Reversing Diabetes: Root Causes & Inflammation
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life. Well show the intersection of God's word, today's science and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth.
All right. Welcome back to The Living Life Well Show. Well today I'm excited to start a new series. Today we're gonna have a start of what will be a Reversing Diabetes series. I'm, I'm really excited about this. This is why I started the Live Life Well Clinic in because I really have a passion.
For people that have diabetes specifically, we're gonna be discussing type two diabetes, and there are some overlaps with, with type [00:01:00] one. But really what we're gonna be focusing on today is type two diabetes. In this episode we're gonna start with root causes root causes and the myths that surround them.
And then we'll talk a little bit about lab testing, lab testing that you really. Need to have and may not be having, and really looking at what those proper ranges are to help you determine for yourself how inflamed or how serious those results are. So. Without further ado, let's go ahead and get started.
So, one of the big things that I hear from people quite often is myths, myths surrounding why they have diabetes, or what diabetes you know, root cause really is. And so myth number one is it's just the sugar. I just need to cut sugar and that's it. That will [00:02:00] help. And they, they're right. It absolutely will help, but.
It is not the root cause. Sugar in and of itself is not the root cause. The root cause is usually multifactorial. And so just cutting sugar alone is absolutely gonna help. It's absolutely one of the, the pillars and principles of reversing diabetes. But if that's the. Only thing that you do, if that's the only thing that you change, it still is not going to get to the root cause.
And ultimately get you to where you want to go, which is reversing the diabetes, not having to be on those medications, not having to potentially take insulin if you're there. And so that brings me to myth number two as to root Cause. It, it's, my pancreas isn't working right. I'm just not [00:03:00] making insulin appropriately.
And so I hear this quite often and, and this flatly is not true for the vast, vast majority of newly diagnosed type two diabetics because really what happens is when you start having blood sugars rising, which is due to the underlying cause, and we'll get to that in a minute. It is going to cause your pancreas to act, to actually secrete more insulin.
Your, your pancreas actually starts responding quite appropriately to this rising blood sugar and the, the pancreas really is not gonna be at issue until the diabetes has gone on for years and years. Typically, not always, but typically we are see, starting to see more of what we call type one and a [00:04:00] half, meaning there is some pancreatic dysfunction that pancreas isn't increasing the insulin quite like it should in regard to elevated blood sugar.
And so. That can be a contributing factor to why you have diabetes, but the underlying cause, the root cause is insulin resistance. Okay, it. It's not the sugar itself, which again, excessive amounts of sugar is going to require increased insulin secretion. But as I just explained, most of us, our pancreas works properly and it actually does secrete more insulin.
There are some of us though, and even those that are on. Insulin, their pancreas still may be secreting a sufficient amount, but it's because they have the insulin resistance that they [00:05:00] are requiring more insulin. You see in medicine where we start with diabetes is we typically are going to start you on some oral medications and as those kind of run their course, which they do generally speaking naturally meaning.
, You start going up on dose adding new medications and then going up on that dose until you get to a level where all of these things have plateaued. Your blood sugars are still saying elevated. So what do they do? They throw insulin at you. Either long acting, short acting combination of the two just really depends.
But that is kind of where this goes. And it's this idea that we just need more insulin, more fuel, if you will, to help decrease that blood sugar. Okay, well that's flatly wrong. What you need is you need to be sensitive to [00:06:00] the insulin that you already make, and that lack of sensitivity or that insulin resistance becomes because of many different reasons.
It can be because of, you know, purely dietary issues, meaning you, you are consuming way over consuming carbohydrates which is synonymous with sugars and being simple sugars that are, you know, store bought. Think, think coming out of a box, out of a bag. Those kinds of sugars are in a can.
In the case of soft drinks. And so those, those sugars will really tend to get your blood sugar levels up, will cause your pancreas to secrete insulin quickly. And when this does, it creates a level of inflammation. That inflammation helps to drive insulin resistance. It causes your body not to be [00:07:00] able to react appropriately to the insulin that you secrete.
And so what your body does initially is as it sees this inflammatory response, it starts to increase that, that insulin level to get those blood sugars back down into a, a normal range. And so it will do this for months. Even years before your hemoglobin, A1C really starts to climb too much meaning it'll stay in the middle fives or so, so 5.5, 5.678, somewhere in there.
And so it'll be up a little bit. You won't have a lot of symptoms of insulin resistance but you may have some symptoms that go along at first with even hypoglycemia. You may notice that, hey, I skipped lunch. Oh my gosh. I just felt, felt horrible. I just, I, I just immediately [00:08:00] began feeling bad.
And what that is, is that, is your pancreas is already revved up. You already have an increased baseline secretion of insulin, and now you haven't given any fuel to the fire. That insulin is still working, but it has no sugar to help balance that out. And because that pancreas is revved up, it drives that sugar down.
This can make you feel extremely hungry. This can make you feel shaky and nauseated and sweaty when it's really bad. Or it could even just result in some fatigue. And so. Many people with early insulin resistance, this will be kind of their experiences, is that if they skip meals, just even a little bit outside of the normal, maybe an hour or so.
