One in a Million- How I went from Ignorance to Mastery

On June 3 2024, I gave my first speech at the Canterbury Speakers' Club. It was about my journey with diabetes. It was also a tribute to Dr Michael Moseley, who has done so much for those with diabetes to change the narrative to one of empowerment and change. I am forever grateful to him and his contribution to my health. Thank you Dr Moseley. Here is the text of my speech:

It was the 18th of May 2021 and a beautiful evening , I was on my way to Maidstone to buy some golf clubs when my phone rang- no caller ID. Against my better judgement, I answered the call.

It was my GP.

‘I have received your test results and you must go to A and E immediately,’ he said.

“What for?” I asked but he didn’t want to be drawn on that. I could not understand the urgency so went and bought the clubs before heading off to QEQM to spend the next 8 hours in the waiting room.

Over the previous two years, I had undergone various tests in relation to fatigue and nothing had been turned up. The previous week I have been to the urgent treatment centre where a nurse had given me a finger prick test and sent me for an HB1AC blood test.

My results were 118-I didn’t know what that was and how to compare it with anything.

A doctor came out and saw me in the waiting room at 4.30am at A and E. He had a prescription in his hand. It was for metformin. I didn’t know what that was. I asked him how long I needed to take it for. He told me it would probably be for the rest of my life.

The next day, I had an emergency appointment with the Diabetic Nurse at my GP surgery. I didn’t fit the archetype of a type 2 diabetes sufferer but she said it can be genetic. She gave me a blood glucose monitor, ?other medications and paraphernalia to start my new life as a diabetic.

I was reeling, I hadn’t really had any sleep and had no idea what any of this meant. I was in a state of ignorance. I did not know what I did not know.

I was in a state of unconscious incompetence.

I went home and started to do the testing and take the medication. At the same time, I was reading whatever I could get my hands on about diabetes and trying to understand what it was and how to get rid of it.

I read from the best sources I could: Diabetes UK, peer reviewed work on diabetes and how to cure it. I tried to understand what these numbers meant and how to get them down. I also did not believe I had diabetes and that it had all been a bit of a mistake. I didn’t’ fit the stereotype.

There was a lot to take on board:

·?????? What diabetes is

·?????? How it affects the body

·?????? What the numbers mean

·?????? How it is treated

·?????? How to cure it

I was primarily interested in how to cure diabetes. But unfortunately, I wasn’t really getting very far with this. Pretty much everything I read, said it can’t be cured. I wasn’t prepared to accept this.

I think you could say that I was beginning to understand what a problem this was going to be for me.

In other words: conscious incompetence.

My blood sugar readings started to go down quite rapidly. I was also reading voraciously about diet and how carbs affect blood sugar readings. I don’t drink alcohol and I don’t really eat sweet things so I was curious as to how I could use diet to cure my diabetes.

The best sources of information I found on this were Dr Michael Moseley and top Italian chef Giancarlo Caldesi who had both cured their diabetes through diet.

You may know Michael Moseley from the TV as he has made many programmes around popular medical issues. He was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes? and like me, was not prepared to accept the situation and went on to reverse it by following scientific research.

He seemed like a good role model for me. A scientist and medical practitioner who, following evidence based practice has successfully reversed his own diabetes. I was prepared to read what he had to say and try some of those ideas.

The other problem for me was finding food that I wanted to eat. I was already cooking from scratch with high quality ingredients so I didn’t want to find myself shopping in the ghetto of the diabetic aisle- this was what I imagined might lay before me.

This was how I found my second role model- the famous Italian chef Giancarlo Caldesi He had also been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and had reversed it, following evidence based practice and in the process has written some excellent recipe books.

I felt? confident that with the knowledge of these two people and my all important daily blood testing regime? that I could cure my diabetes.

Cutting out carbs and losing 10% of your body weight quickly seemed to be the golden rules for getting diabetes cured.

I set about changing my diet radically. For the first time in my life, I ate a high protein diet. I also started eating a very large breakfast. I figured that if I front loaded my food at the beginning of the day that I would be able to burn it off through the day.

My blood glucose numbers continued to go down and I was losing quite a bit of weight. Due to the different foods I was eating, my body composition started to change.

I also started to feel a lot better. For years I had suffered from intense fatigue. This disappeared. I had so much energy- I felt great. I dropped two dress sizes and was able to get into clothes that I had bought in Milan where I had been living 15 years previously.

I felt like I was getting a grip on this diabetes thing. I was making good progress and understood what I had to do.

I was now consciously competent.

Within 5 months I had lost 10% of my body weight and my diabetes was reversed. I had gone from an HB1AC measure of 118 to one of 35. Pre- diabetes levels start at 42. I was firmly in the green zone.

However, that’s when I found out that this label would never be removed from me and would affect me in terms of insurance and other declarations I have to make for the rest of my life.

This was 3 years ago now and my readings have all been consistently 35. I am grateful for the testing I do every day and consider the situation to be reversed.

I am also overwhelmingly grateful for my initial diagnosis as it was this that set me on the road to dealing with this problem.

I am also grateful for the non-judgmental expertise of the diabetic nurses who are expert in their field and got me started on the right road.

For me diabetic is not a label that I accept.

I am now unconsciously competent .

One key fact that I did learn is that there are one million people in the UK that are diabetic but don’t know. I was one of those hidden million.