Ep.20: Type 2 Diabetes with Amanda Atkins

3 comments

Ep.20: Type 2 Diabetes with Amanda Atkins

 
 
00:00 / 01:20:13
 
1X
 
There is a whole universe out there of people who are dying to help you.

Guest

Amanda Atkins

Episode Notes:

[2:00] Amanda gives some context to her reversal of Type 2 Diabetes and her health history.

[4:40] Amanda’s doctors never gave a very good explanation or any mention of food in regards to her childless state or her other ailments. “No one mentioned food.”

[7:45] Amanda woke up one morning in 2014 blind in one eye.

[10:20] Amanda’s fingers and feet were starting to get tingly. Her ankles were swollen. And she dealt with carpal tunnel syndrome and brain fog.

[11:45] Amanda tried a 1200 calorie low-fat diet. She lost some weight with it but she also got a dry cough.

[12:55] Amanda’s fasting blood sugar was 18.4%! She had severe diabetes.

[14:45] After being diagnosed, Amanda searched online for “severe diabetes” and she found the following paper: Effects of a low-carbohydrate diet on glycemic control in outpatients with severe type 2 diabetes https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-7075-6-21

[17:00] The paper she found recommended limiting fruit (and other foods).

[20:00] The paper Amanda found showed terrific success improving glycemic control in Type 2 Diabetics even by restricting to 90-170 grams of carbohydrate per day. But Amanda found that some people in the study restricted even further and had even better success. And the health improvements in this study were achieved without that much weight loss.

[22:40] One woman in the paper dropped her A1C from 14.4% to 6.1% in just six months. She was restricting carbs to 11% of her diet and was walking an hour a day a few days a week. Within hours of her new Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis, Amanda had a new plan.

[24:50] Amanda immediately understood three new principles: 1) It’s not about weight. 2) Don’t fear saturated fat. 3) Your HbA1c is tightly tied to what you eat. Using these principles, she halved her blood sugar in a few days.

[30:20] In 6 weeks, Amanda’s HbA1c was down to 8%. At 6 months, it was down to 5.5%. It has stayed around there ever since.

[32:00] What foods does Amanda base her low carbohydrate diet around?

[42:00] It used to be hard (even at age 17) for Amanda to go up 20 steps. It is easier for her now at age 60, now that she has modified her diet.

[44:30] Amanda’s skin is not nearly as susceptible to sunburn anymore.

[56:40] “There is a whole universe out there of people who are dying to help you.”

[1:11:00] Does Amanda consider herself cured of her conditions?

[1:16:15] Now that she has improved her health, what is one thing Amanda enjoys doing that she couldn’t do before?

3 Comments

  1. Joe

    Thank you Amanda! I agree, grand fun. And I hope so too!

    Reply
  2. Susan Monaghan

    Just finished listening to this – what a breath of fresh air. Loved the no nonsense explanation of Amanda’s experiences. So often n=1 success stories are disregarded because it doesn’t suit the official narrative. I have a particular interest in low carb stories and could relate to all of what was discussed. Thanks, Joe for putting this podcast together – I’m going to go back to episode 1 and work my way through them. We so often need to become our own health advocates and I’m really interested in all these stories. Many thanks!

    Reply
    • Joe

      What a kind comment. And yes I agree that it’s a shame that n=1 successes are so often ignored. IMO the cream should rise to the top and become the new standard.

      Thank you Susan!

      Reply

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