Hope
“Help me, Dr. Cam, you’re my only hope.” Sometimes I feel a bit like Obi-Wan. The good news is that you are the hero of the story, I’m just here to guide you.
My patients were stuck. Totally stuck in the North American downward spiral of diabetic neuropathy. No hope of stopping it, just trying to get through the day.
When people begin care with me, the first step is always getting a firm foundation for healing. Without that, there is no hope of your body being able to heal the nerves, tissues, or blood vessels. No hope to get things working the way it’s supposed to.
This whole idea can be a barrier for some people because in our society if you get sick, the answer is always a drug. It’s become the one and only step to try to heal. Numb, tingly, burning feet? Go to the doctor, and get a pharmaceutical. Boom. That’s the solution to your problem. Drugs are the answer, now what’s the question?
Don’t get me wrong, in some cases, it is the answer to the problem. I spent several years working in emergency medicine, and it’s absolutely phenomenal what these drugs can do in a crisis. But just because drugs are sometimes the answer, doesn’t mean they are always the answer.
Getting it all wrong
The difficulty comes with long-term degenerative problems like (just for example) type two diabetes and diabetic neuropathy. There are no good solutions in the medical realm, because the treatment consisted of covering up the symptoms as much as possible, but NOT dealing with the cause of the problem.
We all know the story with diabetic neuropathy. “It’s progressive.” It’s only going to get worse, and you’re going to have to adapt to a “new normal.” And with every single person with the numbness tingling and burning in their feet – the loss of balance – the loss of mobility – it continues to progress.
All because we’re approaching it the wrong way. We’re doing the wrong things, and watching it get worse. Every. Single. Time.
The wrong approach is to try and cover up the pain, the discomfort with drugs, but not dealing with the cause of the problem. It’s taking some Gabapentin when the numbness and burning starts. Then it gets worse, so we go from Gabapentin to Lyrica – and as the pain gets worse. So we add opioids and other pharmaceuticals to try to mask the pain – while still doing exactly the same things that are causing the problem in the first place. So it gets worse.
Getting it right
That’s precisely what the foundation step of the neuropathy solution is all about – Building a foundation for healing. The foundation step is based on two simple facts:
1. We’re not feeding our bodies what they need.
2. We are constantly subjected to many toxins that are damaging our nerves.
Then when the damage occurs, we try to block the discomfort with some drugs. It’s like slamming your thumb in the car door over and over and over again and trying to find a new drug that’s going to mask the pain. Here’s a radical idea, why don’t we just stop slamming her thumb in the car door and let it heal?
The first part of this approach is to take some gentle steps to stabilize blood sugar so that you don’t have those spikes and things that are actively damaging your nerves. Sometimes there’s resistance to changing what we eat for fear of causing more problems.
If you don’t eat enough essential amino acids, you’ll cause harm. You can’t make many of the proteins that your body needs to function normally if you lack some of these essential building blocks.
If you don’t get the essential fatty acids your body requires, you’ll be sick. The right fats are required by every cell in your body to work properly, so if you lack them – you suffer.
Carbohydrate confusion
Here’s the issue though – there’s no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. Your body can make its own glucose from protein, whenever it needs it. You can actually live very well with zero carbohydrates.
In a recent study, it was found that type 2 diabetes could be reversed 60 percent of the time. SIXTY PERCENT! Currently, the “diabetic diet” reverses type 2 diabetes in 0.1% of cases.
Cutting carbohydrate works 600 times better. Changing what you eat and dealing with your insulin resistance makes all the difference and enables you to stabilize your blood sugar. And the reason it works is that you’re carbohydrate intolerant.
People who are lactose intolerant need to limit lactose intake. People who are carbohydrate intolerant need to limit carbohydrate intake. It’s actually that simple.
The second part of the foundation step is to eliminate toxins that are damaging your nerves as well. Toxins like mercury, aluminum, statin drugs, calcium channel blockers, and other neurotoxins. These drugs and toxins cause damage to your nerves, and can lead to neuropathy all by themselves. Add the crazy blood glucose and you have a perfect storm.
Once you have a foundation built, then you can start working to grow nerves, by making sure all the building blocks are there. That’s what the grow step is all about, and we’ll cover that in another post.
In the meantime, start by making sure you’re doing the 3 natural neuropathy tips, to keep your nerves stimulated, and relieve pain without drugs. You can grab a free copy of the tips and video training here.
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