDL and had me speak to a lipid specialist. Lipid specialist is old school and is vehemently opposed to this diet and way of eating and started in with the whole “red meat and fats are bad” speech. My numbers: Total cholesterol: 234 LDL: 139 VLDL: 16 Triglycerides: 81 Cholesterol/HDL ratio: 3.0 ApoB: 94 Lipoprotein A:

Thank you for joining us for our 2nd Cabral HouseCall of the weekend! I'm looking forward to sharing with you some of our community's questions that have come in over the past few weeks…   Annie: For the last 3 years, I have had consistent mucus in my throat. Sometimes it gets worse after eating fat like avocado and nut butter. The mucus is always clear if I spit it out. I thought it was acid reflux, but I am not sure why it would be affected by fats. Thank you for your help in advance!   Gina: Hi Dr. Cabral! I am 33 & survived breast cancer last year, 6 months post partum. I had a lumpectomy, radiation and now hormonal therapy, which has been recommended for 10 years due to my age. Should I be concerned about heavy metals in this monthly injection? Doing the 21 day detox and curious of other pointers you may have that could be helpful while dealing with this long term. I've also struggled to lose weight in all this despite a very clean diet and exercising 5 days per week. My A1C is now 6.2 when it was normal prior to medication. Looking for guidance on how to further manage my blood sugar. I was interested in fatlossity but my Dr said “it has too many ingredients” and advised me against taking this. Can you speak a bit about fatlossity? Thank you! P.s. I've enrolled in IHP :)   Lynette: What do you know/think of the Perfect Amino products created by Dr. David Minkoff (bodyhealth.com)? I've heard him speak on several podcasts and am curious about his Perfect Amino products. Is there validity to them? Worth trying? Just curious about your thoughts and insights. Thanks so much for all the info and knowledge you share!   Lucy: Hi there, my niece (25yrs, very healthy and body aware) has had an on and off stinging and fuzzy feeling in her mouth since August. She has bloods done, mouth swabs, seen dentists, Dr's. They all say nothing is wrong it is her imagination. She says it is so unpleasant when it happens and needs to find a solution? Is there a podcast relating to this please? I can't find one in the search option. Which tests would you recommend? Thank you.   Robert: I did Big 5 and have adrenal fatigue/very high cortisol. I have been fasting recently (skipping breakfast daily or doing 24 hour with only DNS powder). i have lost weight doing this and had several other benefits. Though I noticed if i don't have breakfast, and I am doing a stressful activity at work (i.e. public speaking), i shake and feel faint. i don't get this if i have breakfast. Further, my white blood cells and neutrophils were low on a few recent blood tests. Despite getting benefits from fasting, should i not do it as often due to side effects like feeling faint/shaking & low WBC/neutrophils which i heard can be caused by stress or fasting? Would it be better if i start my fast after dinner rather than skip breakfast, or should i stop fasts until i reduce stress levels? Thanks!   Thank you for tuning into this weekend's Cabral HouseCalls and be sure to check back tomorrow for our Mindset & Motivation Monday show to get your week started off right! - - - Show Notes and Resources: StephenCabral.com/3026 - - - Get a FREE Copy of Dr. Cabral's Book: The Rain Barrel Effect - - - Join the Community & Get Your Questions Answered: CabralSupportGroup.com - - - Dr. Cabral's Most Popular At-Home Lab Tests: > Complete Minerals & Metals Test (Test for mineral imbalances & heavy metal toxicity) - - - > Complete Candida, Metabolic & Vitamins Test (Test for 75 biomarkers including yeast & bacterial gut overgrowth, as well as vitamin levels) - - - > Complete Stress, Mood & Metabolism Test (Discover your complete thyroid, adrenal, hormone, vitamin D & insulin levels) - - - > Complete Food Sensitivity Test (Find out your hidden food sensitivities) - - - > Complete Omega-3 & Inflammation Test (Discover your levels of inflammation related to your omega-6 to omega-3 levels) - - - Get Your Question Answered On An Upcoming HouseCall: StephenCabral.com/askcabral - - - Would You Take 30 Seconds To Rate & Review The Cabral Concept? The best way to help me spread our mission of true natural health is to pass on the good word, and I read and appreciate every review!  

This week, managing type 1 diabetes into your 70s is a bit of uncharted waters.. While thankfully more and more people are living long with T1D, that wasn't always the case. I'm taking to Dianne Mattiace who is in her early 70s and was diagnosed as an adult, 30 years ago. She was the first person in the US to use the Eversense CGM when it was approved in 2018 and she's still using it today. She answers your questions about this implantable CGM, why she's stayed with it and what else she does to manage in retirement and beyond.   This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. More about Eversense here Our previous episodes about Eversense here  Find out more about Moms' Night Out  Please visit our Sponsors & Partners - they help make the show possible! Learn more about Gvoke Glucagon Gvoke HypoPen® (glucagon injection): Glucagon Injection For Very Low Blood Sugar (gvokeglucagon.com) Omnipod - Simplify Life Learn about Dexcom  Edgepark Medical Supplies Check out VIVI Cap to protect your insulin from extreme temperatures Learn more about AG1 from Athletic Greens  Drive research that matters through the T1D Exchange The best way to keep up with Stacey and the show is by signing up for our weekly newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter here Here's where to find us: Facebook (Group) Facebook (Page) Instagram Twitter Check out Stacey's books! Learn more about everything at our home page www.diabetes-connections.com  Reach out with questions or comments: info@diabetes-connections.com Episode Transcription:  Stacey Simms  0:00   Diane Matisse. Thanks so much for joining me. Welcome to Diabetes Connections. It's great to talk to you. Dianne Mattisse  0:04   Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, let's Stacey Simms  0:07   jump right in. Let's start with your diagnosis story, because you were initially misdiagnosed, right? Take me through what happened? Yes, Dianne Mattisse  0:15   I was 40 years old. And my family history was type two diabetes. And they actually, as soon as you say that to a physician, and it was a general practitioner, it was not an endocrinologist, they automatically just put that label on me and said, you know, you're another type two in your family. It went on for about three months. And I actually was in the honeymoon phase, which now was not even recognized back then. But I, it was at the time where you're making enough insulin to keep you from going into DKA into ketoacidosis end up in a hospital, but not enough to make you feel well, so my blood sugar's were still rising, the medication they had me on wasn't working. And finally, after, I think about three or four months, well, during that time, I saw an endocrinologist. And he also was doing a lot of testing, even the C peptide, which is now a diagnosis tool wasn't able to be done where I lived, they had to send it out to a lab in Atlanta. So once that was kind of established, he admitted me, and started me on insulin and, you know, multiple injections per day, Stacey Simms  1:35   why did you What led you to actually seek out an endocrinologist? Dianne Mattisse  1:39   I was not feeling great with the general doctor treating me and I just kept getting worse and worse. And I was taking oral medications, they weren't all these designer meds that they have now for type twos. Back then it was couple pills. So I was I would call them increase the pills. And as I was increasing the pills over the three or four months, so was my blood sugar increasing, and I kept losing weight. And I'm thinking, well, this is a great diet I'm on I was eating better. But my blood sugar's were going into the three hundreds. So finally, I had been in the medical field before that, actually, it was in the medical field at the time, I was a controller for a nursing home company, but it didn't really have access to a lab or anything like that. I was actually the Regional Controller. And I was on the financial side, right? So I actually went to a lab got my blood sugar taken. I didn't even think to buy a meat or anything like that, which I should have, but I did not. And I kept seeing my blood sugar's go up and up and up. And so I finally just on my own said, I'm gonna go to an endocrinologist. And as soon as I went, he told me, I think you're a type two. And type one, I think you are type one, misdiagnosed as a type two. And let's do some testing. He started he did the C peptide, sent it out, did a bunch of other tests. I have no no recollection. Now, it's been 33 years of what else he did. But over that weekend, so that was like a Friday over that weekend, I just be compensated more I started getting muscle cramps, I called him and he said, go to the hospital Monday morning, seven o'clock and bring a bag you're being admitted. So I did. And he said, I was really on the brink of going into diabetic ketoacidosis. So it was really, really just, you know, it's good that I went to the hospital that morning and got on insulin, I think but I think a lot of people when they're diagnosed after 40 or 35, I just talked to somebody the other day who was diagnosed at like 55. And I think the older you get, the less they even think it just automatically think you're a type two. Yeah, yeah, Stacey Simms  3:58   it's something like half of all cases of Type one are occurring and people over the age of 20. But as you say, once you're over 20, many doctors don't know that it could be type one. I hear a lot of stories of Pupil misdiagnoses type two who have type one of a lot of people who have lotta, you know, latent autoimmune diabetes in adults. I don't hear a lot of these stories happening in the late 1990s. Or prior to that time period. Did you ever talk to your endocrinologist? Like, I don't want to say he was cutting edge because it was pretty obvious you were suffering, right at that point. But it is interesting that this was 33 years ago, and somebody finally got it right. Dianne Mattisse  4:41   I think I was just so sick. By the time I actually went to see him and I had lost about 40 pounds. By that point. He looked at the amount of medication oral meds that I was on, and I think it had been about a period of three months and I kind of was keeping track of the blood sugars on a piano And a little notebook back then, that we had. And he looked at that and said, you know, you're you're decompensating, you're not doing well on any of these meds, the amount of weight I had lost. And I was young, younger. So I wasn't. I mean, I was losing muscle mass, but it wasn't as noticeable if I had been 60 or 70 years old. And he said, You're losing muscle mass. And you're just feeling so bad. I mean, I remember going on a trip with my husband. And we went to the Statue of Liberty at that point. It was you were able to go up the stairs and go into the statue. Yeah, well, we actually went with some family members. And this is before I actually was on insulin about a month before. And I remember going up three steps, and turning around and telling my husband, I can't do this. Oh, wow. And we had always, I had always been going to the gym be doing aerobics. Back then more of a runner than walking. Walking is more popular. Now. Of course, you know, less on the joints and everything. But I was a runner back then I was into aerobics. I was very athletic skier and, you know, snow ski or water skier. And he looked at me and said, What do you mean? And I said, I can't do it. I'm out of breath on step number three, I need to turn around. So that kind of pushed me to figure out. And now when I look back at those pictures of what I look like, I'm like, I actually looked very, very sick. I mean, that weight for me was not a normal weight ever in my life. Maybe when I was 10. Stacey Simms  6:45   For a lot of weight, I Dianne Mattisse  6:48   think I weighed 103. And I mean, I think I weighed more than that. Honestly, in fourth grade. Yeah. Stacey Simms  6:53   Wow. Especially for somebody athletic. That's really tiny. Right? Right. Um, Dianne Mattisse  6:59   you know what it is? It's it's denial. Oh, because nobody in my family. I mean, my family thought I look great. You're, you're on a diet, you're doing great, everything's good. But they didn't know how I was really feeling you know, health wise, I felt horrible. And weak and, and constantly thirsty, and constantly urinating and, you know, in the bathroom all the time and starving me, you actually are starving your body. And it's just the worst, it was a thirst. When I describe it to people, it was a thirst that no matter how much you drank, you could never make it go away. It was just something that was there all the time. So I mean, it was very, I was very lucky to find the right endocrinologist that, like you said, was a little bit of ahead of time, and kind of just said, You're a type one. You're not a type two, there's just no way and immediately hospitalized me and got me on track. So Stacey Simms  8:00   I'm imagining that you did go home with a meter this time. Do you mind taking us through your technology journey because we're here to talk about you know what, you're one of the first people to use the ever since Dianne Mattisse  8:12   I was first I was the first person implanted in the United States with the ever since and my doctor who is in Opelika, Alabama was the for about Columbus, Georgia. And he has an office in OPA Leica. He was the first person to be sort of the first physician to be certified. Wow, the technology. Let me tell you technology now. I always say this if you have to have a disease and a chronic disease. I'm so happy now that I have all of the help and see GMs I had actually left the hospital with a meter. And it was like, I think he had to wait two minutes for it to actually read. You know, your drop of blood. It had to be a much bigger drop of blood and all that. My doctor at the time would not there were pumps, but they were obviously much larger. And the CGM, the first CGM that I had was I had to go to the hospital and have it put on and I wore it it was a big box and I had to wear it for seven days. Then go back to the hospital. They would take the recording out they would review and and print everything, send it to my endocrinologist and then I had to go back to the endocrinologist for a report. So it only took a week of my life and of course, like anybody else I was sure that I was doing everything right and trying to have good read, you know a good recording done. So I would get a good report when I went there. Now I had changed my my original endocrinologist had a family tragedy with his son, so I had to change endocrinologist. And I thought I had a really good endocrinologist. But for some reason, she didn't really push me with the CGM. So I really pushed that. And I have been on all of them. I've been on all of the 10 to 14 day ones I've been on. Like I said, the original one that had to wear for seven days. And honestly, the last one, not the last few years before I went on, ever since I did not, they didn't get along with my body. I mean, I had too many alarms. I had too many failures. I had skinny rotations, I had just inaccuracies. And I finally said to myself, I'm not being compliant because of it. So I just started doing more meter checks. And I tried to manage my diabetes, which I could not I mean, to be honest, I was thinking I was compliant when I when I moved to Alabama and got with my physician now, my endocrinologist. I was not I was not being compliant, because I didn't have a CGM. So I mean, it's almost impossible to stick your finger every five minutes. I was gonna say do Stacey Simms  11:19   you think the right word is compliant, though? I mean, you were trying, right? It's not like you were in your like, I hit that non compliant page. I Dianne Mattisse  11:27   was right. You're right. I was trying. But now that I look back, I'm like, I should have. Well, there was nothing like ever since before I got it. So it was funny thing. My husband heard about it. I actually moved to Alabama a year earlier than my husband he was working down there want to do is finish his job for another year. And so I moved to Alabama, because we bought a house on the spur of the moment. We're on a visit up here. And so yeah, we weren't it wasn't a plan. It was not a plan. We just did it. So when I came up here, I did not have a physician here. I didn't even have a primary. But I did have a pump and I needed to get my supplies. So I I actually called there's only two endocrinologist in Auburn, Alabama. And that's about a half hour from where I live. So one of them wanted me to have a referral. But I didn't even have a primary yet. So I called the other one. Because I needed to get my insulin and my supplies. And they gave me an appointment. And it was funny. I went in on a Thursday to see Dr. Baliga. And he looked at me and said, This is my you know, I'm a new patient started talking to me about the ever since. Have you ever seen it? Have you ever heard about it? And I said, you know, it's funny. My husband saw something on the news about it a few months ago, and he mentioned it to me, but I hadn't seen anything else about it. So he started telling me about it that it was something that was placed under the skin. You wore it for at that time, it was 90 days now it's 180 days. And I said well, let's let's do it today, because he made it sound so wonderful that you wouldn't have to be doing, you know, I would know something every five minutes, I would know if you know and I was familiar with other products that gave you arrows, whether you're going up whether you're going down so you can kind of fix things as you're going along. I didn't have that right now. When I went to see him so I'm like, Ah, it sounds great. He goes well wait, we we haven't got he was at the FDA had certified it. He was certified, but they had to bring the team from Atlanta at the time. So he says but we can do a Tuesday. And I'm like, Okay, I can't wait. I mean, I was so excited. So I had it placed on Tuesday four days after I saw him and I'm now on number 24th sensor and it has been actually so life changing for me i One of the main reasons I was so anxious and happy to hear about something like that is because I was having severe low blood sugars at night and nothing not to wake me up. I mean I My husband actually would call me every morning at 839 o'clock to make sure I had made it through the night that I was still alive. So it was a horrible really way to live and I was having multiple sometimes multiple low blood sugars during the day and or blood glucose during the day. And then I would treat them and then I would go up and down you know so it was it was just up and down cycle and you don't feel well with that at I don't anyway most people don't because you you know you now you have to fix this and you know hope that it fixes that. So once the I got on ever since that disappeared, basically disappeared from my life, I maybe have one, low blood sugar, maybe once every two months now, I have a very, very low percentage less than 1%, every 90 days. So it's amazing to me how technology has changed my life and made me feel like I can actually live kind of like a normal life. I need it. And I also was never really addicted to looking at my phone all the time, like a lot of younger people do. And you know, I don't do a lot of selfies and but now, I mean, I do sit at the table and have my phone there because I want to see what's going on. And if I'm out to dinner, I put it there. And I want to see if it's going down, is it going up? And it gives me that you know that that safety net of, I'm not going to go high, and I'm not going to go low. Do you mind if I ask Stacey Simms  15:57   what other technology you're using because the CGM alone isn't going to prevent lows. Dianne Mattisse  16:02   I have an insulin pump. I don't have the loops. I don't use that because I have the CGM that I 100% believe in and, and love it. I do have a meter. And I do have to calibrate the Eversense once a day, which to me, gives me that feeling of security and safety that I am getting good numbers throughout the day. And if something's really off, you know if it feels like it's off, I will check with my meter. But I use the meter a lot less to be honest, I you know, I really trust you ever since. And I mean, it's been it's proven to me because many times the meter and the ever since will have exactly the same number, or within a few a few numbers. And that makes me feel so much better. Right. Stacey Simms  16:53   But you use you use a pump. That's just I wouldn't call it a dumb pump. But you don't use an automated system. I Dianne Mattisse  16:59   don't use the loop. I don't use the automated system. It has the capability. Okay, but but I don't I just that's not an important factor for me, right? Stacey Simms  17:10   I mean, I'm just trying to be clear for folks that you know, we're listening, you know what you're using in right with, I mean, my son, it's funny to look at technology because he was diagnosed in 2006. So we went, you know, shots and meter, and then DME pump and meter for forever. And then CGM pump your meter to calibrate like you say, and now in 2020, he went closed loop. So he's got a pump that communicates with the CGM. So it's just wild to see how it all works. All right, all the questions people have about ever since tell us about the insertion and the removal, because a lot of that makes a lot of people uncomfortable to think about. Dianne Mattisse  17:49   Right, right. I think the placement of the ever sense has, I think a lot of people think about it as a surgery and as this and that, it really is such a tiny little, maybe just a tiny little incision, not even as big as your pinky fingernail. And they actually, you know, they numb you, of course, and then they put the little the little sensor right under the skin. I mean, you can actually kind of feel it through the skin, you know, which is helpful when you're placing the transmitter. And it doesn't. I mean, honestly, it doesn't hurt at all, I'd rather have that done and then have my teeth cleaned, to be honest. I mean, it's it's really that simple. And I've had, like I said, I'm on number 24. And it's really nothing the removal is the same thing. It takes maybe the insertion the longest part of the insertion or the placement is getting the Lidocaine to numb the area, you know, they actually do it in a very sterile way comes with a big sterile cape. And you know, you're laying on the table and they clean the area very well. I've never had an infection I've never had any what I would call any bleeding I mean it might bleed a little tiny bit, but they cover it with steri strips, there's no stitching, there's no you know, there's nothing like you have to go back and have surgery looked at it or anything like that there's no stitches or anything like that. So the removal my physician has always used an ultrasound for removal. So I think that has become very popular because I belong some a lot of these pages that people talk about it and I can actually feel mine because it really is right under the skin and but I think the ultrasound kind of helps them know exactly where the end is. Because listen, there's you're putting it under the skin, it could move a little bit it could you know turn or whatever, right so I've never really had any issues. I mean, you hear horror stories from people who have never even had it, which really is quite annoying, because I think it's just like slamming a restaurant, if you've never eaten there, you know, just and I think the greatest thing is that we have a choice. Now, it might not be for everyone. But it is something that for people who get these severe irritations or allergies to certain products, you know, with some of the 10, the 14, ones, 14, day 10 to 14 day CGMS. And also, I think a lot of people worry about getting it knocked off. And the cost of it, were this the transmitter, which where you were on the outside, if it comes off, you know, you just stick a new adhesive on it and stick it back on. The other great thing is, you know, we live by a lake and we have a boat. And if I want to go swimming, I take my transmitter off, I get into the water. And I don't have to worry about anything, I don't have like a permanent thing going into my body a permanent or fish going in, you know, which always kind of bothered me going into a pool or going into a lake or something like that. This is once that heals up after a couple of days, there's nothing really on the outside plus it you know, the great thing about ever since also is it uses a different kind of technology. It's not the same technology as other CGMS use. So I believe and this is personally my opinion, I believe that it's much more accurate because of the type of technology that they're using. It's very advanced, Stacey Simms  21:47   you being the way the sensor reads. Yes, the way the sensor reads. And you said you had a lot of irritation from the other CGM. You don't have any irritation with the adhesive that the transmitter sticks Dianne Mattisse  21:59   on at all. None at all. None at all. The little adhesive ups the little adhesive that we put on the back of the transmitter is very very skin friendly. Very skin friendly i and I'm fair and I have blue fair skin blue wise, so I have had pretty severe irritations with other CGM said I had to move them around and try different things and try different products under it. Also products to keep them on, which haven't had to do that either. You know, this kind of stays on? And I don't really think about it. I mean, I think more about checking my phone now than I do thinking about having the sensor. So tell me again, Stacey Simms  22:47   this is your 24th Yes, sir. How long will this one stay in? Dianne Mattisse  22:54   Six months, not? Well, it stays now up to 180 days or up to six months. beginning it was up to three months. And I do know that the FDA is working on the approval for the what 365 Day, which we're all looking forward to that. What I mean, I love going to my doctor so I'm like, you know, I we always kid around. So you know, we have to stop meeting like this. But yes, I mean, it's a it's going to be quite awesome for a lot of people to get it for one year because I do go to my doctor every three months to get prescriptions for the other supplies I need and insulin and things like that. But some people only go to see their endocrinologist or their primary doctor only once a year to manage your diabetes. Stacey Simms  23:49   In the six months, I'm just trying to you know, I'm trying to picture that you think that all the different the CGM changes that would happen within six months. Have you had any issues any reason to go back to your endo and say take a look at this get out the ultrasound machine or is it smooth sailing for you? Dianne Mattisse  24:05   I haven't had any issues for several years. I mean, we're going on six years this July that I've had it the greatest thing is which I've never used the most recent products I'm not sure but but the ever since has an online or on your phone whole picture of what's going on. So I'll tell you how long you're you know how much time you're in. It will tell you exactly the percentage time and range and it also will tell you seven days, 14 days, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days so you can actually see and it will also tell you what your estimated A1C will be it will tell you what percentage is low you're in the low area what percentage you're in high so it gives you all kinds of information. The greatest thing is my doctor has that information also. So if I make a call to him, and I say, you know, I'm not doing well, something's not right, I can't get the sugars down and, and it's not the pump I, you know, I've moved it, I've changed insulin, all that thing, all those things, then he will go on there and say this is what you need to do. But this is what we need to change around, you know, because it's all based on the insulin that you're getting and the activity. It's nothing really I don't feel to do with the CGM. Right? So with the sensor, so I haven't ever had to call him and say, I think it's a sensor. I think most of the time, it's just been the amount of insulin. Or maybe I'm sick. You know, maybe if I have an illness that's not, you know, I had or I made a couple months ago, I had take a steroid shot my wrist. And that just blew me out of the water. So I called him and he was like, Okay, this is what we need to do for two days, you know, so the CGM? No, I mean, I find no fault with that. I mean, I think if the built in protection there is if your meter reading when you put in your calibration in the morning, which I do mine in the morning, you can kind of set it up to do whenever, but I always want to do it first thing in the morning, because I want to know where I'm starting anyway, my day, is it going to be good, bad or ugly that day? So I put my calibration number in there. And if it's, let's say it's off, it's off by 30 or 40 points, you know, you, the sensor itself will tell you something's not right. And it will actually ask you to do another calibration in another hour or so. So, to me, it's, it's kind of a safety check. So that I don't worry about it going off, and being kind of crazy on its own. Because, you know, if something like that happens, and I'm sure with technology, everything has, you know, kinks in it. They you would call the customer service, they have great customer service. And they can actually do a lot with Reese not resetting it actually totally, but figuring out if it really is the sensor really is you. I've had to do a reset on the sensor maybe? Stacey Simms  27:20   Sure. Um, I'm curious, you had mentioned you're in some groups, and I'm sure you know, people who also were there ever since and a lot of people who are interested in it. What's the first question people ask you about it? Like diabetes people? Dianne Mattisse  27:35   How about how is the insertion? How is the placement? Does it hurt? Does it scar does it? How is the surgery? You know, they all like to think it's surgery and everything? Because listen, when you're thinking about that you're thinking about, I don't know, maybe they're thinking of a transplant or something. But it's a very simple thing. And there's a lot of other medical procedures now that use these placements under the skin. There's hormonal ones. I know there's a testosterone one, I think there's an there's one for birth control now. So it's it's, you know, very upfront technology that's being used a lot in medical treatment. So it's not anything, you know, that people should be afraid of. I mean, this is an advanced, very advanced product, I think, and simple life is so much simpler with this, you know, just, I mean, once every six months now you go in, I mean, you're it's 15 minutes, and you know, I mean, the 10 minutes, I'm waiting for the Lidocaine to work. That's, that's the biggest thing. Stacey Simms  28:44   Do you have scoring? Do you have a scar on other very Dianne Mattisse  28:46   fair, like I said before, and I don't scar and usually the FDA requires that they switch arm to arm every six months. So like, they'll do the left arm and then they do the right arm. So in that meantime, I can't even like when I go back to have the removal. If if the sensor has already expired, like but I usually try to go a couple days before. If it's expired, of course, it's not going to have a reading. And then, you know, I have to really figure out where it is because I don't see the scar anymore. There is actually I think it's so tiny that it heals up. I mean, you're supposed to leave the bandaging and everything on instructions or five days. Usually, it's healed up in about two or three days completely healed. You can't even really see anything. So I mean, some people would scar I would imagine, but I mean, I think you have that's the trade off or having a totally accurate CGM. That's easier. That's less expensive than things that are failing and you have to replace all the time I mean, for me, it's, it was never I never thought twice about that. I may be by my age, I have a lot of scars anyway, from falling, and it's like, you know, I'm not worried about having perfect skin anymore. So, but no, actually, because I'm fair. I, I did think about that, but but only for about two seconds. Stacey Simms  30:25   Well, you know, and if you don't mind, um, you know, I'd love to talk about aging with type one. I mean, you know, it's different. Life is different from 20 to 50. Certainly, you've mentioned like, you don't run so much anymore, you know, so I don't want to make a whole Pash of like we all know we're getting older. For lucky, we know we're getting older as like, but you know, years and years ago, people weren't living past 50 type 1 diabetes, let alone 70. And I have listeners in their 80s. And we know people in their 90s with type one. So it's a pretty wild. So I Dianne Mattisse  30:58   73. It's changed 73. My A1C is 6.6. I'm so proud of that. Because when I first got the Eversense inserted, it was in the mid nines or a little bit higher. It wasn't 10, but it was in the night. So I've made tremendous strides in getting it down being healthier. And I'm just very proud of that. Because you know, I would like to be in the fives but I, you know, I'm fine. My physician is fine with it being in the sixes, getting rid of the low blood sugars was a huge thing for me because many, many people die in the middle of the night from having a low blood sugar. And that still happens to people and really with CGM and all these choices, it shouldn't happen. And the fact that the CGM gives me this vibration, I know all anywhere, anytime, if I'm out eating, if I'm in bed sleeping, I know I'm going to get a vibration that's going to tell me what's going on. So that has really helped me be happier in my life. I think I worked 25 years in health care as administrator and then 25 years is real estate. Now I'm retired but I do a lot. I have a charity I'm treasurer for up here in Alabama, that does art. We provide art classes and projects for kids in the schools here, elementary schools and some high schools. I have a little word working business with my sister here, we make maps of the lake and we sell to all the little stores around here and everything. And I keep very busy, I also do a transaction. I'm a transaction broker for my son who's a broker in Florida. So I do a lot of paperwork online for him. So I keep very busy. But the fact that I'm getting older, you know, and I know people will say this, you talk to anybody old, your mind is still young, you still look you know, when you look in the mirror, you go Who is that old lady, but when you when you when you feel good, and I feel so much better with a normal blood sugar. I don't feel like I'm that age, you know, I mean, I I enjoy traveling, I traveled to Florida quite a bit because of a lot of relatives and friends still down there having been there for a long living there my entire life basically. And I feel comfortable traveling by myself, which is a huge thing. Because I can tell you 10 years ago, I did not I mean, I always wanted to have my husband or my son or somebody with me. So that getting old and having diabetes. And I've been very lucky because I don't have any side effects. I don't have any complications from having diabetes for so long. I mean, on one hand, I was very lucky, I didn't have to go through puberty or childbearing. So I got it when all that was done, had my children and everything. But on the other hand, you know, 33 years when I think back 33 years is a long time to be dealing with a chronic disease 24/7 And I don't think anybody really understands that it is a full time job. It is something that is with you 24/7 You cannot forget about it even for a day. I mean, it's dangerous if you think you can, but you just can't. But getting older. I just like to I'm so excited to see all the things that have have come from diabetic technology, all the opportunities that we have now. I love being part of the ever since group of people because honestly I never knew anybody growing up, you know, during when I was diagnosed at 40 I never knew another type one. I felt very isolated and kind of depressed about it because I'm like, even in my family, they didn't really acknowledge it because Nobody had the knowledge about it, they knew a lot about type twos and you should lose weight, eat better and exercise, but they didn't really know much about why I was a type one or how I was managing it or how encompassing it was to your life. So I think just having better communities, among us is has helped tremendously for me. And the ever since has just been, like I said, before, life changing for me, no matter what age I would have gotten it, I think it's just the best product because it's the easiest product to use. And I've used them all, I mean, you can't name one that I haven't used and, and I've gone through the progression from when they had to put it on the hospital until the very newest ones. And nothing really, my body didn't like them for whatever reason. But getting old is great. I just look at it and go, I have friends from first grade still, that I see when I go down. And I'm like, you know, and they, you know, most of my close friends know when everything and they, they are very supportive, but they don't really understand it. So now that I understand it better. I'm okay with that. I mean, I think age has just made me feel like, Hey, I am so lucky to be here and feel as good as I do can be as active as I want to be. No, I don't run anymore, and I don't ski anymore. I last skied when I was 65 And I'm like, hey, that's it. I'm done. I'm not doing that anymore. I you know, I got away without ever having a broken bone or anything. Or last time we went, you know, I went with a bunch of younger girls and, and family, bunch of family. And and I'm like, Hey, I'm skiing is good as he's 40 year olds, but I'm not risking it anymore. Yeah. Stacey Simms  36:45   So I meant to ask Do you know is ever since covered by Medicare? I can look that. Yes, I Dianne Mattisse  36:49   did. Absolutely. Now the first couple years, it was not. And my husband I made that decision to pay out of pocket. But yes, it is covered now. That's great. Yes, right. covered. And it covers the insertion and the removal for the physician also, which I think some of the other insurances don't but but yeah, that was not the deciding factor for me. I mean, we paid out of pocket, and and we just knew it was going to be the best thing for me. Stacey Simms  37:18   Good to know, though. I mean, it's really interesting, again, with a lot of my older listeners, you know, and as we are so excited that people with type one are living to Medicare year and beyond, right, it's really important to look at these things. It is it's a deciding factor for a lot of people. Yes. Okay, before I let you go, Diane, how did you get hooked up as an ambassador? I mean, it makes sense. You're the very first patient in America. So I guess it's kind of a dumb question that everybody wants to speak out, you know, right? Dianne Mattisse  37:42   Well, I never Well, okay. So like I said, I never really was in a group of people, I didn't really even have anybody. You know, nobody in my family, nobody to talk to. So the team came from Atlanta, when I had my first insertion, placement, they'd like you to lose placement. So when I had my first placement, the team from Atlanta came, and that was six years ago, this July. So the person who is head of the sales now I believe, she was on that team, and she came in, and we kind of hit it off. And then I think it went on for about, I think six months later, they decided to get a group together, and call them the patient ambassadors. And that's when that is before a Sensia actually got began, began to be involved in the marketing. So that was when Sen. psionics was doing it. So this person picked eight or nine people. And we still have, I believe, four or five of the original ambassadors, and now it's more demographically varied. You know, we have young, I obviously, I'm the older person, you know, but it is good, because I think it's, you know, it shows that it's for everyone. I mean, there's not an age barrier. And there's not a weight barrier. There's not any kind of barrier, except you have to be a type one and you have to want this device. And it's just but that's how are we got hooked up and we kind of it kind of slacked off a little bit when we became the marketing went over to a Sensia. And they had that agreement with a Sensia. And then they picked four or five of the original people and and you know, we're still very close, we have our own little group chats and things like that. So and it's good because now I know if I have a question or if they have a question we can get with each other. It's it that is the greatest thing. I think younger people or anybody now, Facebook has pages, you know, people like you who are spreading the word. I mean, if there had been This, I think I would have felt so much better. I mean it I'm almost getting teary here. But I think I would have felt so much more inclusive, then than I felt for many, many, many years. So I think that you're doing a wonderful thing by spreading the word and helping people and sharing. And I think you know, somebody like your son, who's 19 is going to have a whole different experience with this than I did. And, you know, because you just by 40, you've gone through all those teenage angst and everything but and I was done having children everything, but then it's like, what the heck now? i What is this, you know, coming on, and I was healthy at that time. And I'm like, What did I ever do? Never did drugs, never smoked. Never, you know, there wasn't all the information about immune system, autoimmune and it runs in my family. We have so much autoimmune disease, but not type one. Yeah. So but the patient ambassador, it's a greatest group, we have a blast when we get together. That's awesome. Well, Stacey Simms  41:10   doing the show is truly a privilege for me, you know, getting to talk to people like you and learning so much. I really appreciate it. Diane, thank you so much for joining me. I hope we connect again soon. So Dianne Mattisse  41:21   and I hope you are very good at that editing.  

