The Almost Effect: How Not Quite Getting Diabetes Changed Everything
When Worlds Collide Part III: My Almost Pre-Diabetes Diagnosis
Today, I’m sharing the third and final part of my series When Worlds Collide, all about my diagnosis of “almost” pre-diabetes. I’d love to hear about your own journey with pre-diabetes and glycemic variability, or how diet, exercise and natural therapies like chaga mushrooms have changed your life. Feel free to leave a comment, send a message, or share this Enlightened Omnivore series with your friends.
Also, in Part II of this series, I talked about my friend Richard Davis and his adventures in Alaska harvesting the chaga mushroom. Richard was incredibly generous to send me samples of his chaga tea and tinctures, but I forgot to mention his company, Alaska Chaga. Check him out and if you want to try some chaga yourself, he ships to the lower 48. Ok, let’s get to the last part in this series!
The Almost Effect
I took out the box of Just For Men for my bi-weekly beard treatment. This is one of my vanity rituals, along with the occasional photograph of my bald spot. Yep, still there. I’m a little ashamed of the whole enterprise, but I have to admit, I feel younger with a dark brown beard. And despite being much happier and more comfortable with my middle aged self, I do fantasize occasionally about having my 46 year old mind and my 18 year old body (and hair).
So when my friend, Dr. Laurie Schwartz, suggested my recent glycemic journey might be closer to the fountain of youth than I had thought, I took notice.
“This whole thing around glucose is how we stay young,” she said over Zoom as we shared our experiences of wearing a continuous glucose monitor. I’ve been wearing this over-the-counter medical technology for almost two months.
Laurie and I went to high school together. At the time, she probably would have been called one of the cool kids. I’d describe my high school self as “preppy-theater adjacent.” We knew each other, but didn’t hang. Although, I still remember that she had wanted to be a pharmacist as a teenager, which didn’t seem very cool kid back then.
Thanks to the ubiquity of Facebook and probably some nefarious Instagram algorithm, we got back in touch recently, but it wasn’t to chat about old times. Laurie had recently made the transition from traditional medicine to holistic wellness, and her Gram was blowing up. I wanted to learn more about her journey and if it might help me with my almost diabetes diagnosis.
It turns out that after many years of dispensing drugs, Dr. LV–as she’s known online–started to experience health concerns of her own. She was regularly bloated, had increased food sensitivities, headaches, runny nose, and her hair started falling out, all in her late 30s. One morning, she tested her blood sugar, and found it uncontrollable, despite being thin.
For eight years, Laurie explored ways to address her symptoms. She read countless books, tried expensive supplements, and worked out intensively. She ultimately started feeling better. But it seems the biggest change was how she looked at the problem. No longer focused on the symptoms, Laurie studied the source of her problems, or what she calls root cause medicine. And it all came down to glucose. Now a health therapist coach, Laurie works with her clients to redefine wellness, balance their diets, better manage their environments, and achieve wellness.
“Your body is so smart, it tells the whole story. You just have to listen.” she explains when I ask her secret.
And I have to admit, she must be on to something because I look like a 50 year old version of my high school self, even after my Just for Men treatment. She looks no different than her yearbook photo. Fountain of youth indeed.
Sign Me Up!
For about $300, plus the cost of an intensive blood panel that left me a little light headed, Laurie walked me through a comprehensive evaluation of my middle aged health. In her opinion, everything starts with glucose, the simple fuel for the 37 trillion cells in our bodies. Too little glucose, and you pass out, too much and it becomes a poison for the tiniest capillaries in your body. Minimizing the swings in glucose helps minimize cellular damage. And cellar damage equals aging.
I’d seen glucose variability in my own bloodstream thanks to the readouts from my continuous glucose monitor, or CGM. Even a handful of grapes could send my blood sugar sky high, only to come crashing down a half hour later. So was that why my beard was so gray?
“A bagel is the same thing from the neck down as a can of Coke,” said Laurie. All carbohydrates are candy in the blood stream. And even a few carbs can upset the balance. So what I needed was to flatten out my glycemic mountain range, and get more calories from non-sugars. Laurie immediately prescribed 30g of protein for breakfast. That’s a lot: three eggs and two ounces of meat every morning. The first day of this diet, I made an omelet with steak and broccoli. I was so full afterward that I almost forgot about lunch…almost. But I also felt great, and my CGM was rock-solid flat. I could almost feel the crows feet disappearing from my face.
