Posted by D.A.Sears on September 12, 2008 at 4:38am
He is an an Author and ex-diabetic. Ex-diabetic? Yes, that’s right! He is MR. DeWAYNE McCULLEY. His groundbreaking book “Death To Diabetes” (www.DeathToDiabetes.com) which chronicles his death-defying-stepping-out-on-faith-fight against diabetes is creating quite a stir in the medical community. McCulley, who had a blood sugar count of 1,337 and took insulin four times on a daily basis, and survived a diabetic coma, is making medical history by virtue of the fact that he has been “diabetes free” for the past four years. This accomplishment along with his book, “Death To Diabetes” has pushed McCulley into the spotlight. In the eyes of many, Mr. McCulley’s book “Death To Diabetes” is a critical life line. And the title of Mr. McCulley’s book, “Death To Diabetes” is quickly becoming the battle cry of diabetics nationwide.I asked Mr. McCulley to talk about the day he discovered he was a diabetic. Had he experienced any discomfort or symptoms attributable to diabetes – such as excessive thirst, excessive urination, dramatic downward shifts in energy levels – before his diabetic condition was diagnosed by his physician?“I woke up one morning -- March 20, 2002 -- and could hardly move.” Mr. McCulley began. “Just before I blacked out, I called 911, and the ambulance came and took me to the hospital. A couple of days later, I was told that I had gone into a diabetic coma and almost died. The doctors told me I had other complications including two blood clots that they were trying to dissolve with medication. At the time, I didn’t realize how serious everything was because I didn’t really know anything about diabetes. Then they told me that I would have to take four insulin shots a day to control my blood sugar. Because of my fear of needles they were very patient with me and showed me how to inject myself. At one point, I asked if the nurse could give me the four injections each day. But at $100 for each visit to my house, I quickly realized that I had to overcome my fear of needles. About a month or so before the coma incident, I did notice that I was thirstier and I was urinating more frequently. But at that time I thought I was having problems with my prostate, so I had scheduled a doctor’s appointment in the April time frame.”What exactly is diabetes?“Good question. There are basically three types of diabetes,” Mr. McCulley replied. “Type 1 is the autoimmune disease that attacks the pancreas, preventing it from producing insulin. Type 2 is the lifestyle-driven disease – it accounts for more than ninety-five percent of all diabetics. Gestational diabetes is a form of Type 2 that women obtain when they’re pregnant, but it usually goes away after pregnancy. Type 2 is the dominant form of diabetes. There are more than 21 million diabetics in the United States and over 170 million worldwide. The best way to describe Type 2 diabetes is to imagine that each cell in your body has a set of doors that open when the key – insulin -- is present, and, when the doors open, glucose from the bloodstream enters the cell to provide energy; and, your blood glucose level goes down. But, if you’re diabetic, the key doesn’t work and the doors don’t open to let in the glucose. this is known as insulin resistance. Therefore, you don’t have energy and the glucose backs up into your bloodstream causing your blood glucose, or blood sugar, level to rise. In the meantime, the pancreas recognizes that your blood glucose level is not coming down, so it pumps out more and more insulin to try to find enough doors to open and ‘push’ in the glucose. The extra insulin causes the body to produce and store fat. More importantly, the extra insulin makes it very difficult for the body to burn fat. So, although this is an oversimplification, the key to controlling and eventually beating diabetes is to reduce the amount of insulin resistance and repair the cells – by eating foods that regulate the production of insulin and repair the cells, such as vegetables; avoiding foods that cause the excess production of insulin -- refined, processed foods; and, exercising properly -- walking and carrying hand weights -- to increase the uptake of glucose into the cells and decrease the glucose in the bloodstream.”Upon being diagnosed with diabetes, Mr. McCulley’s physician placed him on insulin immediately. And how did his body react to the insulin? What were the side effects?