In this episode we talk with Pascal Lemieux, a passionate advocate for health and wellness, with a specific focus on type 1 diabetes management and endurance sports.  His blend of personal experience and professional dedication makes him an invaluable voice in the dialogue on type 1 diabetes care. His involvement in the planning and organization of the special workshop and presentations devoted to type 1 diabetes management at the upcoming Symposium for Metabolic Health January 11-14, 2024 in Boca Raton is a testament to his experience and passion for making a difference in the lives of those affected by this disease. Use the code TYPE1BOCA to get a 20% discount Pascal was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 11 and has navigated through various complications associated with the condition, including proliferative retinopathy, gastroparesis, and severe hypoglycemia. These challenges have deeply shaped his understanding and approach to diabetes management.  In 2020, he took a significant step in his career by pursuing nursing, aiming to leverage his personal insights to assist others dealing with type 1 diabetes. This professional shift underscores his commitment to making a tangible impact in the diabetes community. A turning point in his journey was the discovery of the benefits of a low-carb diet in 2014. Inspired by Dr. Richard K. Bernstein's "Diabetes Solution," Pascal adopted a very low-carb diet that remarkably controlled his diabetes, reversed many of his complications, and significantly reduced his insulin dosage. This approach not only transformed his health but also fueled his passion to educate and support others in managing type 1 diabetes. "I was shocked because no one ever told me about this way of managing type 1 diabetes," he said. Despite skepticism from his endocrinologist, Pascal persisted, and the results were remarkable: "My A1C went down to 6.7, then 6.4, then 6.2. Now it is 5.4 (normal, non-diabetic range). My retinopathy reversed, my frozen shoulder went away, my trigger fingers are now perfect, and I lost 60 pounds."  His transformation extended to his passion for marathons, where he proved that a low-carb diet could sustain intense physical activity. "In 2017, I ran a marathon, requiring only 25 grams of carbohydrate... I still had energy to go even further," he said. He subsequently ran 60 kilometers in one day and required only 40 grams of carbohydrate. “That convinced me that I don't need 300 grams of carbohydrate a day to live. I do fine with eating between 30 and 50 grams of carbohydrate a day.” Recognizing the lack of support and guidance for many with type 1 diabetes, Pascal became a fervent advocate for education and community support. "There's at least 40 plus factors that affect blood glucose in type 1 diabetics... we're trying to cover most topics that are important for someone who wants to try low-carb," he explains. His involvement in organizing workshops and events is driven by a desire to bridge the information gap for both physicians and patients.  His motivation is fueled by the diabetes community's solidarity and success stories. "It's all about the community holding together to change the world," he said, looking forward to the focus on type 1 diabetes at the upcoming Symposium. “It's about empowering patients and physicians with knowledge and practical tips." You can see all the topics to be covered at the Symposium here. His story is a testament to the power of personal transformation and the impact of community-driven support. His journey from battling the complications of type 1 diabetes to becoming a leading advocate for dietary management and patient empowerment is truly inspirational. His experience, shared in this podcast, is not just informative but a call to action for better understanding and management of type 1 diabetes. Register for the 2024 Boca Symposium for Metabolic Health here.

Back in February, I shared my experience visiting Dr. Jeff Galvin at Vitality Medical Wellness Institute to embark on a new approach to caring for my health.What followed was a thorough examination that ventured far beyond what one typically receives from their primary care physician.Dr. Galvin and his team have a meticulous approach and toolkit that goes beyond standard tests, offering a deeper understanding of one's health.What sets his approach apart is the level of personalization. No two individuals are the same, and he tailors the healthcare journey accordingly.My journey was multifaceted, with a focus on recalibrating body composition. This involved reducing body fat, especially the perilous visceral fat, managing insulin resistance, and promoting lean muscle gain.After six months of dedication to Dr. Galvin's plan, the results were nothing short of astonishing. I went from 31% body fat to a mere 13%, shedding a remarkable 34 pounds of fat while gaining 17 pounds of muscle. My visceral fat, which poses the highest health risks, dropped from 3.8 pounds to a mere 1.4 pounds. My A1C levels, an indicator of diabetes risk, improved drastically.What's truly remarkable is not just the physical changes but the boost in self-esteem and confidence that also comes with it.The purpose of this episode is to motivate you to take the first step in transforming your health to create a longer health span.If you'd like to learn more, tune in for the specifics of my health transformation journey and the remarkable aspects of Dr. Galvin's healthcare approach.Key TakeawaysIntro (00:00)Dr. Jeff Galvin's approach to health (03:39)Personalized medicine and health transformation (10:35)Improving insulin resistance for better health (14:20)Functional nutrition based on individual physiology (17:35)Weight loss vs weight redistribution (21:08)Empowered self-esteem after lifestyle changes (26:04)Making great choices to create a healthspan (28:15)Ongoing health optimization (29:13)Additional Resources

In 2021, I did a routine annual blood test. My A1C, which measures your blood sugar levels, came back as 5.7%. This number was indicative of being borderline prediabetic. The range for prediabetes is between 5.7% - 6.4%. Anything higher than 6.4% is considered diabetic. My cholesterol levels were also a little bit high. I was completely baffled because I worked out regularly, was not overweight, and ate a (somewhat) healthy/normal diet. My doctor informed me that my A1C was slowly rising each year by .1%. My first thought was to eliminate all sugar, because well, as we have all been told, sugar causes diabetes, right? WRONG! Roughly a year later in April 2022, I intensely researched if there was a way to reverse prediabetes, and to my surprise, I found a way to do it simply by eating a whole food plant-based diet. In this episode I share tons of studies I came across, doctors (i.e., Dr. Neal Barnard) who are spreading the word about this transformative diet, and incredible documentaries I recommend watching that discuss how the meat, dairy, and pharmaceutical industries make a profit over making us sick through the foods we eat. I also share recipe ideas and how you can make a change in your diet to live a healthier life. I am happy to say that through this plant-based/vegan diet, I was able to reverse my prediabetes' and lower my cholesterol levels in just as little as one week. Please leave 5 stars if you enjoyed this episode and be sure to subscribe/follow the show for new episodes.

“It's well understood that this chronic disease (type 2 diabetes) is linked to lifestyle. Combine a diet high in sugar (including fruits, honey, and starch, all of which turn into varying amounts of sugar when digested) with a lack of exercise and the results will be type 2 diabetes with the miserable complications that come with it.” (An excerpt from Dr. Richard Jacoby, co-author of Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage, and Reclaim Good Health.” I want to welcome you back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast where we bridge the gap between theory and practice, with strategies, tools and ideas we can all use immediately, applied to the most current brain research to heighten productivity in our schools, sports environments and modern workplaces. I'm Andrea Samadi and launched this podcast almost 4 years ago, to share how important an understanding of our brain is for our everyday life and results.  For today's episode #275, we will revisit one of my favorite episodes #117[i] on “The Damaging Impact of Sugar on the Brain and Body” to review what we covered, and see if there's anything else important that the research has revealed. There's a lot that's NEW with this topic, but as I reviewed this past episode, I had completely forgotten some of the details we covered a few years ago, that are very important.  Today we will cover:  ✔What sugar does to the brain, cognition and well-being. ✔How sugar contributes to cognitive decline and Alzheimer's Disease. ✔That we all have individual journeys on our pathway towards optimal health and well-being. ✔Where my health took a turn towards wellness in 2005 and again in 2014 with the hope that my health story will give you some thoughts with your health story. ✔We looked at 2 people's blood glucose results to see what each person learned from using a glucose monitor. ✔3 Tips You Can Implement Immediately for Improved Health, Clarity and Well-Being. You can review this past episode by clicking on the link in the show notes but for today's episode, we are going to dive a bit deeper with what sugar does to the brain, body, cognition and our health by tying in what has emerged since that first episode. We will look at the results of two people who've been tracking their blood glucose levels with the Freestyle Libre Glucose Monitor[ii]  to see what patterns emerge eating certain foods. The first individual we will look at, had A1C levels that have recently gone into the danger zone, signaling type-2 diabetes, showing an A1C level of over 8.5 on a recent blood test. I'm the second chart, and am not insulin resistant, but know that sugar doesn't work for me at all. I don't need a blood test to know that it makes me feel horrendous. My A1C levels sit around 5.8, which is in line with someone on a lower carbohydrate, and higher fat diet.[iii] This episode is not about the best diet to choose and when I sat down to write this, I quickly saw that this topic of health, especially as it relates to nutrition is such a challenging and difficult one to cover, as not one size fits all. I do want to acknowledge that there are many different diet plans out there, and that I'm not here to say one is better than another. I recognize that it's downright frustrating when you are doing everything the right way, (eating clean and exercising) and you are seeing zero results. This seems to be especially true in the area of weight loss, where I recently saw a post from Chris Cornell, who shares his weight loss strategies on Twitter, and asked what ended up being a highly controversial question “why are most people unable to achieve significant and sustainable weight (fat) loss through lifestyle modifications?” He added “I'm guessing some people have something amiss with their regulatory mechanism. For many, I believe it's that they are unable to regulate the crap foods they've been eating.” I'll share what I learned over the past few weeks that might shed some light into why it's so difficult to make shift with what we eat, and why one bad food choice can often set us up to sabotage ourselves to continue making poor food choices with that snowball effect.  Today we will put the focus on what we can control (using the data I uncovered with this glucose monitor) to inform our action steps at the end of this episode. There's so much to this problem that includes things we can't control (our heredity, hormones, stress levels to name a few factors) so I'm going to make it easy.   Let's focus ONLY on what sugar does to the brain and body. I want to acknowledge that we are all different, and your path is probably going to be different from mine, but I'm sure some of what I will share will resonate with you. We all hit a point where we know something isn't right, and go to the doctor looking for a solution. I really don't believe in accidents, and when we “feel” like something is off with our health, I think it's important to listen to our intuition here, and look into it. My journey towards looking for the “right diet” plan began in 2005 (before I had children) when I was looking for a solution for why my feet were going numb during exercise, and there were many twists and turns along the way, before things began to “click” for me. When I felt that something was off with numbness in my feet,  I went to a foot doctor to look for answers. Looking back now, this decision, I think moved the needle of health and wellness the most for me personally over the past 2 decades, as the foot doctor I went to see was Dr. Richard Jacoby, the author of Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage and Reclaim Good Health.[iv] Dr. Jacoby[v] took one look at me and said “you don't look like the typical patient I usually see.  People come to me in their late 50s and 60s” (I was around 33 back then and people who were in their 50s (like I am today) were ancient to me so I was starting to think I was in the wrong place). He went on to say that people came in with different types of health problems, and his job was to help them solve these problems.” Over the years, he became excellent with his advice for people, leading him to appear in many of those Top Doctor Lists for 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010) and he just asked his patients to do 2 things. He asked them to eliminate sugar from their diet, and make sure they are taking omega-3 fatty acids, since most Americans are deficient here.[vi]  I started to think maybe my running shoes were too tight and felt bad for wasting his time, as I didn't think his advice was going to help me, but I looked at him and said, “that's easy enough” as I was already doing one of his suggestions. Next was to eliminate sugar, which I did, not know how much it would completely change my health. Of course, our health requires constant work, and this change didn't last forever. My next turn was around 2014, 10 years later. I remember cooking my children dinner, standing at the stove, and not knowing what I should eat, leading me to google “healthy eating” and that led me to the work of fitness model and trainer, Jason Wittrock[vii], known as the blood sugar king. Jason is on a war against diabetes and obesity, that we will mention a bit later on this episode. The point here is that there's no straight line. I think we all have our own individual path to figure out with our own “individual secrets” to unlock our optimal levels of health, and I've still not figured all of mine out yet, but as I'm approaching age 52, I feel better now, than I did at age 30. Dr. Jacoby's book Sugar Crush says it all. He says that:  It was not an accident that I ended up at Dr. Jacoby's offices that day, and I thought about him while actually measuring my glucose levels for this episode. Before I get to the results of what each of us discovered in this process of measuring our glucose levels, I think it's important to note what we learned on that first episode that I had forgotten because we can't remember everything, just what's important to us—and this is very important at the moment.  Since last week's episode was about “Building a Faster, Stronger, Resilient Brain, by Understanding Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)”[viii] or the compound that Dr. Ratey says is crucial for preventing cognitive decline and Alzheimer's Disease. I want to focus this episode on something Dr. Ratey said that really made me think. He said, did you know that “High glucose levels are toxic to the brain, and limits the production of this glorious compound BDNF that has such a profound effect on cognition and well-being?” Dr. Ratey's quote made me think back to a BONUS episode I did for Podbean's Wellness week[ix] that goes right along with what Dr. Ratey said. It was a quote from Dr. David Perlmutter, who wrote the foreword to Dr. Ratey's book Go Wild![x] and it was Dr. Perlmutter's documentary on Alzheimer's Disease that made me think hard about our Top 5 Health and Wellness staples. Dr. Perlmutter said DID YOU KNOW THAT: Sugar in the brain “looks like Alzheimer's” in the brain, and that “60% of cognitive decline is related to how you handle blood sugar?”[xi]  He says that “elevated blood sugar shrinks the brain.”  I had to take these words and create a visual to bring this to light. Sometimes you can hear the words of something, but until you can actually see and feel the words come to life, like the image I put in the show notes, there isn't as much meaning to what we might be reading. I think the image of a healthy brain, next to a severely shrunken Alzheimer's brain, is an image I'll never forget. It was sugar that caused this brain to shrink.   Remember that quote from Dr. Dale Bredesen from our last episode that said: Why would any of us knowingly choose this for ourselves? Why would we buy each other gifts at holidays that include things that science reveals are toxic to the brain? Why do teachers reward children with candy at school? Why do we stand around eating cake at the end of a church service? I know, because it tastes good. But it's here we will take the information we are learning, connect the dots to form knowledge and then apply this knowledge to become wise. This is where we go from theory to practice with this podcast. I might be told I'm a bit on the boring side these days, as I'm cutting out all the food that are fun for us, but I'm doing this with the purpose of improving clarity, focus and performance on a day to day basis. WHAT DID WE LEARN BY MEASURING BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS? I'm sure you've seen people measuring their blood sugar, and sharing how this data helps them to make better choices with the foods they eat. I first saw this device with Jason Wittrock,[xii] who we mentioned earlier, and interviewed on EP 94[xiii]. If you go to his Instagram page, you'll see many tests he's done with a variety of different foods, drinks and snacks to see how each one affects his blood sugar levels, and there were many surprises.  If you're curious, go to his page and look at his tests, especially when he tested white rice. It was interesting that hot white rice spiked his blood sugar into the danger zone, but when he applied the cooling theory and put the rice in the fridge for 24 hours, it kept his blood sugar in the safe zone. He mentions at the end of every episode that the foods that took his blood sugar into the danger zone should be avoided by someone who is insulin resistant or who has type 2 diabetes. Week 1: Feb 3-10  You can see my week one blood sugar averages as very stable, around 96 mg, with no spikes anywhere.  That first week, I almost gave up measuring as I pretty much eat the same foods every day and I was getting the same spikes every day. Around 9am I eat breakfast (usually Ezekiel bread with peanut butter) and you can see this is typically when my blood sugar spikes the most, around 9am. Since I'm not diabetic, my blood sugar goes back to normal pretty quickly.  Around 12pm I'll have a protein shake with almond milk, (with strawberries, avocado, spinach and fiber) that doesn't spike blood sugar, and usually around 3pm I'll have eggs (sometimes with bacon) with the other avocado half. Everything on my chart was predictable, no surprises, even on the days that I ate some chocolate, something I do when I have writing blocks. Since I'm not diabetic or insulin resistant, small amounts of sugar don't seem to do much to my blood sugar. But look at what happened when I travelled in week 2.  Week 2, I was away from home, and ate something I don't usually eat. Normally, I bring food with me when I travel, as it does save money and time trying to find a place to eat, but this time, it was a quick trip, so I didn't.  Look at the second graph in the show notes and you can see what happened when I was away for the weekend. You will see 2 times my blood sugar rose up. Once with a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread from a place called Jersey Mikes around 3pm, and again around 9pm that night. I usually follow an eating schedule where I would never eat past 5:30pm at night (intermittent fasting where I don't eat for a 16 hour window, and eat healthy foods in an 8 hour window) but the event we were at ended late, so a group of us decided to order food from a local Thai restaurant. I love Thai food (especially Pad Thai) so that's what I ordered. This meal (that was delicious) but it took my blood sugar way over 200, putting me in the danger zone with this meal. It did stable out in the night, but here's what was interesting for me. Whenever I eat something off my usual plan, I feel starving the next day. It just messes up the whole next day for me, and while it was worth it to sit and enjoy a meal with others, it is good to know what happens to our body when we overload it with high glucose foods.  If you look at the second graph, the next day, my blood sugar kept dipping too low (where it dipped low and was showing red, was when I felt insanely hungry) and it would've been easy to eat something else off the usual menu, showing how one choice can impact the series of choices you make over the next few days. This was eye-opening to me.  Now let's look at the graph of someone who has just crossed the threshold of being diabetic. I didn't even pick a sugary food for this example, which would have obviously spiked blood sugar.  What happens to someone who is diabetic?  “Diabetes is a problem with your body that causes blood sugar (also called blood glucose) levels to rise higher than normal. This is also called hyperglycemia. When you eat, your body breaks food down into sugar and sends it into the blood. Insulin then helps move the sugar from the blood into your cells.”[xiv]  For a person with diabetes, there is a problem with insulin. But, not everyone with diabetes has the same problem. There are different types of diabetes—type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. If you have type 2 diabetes, your body does not use insulin properly. This is called insulin resistance. At first, your cells make extra insulin to make up for it. But, over time your pancreas can't make enough insulin to keep your blood sugar at normal levels. Type 2 diabetes develops most often in middle-aged and older adults but can appear in young people. WEEK 1 with TYPE 2 DIABETIC PERSON: Week 1 he noticed spikes with foods that were high in carbs (like bread) that stayed high well into the night and only started to come down to normal levels by 9am.  The obvious take-away from this was that for someone who has passed the threshold with diabetes, or in the danger zone that they will eventually need to see the doctor to take medicine to keep their blood sugar levels stable. For some people, diet and exercise could be the answer to regulate blood sugar, but if your blood sugar is staying high, for too long, remember “glucose in the brain is toxic to the brain” and that “elevated blood sugar shrinks the brain” or even that “sugar in the brain looks like Alzheimer's in the brain. If you are insulin resistant or have type 2 diabetes, then knowing how your body reacts to sugar could be the difference between life and death. WEEK 2   Be careful of thinking "I've got this" and make a poor food choice. Here's the graph after eating homemade pizza. A better choice for pizza dough would be cauliflower pizza dough that you can find at your local grocery store that keeps blood sugar levels stable. Once you have seen and felt a blood sugar spike, especially for someone working hard to keep their blood sugar levels stable, this was enough to make this person choose foods that did not cause a blood sugar spike and glucose levels remained under 150. Until they thought “oh I've got this blood sugar thing” and made homemade pizza with store bought dough, you will see this raised his blood sugar well into the danger zone over 200, just like my Pad Thai. REVIEW AND CONCLUSION So taking what we learned from our last episode on the damaging impacts of sugar on the brain, we know that glucose is toxic to the brain, so a person with this data would now need to make a data informed decision to not eat foods that spike their blood sugar.  This is one of those things that's easier said than done. How do you make huge lifestyle changes like this? I think it gets to the point that you'll do it if your life depends on it. Like I remember that math teacher, Sergei with tears in his eyes on the hiking trail. You'll make changes when your doctor tells you loud and clear you have no other option.  Make room for your health or you'll need to make room for your illness.  We will conclude this episode with some tips on how to make actionable changes if you don't know where to begin in your journey towards improved health and well-being. TIP 1: LEARN WHAT FOODS ARE LOW-GLYCEMIC and replace what you used to eat (that spiked your blood sugar) with something else that doesn't. This is going to be the biggest change as I remember looking at Dr. Jacoby and saying, “you mean bananas are high in sugar?” and he said “yes” and handed me a list of low glycemic fruits that included blueberries and raspberries (that Jason Wittrock tested and they kept his blood sugar low).  I found some great resources for low glycemic foods from Dr. Daniel Amen.[xv] TIP 2: DISCOVER THE MEAL PLAN THAT MAKES YOU FEEL THE BEST: There's so many different options and I only chose the meal plan I eat because in my late 20s I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome[xvi] (the most common causes of female infertility) and who would have known that the diet plan that would work the best for me, and completely reverse this health problem, was to eat a diet similar to someone who is diabetic. I bought the PCOS Diet Book[xvii] that surprisingly was written to also help protect someone against diabetes and heart disease. TIP 3: READ LABELS Read Labels and Know How to Identify Sugar to Make Better Choices: It's shocking how many foods have hidden sugars. Did you know “The average American consumes 150 lbs. of sugar a year” (Dr. Amen) This makes sense when there's so many foods labeled as healthy, with hidden sugars added. Making the following changes will change your brain, improve cognition, focus and help lead you towards improved results, and away from diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease. I hope you find these tips as helpful as I did. I only discovered this pathway because I so happened to book an appointment with a doctor who believes that peripheral neuropathy (that numbness I felt in my feet during exercise) is an early sign for what he's seen in his patients over the years… The final thoughts come from Dr. Jacoby, who pleads with us: I'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Do you know how YOUR body responds to sugar? Have you ever measured your glucose levels? This data will help inform many of your decisions related to the foods you will eat. I know I'm going to stick to eating those low glycemic foods that keep my blood sugar levels and hunger levels stable, until I make it back to my hometown in Toronto, where I'll order a Hawaiian slice at the famous Pizza Pizza with extra pineapple, and I'll enjoy every bite of it, because you only live once! I'll see you next week as we revisit EP #119 on “The Key Ingredients of Learning with the Brain in Mind” FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:  YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi   Website https://www.achieveit360.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samadi/  Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Achieveit360com   Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697   Twitter: https://twitter.com/andreasamadi   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreasamadi/  REFERENCES: [i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #117 “The ‘Damaging Impact of Sugar on the Brain and Body” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-damaging-impact-of-sugar-on-the-brain-and-body-with-andrea-samadi/ [ii] https://www.freestyle.abbott/us-en/home.html [iii] Lower carbohydrate and higher fat intakes are associated with higher hemoglobin A1c: findings from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2008-2016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7413867/ [iv] Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage and Reclaim Good Health by Dr. Richard Jacoby (April 2014)  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KPVB4OA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 [v] http://phoenixfootcarenetwork.com/ [vi] Study finds most Americans low in omega-3 fatty acids Published May 24, 2021 by Danielle Masterson https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Article/2021/05/24/Study-finds-most-Americans-low-in-omega-3-fatty-acids-could-impact-mood#:~:text=Subscribe-,Study%20finds%20most%20Americans%20low%20in%20omega,fatty%20acids%2C%20could%20impact%20mood&text=New%20research%20has%20found%20that,on%20the%20US%20Dietary%20Guidelines. [vii] Jason Wittrock https://www.instagram.com/jason.wittrock/?hl=en [viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #114 on “Building a Faster, Stronger, More Resilient Brain by Understanding Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor or BDNF”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-building-a-faster-stronger-resilient-brain-by-understanding-brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor-bdnf/ [ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EPISODE “Review of the Top 5 Health Staples Created for Podbean's Wellness Week” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/bonus-episode-a-deep-dive-into-the-top-5-health-staples-and-review-of-seasons-1-4/ [x] Go Wild: Eat fat, Run Free, Be Social, and Follow Evolution's Other Rules for Total Health and Well-Being by John J. Ratey, MD and Richard Manning (June 3, 2014) https://www.amazon.com/Go-Wild-Free-Afflictions-Civilization-ebook/dp/B00FPQA66C [xi] Dr. David Perlmutter's “Alzheimer's: The Science of Prevention” https://scienceofprevention.com/ [xii] https://www.instagram.com/jason.wittrock/?hl=en [xiii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #94 with Jason Wittrock on “Health, Intermittent Fasting, and the Ketogenic Diet” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/personal-trainer-and-fitness-model-jason-wittrock-on-health-nutrition-intermittent-fasting-and-the-ketogenic-diet/ [xiv] https://diabetes.org/ [xv] 4 Feel Better Food Strategies by Daniel Amen https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/4-feel-better-fast-food-strategies/#:~:text=Most%20vegetables%2C%20legumes%2C%20and%20fruits,blood%20sugar)%20are%20smart%20carbs.[xvii] The PCOS Diet Book by Collette Harris  https://www.amazon.com/PCOS-Diet-Book-nutritional-polycystic/dp/0007131844  