Next, she recommended that if I planned to eat a high carb meal like rice or pasta, I should first swallow a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar diluted in a glass of water. Wait, what? How was a kitchen cabinet ingredient going to help with my blood sugar? Didn’t vinegar have sugar in it?
It turns out, doctors don’t know exactly why, but studies in mice have shown that apple cider vinegar–or ACV as the experts refer to it–reduces blood sugar and smooths out the glucose spikes just after meals. It can also increase the uptake of glucose in muscles, meaning it makes our muscles thirstier for the fuel left over in the blood stream.
I was pretty skeptical, but I had recently experienced the benefits of tree fungus on my almost pre-diabetes, so why not try spoiled apple juice? But this time, I set the bar pretty high. I was making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner for the family. Typically, everyone else gets pasta, and I eat a no-carb riced cauliflower substitute with an extra helping of sauce. This time, I drank my tablespoon of ACV, and scooped up a steaming pile of spaghetti. There’s always a delay with CGM data, so while I was doing the dishes, my blood sugar rocketed up to 160, just above the recommended “healthy” range on my CGM. I thought I’d debunked the ACV myth. But later that night, I looked back through the device’s history. I was 40 points lower with ACV than the last time I’d eaten pasta. Was the secret to glucose health this simple?
Laurie had more advice. I would have seen even less change in my blood sugar when eating high carb meals if I simply ate my veggies first. The fiber slows the absorption of carbohydrates, flattening out the spikes. It’s even better if I saved those carbs for dessert, and stacked more high protein foods upfront. If that didn’t keep my glucose flat, I could finish things off with a long walk after dinner, and burn off any leftover glucose with my feet.
“Oh, and stay away from eating naked carbs?” she said. Those are high sugar or high carb foods that have little or no protein and fat. Things like candy, bread, chips, or pasta. Without any fat, protein or fiber along for the ride, naked carbs will cause blood sugar to run high. I asked for some example wardrobe to dress up my naked snacks. A creamy dip for my chips, a sugar-free peanut butter with my bread, avocado on that jasmine rice or a hearty bolognese would all do the trick.
Dr. Laurie’s isn’t alone, and most of her recommendations aren’t her own. There are countless influencers touting the glucose revolution as a means of achieving better health. Jessie Inchauspé, known as the "Glucose Goddess," has made blood sugar science accessible to the masses with her books "Glucose Revolution" and "Glucose Goddess Method." Researchers like Dr. Michael Snyder at Stanford University have been studying glycemic variability for years, although much of that data involves people who already have diabetes. One of my readers also mentioned her successes with Dr. Jason Fung's “The Complete Guide to Fasting.” My wife has had huge success with intermittent fasting, although my experience has been mixed. If you want to learn more, the Substack newsletter
by is popular.What seems to be the common link to all of these body hacks and lifestyle changes is their impact on glucose levels, and specifically keeping blood sugar in a healthy range as often as possible.
All this talk about food had me fantasizing about the ideal meal. I saw a salad dressed in ACV, then a big hunk of protein-rich steak, and finally some full-fat ice cream, followed by a walk around the neighborhood. I think I’ve finally found the perfect diet.
Yesterday, a neighbor reached out about her own experience as an “almost” diabetic wearing a continuous glucose monitor.
“I feel like I have more accountability when I wear it,” she confided. “This is something I can look at in real-time and really understand how my decisions affect my health.”
And that got me thinking. Maybe that’s what this whole journey has been about: understanding and accountability; getting real-time feedback with wizbang technology; tracking my choices; being open alternative approaches; embracing the communal wisdom of people who have made it their life goal to find the answers.
As I wrap up this series on my own journey with glycemic health, I smile at the synchronicity of all these different worlds colliding – my high school friend turned holistic guru, a world-class endocrinologist, a mushroom hunter, and me, a food writer opening the door on my closeted medtech moonlighting.
All of this serendipity came about thanks to my new friend, CGM. It might not be the fountain of youth, but it's teaching me something more valuable. Wellness isn't about turning back time, but rather about understanding and working with our bodies in real-time.
In a couple of weeks, when I see the gray peaking out along my neck and chin again, I hope I’ll be less concerned with what shows on the outside, and instead be enamored with the millions of cellular conversations happening within.
Last night, after a hearty meal of lamb and brussels sprouts, I splurged on a few extra potatoes. I knew my blood sugar might be going for a rollercoaster ride. So I decided to take a walk. A few minutes later, I peaked at my phone to see the blood glucose arrow pointing down. It’s so amazing how an 'almost' diagnosis can be the beginning of everything.