The following is hard for me to open up about because I have not publicly written or spoken about being diabetic before - - it's been one of my more closely-guarded secrets. Only some family, and a couple of close friends like my dive partners knew.

I was diagnosed with type II diabetes over ten years ago (on Sept 13th, 2001 - - what a horrid week that was) after a life insurance physical spotted extremely high blood glucose numbers, and had managed to stay on oral meds, though it was a struggle for most of that time. Dosages kept creeping up to keep things in check.

About a year ago, my doc was seriously looking toward insulin; I was on max does of metformin and glyburide, but my numbers had been creeping up for that year and were not improving. I was starting to feel the first signs of neuropathy in my feet, too.

I was personally strongly opposed to going on an insulin injection regimen, for two reasons: one, it makes weight control a lot more difficult (something I've fought all my life to begin with) and two, my grandmother was an insulin dependent diabetic and I have strongly negative childhood memories of her having to cope with it, as she lived with us for a number of years when I was a kid.

So I started looking for alternative info, and I happened across the work of Gary Taubes and Dr. Peter Attia. Taubes is a science journalist and statistic investigator, and Attia is a MD, surgeon, and fitness enthusiast. Both are proponents of very-low-carb, no-refined-sugar diets, like the Duke Lifestyle diet, coupled with whatever exercize a person can manage.

After having read a couple of Taubes' books, I switched to the Duke diet (as best as I can stick to it) and got more religious about exercize - mainly getting out to walk briskly for 30 minutes or so most days a week. It's not a real easy diet to stick to, but it has one saving grace - - it flat out works.

I dropped nearly 60 pounds in 9 months (from 275 to 215), was able to reduce my oral meds dramatically (metformin dose cut by half, & am now ready to drop gyburide completely as even the minimum possible daily dose tends to push me hypoglycemic), and my A1c's now hover around 6.9-7.2. If I can drop another 15 lbs or so I may be able to stop meds entirely.

My 30-day average glucose this morning was 92.

Interestingly, even though I eat 3 eggs every day for breakfast & a great deal of all kinds of meat, my cholesterol numbers also plummeted & are now excellent.

My doctor was bug-eyed. I actually saw him smile.

I see a lot of other type-II people in web forums who have had similar experiences; going very-low-carb, focusing instead on proteins, fats, and fiber in the diet, dodging refined sugars as far as possible, minor increases in exercize leading to weight losses that seem to be the key to reducing/reversing diabetic impact.

I don't know if it works for everyone the same way as there's still a lot of unknowns about diabetic triggers & metabolism, but it made a huge difference for me.

I miss some favorite foods and I've never really enjoyed salads, so I do 'cheat' once in a while, but I don't miss them so much I'm willing to go on insulin for them.