Colleen: Weight was never an issue for me. Everyone in my family was slim and I was a pretty small child. At one point my pediatrician told my mom that I was too small. It wasn't until around 2013 that I slowly began adding weight on. I have never been someone who weighs every day, but I began to notice that every season I'd have to buy bigger clothes. I could tell I was getting bigger and I didn't like to look in the mirror or have my picture taken but that was never really enough motivation to do anything about it. Then in June 2020 Jeremy's younger brother, Jason, died unexpectedly from a massive heart attack. That was the wakeup call we needed to get our lives back in order. We had a young toddler and knew we had to find a way to lose weight and get healthy for her. I was 244 pounds when we started. My results were immediate, I lost 20 pounds in the first month of fasting. I was down to 186 pounds by April 2021. Jeremy: I was born into an obese family. “The Bryant's are big people” is a line I've heard many times over the years. I had two brothers who looked like the other Bryant's but I was thin and “scrawny.” My entire childhood, I felt left out and always wanted to be the size of the other Bryant's. It wasn't until my metabolism slowed down after high school that I put on a bunch of weight and became obese. I loved it. When I was 24 and, in the Army, I weighed 260 and was 50 pounds heavier than the maximum weight the Army would allow someone of my height. I was given an ultimatum: lose the weight and keep it off or leave the Army. I lost 50 pounds by cutting calories and eating 3 meals with snacks between, and exercising. I quickly gained back all of those 50 pounds. Instead of trying to lose the weight again, I chose to leave the Army early. For the next 20 years, I never got below 280, maxing out at 308. Whenever I would get past 300, I would buckle down and lose 20 pounds or so, only to gain it back. My two brothers and I were all diagnosed with diabetes in our early to mid-40s. In 2020, just after Covid hit, one of my brothers had a heart attack that he survived, and my little brother had a heart attack that he did not survive. He was 47. My older brother had been reading Dr. Fung's books and told me and my wife all about them. We immediately started OMAD, but even doing OMAD, I wasn't always eating healthy foods when I would eat. I ate a ton of sweet Thanksgiving and Christmas goodies at the end of 2021 and had my bloodwork done at the doctor on December 27. My A1C was 13.2!!! I was shocked!!! Even with OMAD, my diabetes was out of control. On the night that the results came in the mail, my wife and I sat down and had a heart to heart about my health. I had hit bottom and was ready to change my life. My wife had read the Fasting Highway, and went and grabbed it and read me some excerpts from it. I could relate to everything, including the secret car binges, etc. I made a vow that evening to stop eating sugar, in all its awful forms. I made list that night of things that I would improve. There were no goals. I just stopped doing them. Since making the change, we immediately started losing weight again. In 3 months, my A1C dropped to 7.0. I've lost 46 pounds. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/graeme-currie/message

Lauren is the Founder of Risely Health, a virtual Diabetic Health Coach, Yoga Instructor, and the Author of the Diabetic Health Journal. Lauren coaches T1D'S all over the world to achieve optimal diabetes management using her 360-degree approach, emphasizing wellness throughout the mind, body, and soul. She will discuss how her diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes changed her whole life and took her down a path she never imagined for herself. https://laurenbongiorno.com/Lauren Bongiorno Bio:"When I was 19 and home from school on Christmas break, I walked into my endocrinologist's office and they told me something jaw dropping.The news? My A1C was a 5.7- the best it had ever been since being diagnosed at 7. When the doctor told me, my mom hugged me with the biggest smile on her face and my endocrinologist started bragging to the nurse how much of a “star” diabetic example I was. While this celebratory moment was going down between the nurse, my endocrinologist and my mom, I couldn't help but feel so defeated. I know, not what you'd expect to hear.  On paper I was healthy, but deep down inside I didn't feel that way... When everyone around you keeps telling you how strong and amazing you are, but the way you feel doesn't match up, you feel like a fraud and like you're letting them down. This shouldn't have been the case. But it's how I felt. In college I wanted to lose weight, stabilize my blood sugars, and feel more in control of my diabetes. But I went down the path of restriction and obsession which ultimately got me a near perfect A1C but left me with a horrible relationship with food, an unsustainably restrictive lifestyle, and feeling less in control of my life then ever before. In short, here's what I learned at that time of my life about diabetes management: if you're interested in eating every meal at home, saying no to the movies with friends because you know the popcorn will be too tempting, restricting carbs, spending every 30 seconds checking your blood sugar, and scheduling your life around cardio machines in FEAR of not being enough, striving for perfection, and proving your worth to others, then you too can have a perfect A1C.I realized at my rock bottom ( after losing my menstrual cycle for almost 5 years from putting so much stress on my body) that seeing the endocrinologist every 3-6 months and depending on her for a “one stop diabetes shop” wasn't going to help me holistically move into the life I wanted: having more peace of mind, confidence in myself, stronger mentally and physically, more energized empowered, a good friend/daughter/ girlfriend, and simply the best, kick ass version of myself...I eventually found that the answer was in unraveling my old habits in what I was thinking and doing, looking inwards at what did/ did not serve me, and building a new, stronger relationship with myself, my diabetes, exercise, food, stress...everything. I understand how it feels to be frustrated by lack of results and trying to figure out what the “right answer” is to feeling your best balanced self is. Trust me, I've tried it all, I get it. But the truth is, when you prioritize your self care mentally, emotionally, and physically, you don't have to choose between freedom and good blood sugars. You can have both. I was supposed to go to law school just like my dad ( my younger sister Dana is now his retirement plan!) I wanted to fight to improve our food and health care system. But I decided to become a health coach instead. I made a last minute switch because I realized I didn't want to fight for years and years to create change. I wanted to empower and guide others to see a better way of doing things for themselves."Make sure to subscribe & review Lady Empire above for the opportunity to be featured!