“I was on Humalog and Lantus,” McCulley recalled. “I took five to seven units ofHumalog before meals 3 times a day and 45 units of Lantus once a day -- in the morning/ The insulin helped to keep my blood sugar below 200 mg/dl but I was having trouble getting it back to the normal range of 80-110 mg/dl. I was told that the average blood sugar for diabetics in my condition was 180 mg/dl and that trying to get to 80-110 would be fruitless and frustrating and would lead to depression. I didn’t have any side effects that I could notice, but I was getting heavier, even though I was eating less and exercising more. This didn’t make any sense and no one could really explain – except that I had missed a major bullet and should just be happy to be alive. During my research, I discovered why diabetics get fat and why it is so difficult to lose weight! The extra insulin triggers the body to produce and store more fat, which requires more insulin. Plus, when you exercise, it is difficult for the body to burn fat because the extra insulin inhibits fat from burning! It was disruptive trying to figure out how to plan around four injections a day. But, since I was on disability and couldn’t work, it was easier dealing with this at home versus if I had been working. When I returned to work, I purchased a small refrigerator for my office so that I could store my insulin. Actually, I didn’t mind the disruption because I didn’t really have a choice – take the insulin and live or don’t take the insulin and die.”Mr. McCulley is one of the few individuals who have lapsed into a diabetic coma and have lived to tell about it! I asked him whether the diabetic coma was caused by hypoglycemia. Shortly after his release from Rochester General Hospital in 2002 where he had spent days after lapsing into a diabetic coma, Mr. McCulley experienced what can only be described as an “epiphany”. One morning he was at home and noticed that his blood sugar levels were low. Usually, he remedied this situation by eating Cheerios. On this particular day, his usual remedy was not available. So, he ate a dish of Brussels sprouts. I asked Mr. McCulley to explain what happened next. What did he discover? How did this discovery change his life?“. . . One morning I was preparing my breakfast and noticed that I had run out of my favorite cereal. Because my blood glucose that morning had been a little on the low side --65 mg/dl--, I started to get weak and a little dizzy. I didn’t want to eat a candy bar, so I went to the refrigerator to see what my mother had prepared for me. I found some Brussel sprouts in a plastic container. I hated Brussel sprouts. However, because I was getting weaker, I didn’t have much choice, so I quickly heated the Brussel sprouts with some olive oil and a leftover piece of salmon. Surprisingly, when I measured my glucose level 2 hours later, I noticed that it had not spiked as it had in the past! I was very excited, but, then, I thought maybe it was a fluke because my glucose level had started at such a low level. Anyhow, I felt that I had nothing to lose so I decided to eat Brussel sprouts again for lunch, my mid-afternoon snack and dinner. Each time, my glucose leveled off 2 hours after the meal! A few days later when I went back to my favorite cereal, my glucose level returned to a higher level after breakfast. So, I decided to change my concept of breakfast and eat a green vegetable as my carbohydrate in place of the traditional cereal or other grain. With each passing day, my glucose levels were steadily coming down. I found out later during some research that the juice from Brussel sprouts and string beans is very nourishing for the insulin cell receptors and the body’s glucose management system. It didn’t take me long to modify the hospital’s diet plan and develop a healthy nutritional plan while slowly and methodically reducing my insulin injections, one to two units at a time. This, in turn, lowered my body’s resistance to insulin and reduced my average blood glucose level from 300+ to 200+ to 120+, and, finally to 88.5 mg/dl -- with less than a 10 mg/dl deviation -- within four months. Also, my hemoglobin A1C was reduced to 4.4%. The normal range is 4.2% to 5.5%. Interestingly, I discovered that many of the so-called ‘healthy’ foods recommended by the dietitian were ‘killer’ foods for diabetics! For example, cereal, rice, pancakes, bananas, toast, wheat bread, mashed potatoes, orange juice, and apple juice all caused my blood glucose to rise and remain high. Once I eliminated these foods, my cravings for refined carbohydrates diminished greatly and my blood glucose level stabilized. During those four months I was able to reduce my insulin dosage from 60 units to 0 units and, within another month, I was totally drug-free – no more Coumadin or Lipitor. Also, my energy level continued to grow while my need for food slowed down. Because my body was doing a better job utilizing the nutrients from the food I was eating, my body did not require as much food (fuel) to produce the necessary amount of energy that I required on a daily basis.”Mr. McCulley talked about proper nutrition and where a diabetic should start in order to improve his or her health:“Start with breakfast. Our mothers were right when they told us this was themost important meal. Here’s an example of what I refer to as a ‘super’ breakfast because it is superior and synergistic on several levels:-- 2 cups of lightly steamed broccoli or spinach-- 1 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil (place on top of the vegetable after steaming)-- 2 oz. baked wild salmon or sardines (or 1 Omega-3 egg)-- 16 oz. filtered waterFocus on eating healthy carbohydrates such as broccoli, spinach and oat; healthy proteins such as fish, nuts, seeds, beans, skinless chicken breast; health fats such as extra virgin olive oil and organic flax oil; and healthy liquids such as filtered water, green/white