That they can start feeling shaky and weak because those insulin levels are so elevated that it's causing that blood [00:09:00] sugar to crash because you haven't added any fuel to the fire. And so this insulin resistance occurs for many different reasons. Kind of the, the typical hallmarks of this are gonna be diet number one.
Number two is going to be gut infection or gut issues. And then number three is really going to be sleep. These are gonna be the three big drivers for most of us that create that insulin resistance, which is the root cause. Now, backing into it a little bit more for some of us it can be hormone related issues, even thyroid sex hormones fluctuations There.
Can lead to some inflammation within your body and then also cause that insulin resistance. So. The issue with you quote, contracting diabetes is not a [00:10:00] hereditary issue. It is not typically just a sugar issue. It is not just a. Pancreas issue, it's an insulin resistance issue. And getting to the root cause of your insulin resistance is where really the, the magic happens, if you will for being able to reverse diabetes.
Look, we know diabetes as it goes along, tends to cause other problems, problems with lipids, problems with. Blood pressure potentially cardiovascular disease including heart attack and even stroke. And so we know that this happens over time, insidiously, but it all starts with the, the root cause of insulin resistance, getting to that root cause early, making the changes that are necessary to help allow your body to decrease inflammation so [00:11:00] that it.
Can respond to that insulin that your body is naturally making will, will really help to bring those blood sugar down, which is how we are diagnosing you with diabetes in the first place and then determining. What diet what actual foods per se are going to be best for you because this is somewhat individualized.
And then also what type of exercise and sleep routines and, and eliminating those infections that may be present that are leading to the insulin resistance are all gonna be very important. So step one for reversing your diabetes is understanding that the root cause is not just sugar. It's not just your pancreas.
It's this insulin resistance and then understanding where that insulin resistance comes from. Now, once we've kind of established that, how do we [00:12:00] determine where that insulin resistance is coming from? So. You've just been diagnosed with diabetes or pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome, if you will.
Typically what that's gonna mean is that you're gonna have a hemoglobin A1C that's over 5.6, maybe over 6.4 if they're diagnosing you with diabetes. The, the typical way that we do that is we draw the CB, C. We draw A CMP and then we also will draw the hemoglobin A1C. So the hemoglobin A1C tells us what your blood sugar has been on average for the last 90 days.
The, the normal range for that if you look on standard labs is typically zero to to 5.6. And then once you are over 6.4 we definitively call that. Diabetes. And so we [00:13:00] know though that we need glycosylated hemoglobin, which is what hemoglobin A1C stands for. You need this within your body, and so we know that the ideal ranges.
Much, much different than the the zero to 5.6. It's actually five to 5.5 i. If it's too low, that can indicate that you're having some hypoglycemic episodes and you could be feeling very bad because your pancreas is. Over responding in some ways, causing your blood sugar to stay at too low of a level which can cause issues with your fatigue with energy and, and those things in general.
And so. When we look at A1C, that is typically where we stop when we look at diabetes. Well, one of the most important tests that you are not getting. Is a fasting [00:14:00] insulin. Fasting insulin really tells us where that baseline pancreas is. Is it constantly revved up or is it, you know, down in the normal range or, or near normal?
Now here in West Texas unfortunately we have a, a significant amount of insulin resistance. Our standard range lab work will show that insulin level between 2.6 to 24.9. Those are the most recent as of this recording levels that we see from LabCorp here in West Texas. Now, a more national level may be about two to 19.
Both are completely wrong. Both are completely inaccurate. If you have an insulin level, a fasting insulin level, meaning you haven't eaten anything, you haven't, Dr. Drank anything besides say water unsweet tea or unsweet coffee, [00:15:00] then your insulin level should be between two and five. If it's over five, that typically indicates a little bit of insulin resistance.
Now for, for teenagers and, and kids there's a little bit of leeway with that may go up to about 10, but if you are an adult that's 25 or older. Your fasting insulin level should be between two and five. If you have a fasting insulin level of 10, that tells us that you have some insulin resistance because let's face it, if you're not taking anything in, then that means that.
You shouldn't have anything to digest. The pancreas is a digestive organ. That is what it is used for. It's to process sugar, process fast, process the foods that we bring into our body. And so if you're not bringing anything in, it [00:16:00] shouldn't be active. And so the first thing that that we want to look at is we want to see.
What is that baseline fasting insulin level? If it's above 10, that definitively tells us for sure there is insulin resistance going on now. I've seen fasting insulin levels of of eight. I've seen fasting insulin levels of. 47. So it, it is a marker as to the level of inflammation within the body because.
Elevated insulin levels correlate with inflammation in the body. And so how else do we look for inflammation in the body? Well, couple of, couple of different ways. Well, one, you can just tell if you're having joint pains, if you're having muscle aches, if you walk, you know, 30, 40. Feet and [00:17:00] you are just significantly short of breath or your, your heart is beating out of your chest.