Ernie Prado was diagnosed with type 1 as a teenager and is now a project engineer at NASA. He has a terrific story and it's not exactly what you'd expect. Ernie wasn't a diabetes superstar who lived a perfect diabetes life all along. We're so grateful he was generous enough to share the real story! This is our first in a new series of "Classic Episodes." In addition to our regular Tuesday episodes, we'll bring you an additional episode like this every Thursday. What’s a classic episode? It’s an interview that aired a long time ago but isn't dated in a way that takes away from the experience. We’ve been around for a while, so there’s a good chance you missed some of these back in 2015 or 2016. Stacey first spoke to Ernie Prado in 2016 and he's now the Project Engineer for something called the Super Guppy. He says it transports outsize spaceflight cargo in support of Artemis which will take the first woman and next man to the moon. Check it out here Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Episode Transcription: Stacey Simms  0:00 This episode of Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Inside the Breakthrough, a new history of science podcast full of digital stuff with quite a few laughs along the way.   Announcer  0:15 This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  0:21 Welcome to a Classic episode of Diabetes Connections, something a little new this year. But as always, we aim to educate and inspire by sharing stories of connection with a focus on people who use insulin. I am your host, Stacey Simms, and I am really glad that you are here. So I said something new starting this week in 2021. In addition to our regular Tuesday episodes, I'm going to be bringing you an additional episode like this on Thursdays. So what is a classic episode, it is an interview that has already aired a long time ago, but it is still what we would call evergreen. It's not dated in a way that takes away from listening to it. Now we have a lot of episodes. We've been around for a while. So there is a good chance that you missed some of these interviews back in 2015, or 2016. And these are really interesting, fun people and I wanted to bring their stories to a wider audience. This week, you are going to hear the story of a NASA engineer, a rocket scientist who lives with type one. Ernie Prado has a really great story. But it's not exactly what you would expect. He wasn't a diabetes superstar who lived a perfect diabetes life all along. And I'm really grateful that he was generous enough to share the real story you will hear from Ernie in just a moment. But first, these classic episodes are brought to you by a brand new podcast. And this is pretty cool to have a sponsor who is also a podcast. So let me tell you all about this. This is inside the breakthrough. A new history of science podcast full of Did you know stuff like did you know Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were really good buddies. They even work together on an electric car, and it still failed. Episode One dives into stories including Archimedes yelling Eureka while naked in the streets and Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin by accident inside the breakthrough was created by SciMar SciMar is a group of Canadian researchers dedicated to changing the way we detect, treat and even reverse type two diabetes. This show is historical wisdom mixed with modern insight with quite a few laughs along the way. I've listened to it. It's a great show really high production value, great host and great information search for inside the breakthrough anywhere you listen to podcasts and at Diabetes connections.com. It has been almost five years since I first spoke to Ernie. What is he doing now? He is the project engineer for something called the super Guppy. It sounds funny, but this thing is really amazing. I'll put a photo and a story behind it in the Diabetes Connections Facebook group, Ernie tells me it transports outsize spaceflight cargo in support of Artemis, which will take the first woman and next man to the moon. So pretty important job really interesting stuff. And I think as you listen to this interview, you'll see that Ernie is really where he wants to be. Please remember, this podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. So here is my interview with NASA's Ernie Prado from June of 2016. Ernie, thank you so much for making some time to talk to me today. I really appreciate it. Yeah, before we get to the rocket science and NASA and everything that's going on now, take me back to the beginning you were diagnosed with Type One Diabetes at the age of 15. Did you know at that point, that you wanted to have some kind of career with the space program?   Ernie Prado  3:55 Oh, yeah. So my life goal, I guess when I was younger, I was always drawn to space and airplanes. And my mom said, I cry if I didn't watch Star Trek when I was like four. So I wanted to be an astronaut. And before that I wanted to be a fighter pilot and fly f 18. So I was always drawn towards this and my goal was to end up in space.   Stacey Simms  4:18 Well, you were diagnosed, as I said, age 15. The diagnosis was about, let's say 15 years ago, you're you're 29 you're 30   Ernie Prado  4:26 Yeah, it's half half my life now. Yeah. Um,   Stacey Simms  4:31 what did the doctor tell you at that point was that you have type one. And you're never going to do these things that you always wanted to do? Or was it a little bit more kind?   Ernie Prado  4:41 So actually, the past few months, I've been trying to figure out the exact date I was diagnosed just because, you know, I've been reading about folks and a lot of folks have a die of diversity. And I kind of was trying to figure out mine. And I've been thinking about that actually contacted the hospital. And unfortunately, I don't have the records. More, but I don't remember the doctor saying, you know, you're not gonna be able to do a lot of this. I feel like I've encountered more that, you know, outside of maybe the medical community. So I've been lucky enough to take part in a medical study from with FA and utmb about trying to get folks of chronic conditions like diabetes into space through companies like Virgin Galactic, and XCOR. And so I got to go into centrifuge. And that's pretty cool thing for diabetics to do. I did encounter some resistance when I was trying to become a flight controller. And so at the time, I had other projects coming up, so I kind of, you know, let that go to the wayside. But I haven't stopped me from doing most of the things I wanted to do. Maybe a few, but I try to find ways around it and still do them anyway.   Stacey Simms  5:52 Yeah, and I want to talk more about that. I'm just trying to kind of figure out what this was like for teenage you. Because that's a tough time anyway, and to be diagnosed at age 15. When you're hopefully, you know, you're busy with a lot of other things. Do you remember what it was like at that point in your life to make that kind of change?   Ernie Prado  6:10 Yeah, it was really hard, actually. So I came to accept that a lot more about the time I was 18. I was about three years after those first three years were a little bit difficult. Because, unfortunately, and you know, I love my mom to death, but she kind of told me not to talk about my diabetes, and to not let people know I had it. And over the years, I've realized that was a little bit, not probably not the best method to approach it. And so I dealt with it on my own a lot or just with support at home and from my family. You know,   Stacey Simms  6:44 I'm sorry to interrupt. I've heard that from other people that at, it seems like a better idea to try to avoid discrimination, ignorance by kind of just keeping it to yourself, is that maybe what your mother was trying to do?   Ernie Prado  6:59 I think so. And, you know, I think she did with the best intentions. But it was, it was really difficult to not talk about something that I considered So in general, about myself, because it was kind of thrust on me and said, hey, you're earning now you're diabetic, and, you know, it was through no fault of my own, it just happened. So it would be the same thing, as you know, having like a really strong interest in you know, like space, I wouldn't be able to hide that. I didn't want to hide the fact that I was out back. When I got to college, I started telling everybody and you know, I've continued that. But it was difficult, you know, to try to explain why I wasn't eating certain things around my friends, or why couldn't go out sometimes, or why I had to stop playing football and wrestling and all that. So it was a, I'd say it was a pretty good difficult time in my teenage years.   Stacey Simms  7:49 And you had to stop playing sports was that because of I'm gonna just guess, because your mom was not comfortable? Or was it something that happened?   Ernie Prado  7:57 Yeah, partly that. And my first doctor, I think, you know, in the abundance of caution said, you know, you might want to take it off for a little bit and learn about your diabetes and how to manage it. And it might have been understood as he shouldn't be playing sports anymore. But depressing. Yeah.   Stacey Simms  8:18 Well, okay, so you get to college. You're you. You're telling everybody you have diabetes, what you study in college, were you now going ahead with the engineering with the career in space program?   Ernie Prado  8:31 Yeah, absolutely. So when I got to college, actually declared my major before getting except for as soon as I got accepted, I believe. And I chose to pursue a double major in aeronautical sciences and engineering, and then mechanical engineering. Because I figured, you know, if maybe right now, I can't fly, or do what I want. I'm going to get involved somehow at NASA. And luckily enough, it ended working out. And I kept my majors throughout. And I tried to add a minor and do some pre med stuff, but I ran out of time and money, so I didn't get that.   Stacey Simms  9:03 And were you able to go to work for NASA right away? Where'd you go to work? Um,   Ernie Prado  9:08 so yeah, I was very fortunate. I began working at NASA as a co op at the age of 20. So it was my sophomore year in college, and I've been here since. So it's been about eight and a half a while on this cluster nine years. I've been out here. And so full time for about a little over five years now, though, for the first few years, I went between school and working here at Johnson Space Center. And I think in total of my college time was about a year and a half out here. So I really got my degrees in about three and a half years. Although I was in Davis for five years.   Stacey Simms  9:39 What was it like? And maybe this moment happened when you were as you said, you were 20 and you went to work there but you're still in college, or maybe it happened after? What was it like when you walked into NASA and realized I am going to be here, at least in this capacity.   Ernie Prado  9:55 So I'm kind of smiling like I believe right now. Remember that first day I mean, I'd never been to Johnson Space Center before, you know, being hired here. I've been at Kennedy Space Center with my dad, that was my graduation gift from high school, he took me there and in his big truck, and we tried to see a launch of, I believe, is STS 114, which was returned to fly and Stephen Robinson was going to launch that mission, which he was an Aggie from UC Davis. And that's where I was going to school. Then hurricane Ernesto roll through, me and my dad are both named Ernesto, and it hit a lightning tower. So they delayed the launch, and I didn't get to see it. But then, you know, a few years down the road, showing up here and saying, Man, I'm walking the same like ground, the astronauts have walked in flight controllers, and all these people in history. It was this really cool sense of I can't believe it. And I still kind of get that pretty often. It's a really cool job.   Stacey Simms  10:55 It's so amazing when you get to do the things you've always wanted to do. That's a great story. I love hearing that. I was reading an article that the writer and author Moira McCarthy wrote about you more has been on the show a couple of times already. And she talked about I guess you told her, there was a point at which you realize that, you know, diabetes was something that you needed to kind of pay more attention to, during your time at NASA. Can you tell me a little bit about that?   Ernie Prado  11:29 Yeah, so I guess that happened. Because I was working at the NBL, which is the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. It's our big environment for it was a gigantic pool, 6.2 million gallons. And it's the environment where we train astronauts at a spacewalk. Typically, if you're a co-op, in that building, you as a guest, at the end of your rotation, you get to dive in this big pool, which has a mock up of the space station in it. So it's this amazing, cool, cool thing to do. And my A1C was at 13.9. so incredibly high. I wasn't taking care of myself, just because I was stressed at school and more focused on getting good grades and kind of in a, I knew I had to diabetes, and I couldn't get rid of it. But I guess, and even though I told people, I wasn't accepting it, so my mindset was, well, you know, if I don't think about it, I don't have to deal with it. And that was a very poor mindset to have. So once they told me, Well, you know, your sugar is not controlled, you're not gonna be able to dive in this pool. I was, it was kind of a wake up call. And I was going to Well, that's a real bummer, because I don't know if I'll ever get to be here again. Or if I have this opportunity again. And so unfortunately, I didn't get to dive in the pool. But I had a very cool boss, he said, Well, you're still scuba certified. And although the medical folks won't sign off on you to do this, you can still snorkel the pool. So that's exactly what I did. I had my snorkel and I got to go about six feet deep in a 40 foot deep pool, I would have loved to sit on the floor and have my UC Davis flag. But, you know, I still got to hover above the mockups of the Space Station. And actually, there was two astronauts in there when I dove, I think it was Lincoln and Patrick, from STS 130. And I got to see them practicing for their spacewalk that they would do. And then later on, when I was back at school, I got to see them through the spacewalk in space, and I was going, I got to be in that tank with them. So I got I still got to experience it, luckily. But that was the point where not taking care of myself almost hindered something really cool that I could have done.   Stacey Simms  13:29 Okay, so I have a dumb question for you. They learn to spacewalk or they practice spacewalk in in a pool.   Ernie Prado  13:35 Yeah, so it's interesting, you want to think that you learn how to do space walking in a pool. When you're in orbit, you're in microgravity. And you're basically falling at the same rate as gravity, so you kind of just float. And so what the pools can simulate is the weightlessness. What it doesn't simulate is the resistance to movement. So in space, there is no atmosphere. So you can move very easily with very low friction. In comparison to work in a tank, you know, full of water, you have a lot of friction, when you try to move, it's kind of like when you extend your arm and try to swim in the pool. It's very difficult to do. So you can't simulate that, but the weightlessness portion you can. And they do that by attaching weights or foam on to the spaces that are in the pool, and you become neutrally buoyant, hence the name of the laboratory. So you don't sink in, you don't float just kind of hover there in one space and water. And so you actually can't even swim. If you can translate along the mock up or along the space station mock up with the hand rails on like you would on orbit. But if you need to go from one location to another, and you don't have anything to grab onto divers have to come and move you.   Stacey Simms  14:40 Wow. That's amazing. What made you decide Do you remember when you were younger? You said earlier your mom said you got upset if you couldn't watch Star Trek at age four. Okay, first of all next generation or original Star Trek? Very important question,   Ernie Prado  14:55 I believe, I think next generation but I like them all. Now. And when they come on, I will watch them. So I'm a big fan. Anything space related? And I'm in love with.   Stacey Simms  15:07 It's funny but but what would you remember what got you really excited about it as a kid? Was there anything you can think back on and say that, you know, you just really wanted to go into space? We were fascinated by the planets. I'm always curious what, what sparks a passion in someone?   Ernie Prado  15:23 So I feel like that's the hardest question to ask. And it's typically one of the ones that is asked, because it is an interesting thing. But you know, and you always hear the folk folk say, I just got the space bug, and it's kind of like this thing that just happens. So I do remember loving planets, loading stars, loving spaceships, is kind of everything about that. I'm not sure exactly what did I just think I was fascinated. There's one moment that kind of stands out to me, that was pretty neat. And it was this. eight and a half by 11, kind of photo of the first few shuttle astronauts are john young and Bob Crippen, and they were in their orange pumpkin suits. And I just remember looking at that, you know, at the time, I drew on the back and wrote my name, and like pink highlighter, and going, Wow, these folks are really cool. They get to go into space. And it didn't really dawn on me just how cool their job was, for some reason that picture always stands out in my mind. And then, you know, at 21, about a year after I started working here, I actually got to meet john young and shake his hand. Oh, wow. And, you know, so he was the commander of the first shuttle flight. But he also flew in Gemini, and then Apollo and he walked on the moon. So I shook the hand of a Moonwalker. And then that kind of like, is what threw me back to that memory of that of that picture going, whoa, that's really cool. And, you know, I think my dad probably has something to do with it, because he was in love with the shuttle program. And he told me about, you know, driving loads in his truck over to, I think, Edwards Air Force Base and Palmdale when they were building enterprise, which was tested shuttle for kind of clarity, and never flew into space. But it did the approach and landing test, and he has pictures of it, you know, back before the real shuttle ever flew. And then I remember asking him, did you ever think you'd have a kid that worked for NASA? And he said, No. Probably some of his interest rubbed off on me.   Stacey Simms  17:15 That's great. You mentioned earlier, a couple of things I wanted to go through. You mentioned that you were in a centrifuge. Yeah. Tell me about that. What was that was that for testing. And I mean, that's just that's one of my nightmares, to be honest with you. So tell me all about that.   Ernie Prado  17:30 So that was a really awesome experience that happened about three years ago, the commercial space tourism industry is starting to come up, it's still very young, but they need to do your research on how a more average person will fare in the environment of elevated g loads and weightlessness. And so they need to gather data right now, you know, most of the folks that go up into space are I consider them superhuman, these people can take all kinds of abuse, and they're in peak physical health. But that's not everybody that would be interested in going in space. So as they start to open up this market, folks have back problem and lung issues and diabetes and heart problems. They want to understand how they will react to the forces and weightlessness and the stresses that it puts on their body. So one of my friends sent me a link that was saying that, you know, recruiting folks with these kind of conditions, to see how they will fare and I was like, amen. So I went and applied. And before even getting selected, they said, these are the weekends that you would come Are you available, I went and bought my tickets, before I was even approved. And so I showed up to the doctor for my physical, and he goes, Okay, well, you're good to go. And I said, often he goes, what we can do on goal is, like, already bought tickets, and the doctor just looked at me incredulously and goes, what you didn't know, you'd be if you'd be approved? And I said, Well, I love Southwest, because you can still use those funds towards another flight. He goes, Okay, well, you get to go on that weekend. So I flew out to Pennsylvania, and it was the NASCAR facility. And this is like, a really incredible facility where they train pilots, you know, how to survive these incredible maneuvers that they perform, and jet aircraft and, you know, folks that are hoping to go to space and just training for a variety of things that includes stresses on the body. So they stuck me in this centrifuge. And I had another participant there with me, who was a former F15 pilot, which is just the coolest thing ever. And they subjected us to the flight profile of the XCore link and the Virgin Galactic spaceship two, or one I believe at the time. And so I think I peaked at about seven and a half G's for about 15 seconds or so. But you went through the profiles and got to see how it would be the experience of spaceflight. And so they put you through the asset and the decent, not so much the weightlessness portion, but it's very interesting to see just how much it affects you. My sugar levels were good, but I was so tired because you have to flex your entire body to prevent from blacking out and there's specialized breathing techniques to keep kind of pressure in the lungs and just to maintain how Consciousness. So luckily, I had a very experienced person there with me who taught me, you know, this is how you how you hold your breath, or this is how you flex all your muscles at once. And I did, they seem to think that I did very well. And it was a really cool enjoyable experience, and a video of it and pictures and probably something that I'll never forget, I was just so neat.   Stacey Simms  20:19 Were they very interested in your blood sugar particularly did they measure that throughout?   Ernie Prado  20:24 So I measured it before and after, you know, a few times during the day. I didn't have my CGM at the time, I didn't have it available to me. But I wasn't worrying because the needle kind of hurt a bit. It was one of the older ones, just painful. So I kind of was avoiding it. So I did the finger pricks. And yeah, my sugar levels maintained pretty well, they said, you know, keep a little bit higher than normal. So that way you don't tank and so I think I was staying around like the 170s or so. But it didn't affect me at all. And I think I was playing around going that this was the first instance of an insulin pump going through that kind of G load. And it probably should have told because   Stacey Simms  21:00 that was my next question. Did you do you worry your pump during   Ernie Prado  21:03 this? Yeah. And I didn't capitalize on it.   Stacey Simms  21:07 What kind of pump? Do you Where did you were at the time.   Ernie Prado  21:10 So at the time, I was wearing my Medtronic, and I think it was the 720 paradigm. And it performed pretty well. I mean, I still have the same pump right now it's lying on my counter, because I’ve switched to a Tslim. But it's survived it just fine. And it performed perfectly after that. And apparently during. So that actually would probably would have provided some really cool data to that team. And I just didn't make the connection at the time, unfortunately.   Stacey Simms  21:39 Well, you had other things to think about. And it's interesting that they didn't ask I mean, that's, you know, that's just one of those things where they're, they're studying people with diabetes. You know, I would assume they looked at all of that, but the upshot was that you were just pretty much really worn out.   Ernie Prado  21:51 Yeah, I was, it was, I was surprised how tired it was. Because I think throughout the it was two days, and I think throughout each day, maybe 15 to 30 minutes of that day, we're you know, the elevated g loads. And I went home and or to my hotel, and I just asked all those exhausted because you don't realize it but you're working out every single muscle in your body for that short timeframe. And it actually takes a lot of energy others. And you know, Bobby, the guys that said that you eventually get used to it, you know, once you're fighting jet, and you were a GC to help put pressure on your body, and it helps do some of that work for you. But we didn't have any of that equipment.   Stacey Simms  22:31 You talked very early on in the interview about flying about I think you said flying F18s. Is that something that you would like to be doing? Or is that something that you have done?   Ernie Prado  22:40 I've never gotten to fly an F18. So that's a military jet that the Navy uses, you know, as one of their fleet. And so that's like a dream of mine still at this point. But you know, I mean, even any other military jet would be incredible.   Stacey Simms  22:58 Do you fly? I mean, I dumb question. Are you do you have a pilot's license? Do you fly at all?   Ernie Prado  23:03 I don't. I've gotten some stick time before on several. What are they called? The word is escaping   Stacey Simms  23:12 like a simulator.   Ernie Prado  23:14 And then I've flown simulators I've even flown the shuttle simulator. That was a lot of fun. But, like so in college, or the stick time on a Cessna 152 or 172. So they're single engine, you know, planes basically. And so they're they're not advanced, like, you know, the jets that fly like that. So I've gotten to do that. I am fortunate cam and gotten a pilot's license just because a it's really expensive. It's several $1,000 that I just haven't had to put towards that. But eventually, I'd love to do it. You can get a a pilot's license, private pilot's license, there we go. That's what I was looking for. As a diabetic, you just have to show good control of your blood sugar for about six months prior and maintain that. So you can pass the class to physical. And you can also get I believe in experimental pilot's license, but you can't make money from flying as a diabetic, at least that I know of as a type one, because they're concerned with the liability of. And I believe the terms were subtle incapacitation, and sudden incapacitation. And if you have cargo or humans, you know that you're responsible for the really big risk. And so that's my understanding of why you can't do that. And same reason for the military, because then you'd be putting other folks at risk if you know if something happens to you.   Stacey Simms  24:32 And in what context, though, and I apologize because I wrote down, F18 that I don't remember we were talking about trying to get more good people with diabetes to be able to fly more.   Ernie Prado  24:44 Oh, so definitely F18 is just one of the planes that I really love the beautiful they're so over powerful and they're just, they're sleek, and they're so cool until the Navy flies over them on carriers, you know, and actually have a buddy or two that flying is just kind of jealous. But no. So as far as I know, you probably would not have a type one diabetic find those, especially, you know, they're just not available in the civilian world. And since we can't join the military at the moment, and probably for the foreseeable future, there's, you can probably fly backseat, you know, as a passenger, but not as the pilot. But you know, I do, there's apparently a stunt pilot that does fly, you know, his personal aircraft at AIR shows. And he performs some really amazing stunts. So we can fly is just, it's a limited set of aircraft.   Stacey Simms  25:36 And you want to be a flight controller, you said, what is what is that job is that one of the guys that sits where we see the movies, you know, see the Apollo movies, they're sitting in the, in the back home on the front of the computer? What is that?   Ernie Prado  25:49 Yeah, so that's kind of the image that's conjured up when flight controller is talking to. So we have, so shuttle, and ISS and Apollo and Mercury and Gemini, they've all had flight controllers. And basically, if I controller that helps monitor the systems onboard spacecraft, make sure that everything is going fine for the crew members try to keep them safe, address real time problem. So it's a whole host of responsibilities. And so there's an entire team that does this, and it's going 24 seven, so there's always somebody monitoring the spacecraft, and it's fine. And there's Capcom, which talks to the crew, there's a flight director who's responsible for the mission. One of the disciplines that I can talk about is also which is operations support officer. And that's the group that I was in. They are responsible for mechanisms, maintenance, and things of that nature. There's then there's other groups such as Prop, which is propulsion. And so they all have different responsibilities. And but yeah, so those folks have, you know, responsibility over the crew safety, and, you know, to help them perform science, when they're in space, and just help maintain that aircraft or spacecraft. And one of the terms that they use to describe a flight controller is a steely eyed missile man. And it's a throwback back to the early days of flight when we actually put astronauts on modified ICBMs and shove them up into space. So, yeah, I was trying to do that. I was working halftime in that group and halftime at the space vehicle mock up facility, which is where I still work now. That's where we train astronauts for the inside of the space station, and I had a big project coming up. And at the same time, I was trying to see if I could become flight controller. And I encountered some resistance from the medical side, because they were concerned about, you know, my ability to handle the stresses. And so I did have support from upper management saying that if I had the technical knowledge and know how and competent that they would support me in trying to still become flight controller. But Tom had this really cool project to create the note three mock up, that was, you know, had a large budget, and it was high visibility and a long term schedule. So I kind of gravitated towards that. And it was really cool, because it culminated in me getting to brief the ISS program manager on this mock up, bill for the ability, and I never thought I get the, you know, speak to a person like that. So that was very cool for a person that only been around as a full timer for about two years.   Stacey Simms  28:31 Yeah, and that sounds pretty amazing. This is kind of a silly question. But it's in my head after I mentioned the Apollo 13. In the movies, we watch movies like that, can you walk, can you watch movies like that? I can,   Ernie Prado  28:42 and I enjoy them. And so actually, this is this one's pretty cool. And we saw the co op, you get to do a lot of neat things, visit the historical sites and talk to historical people are influential people. So we actually watched Apollo 13, in the Mission Control Room where Apollo 13 was controlled. Wow, that was one of the coolest things that I've done. And I took a picture of the console that I was sitting at, and that same wall, a replica of that console was in the movie on the screen. And so I was showing both of them on one picture, and I was going, this is cool. One thing that I tend to do is point out the errors about that, and my friends are like just enjoy the movie. But it's it's kind of fun. And it's a little bit of the you know, the nitpick Enos of actually what's going on and that's wrong, this is wrong. But the the movies are good at inspire folks, and they get them interested in space. And be there just enjoyable, you know, it's what got me interested in it in the first place. And without that, you know, you wouldn't interest other folks. So like, for instance, gravity, that movie was just beautifully done with the cinematography. I mean, it's just incredible. And it sucks you in but there was a few technical details or are lovable and that's not quite right. Right. But overall, they're really I love watching them.   Stacey Simms  30:03 That's great. You know, and when we think about the space program, and you've mentioned Gemini and Apollo in the beginning of the space shuttle, and that's when I was a kid, the space shuttle was what was new, and it was so exciting. And it seemed like a few years ago, that Americans might not be that excited about space anymore. You know, the funding was going down, and people weren't talking about it. And then you have things like Scott Kelly's year in space that he just returned from where he was tweeting all these pictures out and getting people interested again, and we have, you know, the the interest in Mars and different projects. Do you feel like it's on an upswing again?   Ernie Prado  30:35 Oh, yeah, definitely. And that's such a heartening thing. So I was lucky and got to work a little bit during the time of shuttle that got the Washington Actually, this is a really cool experience that I just remembered right now, because you were talking about how you were around, you know, during the beginning of shuttle in 1981, which is the first launch. And if you haven't heard the video, or seen the music video, actually, countdown by rush, I highly suggest it for anybody. They attended the first launch of the shuttle Columbia, and they put together this just amazing video that kind of makes my hair stand on that when I watch it, because it's just so cool. And it's like, it's just really powerful. And I got to watch the last shuttle launch, not in person to hear Johnson Space Center and Sony Williams, who's an astronaut was right there, kind of next to me and a few other folks. And you know, she was an astronaut that has flown on the shuttle, and it was just kind of really cool to see her emotions for the final flight of the program, when it was closed out. So that was that was a cool experience. And seeing the the, I guess, resurgence or like the increasing enthusiasm about what we're doing is just so cool. And, you know, we can go out and advertise for ourselves, we really just kind of rely on the science that we put out to benefit, you know, every day portions of our lives. And spin off that influence people. So you know, a lot of folks on being NASA influences them, or their lives. But you know, a lot of the technology that's around it has some that NASA influence. And so you know, movies like The Martian, and the mission that we just did with Scott Kelly are so cool, and so, so essential to keep folks interested in what we're doing. So it really does, it makes you feel proud of the work that you do and makes you want to do it better. Because really everything we do is for the benefit of our country and just afford, you know, knowledge for humanity. And that's, that's our entire mission is to learn about where we are and what's out in the cosmos. And it's really great to see people, you know, start to feel great about that.   Stacey Simms  32:49 And when you talk about the things that come from the space program that are relatable, I mean, you know, it's kind of jokey like oh, Tang, but you know, all the things that we use in everyday life didn't the insulin pump wasn't that developed, I thought I read a while ago, that part of it was developed because of NASA.   Ernie Prado  33:07 So I'm gonna have to check my history on that, because I'm not exactly sure exactly how we have impacted that. But if you look at some of the broader history, not just insulin pumps, integrated circuits were influenced by, you know, NASA engineers and advancements in technology. And, you know, coding and signals and mechanics and all sorts of things. So in a broad way, I'm sure it was benefited Somehow,   Stacey Simms  33:36 I just, we took a tour of the we took a tour a couple years ago of the Kennedy Space Center. And I remember them saying that because we all went What? So I'll look that up. I'll fact check that before we put that Yeah,   Ernie Prado  33:48 I'd be very interested in learning more about that. That would be so cool. And I can't believe I haven't looked into it already. If I taught you something, I'd be so excited that you did   Stacey Simms  33:59 and say, Oh, you know, talk to a rocket scientist. Didn't know something I knew. But let's get back to diabetes. When if we could. How are you doing now? I mean, you mentioned you struggled when you were in college and as a young adult, are you? Do you feel like you have incorporated more into your everyday life? You do? Okay.   Ernie Prado  34:19 Yeah. So I actually, as soon as you asked that, I looked at my pump, and I'm currently at 119. And I've been in my perfect range here for see at least three hours, six hours, 12 hours ago had a little blip above 224 hours, I had a little blip about 250. So I'm doing pretty good. You   Stacey Simms  34:36 were nervous. You were nervous about talking to me. Oh,   Ernie Prado  34:39 not at all. I do manage it a lot better. My A1C is not perfect. It's not eight right now. My goal is to get it down to those 7.5. But you know, using the CGM and you know, actually, you know, checking my my sugar with pricking my finger, you know, four to five times a day. It does help. Sometimes it can be hard to get the point Five times, or five times to check it in one day, but you know, I try to make it a priority as it should be. And really not try to brush it off at all, you know, I'll be fine, because it really does have a huge impact on my life and so levina looking to do is get back to work and out if you went back out about a year ago, and it kind of delayed me in that process. So I've started to start to do that a little bit more. So that's helping, and, you know, trying to eat better, has also helped. And, you know, I, I don't really drink a lot of alcohol, which, you know, also does help keep the numbers controlled, though I'm doing much better than it was in college. Because there was one point where I didn't check my sugar for four months. And when I think about that, now I'm going What in the world was I thinking?   Unknown Speaker  35:51 Yeah, well, you know, I and   Stacey Simms  35:53 I asked that question not, and I appreciate you sharing numbers. And I always feel really nosy when that happens, but but it just sounds to me like somehow you've gotten from that college kid who didn't want to check it. All right. And I appreciate you saying that, too. Because that's reality that happens to somebody who's now really accepted this and and doing your best was what you got?   Ernie Prado  36:14 Yeah. And, you know, I figured it's not going anywhere. Am I still frustrated about it? And sometimes wonder, you know why this happened, of course. But, you know, I'm trying, you look at the positive aspect of it. And so actually, you know, like Sarah Sanders, and I had, luckily had a chance to meet her. And I read her book and talk to her about it. And her view on it was just so positive. And just, you know, a woman make the best of this, that it had a huge impact on me. And you know, I've been more accepting of it. In the past few years, I remember when I first got my pump I was all excited about us showed everybody. So being in control of it also helped me be a lot more accepting of it. You know, when it was my numbers were out of range. I didn't want to think about it. And I didn't want to talk and advocate and teach people but I was just like, kind of burned out. So it's actually kind of like this cyclical thing where the better control you take of it, the more accepting you are, and the more you want to educate and get, hopefully, influence other people that have to do the same. And I'm not sure exactly how that works. It seems to be a strange tie. But yeah, I just, you know, I probably talked too much about it now. I think, folks, okay, or you get it, but yeah, I think it's great. Yeah,   Stacey Simms  37:34 I just jump in and say for now, I should jump in and say Sierra Sandison, if you're not familiar with her is of course, Miss Idaho. She were insulin pump in the Miss America Pageant. I think it was two years ago, starting the show me your pump, social media movement, how did you meet her?   Ernie Prado  37:50 So she came down to the ADA convention in Houston. And, you know, I'd heard about her a few years ago, because of why she did wearing the pump on her, on her on her body when she was getting the pageant, and I was just thinking, that is so cool. You know, she's old enough, or, you know, being proud of, of being diabetic. And I guess I hadn't ever thought of it in that perspective. And I was just like, you know, I really kind of admire that that's so cool that she's, and you know, just a response how parents are like, you know, you help my kid feel like that it's okay to be diabetic. And thinking back to the early days, and I had it and where I was told kind of young, just don't talk about it. It was it was really just a nice feeling. That's good to have that kind of inspiration for other folks. And so I said, Well, I will buy your book, read it. I'm a little hyper sided. I want to talk to her just because she seems really cool. And so I talked to her for probably God, who knows half hour at least. And so we ended up being, you know, friends on Twitter, and all that stuff. And so she's been, you know, a really cool person to know. And, you know, just somebody that I kind of look up to just for being such a role model for diabetics, and raising advocacy for it and all that.   Stacey Simms  39:09 That's fantastic. I love hearing that. And we talked to Sierra last year on the podcast, and she's just, she's just terrific. And she's also you know, she's this it will see in her words, I think she's like a real math and science geek too. She's really cool that way.   Ernie Prado  39:24 Yeah, I think she's actually chosen to pursue engineering, which I was just like, Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. If you ever need any help with with yourself or college, let me know. Because, like, I mean, you know, you got the common thing of diabetes that then you know, whenever I meet an engineer, I'm like, Hey, cool, you know, the pain in college, you've been through it. So I always like to encourage more engineers and get them into the into the STEM fields just you know, cuz we need that talent. And it's really cool to see folks be passionate about the stuff that dorks like, like myself, you know, like math and science, chemistry and all that. So Yo, it's awesome. We need more dorks.   Stacey Simms  40:03 All right, so what's next for you? What's next for you at NASA? What are you doing now? Where would you like to be in a few years?   Ernie Prado  40:11 So that's always kind of a hard question for me to answer.   Stacey Simms  40:15 I feel like it's a job interview. I didn't mean to phrase it like, yeah,   Ernie Prado  40:17 oh, no, it's okay. It's the way I think of it. I'm the type of person that kind of sets a goal. I don't know how in the world, I'm going to get there. But somehow I tried to chart my path. And so it seemed to work out in several instances for me, so I keep taking that approach. Currently, I'm a market manager, project manager at the svms. And so I lead technical projects to build mock ups, improve them, upgrade them to approve engineering activities and training activities, I lead with outside companies, other centers, divisions, and directorates. So it's kind of this big catch, catch all integration job. And I get to meet a lot of cool, interesting people and, you know, still get to use my technical background for projects, but also get to learn about the management side of the house. So you know, dealing with budgets, and, you know, managing a project. So that was something I didn't learn in school, and it's a cool skill to learn.   And, you know, the first few years, it was a trial by fire because I had no idea what I was doing, I was in the technical background. So currently, I've been involved in an agency project about how to apply models, a systems engineering, to the projects that we're doing. And it's an approach that kind of takes a consolidated view of projects, including cost development, schedule, requirements, activities, you name it, everything goes into one single source of truth. So that that's a neat project. And it will be reported to the agency headquarters here, by the end of the year, I really don't know where I see myself at though, I know, I'd like to continue here. And just keep being involved. And, you know, giving my small contribution to, to what I think is man's greatest mankind's greatest endeavor, you know, it's just an honor to be here and contribute to something. So I think scran and you're working amongst these, you know, so many folks that have a passion for what we do, and just they're so bright and talented. And, you know, I consider myself an average person here at you know, because there's so many bright folks out here. So, like I said, it's a hard question, eventually, if I can try to fly some knowledge base on down, and I will try to do that. I can. That's one of my goals. Right now. I don't know how it's gonna be achieved. But you know, I'm gonna work towards it. Yeah.   Stacey Simms  42:37 Let me ask you one more diabetes question. Ah, there are a phrase this, what would you say to somebody, maybe a 15 year old kid, maybe somebody older who's diagnosed with type one and is told, I'm sorry, but the dream you had, is not going to work out? At least not now. You are so positive about things. I'm curious, you know, how do you get past that? And what would you advise somebody else to think about if they're told, I'm sorry, but you just can't,   Ernie Prado  43:04 because of diabetes. So I'd say you know, at first, it's a little bit of a blow. Because some, it's something that's out of your control. So one of my friends who's a pilot said, you know, you'd be a shoo in, in the Air Force to be a pilot, because of your technical background, it sucks that you can't do it, because you're diabetic. And I was just like, I remember going. That's depressing. Um, but, you know, there, I think there are realistically some things that we probably can't do. And realistically, there's others that, you know, we're just told we can't, but we absolutely can. And so I would say, you know, fight an uphill battle, don't give up and try every single Avenue available, to try to do what you want to do. Because more than likely, there will be a way that you can find, and without folks, you know, kind of Blazing those trails. It's not going to happen. And, you know, I know, it's not the same thing. But going back to 1980, there were only male astronauts, and they used to tell women, you know, don't bother applying, you're not going to get selected. And now we have a number of female astronauts. And in fact, you have commanders like Eileen Collins, who was an incredible person to have in our astronaut corps, Peggy Whitson and, you know, Sally Ride and just a number of these very influential people that were told, you know, don't apply it. Why even try and you know, they forged the path. And because of them, now, other people are able to do that same thing with African Americans like Guy blueford and make Jameson. You know, they were astronauts, and in the earlier days, you know, they weren't selected. So I think that without butting your head against the current limitations, don't never, you know, what we can do will never be expanded. So fight the good fight. as cliche as that sounds.   Stacey Simms  44:57 That's a great answer. I love it. So thank you so much for joining me today. I'd love to check in with you periodically and see how you're doing. And it's just, it's such a cool story, and I really appreciate you spending some time with me.   Ernie Prado  45:10 Oh, absolutely. I appreciate you. Thank you for speaking to me. It's kind of cool to talk about some things I've forgotten and every day. Yeah, absolute pleasure. And I appreciate you know, the invitation.   Unknown Speaker  45:27 You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  45:33 I will link up more information about where he is today. You can always find out more at Diabetes connections.com. I will of course include information about the super Guppy which is the project he is currently working on. He's the project engineer there. I'm trying to remember the last time I saw him you know, it's it's funny these days trying to remember when you saw anybody because of course, all of 2020 we saw nobody but I saw him at a friend's for life conference, I want to say two years ago, and I'm bringing it up because it's a little embarrassing. The last time I saw Ernie, he was chasing me down because I forgot my phone. I left it with him. And my phone also has my wallet in it. I have one of those cases where it's got my license, you know, my credit cards, all that stuff. And I hadn't even noticed it was gone. And then all of a sudden here he is running up.   Stacey Simms  46:18 Oh my gosh, so embarrassing. But thank you. He's just a Boy Scout, in addition to being a rocket scientist, and I do appreciate you. He's also been really great to Benny. He met Benny This is a different time. But another friends for life conference. It had to be four years ago helped me out people when it was at the Marriott maybe it was five years ago now. I'd have to look that up. But it was it was the year of the Irish dancers. Oh, my goodness. But anyway, we sat down with Ernie and we were just talking and introducing and Benny absolutely adores him and was eating this enormous dessert. I know Ernie remembers this because his eyes are so wide. It's like you're letting them eat this. But then Benny was going swimming. It was night he was doing this nighttime swim with some friends of his and they're having a really good time. And you know, you kind of need to carp up before you jump in the pool. And I was so excited to show him the next day to show Ernie that he was like 100 all night long after eating this enormous dessert. It's funny after during the show for so long, how I've become friendly with so many of you as you listen and as your guests and man that's so rewarding to me. All right. Remember, Tuesday is our regular scheduled episode all this year. Tuesday will be the regular interview episodes with all the segments and info that we do. And on Thursdays I will have these classic episodes where we take a look back didn't expect to reminisce there at the end. But you know, as we look back on the last couple of years, that is bound to happen. So let me know what you think. I always like to hear from you. big thank you to John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. My editor who is great about taking on new projects like this, I appreciate you john.   Stacey Simms  47:43 Thank you so much for listening. I'm Stacey Simms. Until next time, be kind to yourself.   Benny  47:53 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms Media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged

