Fleckenstein - The diabetes cure: the 5-step plan to eliminate hunger, lose weight, and reverse diabetes for good!

This book is intended as a reference volume only, not as a medical manual. The information given here is designed to help you make informed decisions about your health. It is not intended as a substitute for any treatment that may have been prescribed by your doctor. If you suspect that you have a medical problem, we urge you to seek competent medical help.

Mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities in this book does not imply endorsement by the author or publisher, nor does mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities imply that they endorse this book, its author, or the publisher.

Internet addresses and telephone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.

First published by Rodale Inc. as direct mail hardcover in September 2013.

2013 by Alexa Fleckenstein, MD

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

Throughout the book there are personal testimonials provided by patients. In some cases, the patients have allowed their actual names to be used, and in others a pseudonym.

Book design by Chris Rhoads

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.
ISBN 9781623360825 paperback
eISBN-13: 978-1-623-36083-2

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For my patients,
who taught me more than medical school ever did.

To my husband, Rudolf Jaenisch.

And to my children
Dorothe Berghaus and Johan Jaenisch,
and my granddaughter
Emily Berghaus.

When did I first recognize the importance of lifestyle to good health? I remember standing over a body in the morgue during my pathology course, and when we searched for the cause of his death, it was simply another case of a heart attack. In medical school we were learning about all of these interesting, rare diseases, but people always seemed to die as a result of what they ate, drank, smokedbasically the way they lived.

Thats when it hit me: In all likelihood, my future patients would not die of exotic diseases, but of mundane causes. Sure, the rare diseases were important to know, but it was more important to help my patients live healthier, longer lives. So even before I left medical school, I had developed an interest in treating lifestylesbut no courses were available to satisfy my interest.

During residency, it bothered me that I had to stand by and watch my patients with osteoarthritis clearly deteriorate over time. All I could do was offer painkillers that would corrode their stomachs and damage their livers and kidneys. Medicine seemed to have no interest in determining the cause behind arthritisdoctors and patients alike only aimed to find a pill to make it hurt less. A better pill every year, indeed, but no improvement in the side effect profiles.

Because I had grown up in Europe, where taking herbs, exposing your body to cold water, and eating healthy foods were not alternative, but mainstream, I took an interest in Natural Medicine. Throughout Europe, physicians recommend these alternative methods in their daily practices, and people still use traditional methods today.

During a sabbatical back in Germany, I acquired a degree in Natural Medicine, with the goal of returning to the United States and applying my knowledge back here. As a doctor, I knew that diabetes was related to having high blood sugar. And as a foreigner, I was dismayed by what Americans were eating on a daily basis: cakes with icing, huge bowls of ice cream (our standard size then was about half a cup; here it was half a pint to half a gallon!), doughnuts, cookies five times the size of European cookies, French fries, hamburgers, and all the fast foods that were then much rarer in Europe. And nobody seemed to care for vegetablesreal food.

As a result, I began treating my patients with the principles of Natural Medicine, and the results were astonishing. Patients were feeling better and leading healthier, happier lives than ever before, and they no longer needed their medications. And this change in health was clearest in my patients who had diabetes. For the longest time it seemed that diabetes was my patients problem, but it became mine as well when I discovered that I had a gluten intoleranceand gluten is something that instigates inflammation in people affected by it. Suddenly I was a diabetic and grew even more interested in learning about what caused this illness and how to reverse it.

One of the most interesting discoveries of the last 20 years is that chronic inflammation is at the heart of type 2 diabetes, and it dawned on me that traditional Natural Medicine methods had been counteracting those chronic inflammation processes all along! All of the methods Id been prescribing to my patients had actually been reversing their inflammation and, as a result, fightingand even curingtheir diabetes.

Now I had extra incentive to learn more about the connection between diabetes and inflammation. This book presents many of my findings. As a physician who has treated thousands of patients, I have found that those who chose an anti-inflammatory lifestyle were able to lose weight, come off of their medications, improve their blood sugar, and ultimately cure their diabetes. And Im glad to say that Im among them. Now Id like to share this information with you.

Within this book, youll discover how inflammation causes type 2 diabetes and how type 2 isnt really a disease at all, but rather a symptom of the inflammation in your body. Ill also provide the tools you need to begin living an anti-inflammatory lifestyle and ultimately cure your diabetes for good (and drop some weight, as well!). Along the way, Ill share some of my patients success stories, as well as some tips and tricks to help you make the most of your new lifestyle. Because this is a change for lifea life without diabetes!

Thanks to everybody who made me more knowledgeable: Philip Carling, James A. Duke, Dieter Freisenhausen, Harvey Lodish, Sebastian Kneipp (18211897), Annemarie Colbin, and so many others who must remain unnamed because of their sheer number. And I am thankful to the members of my writing group for their support: Hung Cheng, Janet McCourt, Anne Mahon, Carol Michael, Gail OKeefe, Lolita Parker Jr., Jan Preheim, Eleanor Rosellini, Kathryn Silver, Amy Weinberg, and Roanne Weisman.

Without Lora Sickora, my editor at Rodale, this project would not have gotten off the ground: She found me and pushed and prodded and nudged me. Thank you, Lora! And my gratitude goes to my agent, Sarah Jane Freymann, for taking me on and believing in this project.

As I see it, every day you do one of two things: Build health or produce disease in yourself.

ADELLE DAVIS (19041974)

Youre in the doctors office for a routine physical exam when you receive the diagnosis: type 2 diabetes. Sure, you have heard of diabetes before and may even have a general idea of what led to this diagnosismaybe you have family members with diabetes or have been fighting your weight and a sweet tooth unsuccessfully for years. Or perhaps youve just been living a sedentary lifestyle. In fact, your doctor may have even warned you that in most cases, developing the disease is a direct result of poor nutrition and lack of exercise. But you didnt really listen, because youve been living this way for years and things seemed fine. How did you miss the warning signs? And what exactly went wrong? To find the answer, we need to go back to the basics and look deep inside your body at its building blocks: your cells.