You've got. Inflammation. Now there are some markers that we use to look for signs of inflammation. We use things like high sensitivity, c reactive protein, and in the case of me, we look at at, at the cardiac aspect, meaning what is going on primarily within the cardiovascular system. We also look at your lipid level.
We look at something called apo B as well as opposed to just the plain lipid levels. Now. Standard range Labs are gonna tell you that your CRP should be three or less. However, what I'm telling you is it needs to be one or less. So if you're sitting at a two, you've got a measure of inflammation. If you are sitting at [00:18:00] five six there, there's no question that you have inflammation.
If you have an apo B that is a protein that's associated with certain cholesterol molecules that is over 90, that is indicating that you've got more inflammation and more risk potentially for cardiovascular disease. Now, the great thing about these these tests is the vast majority of time these things are things that are reversible.
Measurable and reversible by instituting different practices that we'll talk ab talk about in in future episodes. And so those are a couple baseline measures of inflammation. A second measure of inflammation would be the SED rate or ESR that tells us about how inflammation has been in your body over the previous three to four weeks [00:19:00] or so.
The CRP comes up quickly, goes down quickly. Once inflammation is removed, sed rate is much more slow, but it will rise and it'll stay risen. Even after the, the inflammatory response is, is gone. So let's take just an acute virus. An acute virus is gonna cause your CRP to come up pretty quickly. Go down.
Fairly quickly. If it's a one or two day virus, your sed rate may not even really respond. But if you've been sick for two weeks, have a pneumonia, the, the CRP may be elevated and the sed rate may be elevated. So looking at those two in conjunction. Also tell us if this is an acute issue or this is a chronic issue.
When we look at the CRP and SED rate together, we can help delineate that. So, CRP could be elevated just because, and an acute process, injury, [00:20:00] illness whatever the case may be. But sed rate, when it is elevated with the CRP. Typically tends to indicate long standing inflammation. Now it still doesn't tell us where the inflammation is coming from, but it does tell us that inflammation is present and inflammation has to be addressed prior to being able to really help you reverse that diabetes.
So now we've addressed that. And establish that there is inflammation. There are much, much excuse me, there are many, many more labs that actually tell us about inflammation as well. Looking at liver enzymes, even looking at your red blood cell count. Many of these items give us clues into inflammation.
Even your lipid profile and distribution of those lipids also will give us information about inflammation. [00:21:00] However, none of it really tells us where the inflammation is coming from. This is where really looking into a GI map, getting a good map of what is happening within your gut biome is so important because for many of us, when we have insulin resistance, we also have leaky gut.
And or we'll have IBS, we will have different issues with reflux. And as you've heard me speak about many times in the past, these infections, these opportunistic infections that occur within the gut will cause inflammation, which again, in turn will lead to issues with insulin resistance. So these are going to be the tests that are going to be most standard when I am looking at someone with, with [00:22:00] pre-diabetes diabetes or someone just looking to make sure that they maintain and stay out of.
Having any type of of diabetes occur for them in the future. Many times people come to me and it, it's been that family members have had diabetes in, in the past, and so they're concerned because they really believe that it is a genetic component to that. And it is very much true that you may be more.
Predisposed to having diabetes. However, the vast majority of us can turn these issues off just with being able to recognize the root cause, treat the root cause, and then making those. Necessary dietary and lifestyle changes so that we can maintain proper insulin levels and insulin sensitivity so that we don't have this insulin resistance [00:23:00] so that we don't develop type two diabetes.
So. I hope this has been informative. In the upcoming episodes we're going to be jumping into a little bit more speaking about some of the medications, alternatives to medications and also we'll be looking at the diet. What is a true diabetic diet? We'll be talking about the myths of foods there.
We'll be talking about the myths associated. With the medications as well. So I hope you have found this enjoyable. I hope you've been found this beneficial. And hey, listen, if you know of somebody that has diabetes or recently has been diagnosed, or even if they've been a diabetic for 10 plus years I would ask that you would share this.
And also I want to let you know I'm really excited within the first quarter of 2026, we're going to have an upcoming [00:24:00] new course a reversing Diabetes Naturally Course. And I'm really excited about this. And so if. You or, or someone you know, are interested in taking this course. It will be a self-paced course, but it will also have will have, um, online live sessions for you to go to, to find out a little bit more in depth information.
Also ask your questions and also create a community around this of. People that are all wanting to do the same thing. So if you're interested in reversing your diabetes in 2026 there is a link in the show notes here for you to get on the list of people that would be interested in that course.
And once we have. People that are interested we're gonna get that course launched and, and going so that we can really tackle this problem [00:25:00] with diabetes in 2026 and eradicate it from your life. So, I, I hope this has been beneficial. I hope it's been informational and if you are liking this, I would also ask that, that you subscribe and, and again, you know, share this with others.
Thanks and God bless.
That's it for this episode of The Living Life. Well show if you like what you've heard and want to learn more or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to live life well clinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying Go. And live the truth so you can live life Well, the preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only.
It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, nor is it meant to provide medical advice for services. [00:26:00] If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