Low Carb Comfort Food with Craig Mitchell Craig Mitchell is an Actor,  Stand-Up Comedian, Writer and Amateur Chef. On September 8th 2016 Craig felt faint hours after dinner and at the weight of 380 lbs he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. He then immediately embraced a healthy lifestyle with the guidelines of limiting his food intake to 1600 calories a day or less and 150 grams of carbs or less.  Since that day, Craig has lost over 100 lbs and since Feb 5th 2017 has his Type 2 Diabetes COMPLETELY under control via diet ONLY.  He started "Off The Cuff: Healthy Cooking w/ Craig Mitchell" so he could share the methods, food and recipes that have changed his life FOREVER. Not a trained chef, Craig tries to promote delicious, easy to prep and cook meals that ANYONE can master. He has amassed 76 episodes (and counting) and loves to mix low carb healthy food and comedy!  On stage he has appeared in over 40 productions. As a stand-up comedian, he toured for 15 years (1987–2001) and gained respect as a solid performer on the eastern comedy circuit and just recently has restarted his stand up career. In 1994, he co-founded the successful Long Island based improvisation group "The Comedy Express" (Originally named "The Online Comedy Express") which toured until 2003. In 2001, he moved from Long Island to Los Angeles to further pursue film and television projects. He most notably portrayed the title character in the award winning 2004 dark comedy short film "The Lazy Assassin" directed by Jennifer Goyette. His most notable television appearances are The Ricki Lake Show, Boston Legal, The Sopranos, Saturday Night Live, Tosh.0 and Jimmy Kimmel Live. In 2008, Craig wrote and appeared in the "Stakeout Trilogy". A series of three short comedy films showcased on YouTube. On Film he has appeared in "Dozers" and in 2018 will be seen in "Give Til it Hurts" as Bob the dim-witted mechanic. Craig currently resides in Van Nuys, CA  has Cat named Andy and is obsessed with "Air Frying "Off The Cuff: Healthy Cooking with Craig Mitchell - YouTube Off the Cuff: Healthy Cooking with Craig Mitchell | Facebook www.feedingfatty.com Full Transcript Below Roy - Feeding Fatty (00:03): Hello, and welcome to another episode of feeding fatty I'm Roy I'm Terry. So today we have, uh, Craig Mitchell. He's going to be our guest. He is an actor, standup comedian writer, and an amateur chef. Uh, I know that on September, uh, in 2016, uh, Craig, he had felt Fain after dinner and was weighing about 380 pounds at the time he was diagnosed with type two diabetes and then immediately embraced the lifestyle change. And, um, you know, that's what we really wanted to talk to him as some of the things that he's done, I'll let you, uh, I'll let him explain the weight that he's lost, but also he has, um, he has done some, uh, cooking videos on YouTube, uh, YouTube on YouTube. Unknown (00:56): And so we were going to get him the. Roy - Feeding Fatty (01:00): So, uh, you know, after we get through with this, we'll be sure and have him tell us, uh, how, because I think that's important as everybody walks through this journey. Uh, it's figuring out those little tips and tricks. So, uh, without further ado, Craig, thanks for taking time out of your day and being with us and welcome. Yeah. Craig (01:19): Hey, thank you very much. It's it? It's a pleasure. And I want to thank you for naming the podcast after me, but it's, it's all power all about me being fed and you know, Roy - Feeding Fatty (01:29): Yeah, no, that was what I thought too. I'm, you know, I'm always going to be, uh, although even if I lose weight, I will always be a, that little fatty inside. So that, that was kind of what Craig (01:40): It reminds me of Chris Farley, uh, because his default, he used to say, well, fatty falls down. It was sitting here and that's what he would do. So when you say feeding fatty, I just think of it as far away. I think of comedy and I want to be fed, so it all kind of fits into one. Roy - Feeding Fatty (01:55): That's awesome. Well, why don't you start out by telling everybody just a little bit about your story, kind of how much you've lost so far in your journey. Uh, you know, a little bit about how you've gotten there and we'll just, uh, start off with that and have a discussion based around that Craig (02:11): Good thing. Well, it started, as you said, it started in September of 2016 and since then I've lost. Oh no, my doctor diagnosed me as the worst case of type two diabetes he ever seen. Wow. I had an A1C of 12. I actually have heard people who have 16, so I don't know how you know that. Roy - Feeding Fatty (02:33): Yeah. And what does that translate into, you know, just like the, uh, I know that's pretty high for A1C, but what does that translate to just like taking it on the daily meter? Craig (02:44): Well, uh, I was probably for a while averaging in the high two hundreds. Oh wow. Okay. Averaging, you know, as a matter of fact, my right eye here grew an accelerated, um, uh, cataract, uh, because of the increased sugar and that's something I have to get treated eventually. Um, it tends to undermine drifts or if I look like Jackie lamb, don't worry. Roy - Feeding Fatty (03:08): Well, I think that's, uh, uh, I think that's a component of diabetes. A lot of people don't understand is it's more than just high blood sugar and not feeling well. I mean, not only, I think it's, you know, blood flow to the extremities. I know people that have had to have toes amputated, but also can affect your eyesight, your heart, I guess your liver kidneys. I mean, it's just, uh, it is so deadly. I just don't know. Uh, while we talk about diabetes a lot, I don't think people understand just exactly how terrible that it can be on, uh, on someone's body. Craig (03:44): Well, it's actually an epidemic and w and I, uh, I'm very, I'm bored. I'm a borderline a hypochondriac, but I did a lot of medical study, especially, uh, I wanted to be a doctor when I was younger. So I took a lot of pre-med courses. So the thing is, I always kind of touted myself as knowing what was going on. And if I didn't, I would learn it, but I was completely in the dark that my body was being ravaged by this. I mean, I was urinating like 12, you know, 12, 15 times a day, but I thought, well, you know, I'm 56, you know, it's probably my prostate or something. And, uh, and things got blurry. Well, I think while you, Oh, my eyes, you going. But, um, yeah, when I, when I, when I first had it on that, that night in September, actually it was the 50th anniversary of star Trek. September 8th was 16. So I'll never forget that I really went where not against Terry - Feeding Fatty (04:42): Them, Craig (04:44): But w when I, when I, I had three slices of PJ and I drank like a two liter bottle of Pepsi, regular Pepsi, and I got dizzy, like I had hyperglycemia and my roommate had a testing kit, and I think my blood sugar was like three 70 or something like that. Three. Wow. Yeah, that was just, yeah. Um, and my doctor wanted bariatric surgery. He wanted him to put me on glypocide and Metformin. Uh, I did go on Metformin. Glypocide me. I'm kind of allergic to it. Okay. And, uh, I told him, no, I said, uh, I remember in his office, he was like, well, you're going to have to have bariatric surgery surgery. You can't lose enough weight to do this. And I was like, yeah, hold my burrito, watch this. And don't ask me why I did it in six months. Uh, I had lost about a hundred pounds. Uh, I had reversed my type two. My A1C went down to 6.1 and I've been off the medication since, Terry - Feeding Fatty (05:43): And you've controlled it all just through your diet, Craig (05:48): Diet only, Terry - Feeding Fatty (05:49): That's it? Yeah. Wow. That is amazing. Congratulations to you. That's a feat. I mean, Oh my gosh. But Craig (05:58): It's, I didn't, you know, I was hoping, you know, what happened to me is I was taking the Metformin and it was right before dinner and I got really, um, woozy again. And my first thought was like, Oh, no, it is my blood sugar going through the roof again. And I tested my blood and it was like 57. And that was, it was before I took my night's dose of Metformin. So I didn't take it. And then the next day I tested it, it was like 90 or the next, and it just, from there on, I didn't take it anymore. I kind of took myself off it, which I would not advise, you know, but, uh, I did. Yeah. And you know, it doesn't mean it's right. Roy - Feeding Fatty (06:36): Do you know from my experience too, if you test enough test around that medicine, because I I'm back on it, but you know, there's, I've had doubts sometimes whether it really is helping me that much or not, because there've been times when I had failed to take it and would have much lower blood sugar. So anyway, when I would tell everybody out there to do is just be sure and test all around it. If it's not working and failed luck is not working correctly, go back to your doctor and talk to them because there are other, um, there are other avenues that you can go and go down. And of course, I've talked to my doctor and that's what he said. He wants me to go a little bit longer, but he said, we may look at changing it out. Craig (07:19): I mean, I'm, I'm still testing. I mean, I have this right here. I, I tested a couple of times a day. Yeah. I, um, well with this lock down, I kind of had a slide back. Um, I gained some weight. I mean, you can do it, even if you eat low carbon, whatever, I gained some weight and my numbers went up and now I've gotten them back down again. And I, I can actually see the difference in the video here. My face was a lot fatter. Believe it or not like two weeks ago, uh, it's an ongoing battle and you can do all the right things. And you know, it's like, I don't know if you're, are you a baseball fan? You don't want to be, you remember, you remember Prince fielder? Yeah. Like he was a vegetarian and people would say, what is he eating? Uh, truly. How did you know? Cause he was everybody said, who will, he's big and heavy and he's a vegetarian, well, you know what? You can eat low carb. But if you eat a lot of high calorie and go over it, you can still gain weight low carb too. So you got to find a balance. Roy - Feeding Fatty (08:16): Yeah. And you know, one thing my, uh, well, I'm not sure if I've ever talked about this before, but a few years ago when the Quito phase came out and was getting big, I would listen to a couple guys. I never went total KIDO. My doctor just told me, you know, try to stay between 40, 60 on my carbs every day, which is close, but not quite what I think they're what under 20 something like that. Craig (08:41): But one day only 20 per day. Roy - Feeding Fatty (08:45): Yeah. Well, no. He told me to be under 40 to 60 for the day as well. So I was fairly close, but not quite there. But, um, in some of those I heard a doctor and he was an MD. So I will, I'm going to vouch for him and say, he knew what he was talking about. He said that we, our bodies can learn that if we're, if we go low car, but if we're too high on protein, it will start taking that excess protein and turning that in to fat. So anyway, it just have to, you know, cause that's what I was doing. I was so extremely high on my proteins there for a while. I wasn't watching it. I thought, well, watching my carbs. So proteins just let them rip and uh, you know, eating all the bacon and everything, which, you know, a lot of fat, of course the KIDO wants you to have more fat than not. But anyway, it's still, it was still difficult for me. But uh, so Craig (09:44): I'm sorry. No, you're fine. Go ahead. No was only, I remember when actins came out 30, 35 years ago and uh, all my family were on it. I was a fat kid, so I was on it and we beat chewing on pepperoni sticks and having like 12 omelets, 12 egg omelets. And after three days I was just so sick of all of that, you know, you were ready. I was ready to like knock over a nun for a piece of bread. It was just like, you know, I would ask her politely before you shoved him to the ground. Right. We just need to tell Roy - Feeding Fatty (10:20): The audience, no nuns were injured. Craig (10:23): The taping of this. I was brought up Catholic. I would never do an gosh. Roy - Feeding Fatty (10:29): So what are some things that you have done? I know that you kind of lowered the carbs, but uh, you know, that's well for somebody like myself, that's difficult. Cause I love bread. We love chips. We love all that. So what are some things that you've done that have been kind of ingenious, I guess in order to have some good food Craig (10:49): To have the lower the carbs? I don't know if it's ingenious, but I researched, uh, when I, when I did my comedy cooking show because I want to be funny. And at the same time I want to share all these recipes. I, I, I go out re I researched recipes and at first I just followed them by the letter. I didn't know what I was doing, but now, because I've gained some experience, I can, I can mix and match and do what I think, Oh, this would be good in this to be good in that. And I just try to take comfort foods on my show and I mean, comfortable like pizza. She used cake chocolate cake, Snickers bars. Um, and I tried to make low carb versions of them that, you know, can give you that sense of satisfaction without feeling, you know, that you're, um, you know, you're not, no, what's the word when you're, uh, I can't think of that word. That word has left my vocabulary folks, that word that when you want something and you can have it and you've deprived, I'm sorry, because I'm a very deprived person. Um, yeah. And you weren't really, Roy - Feeding Fatty (11:54): Um, I think you had told me when we talked earlier that you weren't really a cook. You never really gotten a kitchen that much. So, I mean, like not only have you had to learn, you know, how to do some of these cool things, low card, but you've also kind of learned the whole cooking process as well. Craig (12:13): I have, I'm actually making sauces now. I mean, that, that, to me, that's like, are you kidding? Terry - Feeding Fatty (12:18): That's what I want to hear about are the sauces, Oh my God, three is good. Craig (12:27): Uh, a creamy Dijon, a low-carb Dijon sauce for, for pork. Uh, and it also works with fish, especially if you, you know, I air fry my bread it and like flax seed. So there's no carbs. And man, it's like, it's fantastic. And I've made a cheddar cheese sauce and Oh, I make gravy too. Like, I mean maybe last night we'll carve gravy with my, with my Turkey. I did not, I could, but I didn't do it. Terry - Feeding Fatty (12:55): Okay. I have all the fifth step to make it with, but I did not make it cause we had so much other stuff, you know, Craig (13:01): I, I, I got so bloated. I had, I had mashed cauliflower. I had mashed, um, uh, turnips. I had low carb biscuits and I made low carb gravy, which had a lot of fiber in it too. And I felt like a beach ball. And I think my total carbs I'd probably just was probably less than 10. Oh my gosh. So talking about the fiber, you know, again and that's, and, um, it was delicious. It was great. And I definitely don't feel deprived there, you know? Um, but you can make your own stuffing. I make a low-carb bread that I found online. I make it on the bread machine. It's like two carbs, a slice. Wow. Next year I'll, I'll take it. I'll let it get stale. Chop it up. I'll make that into a stuffing or bread. Roy - Feeding Fatty (13:48): Interesting. I never thought about a low carb bread, but we'll have to check that out because that's, that is the one thing I feel more, uh, you know, like deprived now that you brought that up, we'll use it again. I do feel more deprived of the, uh, you know, the bread and bread products. We can find a decent loaf, you know, commercially made that may be 10 per little bitty dinky slice. So, um, that'll definitely be something worth checking out because I do love bread. Craig (14:16): We're also very expensive too. Yeah. Well, there's like, there's a, there's a, there's a store here. Um, I'm not trying to, uh, plug it. It's called all of the famous happenings, this low carb bread. Um, but it's expensive and they, they are, they're always running out of it. So I went online and I saw this guy. I don't even know him, but he's called the KIDO King. And he had, he has a machine recipe and he has an oven recipe for a low carb bread. And so that's what I did and I share it because it's certainly not my recipe. Yeah. But I think he deserves a lot of for it because I have seen, I just had a Turkey sandwich before we went on the air, you know? And it's like, you know, I guess it's all about eating, you know, normally without just being all the carbs, he got all the trouble. Roy - Feeding Fatty (15:05): Yeah. Well, we, we do have all these here, so we'll have to check that out and see just not a, not a place we go to a lot, but it's one here in the neighborhood. So we'll check that out. Yeah. Cause you know, finding, um, low carb stuff in the grocery, in a regular store, it's pretty difficult nowadays. I mean, everything is just more bigger. Terry - Feeding Fatty (15:26): Well, and it is it, like you said, it is really expensive, but you don't want to the T you know, you don't know about the taste, you know, you're going to pay for that. And then it's going to taste like cardboard. And that's what, that's the first thought that I have is, Oh my gosh, it's going to be low carb or no carb. It's going to taste like cardboard. I'm not eating it. Craig (15:44): Some of it is, you know, and I won't say the company, but there's two rival companies that make bagels. They're awfully expensive. I think it's like a $25 for eight of them. You know, if you space it out, you know, you can enjoy yourself. But as one of them was really good, the other one was like, you know, chewing on cardboard. He, I, you know, I'm not going to bash them, but you know, I've made my own, but fad had, I don't know if you know about fat head stuff, no fat had is basically when you take, instead of using flour, you use like you'll use almond flour and then you'll use, um, mozzarella cheese and green cheese. And that becomes the binder. But I got to tell you after a little bit, it's I just get so overwhelmed the taste of the cheese, um, to be off after a while. I can't really have it. Roy - Feeding Fatty (16:37): Well, so tell me this originally you're from New York. So we'll plug that in there. That how does, how do you make pizza out of with cauliflower as a crust to slide it by the taste of a guy from New York? Terry - Feeding Fatty (16:54): How'd you fall for that? Craig (16:56): You want me to be honest, if you know the best, the best pizza I've made. Uh, I think I've made on my, on my show. I guess I've done 76 shows and I'd say I've probably done pizza about six times. So I'm always trying to find a better recipe. And the first one was so involved with the cauliflower, you got to do it and you got to squeeze the water out and you're burning their hands and you got to do this and you got to fly it out and it's, you know, you, and it was okay. And then I found another recipe that was better in another recipe. I would say the best they've ever done as I'll make something that sounds, that tastes like a DiGiorno pizza, which ain't bad, but it's not in New York. You know, you gotta be on Roy - Feeding Fatty (17:39): Well, and that's sometimes it's just that little taste, you know, for me, if I get a little taste of it, it doesn't have to be, uh, the very best, but just enough to kind of satisfy you and be able to move on when we Craig (17:50): Exactly I'm actually doing another one, uh, not this upcoming episode, by next episode, I'm making a flaxseed Russ pizza. Terry - Feeding Fatty (17:57): Oh, that's interesting. I'll be very curious about that. Craig (18:02): I do already. I tested it and it was good. It was from, but it was wham. So I'm going to have to throw in some flavors into it. Probably some Italian seasoning, definitely some more salt. And I have to make a little bit thinner because there was a little bit too, too fat for me. I don't, I don't, I'm not like the big, you know, New York, we have to have like the slice it's like really? Did you know Terry - Feeding Fatty (18:23): That guy? Roy - Feeding Fatty (18:25): Well, you know, that's one thing we've adjusted, I think is, uh, in the spice section, I know we do a lot more Kumon. Um, tumeric is because I had taken tumeric, uh, supp, uh, supplements for a while because they say that they help you a lot. But anyway, we started doing it, cooking with it, which was even better. And, um, but anyway, I think that kind of helps us overcome some stuff is when we kind of spice it. And what's the other, um, remember the bigger neutral Terry - Feeding Fatty (18:58): Nutrition, nutritional yeast, nutritional Roy - Feeding Fatty (19:00): Yeast, we've started using a lot of that. Terry - Feeding Fatty (19:02): I've never used that before in it makes stuff taste buttery. I mean, it's good. Craig (19:07): Matter of fact, I just found a recipe for a, well, they said it's actually keto brownies and nutrition. Nutritional yeast is one of the ingredients. And I said, Oh yeah, I have that. I can make this. Roy - Feeding Fatty (19:20): Yeah, we got really good at, at inputting everything. We ate into an app and, you know, we'll, I guess we'll plug it. It seemed to be the best to Krono meter. And there's so many little micro nutrients that we were missing out on. And so that's another thing is the nutritional yeast was really good for picking up some of the micronutrients that are just left out of resident, uh, recipes, just to try to balance it out, to try and get everything. Cause it's tough. You know, we, uh, we're busy and we love to cook. We got in the kitchen cooked together, but it seems to take so much time. So Terry - Feeding Fatty (19:58): Prep work and the whole, I mean the whole foods, all that stuff, it's just simple. Roy - Feeding Fatty (20:03): I going to the grocery store, making sure you got everything you need. So, you know, do you find that that has been a problem for you once you've started cooking or are you Craig (20:13): Actually, I've actually created a lot of shortcuts. Like when I was, when I was working, I would come home like at two o'clock in the afternoon and I would pre do dinner. Meaning if I, I would take out the chicken, I would, uh, defrosted, I would pound it. I would, uh, bread it in whatever, running it in, whether it be oatmeal, whether it be flaxseed and I would shut the, uh, chop, the vegetables, get everything ready, put the refrigerator, taken out two and a half hours, then wake up and I would cook it. So I got into like this, you know, into this routine that made it a lot easier. And plus I'm only cooking for one two, you know, it's um, um, yeah, some days you just don't feel like going through all the motions though. Like I, I made a really good design you on my show, but you know, it's a little laborious and sometimes you just like, Ugh, I just want to eat in 10 minutes. I don't, you know, I'll just have a burger. Yeah. Roy - Feeding Fatty (21:07): Right. Yeah. And that's our, that's our downfall usually is that too. And so w um, I guess that brings up a good question about when you, when you're cooking low carb, if you freeze it, is it as good, you know, once you unfreeze it as, as, uh, normal recipes as about the same, or is there any difference? Cause that's one thing that we usually do is cook a little bit more so we can have, like, I can have leftovers for lunch tomorrow, but then also we have a little bit put it back in the freezer and see, you know, sometimes it's hit and miss with the, the, you know, when we use like the, the, uh, was it diced or rice cauliflower, sometimes that stuff doesn't come out as good, you know, after you unfreeze, it has a lot of things. Craig (21:57): Yeah. That's that, that's true. Especially if you bought it frozen to begin with or if you make, so I make my own, most of the time I just take a hit of cauliflower and I grind it up. I just meat, I just muesli recently made, um, uh, stuffed peppers. And instead of rice, I use Brown, I used the rice cauliflower and ground Turkey, and I actually take the tops of the peppers and I grind them up and I put them into the middle two. And, uh, Roy - Feeding Fatty (22:26): What kind of machine do you use? The two grounded grinded up that fine. Terry - Feeding Fatty (22:30): Yeah. The kitchen aid attachment or something. Yeah. Craig (22:32): It's actually a generic, it's just a generic food processor that we got for. Yeah. Interesting. Roy - Feeding Fatty (22:41): Yeah. And we're not, we don't have a lot of gadgets. We're kind of adding some in, but it's, uh, you know, when you look at how fine they rise or chop that up, it's like, good. I didn't know. We could replicate that at home. So, Terry - Feeding Fatty (22:52): And, and, Oh, that brings up gadgets. AirFryer let's talk air fryers here. I just got a new one. My daughter just sent me a new one and it's got the basket and the rotisserie, all that good stuff. Um, what is your favorite thing? What, what's your favorite thing to make in the air fryer or Craig (23:16): I'm kind of often I'm kind of off it now while I'm getting my blood sugar back down, which mostly is, but French fries. Oh, I'm lucky enough that I can tolerate a potato a day. And, uh, but I'm trying to, like I said, right now, I'm trying to bring it down more and try and lose some weight. So I'm trying to stay away from it. But yeah. Air fried French fries, my favorite things in the world. Terry - Feeding Fatty (23:38): What's something that you go, Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. Craig (23:42): No, no. I said I've got it down the recipe. I'm sorry. So what's something that Terry - Feeding Fatty (23:46): You didn't think about when you first got the air fryer? I mean, is there something that has surprised you that's actually been good in it? Craig (23:54): Yeah. And it's something, there's two things, uh, bacon. Yeah. Hmm. I could never make good bacon. Never. It was always over done too greasy. It's perfect. Every time the AirFryer perfect. Roy - Feeding Fatty (24:10): Better, better than, uh, I'm not better, but is it better for you than in the fried in a pan? Craig (24:18): Probably. It's not sitting in its own bacon. Fat. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. It does drop down unless, unless you cook it in and when sometimes I have, and then, you know, as far as carbs go great. As far as fats and calories, you're going to have to walk. Roy - Feeding Fatty (24:35): Well, we used to eat a ton of bacon all the time. You know, Saturday and Sundays was our morning to cook in. We would always eat. I'm not going to tell you how much bacon we cook. And that was one thing that we did cut out. But, uh, you know, this air fryer, well, you know, I think we had talked about this a little bit earlier as well. We had a small one that had, I mean, it was just limited space. And so we didn't, weren't able to do a lot, but this one has this big basket. I mean, it's like, uh, uh, I don't know. It was like a writer, Terry - Feeding Fatty (25:05): Bingo, bingo, caller, you know, the numbers, you know, Craig (25:09): So I prefer those type of, to the oven ones. Cause I have enough money to, through the other ones. To me, don't tend to keep the heat in it as well, because they'll have a glass front basket that goes in it really self-contained. And I think you get like for French fries and stuff like that, or a chicken cutlet or whatever, it tends to get hotter. I don't know if we talked about this when I, when I said hi to you guys, but, um, I, I, I bought a new air fryer that's coming and I can't wait. I bought a 9.5 quart air for it. Wow. Yeah. I want to be able to, you know, my cat's going to sleep in it. Roy - Feeding Fatty (25:48): Yeah. Say I don't know how big ours is, but I don't think it's that big. Terry - Feeding Fatty (25:53): No, but it's plenty big. Yeah. You just have to put everything in a single layer. I mean that little one is just, everything was in a single layer. You had to do it. It just made the timing and it just made everything more complicated than trying to use the old oven and the stove top, you know, but I know. Craig (26:09): Yeah. That's why I have more than one. I do siding and I do the main course and the other. Okay. Terry - Feeding Fatty (26:13): So you'll have five or you'll have six, four. Craig (26:17): Well, this, this is my seventh. I gave, I gave one away. Uh, one was, uh, it was a glass bowl when that cracked. So those are gone. Yeah. My first one I had at my old job, which I've been off from and, uh, I'm giving my power XL fryer away to a friend when they get this new one and I'm going to have three here. Wow. Roy - Feeding Fatty (26:39): I think that's an idea that you told us about when I'd never even thought of, but it be beneficial to have a couple of those things going at once. And in this one that we've got, the volume is going to be different, but that other one, I guarantee you that we cook 10 loads of stuff in it to try to make one meal. But we were so worn out by the time the last one came out, we're like, we don't even know what we were doing, what the meal consisted of. And we were just given, give out. Terry - Feeding Fatty (27:04): Yeah. And part of that is just me trying to figure out what, what to do anyway, but, and not read the instructions, you know? Cause I'm not. Yeah. I like to just do and it doesn't always work out so great. Craig (27:17): That's kind of what I did. I kind of found my own way. You know, I saw all these different, uh, all these people had these, I had this advice to make crispy French fries in the air fryer and you know, soaking them overnight and this and that. I'm like, no, no, no. And I just did it my own way and they're fantastic. And it's a lot easier. It's a lot less work. Uh, maybe it's me. Maybe they would taste more stars. You use somebody else, but I love them. Um, and I don't feel that word again. The private all with them. I feel like sticking it. Yeah. Roy - Feeding Fatty (27:47): Well, uh, one other thing we can, uh, wanted to ask you about was tofu. Do you ever mess with tofu that much? Craig (27:55): Well, my brother, my brother, my brother used to teach tofu and uh, I always tofu. All right. Uh, you know, I, I I've had tofu, um, uh, uh, but I go, I cooking, I think only tried once and I tried to, I try to like, it wasn't from tofu and I didn't like the texture. Roy - Feeding Fatty (28:21): Well, that was one thing that we tried that was extremely good in the smaller AirFryer, but I think she put some on a cookie sheet. Craig (28:29): Yeah. Well it was bourbon. Yeah. Terry - Feeding Fatty (28:32): Yes. It was, it was, it was extra firm and just cubed them up and put a little bit of soy sauce and a little bit of olive oil and that was I, or olive oil spray. And I mean, that was it. And it just kind of tasted like when we just popped it like popcorn, you know, Roy - Feeding Fatty (28:48): Smaller and she cooked, she cut them small. So I think it made them, uh, get done where they weren't like gooey inside. But yeah, I mean, I thought it was more like a, um, just like a cute potato, like you'd Cuba, Tatum and skillet cook. It's what it tasted like, but we've tried a lot with, um, mixing in with eggs and some chicken meat, you know, just kinda making it part of the dish because it seems to take on the taste of whatever you're cooking it with. So Craig (29:18): Yeah, you, you have to infuse taste to do it for sure. Yeah. I mean, I just used the not so firms, so it got very gelatinous and I didn't really like that. And then you should've got the firm like yeah, next time I will. Terry - Feeding Fatty (29:31): Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to echo that and say, definitely get the firm. Cause I, the first time that I tried tofu years ago, it was that soft, gross. Craig (29:42): No I didn't. Roy - Feeding Fatty (29:45): Well, and I think part of one thing, everything that we have cooked it with, we have cut it into the smaller pieces. So I don't know if that helps too, is just the smaller you get it. The more it seems to cook the moisture out of it. And, uh, Terry - Feeding Fatty (29:58): That's the thing is you have to press it to get the moisture out of it. So it's kind of, it's not, labor-intensive, it's just, you know, you just have to take it out and kind of press it between a couple of cutting boards on paper towels and get that moisture out. And maybe 10, 15 minutes Roy - Feeding Fatty (30:15): Found some, uh, tofu noodles that we had used one time that were pretty good. So Craig (30:21): What I found is hearts of Palm new years, um, and they now have a cane and they have spaghetti and linguine and it's an a can. And, uh, actually my friend in Oklahoma tried to eat could not believe how good it was really about making. I want to make weenie, um, uh, in clam sauce using that. Terry - Feeding Fatty (30:44): I have to look into that because I do love that. Craig (30:47): Yeah. Or Alfredo, I like, I love Alfredo's, you know, that's, it's a lot of fat and calories, but there's no carbs. So there you go. I'm just going to watch it, Roy - Feeding Fatty (30:59): Greg. Uh, we want to say again, thanks a lot for taking time out of your day to be here. Certainly appreciate it. Uh, so what is one thing that you do? Uh, it, it can be a cooking tool or just a habit that you have either through your, uh, you know, in your personal life, professional life. Just something that, uh, you couldn't do without on a daily basis. Craig (31:23): Um, well, I'll, I mean, we've been talking about for the past 10 minutes, but I, I use air fryers at almost every meal almost with me because I love the taste and I love the experience of fried food. And without the oil content, you know, without being deep fried, there's a lot less guilt. There's a lot less calories and it's better for you, but in conjunction. And this is then again, this is not my weapon. It was a great, excuse me. Like I talked about I'm, uh, but in conjunction is not my website, but I got this a website. I use almost everything called, um, uh, fat secret. And if you go to it, even, even at fast food stuff, you put, like, you can put an egg McMuffin in there and it's going to tell you how many carbs, how many net carbs, how many calories. Uh, and I use that almost everyday to keep the guide itself in a meeting. I don't know if the fat secret like a popcorn. Yeah. I think it's called pop secret this. Right. But you know, feeding fatty, that's great. You know, I should get together Roy - Feeding Fatty (32:34): Well, and that's so important. We can't reiterate that enough, that knowing you're eating is the key. I mean, that's, you know, I think part of it was for me, ignorance was bliss. Don't look at it. You don't know it, but it's still, you still ingested it. So, you know, you've got to figure out what's in this stuff in order to be able to control it. And some things that once you do find out what's in it and how many carbs it's like, Oh my goodness. I could not believe because it's not just that one thing usually. Well, my I'll say my experiences, if I'd have just had that one thing I would have been okay. But it was that thing. And about seven others throughout the day is what makes me why I'm overweight and have a blood sugar problem too. So, Craig (33:21): Yeah. And, and the key thing that I learned is that no matter what it is, a lot of people, I see it in all these groups on Facebook are really upset. They have type two diabetes, they feel like, are they going to be eating his lettuce and cucumbers the rest of their life? And absolutely not true. That's why I have my show out there is to show you, you can make these rich decadent meals and at the same time be of service to your disease and helping keep it arrested, you really can. Roy - Feeding Fatty (33:47): Right? Yeah. And that's amazing that you're off your meds because, um, Craig (33:51): That sounds weird. [inaudible] Roy - Feeding Fatty (33:57): Yeah, because I just know how hard I've tried and it's difficult. I mean, uh, like I think we talked that there was one point last fall last year, Matt year that, you know, we were exercising crazy. We were exercising at a level that was unsustainable. And I got mine down too. You know, I was in the eighties nineties a few times, but not, not, uh, you know, nothing sustainable. So, you know, it gets back to, I think it's like losing weight in general. It's kind of the same for controlling that blood sugar diet is going to be, you know, 80%, 80, 85% of that. And then that little bit can be some exercise, but you've got to start with the food and get that business under control for sure. Craig (34:44): Well, you know, my roommate told me today, um, cause he sees pretty much already. He says, you know what? You don't eat a lot. Um, he says, he, I'm not a Grazer. I'm not, uh, I eat ver when he means, but very literally he gives me, my portions are small. Uh, I don't go for seconds and stuff, but I think one of the keys when we talked about this earlier is a lot of my stuff is high fiber. Yeah. And when you eat high fiber, you're, you're done. You're, you're, you're full, you're satisfied. Um, I don't even crave sweets because after a while you get your by, you know, when you go your carbs down, you may know this yourself, after a certain point, you don't crave sweets anymore because your body's not screaming out for carbohydrates. Roy - Feeding Fatty (35:25): Right? Yeah. Not only that, but it's the weird stuff that starts tasting sweet to you. You know, other, other foods, I just noticed that I'll be like, wow, that tasted really. Yeah, exactly. Craig (35:40): Really sweet. Like, wow. Not raw, but need to cook mine. Yeah. So I put something on there. Roy - Feeding Fatty (35:50): Well, Craig tell everybody how they can, uh, get a hold of you, look you up on YouTube so they can look at some of your, uh, cooking shows. Craig (35:59): Sure. I wish they would. You can see me on Facebook. It's a facebook.com off the cuff with Craig Mitchell and on YouTube. Uh, it just, just, uh, put in off the cuff healthy cooking with Craig Mitchell. I know it's a, it's a long, it's a long title, but it'll get you there. Roy - Feeding Fatty (36:18): Yeah. And we'll have all these up on the show notes as well and on our web page. So yeah. Yeah. We'll, we'll make sure and get that for you. Well, Craig again, thanks a lot. We appreciate everybody listening again. You can find us at www dot feeding, fighty.com. We're on all the major podcast platforms, iTunes, Google play, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, uh, Amazon everywhere. If we're not on one that you liked to listen to, please reach out. We'll be sure. And try to get that added. Also, you can find us on Facebook. We have a Facebook group. We'd like to have a discussion, uh, anything that you want. And then also Instagram, Twitter, uh, all the major places you can find us there. So until next time I am Roy and Terry.  

