George King M.D. - The Diabetes Reset: Avoid It. Control It. Even Reverse It. A Doctors Scientific Program

George L. King, M.D.

with Royce Flippin

Workman Publishing New York

I dedicate this book to my wife, Diana, and my sons, Benjamin and Adam, for their lifetime of support. I also want to express my appreciation to all the investigators, health providers, and patients with diabetes at Joslin Diabetes Center and everywhere for their passion and hard work in managing this disease.

I would like to thank my literary agent, Katherine Cowles, who had the original vision for this book, and without whom The Diabetes Reset would not have been written. I also want to thank my assistants, Daad Abraham and Karen Lau, for their extensive efforts in the research and writing of this book. In addition, I am grateful to the Joslin researchers and clinicians who generously shared their time and expertise, and to the administrators at Joslin for their support of this project. Finally, I offer my special thanks to Royce Flippin, my collaborator on this project, and to the editors and production team at Workman Publishing, especially Mary Ellen ONeill, for their fine work in bringing this book to publication.

(Note: Dr. King will be donating 50% of his proceeds from The Diabetes Reset to the Joslin Medalist Study and Joslins Asian American Diabetes Institute.)

If youre reading this book, its very likely that you or someone close to you is struggling with blood glucose levels. It could be that your fasting blood glucose level was higher than it should have been at your last checkupperhaps in the prediabetes range of 100 to 125 mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter), indicating you have impaired glucose tolerance and are at high risk of developing diabetes. Your fasting blood glucose may even be more than 125 mg/dL, which is considered the threshold for type 2 diabetes.

You may also have gotten test results showing that your hemoglobin A1C levels, which measure your average blood glucose over the past several months, are elevatedmeaning they were either between 5.7% and 6.4%, the range for prediabetes, or 6.5% or higher, signaling that you may actually have diabetes.

Learning that your blood glucose levels are too high can be bewildering, even frightening. Because both type 2 diabetes and its precursor, prediabetes, tend to develop slowly over many years, its tempting to think that once youve been diagnosed with one of these conditions, theres not much you can do except take diabetes medication and hope for the best. As a lifelong diabetes researcher, however, I want to assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, you can always take steps to improve your bodys response to insulin and reset your ability to metabolize the glucose in your bloodstarting today.

This simple statement has profound implications. It means that if you have prediabetes, not only can you prevent your condition from progressing to diabetes, but in many cases you can actually reverse course and bring your glucose metabolism back to normal. Even if youve already been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, you can still significantly improve your bodys natural glucose metabolism and dramatically reduceand in some cases even eliminateyour need for metformin, synthetic insulin, or other diabetes drugs.

The promise of The Diabetes Reset is equally simple: If you follow the evidence-based approaches in this book, you will begin seeing immediate improvements in your bodys ability to metabolize blood glucoseimprovements that will continue to grow over time. At the same time, you will also see remarkable improvements in your overall health. In addition to becoming lighter and fitter, you will find yourself eating the types of foods that human beings have thrived on for thousands of years. Youll also sleep better at night, experience less stress during the day, and have a more balanced immune system that fights off illness without overreacting. And because impaired blood glucose control is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, you will be taking a major step toward improved heart health as well.