Cure your diabetes in 30 days!! Part One

A patient of mine emailed me about an ad she heard on the radio--a claim that you can reverse your diabetes in 30 days! A cure for diabetes!? How is that possible?! We've been told it's a chronic condition!! Well, she seemed so excited about it and was curious to know what I thought. The ad was for an event in Oakland that upcoming weekend that focused on the raw food diet and how it will cure illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol...pretty much anything you can think of! With this being the first I had heard of the movement, I was determined to go check it out. $20 later, I had my ticket!

The event took place at the East Bay Church of Religious Science on March 21st. It was centered around a documentary called "Simply Raw: Reverse Your Diabetes in 30 Days" which was co-produced by Supersize Me's Morgan Spurlock. The film chronicles 6 "average" diabetic Americans who were sent to the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona headed by Dr. Gabriel Cousens. While at the camp, the 6 were fed a very strict vegan raw-food diet for 30 days. Four of the six had type 2 diabetes, two had type 1, and all were on insulin therapy. The type 2 diabetics were also taking oral medications.

The first day at the camp, the 6 were instructed to cut their insulin shots by one-third, with the promise of being off all (or nearly all) medications by the end of the month. The camp's doctor was monitoring their progress as these 6 brave souls who had all been accustomed to the typical American diet of fast food embarked on their raw food journey. As one would guess, the food wasn't easy to tolerate for the first few days--keep in mind there was nothing cooked and no dairy was allowed (all vegan foods). Just A LOT of fresh fruits, vegetables, and sprouted grains...yummy!! The only saving grace was that the food was prepared by vegan raw food chefs.

After one week on the diet, nearly everyone had reduced their medications by half and saw miraculous results with their fasting glucose levels! Even without meds, their fasting glucose had dropped several hundred points on average in only one week! Incredible! As the weeks progressed, the diet seemed to be tolerated much more easily and all of the people saw drastic reductions in their fasting glucose. Where their fasting glucose had been in the 400's or 500's, they now had levels less than 100, which is normal for someone without diabetes.

By the end of the month, all of the people who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes had discontinued all medications, and had consistently normal fasting glucose levels. One of the type 1 diabetics reduced his insulin from 70 units/day to just 5, and the other type 1 stopped using insulin altogether. According to his lab tests, his pancreas even started to produce its own insulin, something that we scientists didn't think was possible!

Pretty convincing evidence, right???