Welcome back to our weekend Cabral HouseCall shows! This is where we answer our community's wellness, weight loss, and anti-aging questions to help people get back on track! Check out today's questions:  Stephanie: Hello I am in the IHP level 2 and currently trying to help my mother with her gut issues. She has been on Omeprazole for years and treated conventionally a couple times with antibiotics for hpylori that was diagnosed by EGD. A subsequent breath test (which I know Dr Cabral is not a fan off for good reason) showed she was negative after treatment. She also has a hiatal hernia. Last year when I found this program I convinced her to come off of her Omeprazole but she suffer with it daily, some days better than others. Last October she started the CBO protocol however mid month 2 she went on a trip to Italy and did not finish her protocol. She then started eating bad again and taking her Omeprazole. She has since then completed two 7 day DCD plans and drinks a smoothie every morning with DNS, collagen and takes vitamin D omega 3 and some zinc and magnesium . She has the fatlossity program however is thinking that may be correlating with her intensifying reflux symptoms so she is cycling of it currently and going to see how the reflux goes for a few days to see if that is exacerbating her symptoms. She drinks hot lemon water and ACV every morning and in efforts to not take her Omeprazole she is currently taking an essential oil to help with episodes of reflux. They only help to a small degree. I have searched the podcast for weeks listening to all the shows I can find on reflux and hiatal hernias but can’t seem to get enough info. My questions are: What can be done for a hiatal hernia? Is surgery the only option and if she doesn’t have surgery will she ever get rid of the reflux?Should she continue the CBO protocol by picking up where she left off last October? Doors she need to do a new protocol? Should she do the heal and seal? If so when? I really tried to search for all the answers and maybe I’m missing it somewhere can you at least answer the questions above specific to her I would surely appreciate it. She is trying so hard but the burn in her esophagus is hard to ignore and she Is worried she will never find relief Lindsey: Hello Dr. Cabral, I hope I am not repeating a question, I did look through your archives for a few different varieties of this topic, but did not find anything.I would like to see what you know about MODY diabetes. I have yet to get an official diagnosis, but my mom and I both have the same issues. She is working on getting a genetic test to find out for sure. My insurance required doctor suggests putting me on Metformin even though I explain it is not supposed to work for this type of diabetes. We are not diabetic "enough" (yet) for a regular endo to be interested in (and I'm not interested in the only tool they seem to have in their toolbox), I have tried many naturopathic and functional medicine detoxes, cleanses, therapies and protocols. I do feel better about my quest towards general health, but am no closer to figuring out the specific dis-ease and dysfunction affecting my blood sugar. I also know that a lifetime of even mild MODY and pre-diabetic levels of blood sugar can be catastrophic in the long run. I am 36 now and need to figure this out before more damage is done. My A1C ranges from 6.0 to 6.3 for years, but I feel it may be going downhill. I have been trying many types of diets, eating patterns (fasting, etc) and supplements to experiment with their effect, but it is very difficult to get a good gauge on what works when it would take years to isolate one specific variable to try every three months and request an A1C test. No one, even the specialists (endos) have much info on this aside from what pills work on it and which don't - and the ones that are supposed to work are the really bad ones that they don't like to prescribe anyways. Help, I don't want that to be my eventual only option!! Do you have any experience with MODY, or a direction to point me in?Thank you so much for your time. Suzanne: Hi Dr Cabral. Your amazing! Could you please consider doing a 'what your face is saying about you podcast?' (I know a lot of skin issues are gut based but I'm sure there is more detail to delve into on this topic.) Thank you! Karyn: Hello, My 4 year old son recently did a blood test. The Dr noticed his aspartate transaminase (AST)/ alanine transaminase (ALT) ratios were out. My son's levels were AST 30: ALT 13. The Dr said the levels should be equal and that this signifies mitochondrial dysfunction. She said he may need more Vitamin B6 but other than that no recommendations were given. My son cannot swallow capsules so we are a little lost on how to go forward with this advice. I would like to pick your brain and ask if you could please let me know what would be going on in a 4 year olds body that would result in this abnormality? Is there a way to get his levels back to normal? If so, please share. And also, if this is a sign of mitochondrial dysfunction would you please give me some advice on how to support his mitochondria in the future? You're advice would be greatly appreciated. I have been listening to you for a year now and hold your opinion in high regard. Thank you Anthony: Dr. Cabral! What are your thoughts on those with high myopia and nearsightedness? I have -7.50 and -9.00 respectively with some astigmatism. The severe myopia I've had began when I was 5 with too much near screen use. I take Lutein and Zeathenaxin currently and Omega 3's. Beside's that, is there anything else that should or could be done? Can severe myopia actually be reversed if one has worn glasses their whole life?   Thank you for tuning into today's Cabral HouseCall and be sure to check back tomorrow where we answer more of our community’s questions!  - - - Show Notes & Resources: http://StephenCabral.com/1583 - - - Get Your Question Answered: http://StephenCabral.com/askcabral   - - - Dr. Cabral's New Book, The Rain Barrel Effect https://amzn.to/2H0W7Ge - - - Join the Community & Get Your Questions Answered: http://CabralSupportGroup.com - - -   Dr. Cabral’s Most Popular Supplements: > “The Dr. Cabral Daily Protocol” (This is what Dr. Cabral does every day!) - - - > Dr. Cabral Detox  (The fastest way to get well, lose weight, and feel great!) - - - > Daily Nutritional Support Shake  (#1 “All-in-One recommendation in my practice) - - - > Daily Fruit & Vegetables Blend  (22 organic fruit & vegetables “greens powder”) - - - > CBD Oil  (Full-spectrum, 3rd part-tested & organically grown) - - - > Candida/Bacterial Overgrowth, Leaky Gut, Parasite & Speciality Supplement Packages - - - > See All Supplements: https://equilibriumnutrition.com/collections/supplements  - - -   Dr. Cabral’s Most Popular At-Home Lab Tests: > Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (Test for mineral imbalances & heavy metal toxicity) - - - > Organic Acids Test (Test for 75 biomarkers including yeast & bacterial gut overgrowth, as well as vitamin levels) - - - > Thyroid + Adrenal + Hormone Test  (Discover your complete thyroid, adrenal, hormone, vitamin D & insulin levels) - - - > Adrenal + Hormone Test (Run your adrenal & hormone levels) - - - > Food Sensitivity Test (Find out your hidden food sensitivities) - - - > Omega-3 Test (Discover your levels of inflammation related to your omega-6 to omega-3 levels) - - - > Stool Test (Use this test to uncover any bacterial, h. Pylori, or parasite overgrowth) - - - > Genetic Test (Use the #1 lab test to unlocking your DNA and what it means in terms of wellness, weight loss & anti-aging) - - - > Dr. Cabral’s “Big 5” Lab Tests (This package includes the 5 labs Dr. Cabral recommends all people run in his private practice) - - - > View all Functional Medicine lab tests (View all Functional Medicine lab tests you can do right at home for you and your family!)

I'm a dad to the best girl in the world! Yes I know every parent says that but I call bull shit on most. There are truly only a handful of remarkable people out there in the world. And I believe my little Peanut is one of them. She has grown up dealing with extreme anxiety and shyed away from social interactions for most of her childhood, And having a truck driver for a dad she basically grew up with a part time dad. Now whether or not me not being there all those years was the cause of that anxiety I dont know. I just know she is a very talented artist and is most happy with colored pencils and paper or paint and a canvas. She can create some of the most amazing images in just about any medium you can think of and she never ceases to amaze me. I do feel very bad for her because she was just starting to come out of her shell and got a boyfriend, was making friends at school and then the world went into lockdown and now she cant see anyone. Talk about feeling like the world is aligned against you. The poor kid is so stressed right now. I cant imagine what its like for her. I love my dog This really is no secret to anybody that follows me on social media. I have posted many pics of my dog Cinnamon (Minnie). She is a Mini Austrailian Sheppard that we paid around $400 because she was my wife's birthday present. Turns out Minnie bonded with me the minute we got her. She is my little hemorroid because she is constantly up my ass. When I'm home she will not leave my side and will go bonkers if I'm in another room I have type 2 diabetes This is somewhat important since I am a truck driver. I'm treating it with a once a day insulin shot, a handful of pills and diet. But iI may have a problem that will disquilify me as a driver. My A1c will not stay down low enough. Meaning that I may be developing a resistance to the insulin. Which means that I will most likely be switched to a diagosis of type 1 diabetes melititus. And that form of diabetes is not allowed by the dot. Religon is the problem not the diety. Humans are the dumbest form of intelligent life that has ever been created. Whether you belive that it evolved from a soup of proteins or an omniscent being snapped it's fingers. We let our emotions control us way too much. We put our beliefs in what we each think is right in our own minds. And then we only associate with others that agree mostly with what we ourselves think. Then we oppose all who disagree and label them as evil. All religons are a cult of some kind. Even the lack of one is a cult. What people should be doing is to just have faith. Faith isnt religon, religon is a sinking ship that people jump onto simply because they need a purpose in life. Faith is a vehicle moving forward, towards a destination. Whether your destination is to replicate the life of a diety or to simply exist in a life of peace. Humans need a reason to exist. A reason to live. We need to feel like we are here with a job to do. People have used religon as a weapon to try to get what they personally wanted throughout history. Whether it was the christian crusades, or the jewish holocost. The vast amount of wars through the centries and the slaughtering of billions of human lives have been over religon. Religon has never been about God(s) or dieties, It's always been about one humans power over another human. Why I dont talk about politics They are devisive, Just as much as religon is about power, politics is the same. In fact it so much similar that we have cults here in the USA, they are known as Democrats and Republicans. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/landp/message

