I’m a computer programmer by trade and not a doctor. I am an analytical problem solver. I discovered I had type 2 diabetes at age 35. I was eventually diagnosed with what is now known as metabolic syndrome. After the initial 10 years of denial, I decided to listen to my doctors. Despite adhering to my doctor’s advice, the condition worsened and produced a stroke by age 49. Despite our best efforts I put on weight. I felt terrible all the time. Many of these issues stemming from the drugs that were meant to treat my disease stimulating my pancreas to produce more insulin. My blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood lipid numbers climbed even higher than at my diagnosis with no improvement in sight. The problem I later discovered was not my adherence to a medical regiment or lack of effort in my general health but in defects in my insulin. The resultant production of what in me is a genetically-flawed hormone. Coded to over store fat in my organs. The root issue was not effort but genetics. Medicines were not working for me and I was falling deeper into depression.
So, I started to analyze my problem the only way I knew how, through the eyes of a computer programmer. I used the same thought processes I used thousands of times before to analyze and write computer programs. But now I used this process to analyze my type 2 diabetes problem. This self analysis has been ongoing for 20 years and is continuing and evolving even to this day.
You see, every computer program starts with a definition that consists of 4 factors. These factors include the data, variables within that data, parameters to provide constraints around the data and switches. Within these variables the flow of the program is defined. The programmer then writes a series of “if then else” statements in a programming language to analyze the relationship between the variables and there effect on the system. This language evaluates these multiple factors to produce an optimal solution. The more variables, parameters and switches within a system, the more complex the program becomes and the more difficult to analyze.
Type 2 diabetes has many variables. With a multitude of variables, type 2 diabetes becomes a very complex problem. To complex a problem to solve easily or quickly. Medicine, food, exercise, and stress are the major variables we can control. The switches in our system include our hormones in the form of insulin, glucagon, and adrenaline. These factors are controlled or regulated by the body to control the processing of the food we eat. To maintain the energy level (blood sugar), not too low or too high, within the range needed to stay healthy and survive. The body uses a complex interplay of these switches to regulate our system. These switches are broken or become dysfunctional when excess fat is stored in our organs. This dysfunction can result in our blood sugar to change in out of control ways. This in turn can affects our ability or rather inability to think and perform in many ways, whether it be mental or physical.
But for me, even utilizing this complex analytical model and methodology my analysis failed me. The problem was just too complex.
But there is one additional factor outside that analytical model. That factor led me through my inability to understand what was going on in my body and onto a path of understanding and healing. That factor was and is spiritual. God led me on a spiritual path to a solution. For me, through Thai Chi God taught me how to become more in tune with my body. An understanding of how to move towards health and control of my disease as I grew more self-aware. God used my sin, my incomplete understanding, and people in my life to guide me. At every point this process caused me confusion and an internal struggle that often lead to hopelessness; though at every turn God provided an answer. The strength to continue.
The good news is that I have learned we can get our blood sugar back into control with hard work and self-discipline. That’s right, type 2 diabetes can be reversed, as the good doctors at Newcastle University have proven. Type 2 diabetes does not have to be the progressive disease and lifelong struggle my general practitioner had define it as for me. I know because with God I reversed the disease process in myself. Does this mean that I can eat whatever I like, whenever I like? No. Very few people have that luxury. I carry in myself flawed genes. These genes are inherited from both sides of my family and are no doubt a result of the poisoned world we live in and I cannot change that. I can only hope to find a way to live within the parameters and constraints my flawed body has given me in an imperfect world. While at times my lot seems harsh to me, to live in a world with so much but being allowed so little. I hope I can be used to communicate a better way of life than the one our world has to offer. Eating and drinking to excess and popping pills to deal with the results are not what it is cracked up to be and frankly there are better ways to live and spend our time.
Let’s look at my life story to see how we can get started in regaining our health and vitality. It wasn’t easy for me and it won’t be easy for others. It will work and the reward is a healthy active life with family and friends, full of adventure and spiritual vitality without pills and the side effects that come with them.
To begin with make sure you talk with your doctor. But as a result of my own experience I honestly put very little faith in our medical system. Our current medical system is too closely tied to the profit of drug companies. Type 2 diabetes is a 200+ billion dollar market and growing. Very few doctors and so called diabetes educators have a deep understanding of what I have come to understand. How could they? Most do not have type 2 diabetes or understand what a type 2 diabetic goes through on a daily basis. Many are not spiritual and likely none are computer programmers. That makes my story unique. Remember, I’m a computer programmer by trade not a doctor. The information in this book is derived from the experience of a life lived. Gleaned from self-examination and experimentation to solve health problems. A spiritual life studying the bible and talking to the God of the universe and practicing Thai Chi. All filtered through the analytical thinking of a computer programmer with the help of internet research.
It’s my story. Told my way. You may disagree with some of the content and it’s likely your doctor will. It’s my life experience and it worked for me. There is no arguing with the results. If you find any help in my story I’m pleased. It is only meant as a way to help me organize my thoughts around this horrible disease within the path I have walked to reversal. With the hope of helping others like me.