tea, and raw vegetable juices. These foods will help to cleanse and detoxify the body and give you the necessary energy to exercise and burn fat. If you are sick, you have sick cells in your body. To make yourself well, you need to make the sick cells healthy again. A cell consists of water, fat, protein, and carbohydrate. If you feed yourself healthy versions of water, fat, protein, and carbohydrate, it would follow that your cells will become healthy. I realize that this is an overly simplistic view of cell biology, but it does make some sense.”McCulley says that there are one or two things that diabetics can do without spending any extra money to gain better control of their diabetes:“Stop eating the bread, rice, and potatoes – replace them with green foods such asbroccoli, spinach and Brussel sprouts. Buy a steamer to steam your vegetables. Exercise every day, even if it’s only 5-10 minutes – consistency is the key, not intensity. Read more – educate yourself to empower yourself and free yourself from the dependency on too many unnecessary drugs and medications.”We know that heart disease is an offshoot of diabetes. Some diabetics that Mr. McCulley has met had some symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease. I asked Mr. McCulley if there was a connection between diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease.“Yes, some diabetics that I had met had some symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease. They had stages of it although the stage that they were in was not full blown Alzheimer’s Disease. People have asked me if there is a connection and I tell them ‘Yes! There is a connection.’ Without getting into a detailed discussion, let’s look at the disease called diabetes. What is diabetes? In simple terms, it’s a rusting away of the body. The body is basically rusting away on the inside. It attacks the eyes and the kidneys initially because those are the organs that have small capillaries. Diabetes is an accelerated aging disease that attacks the arteries and capillaries and as the disease progresses it will eventually work its way to the bigger organs. It will attack the cardiovascular system and the brain. Obviously, the cardiovascular system feeds the heart and the brain. The arteries rust away first and they develop this plaque in the homocystein level in the endocrine. The high insulin level prevents your body from bringing down the homocystein so you have a higher homocystein level which leads to plaque formation in the arteries.. This can eventually spread to the brain if the brain starts rusting away so to speak. If you have high insulin levels as a diabetic and if the arteries feeding the brain becomes clogged and oxygen is not getting to brain and there is plaque formation on the brain, this can be a precursor to Alzheimer’s Disease. Basically, the point is that if you allow the body to continue to rust away, it will eventually get to every organ in the body, including the kidneys and the brain.”If we were to resolve the diabetes medical question, would that resolution be the key to resolving Alzheimer’s Disease and prostate cancer?“Yes,” says McCulley. “I have looked at the common denominator in some of the top seven diseases which include heart disease, cancer, stroke, arthritis, ostereoporosis, kidney failure and Alzheimer’s. In ninety percent of those cases, the common denominator is the existence of a nutritional deficiency. It’s a combination of the body not getting the proper nutrients to prevent that disease – and I’m going to preclude genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis – those are genetic driven diseases. I’m not talking about genetic driven diseases. I’m talking about diseases that are driven primarily by lifestyle. Okay? When you look at heart disease, stroke and diabetes – even though these diseases tend to run in families and it may appear that there is a genetic disposition for these diseases, it does not mean that you will contract these diseases unless you make the wrong choices. The number one driver is the body is not obtaining the nutrients to prevent that particular disease. That’s number. Number two is the body is consuming too much of the wrong nutrients – the toxins – the processed foods, is that simple. Either they are not getting enough of the right foods and/or the body is consuming too much of the wrong foods. And that combination tends to drive these diseases. And if you believe that, then you know the answer to resolving these health issues. The answer is, ‘Okay, maybe I’m not eating enough of the right foods. Therefore, I am not getting enough of the vitamins and nutrients that I need. I’m consuming too much of the toxins from other foods. Therefore, how do I resolve this? Do I take a pill? Do I take a drug? No! Once you understand the problem you realize that taking a pill, taking a drug, taking a medication is not going to resolve the problem as those two issues are still there. So, until you replace the bad food with food that has the proper nutrients and stop putting the poison in the body, you can’t get rid of the disease.”# # #
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