Part 2: Beat Cancer Board Member Emeritus Andrea Anderson with Nutrition Commission, Talks About ‘Learning How To Eat in a Healthy Way After A Cancer Diagnosis' Following Andrea Anderson's aggressive Stage 2B / Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis while pregnant, she was faced with 42 years of eating habits that needed to be changed. Listen to this podcast to learn how Andrea navigated changing her eating habits, addressing the emotional needs behind her cravings, and structuring a plan to keep her on track. She is also sharing her daily juice and salad here:  2:38 My friend wanted me to watch The Truth About Cancer. I watched all 9 part docuseries I learned about chemotherapy and the industry and I learned how food could heal. 3:43 Foods have the power to heal. In parallel, I was doing oncology and made an appointment with the Cancer Center For New Medicine because I heard their name on The Truth About Cancer Docuseries. 4:20 The foods that I ate as a kid with my family, the way we treated food, it was comfort and pleasure. Now I was introduced to food as medicine and in the state of chronic illness it's about the therapeutic benefits of food. 5:06 I read The Anti-Cancer A New Way of Life book that became a guide for me. 5:43 I gave birth in July 2015 and my mother-in-law from Greece came and she was a big piece in learning how to cook veggies and how delicious they are with extra virgin olive oil, lemon and oregano, salt and pepper. It was exactly what my body needed. 7:34 I was juicing every day, first getting it from whole foods and flooding my body to make it alkaline and detoxing from chemotherapy at the same time. I was also taking baby steps to take out sugar, grains, alcohol. 9:43 Detoxing was also a big part of this with coffee enemas. I didn't feel as sick as other people I've heard were. I bounced back after 2 days of every treatment. I was eating organic, good quality food. 11:37 I was feeling hungry and burned out. I didn't know what to eat. 13:33 I did a slew of testing. I was taking about 60 supplements and did micronutrients testing, mitochondrial function testing, and a toxicity test for heavy metals. My A1C was good but nutritionally I still wasn't good. This is where candida, parasites, and the gut health comes into it. 16:03 I felt like I was developing an eating disorder, orthorexia. People with chronic illness and cancer know they need to pivot and eat differently, but I almost wasn't eating at all because I couldn't get past the do not eat list. 19:17 I came across Chris Wark's work. He healed with food and figured out how to make it simple. He taught me the trick of how to eat the same things every day. My life transformed at this point. I was focused on what I should eat and how to make it delicious. I incorporate different fats, textures, and the sweet and the creamy. It's very low maintenance. 24:10 Half my plate is loaded with veggies, 1/4 of my plate is a protein source, and then the remaining is for olives or beans or complex carbs. I do olive oil on veggies and I cook with coconut oil in good cookware. 27:44 The sugar cravings were the toughest thing to battle. What worked for me was Bulletproof coffee with coconut oil and grass fed butter. I would do Intermittent fasting until 10-11am and break the fast with green juice. 31:25 You have to stop and think about what is fueling your desire for the food. I would look at food and say, why do I need this? What am I feeding? Do I need self care? A walk, a sauna, a hug? Slow down and connect with what's behind the behavior. 36:47 I did coffee enemas 3 to 4 times a week, especially if I had strong cravings. 40:50 I have not felt like crap in the afternoon anymore because I eat a salad every day. 41:41 We didn't go out to eat a lot. 43:22 I lifted the load of perfection because that made me sick, like eating disorder mentality. But I'm very careful about my habits. 47:28 You don't want to put harmful things into your body and if you keep reaching for them you have to dig deeper and ask why do I need this? The urge is so powerful. What is it really about? Do I need to relax? Self-care? A hug? A walk? Reading a book? Mindfulness? Andrea's go-to Green juice in this order! 1 cucumber 2-3 celery stalks 1/2 romaine lettuce 2-3 handfuls of spinach 1/2 - 1 granny smith apple (low glycemic) 1 lemon w/ peel removed 1 ginger piece (about the size of your thumb) - add more if you prefer! My Favorite Combination for Creating my perfectly, delicious Daily Salad!  “Andrea's Signature Salad” Lettuces: I like to mix in 2 different lettuces and a few handfuls of each options (spinach, butter lettuce, or arugula)  Veggies: Cucumbers + Broccoli Sprouts + Cauliflower Rice + little bit of Green onions (I stick with these all the time!) Crunchy: Nuts. I'll add in either pine nuts, walnuts, or pumpkin seeds. Entirely up to you but ensure they are plain and not store-bought as roasted. Sweet: Fruit (ie, Pomegranates, Blueberries or Strawberries only!) Salty: Roasted Sweet Potatoes cut into cubes – 1 tbspl of olive oil with Garlic Salt + Himalayan Salt + Cooked @ 400 for 45 min. Sauerkraut! I love this stuff! I'll buy Bubbies and put in about ¼ - ½ cup at least. Creates a great texture and ‘juiciness' almost to your salad. Garlic Olives. About 3-4! Creamy: Healthy Fats & Beans. I cut up half of an Avocado + add in a Creamy Dressing Option + 1 tbls of olive oil to the salad to help blend up the creaminess. I make a home-made, dairy-free Caesar Dressing ‘or' sometimes I just a dollop of Avocado Chipotle ‘mayo' from Primal Kitchen to give my salad a creamy kick! Beans. I'll add in a few ‘gigante' beans which are mediterrean style and delicious! But I would limit these to no more than ¼ cup as a protein source to your salad. Toppings: Organic, Hemp Hearts (I'll put in 3 tbsp to get me 10 grams of plant-based protein!) Cheese: Special Occasion - I might add a few sprinkles of organic goat cheese or feta from time to time! Homemade, Dairy-Free, Caesar-like Salad Dressing (without anchovies!)– drop into food processor and blend! (Add 1 tbsp of water if needed to liquify to your liking) 1 tbsp Dijon mustard 1 tsp Worcester sauce 1 pasture-raised egg ½ cup to ¾ cup olive oil 2 -3 cloves of garlic Salt-  

Melissa's story: I have always struggled with my weight. I can remember being slightly chubby from around the age of 5, but everything got worse when at the age of 8 we moved from the city to another local suburb. I struggled to make new friends, and began to be picked on. Like so many others, I found comfort in food. This lead to my highest weight of about 225 pounds by the time I was 20. On my small 5’1″ frame it looked worse. Shortly after getting married to my ex-husband I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes! I went to the doctor for a checkup after having a miscarriage, and I walked out of the office with 6 prescriptions for pills, meter, strips, and not really knowing what Diabetes even was. While I realize now my low/no carb approach was unsustainable for me, I did lower my A1c, lose 50 pounds and get pregnant with my son! But after my first pregnancy I struggled. I would yo-yo with both my weight, losing the same 20 pounds over and over again, but also with my diabetes. My A1c was all over the place, anywhere from 11 to 5.1! I tried so many different diets, shakes, extreme workouts, pink drinks, pills, etc, and nothing worked longer that a few weeks or months. I went from Metformin, to insulin, to Victoza-until I got a lump in my neck from it. Around the same time I also experienced knee inflammation. I have an old knee injury and some arthritis from it, but now my knee was the size of a grapefruit, for no reason! I couldn’t walk for a month. I was stuck on the couch, peeing in a garbage can! My husband was transitioning from his day job to a higher paying evening job, so he would get the kids on the bus, leave all day, come home for an hour, feed and bath our daughter, and then leave all night. My butt went numb from sitting and laying. I had tennis elbow from lifting myself, and then carpal tunnel in both wrists from switching to them. I was at ROCK BOTTOM! This was when I knew I had to make a complete change. This just wasn’t working. Everyday I felt like I was slowly dying instead of living and thriving. We had watched Forks Over Knives, Hungry For Change, Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead 1 & 2, Food Matters, and so many other documentaries before but just never did anything. Now we were ready! We tried one day, a Saturday, eating a 100% WFPB diet. This was rebirth! Immediately I noticed changes. I had to start lowering my insulin because I was having lows and waking up in the 50’s. I was sleeping better. I had energy. I was losing weight. And my knee was straight and normal after just 2 weeks. After 4 weeks I was completely OFF insulin! For the first time in my life I felt like I was living instead of dying. This is why I don’t cheat or why I haven’t “fallen off the wagon” Because no junk food is better than how I feel everyday! I have since lost a total of 82 pounds since switching to a WFPB lifestyle (or 107 pounds if you go off my highest weight of 225)! From the start I made videos on my YouTube Channel and created my Facebook page: Plant Based Melissa. I’ve been reading book after book and just recently received my Certification in Holistic Nutrition. Food is powerful and can truly help so many ailments and diseases. It’s about embracing your “why,” educating yourself on this lifestyle and never looking back.

In Episode 139 of Keto Talk, Jimmy and special guest co-host Dr. Gus Vickery answer your questions about Loose Stools From Higher Fat, Diabetic Neuropathy, Antibiotics While Fasting, San Filippo Syndrome, Regular Exercise On Keto and more! We begin today's show with special guest co-host Dr. Gus Vickery from DrGusVickery.com talking about Dr. Vickery's basic philosophy on nutrition and health, and his unique seasonal use of fasting and ketosis with patients as a way of honoring ancestral design. HOT TOPICS: 1. There’s a weight loss medication called CONTRAVE I’d like to use to help control carb cravings while I am adapting to keto. Is this a good idea? 2. When I try to stop taking the prescription version of Prilosec that I’ve taken for 15 years after starting keto, my heartburn is as bad as ever. Will keto help heal this? 3. What is the best way to eat a healthy ketogenic diet on a tight budget? “There are times that we blow by satiety because the keto foods we eat taste so good, but if you listen carefully to your satiety signals you can get that dialed in.” – Jimmy Moore “It's not normal for children to be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome and the number one cause is the change in our eating patterns.” – Dr. Gus Vickery HEALTH HEADLINES: Why Some Experts Don’t Recommend the Keto Diet ‘Keto Crotch’ Might Be A Surprising Side Effect Of A Low-Carb Diet New Biosensor Accurately Measures Glucose in Saliva A taste for fat may have made us human STUDY: Climate-friendly labriculture depends on an energy revolution Jimmy and Will answer your questions: - What’s the solution to dealing with loose stools stemming from eating more calories and fat-based keto foods that normal? Hi Jimmy and Dr. Vickery, I’m a big fan of Keto Talk and I’ve listened to every episode since day one. I’ve been eating keto for the past four years and love this lifestyle. I’ve been constantly tweaking and refining what I’m doing to dial in the amount of food and macronutrient ratios that help me feel the best. So far so good. But I will admit there are times on occasion that I overindulge in the amount of keto foods that I consume that puts more calories and especially fat into my body than my body would typically require. I can always tell when I’ve done this because I have very loose stools. I’ve listened to your show enough to know that is likely a result of eating more fat than I need or some gut health component. The obvious solution is to stop doing that, but I’m wondering if there is anything I can do before, during, or after those times I have a bit more than normal to mitigate these side effects in my bowels. Thanks so much for your answer and keep up the great work! Brian in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – Does diabetic neuropathy ever get fully healed once blood sugar becomes stabilized from eating a ketogenic diet? Hi Jimmy and Gus, I have type 2 diabetes as a 51-year old male, 6’3”, 255 pounds (down from 326 pounds since starting keto seven months ago. My A1C has dropped from 7.8 to 5.2 and I came off all my diabetes medications four months ago. The only remaining physical effect I’m dealing with from my pre-keto days is a a slight neuropathy in my feet. Will this ever improve completely or is the nerve damage just too severe for even keto to help heal? Thanks for all you help on this journey because your show has been a real inspiration. Paul – Does taking an antibiotic cause the body to respond adversely during extended fasting? Hey Jimmy and Dr. Vickery, Thank you for being a sounding board for all things keto and fasting! It has truly inspired me in my own journey. I have been eating keto since the beginning of the new year and I’ve noticed this way of eating makes fasting for upwards of 24 hours very easy to do. I tried my first 72-hour fast this week to see how I’d do and the first 24 hours was a cinch. Day two was a challenge, but I already knew that from hearing Jimmy talk about this so much. I was anticipating the “euphoria” of day three, but at hour 58 I woke up feeling absolutely horrible. I took some salt, drank coffee, pounded water, and did my best just to walk on the treadmill for a mile that day. After the workout I felt so bad that I knew it was time to end the fast because hunger pangs and food cravings at that point were just too much to bear. I feel like I did everything right and saw blood ketones in the 2.0-3.5 range and blood sugar in the sixties feeling great. There is one monkey wrench in this story I haven’t shared yet, but on the night of day two of this 72-hour fast, I had to take an antibiotic. Is it possible that is the culprit in my hunger and symptoms that forced me to quit the fast? Is there a way to safely and effectively get the benefits of fasting if you are taking an antibiotic? Thanks for all of your guidance and support for the keto and fasting community! Stephanie – Would a ketogenic diet with periods of intermittent fasting perhaps help children who are afflicted with San Filippo Syndrome? Hey guys, I saw a story on the news last night about kids who get Alzheimer's-like symptoms and, dementia at the age of two and then go downhill fast living as long as five years. When I looked up this condition called San Fillipo Syndrome, it seems these kids have trouble breaking down sugar and clearing cellular trash. Do you know if this condition is being researched for the impact a ketogenic diet could play on it? Like epilepsy, perhaps a simple diet change and maybe some intermittent fasting may be all that's needed here. What role would the diet of the mother during pregnancy play in preventing a condition like San Fillipo Syndrome from developing? Thanks for your thoughts on this. This Old Housewife KETO TALK MAILBOX: – What impact does engaging in regular exercise while eating keto have on cholesterol and general health? Hello Jimmy and Gus, I listen to Keto Talk frequently when I am working out at the gym. My story is quite unique as I once weighed in at 799 pounds at the age of 16. With lots of prayer and commitment to my own health, I was able to lose around 600 of those pounds. Today, I am a very active person and have been eating low-carb for the past nine years. In late 2018, I decided to shift my nutritional intake over to the ketogenic diet. I love to move and do an hour plus of cardio six days a week as well as strength training for 20 minutes 3-4 times per week. I have a standing desk at work, and I attempt to move as much as I can throughout the day - sometimes even doubling up on the cardio sessions! My question for you guys is this: What impact does all this exercise that I do have on my cholesterol levels while eating a ketogenic diet? How well does engaging in regular exercise like I do pair with keto? Do you recommend that people eating low-carb, high-fat engage in some form of cardio to ensure proper heart health and weight management? Thanks for your help with my questions. Justin ITUNES REVIEWS: Links: – Listen to Dr. Gus Vickery on Episode 1469 of The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show – DrGusVickery.com

Adam Zickerman discusses his 90-day journey of religiously dedicating himself to following a ketogenic diet here in Episode 25 of the InForm Fitness Podcast.  Adam reveals the challenges of sticking to the ketogenic diet along with some misconceptions and the dramatic results.Here is a link to the website Adam mentions in this episode:  http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/ketosis-advantaged-or-misunderstood-state-part-i Don't forget Adam's Zickerman's book, Power of 10: The Once-a-Week Slow Motion Fitness Revolution.  You can buy it in Amazon by  clicking here: http://bit.ly/ThePowerofTenTo find an Inform Fitness location nearest you to give this workout a try, please visit www.InformFitness.com.  At the time of this recording we have locations in Manhattan, Port Washington, Denville, Burbank, Boulder, Leesburg and Reston.If you'd like to ask Adam, Mike or Sheila a question or have a comment regarding the Power of 10. Send us an email or record a voice memo on your phone and send it to podcast@informfitness.com. Join Inform Nation and call the show with a comment or question.  The number is 888-983-5020, Ext. 3. For information regarding the production of your own podcast just like The Inform Fitness Podcast, please email Tim Edwards at tim@InBoundPodcasting.comThe transcript to the entire episode is below: Adam: You know when you're wearing clothes, my lean muscular build, it's hard to know that I was getting a little bit of a spare tire underneath them, but I was getting a little bit of a spare tire, but besides that, there were two things. One, my chronic back problems which you covered last episode, and I wanted to do whatever I could to ameliorate these back issues. Consistent and safe back exercises are one of them, and the other thought I had was maybe my diet is affecting my back, because I was reading a lot about the typical American diet and it's inflammatory. I'm thinking I might have an inflammation issue going, my back keeps going into spasm, it's probably chronically inflamed. If I can not only exercise my back properly but maybe reduce my chronic inflammation, that might be my answer. Tim: InForm Nation, welcome to episode 25 of the InForm Fitness podcast. Twenty minutes with New York Times bestselling author, Adam Zickerman and friends. I'm Tim Edwards with the InBound Podcasting Network and a client of InForm Fitness. Joined as always by Sheila Melody, Mike Rogers, and of course Adam Zickerman. Okay team, at the time of this recording, spring has just sprung, summer is just a few months away, and I'm sure a good portion of InForm nation is already thinking about summer which means they're thinking about slimming down a little or in some cases a lot, so dieting is on their minds. We've all heard of, and I'm sure participated, in at least a few nutrition plans, like the paleo diet, the Atkin's diet, or the one that I really enjoyed a few years ago was the slow carb diet from Tim Ferris. Most recently I had tremendous success by just eating cleanly as you describe Adam in chapter three of your book, Power of Ten: The Slow Motion Fitness Revolution.So Adam, you visited LA. just a few months ago when we recorded the Adam in LaLa Land episode and frankly, you looked extremely fit. So in the last episode, you mentioned that we're going to talk about a diet that you've been on for the last X amount of days, and my question is why did you even consider going on a diet in the first place because you don't look like you need to go on one.Adam: I picked up a few lessons from my female friends and I know how to dress to hide it.Tim: You wear Spanx, that's what you're telling me?Mike: Spanx and New York black. Everyone in New York knows how to hide it.Adam: Hide our emotions.Tim: You don't hide your emotions in New York, come on.Adam: The people in L.A want to hide their emotions.Tim: We're the passive aggressive ones.Sheila: Oh no, we want to talk about our emotions.Tim: That's down in the south where they're passive aggressive, but anyway, we digress. You mentioned the diet, and here's a guy, the guru, the InForm Fitness and you're fit. So what prompted you to go on a diet?Adam: I'm so glad you asked me that question, because you know the other question I get asked in a similar vein is why do you work out Adam, you look great. Sheila: You say because I never want to look like you.Adam: That just reminded me of something Yogi Bear once said. Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore, it's always too crowded. So listen, why did I go on this diet. Well first of all, diets are not always about weight loss, fat loss. Diets are about health, or they should be. Now I know that anyone who goes on a diet, their number one concern is I want to lose body fat, which is a noble goal because being overweight has health problems associated with it. Now I did want to lose a little weight first of all, because I always said that I hide it well half-jokingly, because the other half, I did need to lose a couple of pounds and it is true that when you're wearing clothes, my lean muscular build, it's hard to know that I was getting a little bit of a spare tire underneath them, but I was getting a little bit of a spare tire, but besides that, there were two things. One, my chronic back problems which you covered last episode, and I wanted to do whatever I could to ameliorate these back issues. Consistent and safe back exercises are one of them, and the other thought I had was maybe my diet is affecting my back, because I was reading a lot about the typical American diet and it's inflammatory. I'm thinking I might have an inflammation issue going, my back keeps going into spasm, it's probably chronically inflamed. If I can not only exercise my back properly but maybe reduce my chronic inflammation, that might be my answer. So for years, I've been reading about the ketogenic diet, and for years I was poo-pooing it.Tim: Why?Adam: Because I had a vast misunderstanding about what a ketogenic diet was. Basically using ketones for fuel. I'll get into what a ketone is a little bit later, but my understanding of ketones was when your body is using ketones for fuel, or if you're producing a lot of ketones, I always understood that to be very dangerous. In my mind without realizing it, I was really thinking about what they call ketoacidosis, which is much different than nutritional ketosis, using ketones for fuel from a nutritional point of view, as opposed to something very dangerous called ketoacidosis. That was where the confusion comes in. Whenever you talk to a doctor or a nutritionist and say I want to go into ketosis, they say it's dangerous, and being in ketoacidosis is very dangerous but you cannot go into ketoacidosis just by eliminating carbohydrates or going to what they call nutritional ketosis. Ketoacidosis, let me explain what that it is. It usually afflicts people with Type I diabetes. Type I diabetics cannot produce insulin, and when you cannot produce insulin, when you eat carbohydrates, the sugar starts building up and building up, and what happens is the body can't utilize that sugar, because the insulin is not there to use that sugar and bring it into the fat cells and the muscle cells, or bring it into any cell that needs that for energy. So the body, if it can't get glucose for energy, it starts metabolizing fat for fuel. That's where it's going to get it's energy from, and it starts going crazy producing these ketones. You see ketones come from fat, the metabolism of fat. An alternative sense of energy for the body are ketones, fat gets broken down into ketones, carbohydrates get broken down into glucose and when the body breaks down carbohydrates for glucose and those glucose molecules can't be used, the body will say okay, let me go break down some body fat, get some ketones out of it, and utilize that for fuel. So it's another source of currency if you will, and if you're a Type I diabetic, your body goes crazy producing these ketones and you end up having so many ketones that you go into an acidic state, a dangerously acidic state where basically all functions of the body cannot produce and cannot function when you're in such a high acidic state. In other words, we have to have a pH level that's very, very stable, like about normal, about 7. Our pH is about 7, that's the normal functioning pH of the human body. When you start having all these ketones that start going through the roof — ketones are acidic by the way, and ketones that are not being checked or regulated, start going through the roof and you are in a very dangerous state. So a Type I diabetic can very often go into ketoacidosis and they have to go the hospital, they have to get the injections, and usually it's a diabetic that's not taking care of themselves. You cannot go into that acidic state being in what I have been in the last ninety days which is called nutritional ketosis. Nutritional ketosis is a state in where you body instead of using glucose for fuel, not because there's no insulin, but because you're not eating anything that's going to produce a lot of glucose, your body says well I need energy, so I'm going to start using fat for fuel. Every cell cannot use actual fat for energy, they have to break down the fat. Just like we have break down carbohydrates for glucose, we have to break down fat, and we're breaking them down into fat and these ketone bodies are being used for fuel. Well there's a lot of evidence right now that's showing that these ketogenic diets which are to break it down into macronutrients about 70-75% fat, about 10% protein, maybe 15% protein, and then the rest which is about 5% carbohydrates.Tim: Now immediately, red flags are flying all over when you say the diet is made up of 75%  fat. Now let's drill down on that a little bit more. We're not talking cheeseburgers.Adam: Well we're not talking cheeseburgers with the bread, but we are talking cheeseburgers. I will have red meat, I will have cheese. Red meat has to be grass fed, not this factory raised cow. So the quality of the foods that you're eating is also very important, so I eat grass fed beef and beef, the fat in the beef is very good for you. What you have to be careful of, this is what I realized and this is a very common mistake that people make on ketogenic diets, that they think it's a high fat, high protein diet, but it's not really high protein. Having too much protein can actually produce an insulin response or produce sugar, because protein can be converted into glucose, it's called gluconeogenesis, and it can be almost as bad as actually eating carbohydrates. A lot of people will eliminate their carbohydrates and they'll end up having tons of red meat, which is a lot of protein.Tim: That sounds like the Atkin's diet to me.Sheila: That's what I was just going to say.Adam: The Atkin's diet, in essence, a ketogenic diet and the misinterpretation of the Atkin's diet of a ketogenic diet is that the image is like a bunch of caveman sitting around gnawing on a dead animal or something like that and just eating fat and bacon and protein all day long. It's not like that, it's mostly vegetables that are saturated in fat like olive oil, or coconut oil or avocado oil. Salads that are doused in that kind of fat, so getting vegetables or other types of oils and avocados in general, grass fed meat, pasture raised chickens, eggs, and of course wild fish. That is my diet, and it's not like I'm eating tons of meat. I'm eating six ounces of a steak, I'm eating tons of brussel sprouts that have been roasted in coconut oil.Tim: All sounds good to me so far.Sheila: Probably 85% of the time I eat exactly what you just described.Adam: I committed to eating this way without exception for ninety days. I started at the beginning of this year.  Here we are. Tim: Where are you now at the time of this recording?Adam: It's a coincidence but I am literally, today, on my 90th day. It started January 3rd, which is a Tuesday. So I don't know if it's the 90th day, but I just finished my twelfth week starting January 3 and this is a Tuesday. So today is the last day of my twelfth week.Mike: I don't think 90 is divisible by seven.Tim: Well he's close.Mike: I've got my advocates in the corner there.Tim: So nonetheless, let's review.Adam: By the way, at the beginning I said why I did this. I thought it'd help my back, anti inflammatory. Ketogenic diets are well suspected to be anti-inflammatory. The second reason why I wanted to do this diet was because I had my annual checkup and I'm in my early 50s now, but 50s nonetheless, and my blood work is creeping the wrong way. They're starting to get on the high side of normal.Tim: Let me ask you, is that prior to going on the diet?Adam: Prior to going on the diet, I had my annual checkup and the results came in and he said to me hey, nothing to be alarmed about at this point but you're trending the wrong way. You're C-reactive protein is creeping which is an inflammatory marker, and he said your cholesterol is creeping up, it's not too high per se but it's on the higher side of normal. My A1C which is an indicator of your blood sugar was creeping up again on a high side of normal. I was like wow. These are all things that indicate that I'm going towards what many Americans go towards which is metabolic syndrome. It reminded me the same situation that Dr. Peter Attia, his story when he started his quest on ketogenic diets, and he was in the same situation. He worked out all the time, he thought he ate well most of the time. We think eating well is eating whole grain breads, and fruits, and occasionally what's so bad about having a beer here and there, and next thing you know, in a day you're still ingesting 250 grams of carbohydrates without even thinking about it. So he started taking control of it as well, and when I saw that my blood numbers were going up and then I read what Dr. Attia went through as well, I was like holy cow that's me. So that also prompted me, I wanted to see if going on a ketogenic diet would change these numbers. Well this is the 90th day so I'm about to get those numbers checked, so I'm going to report back on this but when I can talk about now is how I feel. Tim: Let's start with your back.Adam: And what has happened. First of all my back, in combination with what I've been doing with my lower back exercises and staying consistent with that, my back has never felt better. I can sit for hours in a car, or I can sit for hours at my desk, and get up sideways.Tim: And you're giving this ketogenic diet credit for assisting with that.Adam: First of all, I'm a sample size of one, so this is scientific at all, but I am giving it credit. That in conjunction with taking care of my back with the exercises. So I don't know where the cause and effect is because I've been doing a couple of things at once, but the big teller is going to be obviously the blood work that I get done soon. Besides that and besides the fact that my back feels better, I've lost fifteen pounds of weight that you didn't think that I needed to lose. So I look a lot better naked now, so I don't have to wear clothes anymore. I don't have to wear a T-Shirt to the pool anymore.Mike: You know when your body gets a little bit smaller, it gives the illusion that other things are bigger.Adam: You have that as well. Big thing that I noticed was my digestion. My digestion changed dramatically. I don't have upset stomach, my elimination if you know what I'm talking about has been undramatic, it's been beautiful.Sheila: It's a beautiful thing.Tim: Well your good friend Dr. Oz would be proud of that.Mike: Maybe this will get edited out, maybe it won't, but I'm just curious. What does beautiful mean? Tim: That actually is so it will not be edited out, so describe beautiful? You mean like one clean long — Adam: Exactly, tapered on both ends, perfect.Tim: Dr. Oz was his thing right?Adam: It's embarrassing, especially since you're talking about me.Mike: You don't sound like you're embarrassed.Adam: I am. You've got to remember that this is someone who is too shy to urinate in front of his wife. Mike: I'm going to remind you that you're the one who is talking about himself right now. Tim: So nonetheless there's a lot of fiber in this diet and it's really helping Adam a lot, so good.Sheila: That's really, really very interesting and I want to ask a question about is there a difference in how women react to this diet as opposed to how men react to this diet? Coming off that interview we had a few weeks ago with Dr. Sylvia Tera and The Secret Life of Fat, and how different men and womens' makeup is and how we process fat and everything. It sounds like something I'd like to try, and I feel like I've been kind of doing this for the most part.Tim: I think she's committing, I think she should jump on 90 days.Adam: I'm not sitting here saying everyone should jump on the ketogenic diet bandwagon first of all. I need to make that disclaimer. First of all, women are different and we're all different. I'm different from another man, and women certainly have their issues. When you talk about nutrient partitioning and that no matter what you eat, some of it is going to be partitioned to fat. Hormonal issues with women as they get older, all kinds of things. Genetics for men and women are different amongst ourselves and all these things play into it for sure, but having said that, sugar is bad. Sugar is bad, sugar is inflammatory. There is nothing good that comes out of sugar and excessive carbohydrates. I don't believe being in ketosis is dangerous anymore, and this idea of eating a lot of fat, even if it's saturated fat, especially if it's saturated fat, is not bad for you. It's been shown over and over again that dietary fat does not raise your cholesterol, so just check that box off. It's not true, it is just not true that eating egg yolks and eating red meat raises your cholesterol, that is not what is raising your cholesterol. The last ten, fifteen years have been really showing that. My blood work will show this, if I go to my blood work and my cholesterol is through the roof I'm going to have to eat my words. It might even be another cause of it, but the thing is if all my triglycerides are good and inflammatory makers are lowered and my cholesterol happens to stay on a higher side, and everything else is really, really good, I'm not going to worry about high cholesterol. High cholesterol, high LDLs are not a very good marker on heart disease.Mike: On its own.Adam: On its own. Now there's this other test that Dr. Attia actually told me to get which is an NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance test, to test for your LDLP. See when you go to the doctor and you get your cholesterol and blood work done, you're getting blood work for your LDLC. LDLC is how much cholesterol, low density cholesterol is in your blood, whereas the LDLP is showing you how many LDL proteins are in your blood. I'm getting technical right now, but it's a different marker and a much better marker and indicator of potential heart disease, this LDLP. So I'm going to get that done, and see if my LDLP is nice and low, and if that is, regardless of what my LDLC is or total cholesterol is, I'm not going to be worrying about it. Again, my A1C, my C reactive protein, these markers, if they stat going down after ninety days of eating, I'm not kidding you, 70% of my diet being fat, I'll be pretty convinced. At least for myself. Let me tell you about my experience psychologically.Tim: I'm curious how you managed this, because it seemed like a lot of drastic changes.Adam: This is why I'm not necessarily telling people to just go on this ketogenic diet. First of all, I'm not a nutritionist, I just play one on TV. So I'm a nutritionist, secondly, I'm not going to lie, it's not easy to adjust to this type of diet. If you're used to eating grains and carbohydrates — I'm essentially a vegetarian that is saturating their vegetables with saturated fat and all kinds of fats, and having small portions of animal protein, whether it be a chicken or a fish or a cow, all well raised, but they're small quantities. I'm not eating a lot. I'm also intermittent fasting. I'll go at least two or three times a week, I'll go anywhere from eighteen to twenty four hours without eating. I'll be drinking lots of liquids, I'll be drinking homemade beef broth or chicken broth, and that's it. So that's all I eat, one meal all day.Tim: So tell us your schedule Adam. So with this intermittent fasting, what time are you stopping eating at the end of the day?Adam: I'll eat dinner.Tim: At what time?Adam: Anywhere between five and seven most days. So let's say I finish eating seven. I won't eat again until at least two or three o'clock the next day. On some cases I won't eat again until dinner the next day.Mike: When you work as much as we do, I've got to be honest with you, time flies and you sometimes forget about food. I'm not as strict as Adam is, but I'm probably doing about 85% or 90% of what he is doing in regards to the ketogenic model, and the fasting model without even trying to.Adam: We work a lot and that speaks to one of the techniques that people recommend to help you through these intermittent fasts and that's distraction techniques. So when your mind keeps saying eat, eat, eat, distract yourself, pick up your guitar, write a letter, do something else. Distract yourself. A lot of this hunger by the way, is psychological, we're just not used to it mentally, but besides that, at the beginning, your body is physically wanting that food but once you start utilizing your fat for fuel and you become what they call keto-adapted where your body is primed to really use fat for fuel, and that takes a couple of weeks. Three weeks, four weeks sometimes. The first there or four weeks was the toughest because I was not adapted yet, so I was very hungry. Now, well it's 4:30 and I haven't eaten yet today. Last time I ate was dinner time around five yesterday.Mike: That's a lie, he had two celery sticks from me.Adam: That's true, it's two celery sticks so I broke my fast. Honestly I grabbed them because they were there, it was not because I was dying to eat something, and if I was dying to eat something, I certainly wouldn't have picked that.Sheila: When you say you're fasting, so you mentioned the broth though. So you have that when you're fasting, or you just have nothing, you have water.Adam: I have water mostly, but yeah, we serve bone broth here, we're making our own bone broth now. We can talk about that at a later date, but yeah, that doesn't count as cheating. It's 99.9% water, it just has the minerals and the amino acids in it. So I don't consider that really cheating, but come on. Even if I was to have a small meal, the gist of it is going long periods of time without eating, and that from my understanding is the real anti-inflammatory aspect. I mean sugar causes inflammation, and eating a lot also causes inflammation because you're breaking down all this stuff and getting all these free radicals and all this oxidative work going on, and that's what causes a lot of the inflammation. Now I'm reading and I'm learning that intermittent fasting forces the body to regenerate its cells at a lot faster of a rate. There's something to that.Sheila: I also read that an easier way to do the intermittent — well, for a sixteen hour fast that you can basically do is just stop eating at seven, and then don't eat again until eleven AM. That's sixteen hours.Adam: Basically skipping breakfast.Tim: A lot of people do that anyway.Adam: But this is the problem with intermittent fasting. When I go 24 hours, I'm hungry by then. A lot of people say they can go days without eating and these are people that are really and truly keto-adapted, maybe they've been doing it for a year or more. I don't know, but so far, I haven't been able to go more than seventeen hours without all of a sudden having all those hunger pains, and at that point I just deal with it for another few hours. At that point, when I do eat, this is the hard part. You have to eat a regular, small meal. Tim: No binging.Adam: It's so easy when you're famished like that and you've gone all day without eating, it's like you want to eat lunch, breakfast, dinner, and snacks all at one time in one sitting. You have to stop yourself from doing that.Mike: That's probably one of the differences to what was going on even before you did this 90-day thing. Our lifestyle really lent itself to — none of us eat that many carbohydrates ever. Adam hasn't for a while, but when you were, you probably — I'm just guessing because you're like me, I do these all day fasts also. If I don't have some snacks or prepare my food throughout the day as I did this week, I will come home and I will eat like seven pieces of chicken and I'm not proud of it afterwards. Unless you can control that voracious urge, you're not going to get what Adam is talking about here.Tim: So Adam, as we come to end of this episode, I really would love you to encourage you to get those tests done quickly, and if you don't mind, share some of them with our audience so that we can gauge your success. The question that I have for you right now as we put the wraps on this is okay, we're close to or at day 90. Are you going to continue and forge ahead with the exact same plan that you've had for the last three months or so, are you going to augment it a little bit, what are your plans?Adam: I'm going to continue, I'm going to stay on this. I might eat a little bit more often at this point, because I don't really need to lose anymore body fat. I've got the six pack going for the summer, that's all good.Tim: Look at you, he's in his 50s and he has a six pack, that's impressive.Sheila: Do you drink coffee, can I ask that?Adam: I drink coffee. Let me speak to something Mike just said. He was saying that we're generally very good about not eating carbs, and that's partially true, with me anyway. What I mean by that is I have two young kids and I grab the M&Ms. My wife buys five-pound bags of them so she can make pancakes for the kids. Don't get me started, my wife will not let me put my kids on a ketogenic diet.Mike: My wife is a nutritionist and she would never let it happen either.Adam: Because they're afraid of ketoacidosis, but anyway what I wanted to say was this. My diet before I started this, yes, I'd go three or four days really good, and then I'll eat a whole pizza. I would never really string along many consistent weeks or days. I'd eat well one day, not very much the other day, summers come, barbecue, hotdogs, hamburgers, I just went for it. I can get away with it. You said at the beginning of this piece, Adam you don't look like you need to lose weight, why'd you start this diet? I was creeping up, and even though it appears that I eat very well, and I obviously eat well most of the time. I certainly eat good foods but I also supplement them with not such good stuff. This last 90 days, I made a commitment not to deviate from that, to be really consistent with it. Yes it's higher fat than I would normally do when I did eat well. Less protein than I would normally — that's what I learned about a ketogenic diet, that most people make the primary mistake of eating too much protein on a ketogenic diet, and so this has been the first time in my life that I've been this disciplined in my eating. I'm older now, I can't get away with what I used to get away with. The other thing that I want to say before we wrap this up is about cravings. I always hear about how you go on these low carb diets and when your body starts getting used to and primed for utilizing fat for fuel, they say you eliminate all your cravings. Bullshit. To me anyway. Maybe the physical cravings aren't there and I told you I could go all day and not really be hungry, but the truth of the matter is, I'm craving the foods that I've been giving up nonstop. To this day, 90 days into it give or take, I still crave the pizza. I still see my kids eating the pizza, I still see the buns on the hamburgers and I want it, I want it bad. I say no, the cravings are there. Maybe the physical cravings aren't there as much.Tim: What do you mean by physical cravings, define that.Adam: My stomach growling and saying man you're hungry, you've got to eat. Or feeling a little lightheaded, or physically feeling the effects of hunger. Now that I'm keto-adapted I don't have those physical — when I'm 24 hours in I start to feel them, but eighteen hours fasts, it's a no-brainer for me, it's as easy as it could be. Even though those physical things aren't there, I pass a pizza place, I pass chicken wings at the Superbowl, hot dogs at the baseball game. Beer, alcohol, I want it all, those cravings have not subsidized. I don't look at them and say ew. I want it badly, but I don't do it.Sheila: It's easier to not do it.Adam: So going forward, I'm going to continue my strict ketogenic diet for at least another 30 days. I might eat a little bit more food, but not the foods I'm not supposed to be having on a ketogenic diet. The foods I can have, add a little bit to my portions, but that's the extent of it for the next thirty days. By that point, I'll have my blood work done and we'll talk about this some more.Mike: I just think before we wrap up, I think blood tests aside, that's data that we all need. It's great to get all that stuff, but the bottom line is you've taken an educated approach to selfexperimentation and troubleshooting your body to figure out how to improve it, and your back has felt better. Do we know it's because of the ketogenic diet, maybe it did, maybe it didn't, but regardless you're in a trend where you feel so much better. Your body feels better, your back feels better. You like the way you look, you feel, it's like I almost want to say — if the tests are completely negative or there's no improvement or any markers have been changed, who cares. Looking at someone who looks healthy also. They say that they feel great but they don't look healthy, but this is not the case.Adam: Like vegans. First of all, I want to say that this is not a ringing endorsement or a push for people to go ketogenic. I'm not going to be that bull at this point to say something like that. It's definitely a viable option, and before you go into something like this, check with your doctor and do a lot of research, because compared to the recommendations by the ADA, the American Diet Association, this is not what's recommended. I want to make this disclaimer. Look into it for sure, do your research. If it sounds like you, if I sounded like you, definitely look into it. Like Mike just said, I'm very well researched. I have a background in biochemistry, I know how to read these things. I'm a little bit different than your average bear when it comes to this type of thing. If you're not in that world, you should get advice when you do something like this.Sheila: Can you give us a starting point?Adam: Yeah, I do, I recommend the doctor that I mentioned earlier. Dr. Peter Attia, and his website is called the eating academy. Read everything this guy writes, and he also refers you to other things he reads so that is a great start. The eating academy by Dr. Peter Attia. So if you're interested in possibly doing this for yourself, well pay attention to our podcast, we're going to be reporting back on this in a little while when I get my blood work back and we'll take it from there. Good luck.Tim: Okay. So don't forget to check out the show notes for a link to the website that Adam referenced, spotlighting the research done by Dr. Peter Attia. That's eatingacademy.com. Looking forward to the results of Adam's blood work to gauge the success of his three-month ketogenic dietary journey, and we should have that for you coming up in the next few weeks. Also on the way, we have a couple of interviews that we're really excited about here at the InForm Fitness Podcast. In two weeks, we'll be speaking with happiness expert, Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen has authored several books and has sold more than two million copies in thirty different languages. She has been a client of InForm Fitness for many years, and she has a popular podcast of her own, titled Happier with Gretchen Rubin. So give it a listen and even subscribe to her podcast so you can become more familiar with Gretchen before she joins us here on the show, and in the process, pick up some valuable tips on being, well, happier. Next week, we'll be talking to Dr. Martin Gaballa, the author of the One Minute Workout. Adam and Dr. Gaballa will contrast and compare high-intensity strength training like we do here at InForm Fitness, and high-intensity interval training, as described in Dr. Gaballa's book, The One Minute Workout. If you'd like to find an InForm Fitness location nearest you so you can give this high-intensity strength training workout a try for yourself, please visit informfitness.com and at the time of this recording, we have locations in Manhattan, Port Washington, Danville, Burbank, Boulder, Leesburg, and in Restin. If you aren't near an InForm Fitness location, you can always pick up Adam's book via Amazon: Power of Ten, The Once a Week Slow Motion Fitness Revolution. Included in the book are several exercises that support this protocol that you canIf you aren't near an InForm Fitness location, you can always pick up Adam's book via Amazon: Power of Ten, The Once a Week Slow Motion Fitness Revolution. Included in the book are several exercises that support this protocol that you can actually perform on your own at a gym nearest you. We'll have a link to Adam's book in the show notes as well. Thanks again for listening, and for Sheila Melody, Mike Rogers, and Adam Zickerman of InForm Fitness, I'm Tim Edwards with the InBound Podcasting Network.Thanks again for listening, and for Sheila Melody, Mike Rogers, and Adam Zickerman of InForm Fitness, I'm Tim Edwards with the InBound Podcasting Network.

A letter from a DiabetesPowerShow listener... Hello Diabetes Power Show, A quick note to say thank you for the time you take to educate the diabetic community. My wife and I have learned so much from your pod cast and guests over the past six months. I am a type 1 diabetic who uses an Omnipod insulin pump and CGM. I developed pancreatitis five years ago and was required to go into the hospital every three weeks to have stents placed into my pancreatic ducts to move forward with simple life activities. After eighteen months, my doctor at the University of Colorado linked me to an excellent team at the University of Minnesota to perform a Total Pancreatectomy and Auto Islet Transplantation. The surgery was 17 hours and my islet cells were transplanted into my liver. I had a 40% chance the cells would take and I would not need insulin or be diabetic. I was also informed before the surgery that I had tested positive for a GAD antibody and there was an increased chance that my system would attack the transplanted Islet cells and I would become diabetic. As you can see, my cells did not survive and I am now a type one diabetic. However, I fully accepted the outcome and entered into the surgery expecting to come out being a diabetic. I am glad to say that the pain is gone and that is half the battle. In addition to being type 1, I will have to take enzymes for digestion for the rest of my life. I started out taking injections but quickly found that it was impossible to stop some of the lows and 12 months later, I switched to an insulin pump. My lows tend to be a bit different then a normal diabetic. I do not have the same ability to take sugar and recover from a low within 15 or 30 minutes. At times, it may take 30-50 carbs to move my BG up 30-40 points. The recovery process from my lows are different every time. My CGM has saved my life a minimum of 6 times and I am thankful to have the technology. I am also thankful to have an insulin pump that can be suspended to stop the lows. My A1C has ranged from 6.9 - 9.8 and is now at 7.2.  I eat close to the same food each day and my diet is low fat and low carb due to my impaired ability to digest certain foods. I live off of Quest nutrition Shakes (link below) and Quest Nutrition bars. The bars are low sugar, low net carbs and high in fiber and protein (and they are good). The shakes are low sugar, low carb, low fat and high in protein. Even non diabetics who like to eat healthy enjoy the bars and shakes! I have also recently discovered Paleo bars (Sunflower butter) and the bars are also low sugar, low net carbs and taste good. My success is due to the love and support of my wife. I would not be where I am today without her continuous care and concern for my well being. She has been with me every step of the way and has never given up on me or my health. I see the stress the disease causes her and she worries about my overall health and longevity of life. We have been married for 24 years and we hope the future blesses us with many, many more.   I have been fortunate enough to have excellent doctors who respond to e-mail, phone calls and are experts in their professions. At some point, they may add value to your show and have the ability to help others who listen to your POD cast.. After all they have been successful keeping me alive and when you consider I have no pancreas, spleen, gallbladder, appendix, no pain and am a type 1 diabetic… That is no small feat… Through the process, I have found that no one is the same and we all have different struggles with the same goals in mind. To live a normal life, love our families and contribute to society.  Thanks again for providing such amazing insight into the ever changing world of diabetes. You are helping the diabetic community in more ways than you will ever know! Sincerely, Steve and Christy Ewing

AIR DATE: November 1, 2012 at 7PM ETFEATURED EXPERT: FEATURED TOPIC: “Finding The Diet That's Right For You” If you've been listening to my podcasts or read my blog for any length of time, then you've obviously heard me talk about one of the basic philosophies that I think is an important part of living a healthy lifestyle. Here it is: "Find a diet plan that is right for you, follow that plan exactly as prescribed by the author and then keep doing that plan for the rest of your life making appropriate tweaks along the way to keep it working." But how do you go about figuring out what the "right" diet and lifestyle plan is for you? That's what we'll be exploring further in Episode 33 of "Ask The Low-Carb Experts" with a highly-qualified guest expert named  (listen to my March 2012 interview with Peter in ). TRY THESE DELICIOUS NEW PRE-MADE PALEO MEALSUSE COUPON CODE "LLVLC" FOR 10% OFF YOUR ORDERNOTICE OF DISCLOSURE: TRY THE WORLD'S FINEST CACAO BEAN LOW-CARB CHOCOLATEEnter "LLVLC" at checkout for 15% offNOTICE OF DISCLOSURE:  Here are some of the questions we addressed in this podcast: RENEE ASKS:I have been refining what I think is my perfect diet for about 3 years now. During that time my diet has drastically changed for the better. I eat a very strict Paleo autoimmune diet with no dairy, nuts or nightshades. This has worked very well for me and now I am experimenting with a few little things here and there to tweak my diet that help me go from feeling good to feeling great. I am wondering about the cross-reactivity of coffee with gluten. I have heard that this can be a problem for some people, but I dismissed it because I didn’t want to believe that it can be a problem for me. But now I’m thinking that it IS a problem for me because after quitting coffee I started losing weight with no other changes in my diet. And it's not just calories because I replaced the coffee with a coconut oil cocoa that would have equal calories since I made my coffee into a coconut oil latte anyway. I know that gut issues are the minority of manifestation of gluten intolerance, so this effortless weight loss might be showing some type of healing. I also heard that a study came out early this year confirming that a coffee/gluten cross reactivity is a significant problem. What are your thoughts on this issue? MICHAEL ASKS:I'd like to hear Peter address hypercaloric feeding on a ketogenic diet in combination with weight training. Is it possible for someone who is already basically lean and healthy to overeat and train his way up in size? What is the likely practical limit to size gain and performance in weightlifting with insulin levels being kept very low? MIKE ASKS:I have found success stabilizing my weight on a diet of 20-30g of carbs per day. However, I can't seem to lose those last stubborn pounds. I am a 5'8" male and currently weight 160 pounds with 19% body fat. My goal is to get down to 15% body fat. I started monitoring my ketones and after a month was able to lose another 4 pounds and 1% body fat, but it was very hard for me to maintain the high percentage of fat in my diet required to get my ketones high enough. Recently I started slow lifting and I really like that program. But when I increased my protein to aid muscle development I knocked myself out of ketosis and am right back to the 19% fat, 160-pound mark. I suspect a hormonal problem is contributing to the difficulties in losing but I’ve tested my testosterone twice and both times it’s near the high end of the "normal range." Recently my TSH also tested fine at 1.9, my Free T4 Direct was in the middle of the lab range at 1.32, and my TPOab was also in the middle at 12. My Free T3 was on the low end of the lab range at 2.2 (with the lowest reference range being 2.0). Given all of the above, are there variations I could try in my diet that could get me unstuck and help me reach my goal? MARYANN ASKS:I’m a 76-year old woman with the H63D gene for hemochromatosis and have high ferritin. My latest test was 436 and it goes up and down with an all-time high of 625. My doctors says that a phlebotomy is unnecessary unless it goes over 1000. I also have paroxysmal atrial fibrillation which I understand eating the Paleo way is the best for this. My A fib discussion board members say my ferritin is way too high now. What diet would you say would be the best for me? TINA ASKS:I am 42 years old and have been overweight since having children in my early 20s. I am 5'4" and weigh 199 pounds. My A1c was 5.8 when I check it a few months ago and my doctor advised me that I’m at risk for Type 2 diabetes and that I need to start exercising 30 minutes per day. I have been playing around with low-carb/Paleo and primal diets for the past few months but I can't decide which way to go. I have read tons of information and listen to many health podcasts like the ones from Jimmy Moore, Balanced Bites and Fat Burning Man. Where do I start? I crave sweets at least once a day and that continues to be my biggest downfall. How do I pick the diet that’s right for me? PALEOZETA FROM AUSTRALIA ASKS:I would like Dr. Attia to talk about intermittent fasting and…well, diarrhea. Sorry. About 10 minutes after I eat again following an intermittent fast, which works very well for me in conjunction with my ketogenic diet, I tend to have one or two bouts of diarrhea. I was reading that it could be our body expelling the toxins in it, but I’m not so sure about that. I’ve heard other people who do IF having this same issue. Do you have any insights about this? JAN ASKS:I'm a peri-menopausal woman, and I eat a low-carb, high-fat version of primal. My doctor is pushing statins on me strictly on the basis of my LDL-C which registered in at 142 using the Freidewald Equation. My HDL is 79 and my triglycerides are 71. Because of my insurer and financial situation, getting an NMR Lipoprofile test to measure my LDL-P is out of my reach to better assess my risk factors. I can't even get them to do a C-Reactive Protein test to assess whether there's inflammation. Is there any dietary tweak I can make to bring LDL-C lower without negatively impacting my excellent HDL and triglyceride readings? ERIC ASKS:It seems very timely that Dr. Attia will be on your podcast, Jimmy, as your latest Apo B results showing 238 and an LDL-P score of 3451 would appear to be quite alarming based on his recent “The Straight Dope On Cholesterol” series. Since Dr. Attia is a huge fan of ketogenic diets AND has a lot of knowledge about the importance of lipid markers, I would imagine he would be in a fantastic position to help clarify what is going on here. He seems to believe that the Apo B number is one of the most important markers of cardiovascular health. By the way, what is Dr. Attia’s Apo B number? JACK ASKS:Since cycling is a topic that is rarely addressed in Paleo/low-carb circles, does Peter have any tips for maximizing endurance athletic performance while on a ketogenic diet? Whenever I try to do cycling while in ketosis, I often feel fatigued and lose some of my power. Alternately, if I eat a lot of carbs and sugar-laden cycling food, I get stomachaches and feel bloated and grouchy most of the ride. Peter's blog has been the only thing I've ever seen talking about this topic and I’d appreciate hearing more from him about this. ROGER ASKS:Does a ketogenic diet repair or re-regulate an underactive thyroid? I’ve been on this diet for a year and a half now, but my hypothyroid symptoms still exist although I feel much better. My latest blood tests suggest I have low T3. I’m athletically built, never been overweight and exercise moderately. I’m wondering if Dr. Attia is a proponent of doing any thyroid supplementation in conjunction with a ketogenic diet as a beneficial approach to treating these hypothyroid symptoms? MICHELE ASKS:I heard you mention on your previous podcast with Jimmy that you use vegetables as a vehicle for consuming more fat. How important are vegetables in the diet if you’re eating a high-fat, low-carb diet? I always get confused because you hear how important it is to eat a lot of vegetables but I’m not particularly fond of a lot of them when trying to increase my ketones. TOM ASKS:We often hear the phrase used in the low-carb community that “there’s no dietary requirement for carbohydrate.” I’ve always assumed this comment was directed at the usual suspects like breads, cereals, pastas, legumes, etc. However, I have to ask, are vegetables really necessary to consume? In my case, I’m referring to non-starchy vegetables, such as kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and so forth. While vegetables contain vitamins, nutrients, fiber, and phytochemicals, I’ve read that cruciferous vegetables are also potentially goitrogenic. Cooking these vegetables for long periods of time supposedly helps to mitigate any deleterious effects, but the suggested cooking time is a minimum of 30 minutes. So what’s the scoop on veggies? DARREN ASKS:Over the past year and a half, I've been following a low-carb diet stopping short of nutritional ketosis. I'd put my daily carbohydrate input close to 100g out of a 2700- calorie diet. It has allowed me to accomplish and exceed the goals that I set out to do: - Lowered my Triglycerides from ~330 to