90- Strategies to Improve Type 2 Diabetes with Dr. Nicki Steinberger

Bryan: 00:15 What's up everyone? I'm Bryan Carroll and I'm here to help people who have an injury or illness that holds them back from enjoying the outdoors and today's episode is all about diabetes type two diabetes to be exact because there are ways to make huge improvements in type two diabetes if you have the right resources to work with. Chris Kresser has mentioned that the average medical cost per year for a diabetic is over $14,000 which is a lot of money to spend to deal with this disease, especially when diet and lifestyle have huge impacts on type two diabetes. Also, interestingly enough, I recently went into a Barnes and noble bookstore and in the health books section our books from the American diabetes association. I ended up flipping through some of the recipes to see what their recommendations are and it was amazing that most of their recipes are made with simple carbs that have over 90 grams of carbs per meal.

Bryan: 01:10 Type two diabetes is a blood sugar related issue, yet their recommendations spike up your blood sugar faster than most nutritious whole foods based meals. So it's no wonder that people struggle so much once they are given the diagnosis of diabetes because our current support structures do not provide them with the necessary resources they need to succeed. But before we dive into this episode, this episode is brought to you by our friends at Kito mojo who provide my favorite ketone and glucose monitor. Whether you want to see if you are creating ketones in your body or if you are trying to control your blood sugar, this all in one solution is perfect for you. So to learn more and go to summit for wellness.com/ketomojo. Now let's dive into my conversation with dr Nicki Steinberger. Dr Nicki Steinberger eats lives and breathes everything holistic health and loves coaching, speaking and writing. She's the author of wave goodbye to type two diabetes, 16 holistic practices to prevent and reverse diabetes and reclaim joy, vitality and plenty endorsed by Dr. Christian Northrup with the health psychology focus. Dr Nick gay moves women into optimal health, diabetes prevention and diabetes reversal with her holistic practices lifestyle program. Thank you dr Nicki for coming onto the show.

Dr. Nicki: 02:34 Thank you Bryan. Pleasure to be here.

Bryan: 02:37 Of course. And before we start talking about diabetes, let's learn a little bit more about you. So can you tell us a little bit about your background and what got you interested in diabetes?

Dr. Nicki: 02:48 Of course, about 10 years ago I was diagnosed with type two diabetes and that was the same time that I was finishing my doctoral dissertation in clinical psychology. So I set out on a mission to reverse my diabetes with natural medicine and a lifestyle and I was able to do that and I had an aha moment and switched gears from heading toward psychotherapy to holistic health education. And I started running workshops in the San Francisco Bay area and I was able to help small groups of people as I was sort of putting my program and my protocol together you know, nine, 10 years ago. And and then I was coaching folks individually and this year I published my book on it. So that's kind of how I got here. In a nutshell.

Bryan: 03:54 Can you briefly explain what it felt like to get the diagnosis of diabetes?

Dr. Nicki: 03:59 Yeah. Wow, that's, that's an easy question. You know, in my book, I have this little part where I went to see a psychic many years back in Los Angeles. I call her psychic June, actually, her name was June and she was pulling in these different messages, you know, and she said like, Oh, not diabetes, you know, but, but she mentioned diabetes, so she said, not diabetes, but she said it. So it, I got me worried and and you know, it never left my mind. And then, you know, years later, a close friend of mine said, you know, I think you should really get checked out. I know some of these symptoms, it seems like there's something going on. And I was reluctant and resistant for quite a while because I didn't want that diagnosis. And you know, maybe on a subconscious level I knew that's what was happening.

Dr. Nicki: 04:57 And then I remembered psychic June said that. So I finally went in and my fasting blood sugar [inaudible] was, you know, a bit high about one 30. Definitely cause for, Hey, let's go in and, and do the deeper test, let's get the age A1C going. So I went back and had that test and came out 8.9%, which is very consistent with type two diabetes fear, you know, fear of course and some anxiety and panic. And at the same time relief like, okay, I know what's going on now I have something to work with and let me get to work here. Because I had studied nutrition and you know, holistic living for, for many, many years. So I had a strong sense that I was going to dive in and research and see, you know, what I could do to reverse it.

Bryan: 05:57 And you mentioned that your friend recognize some of the symptoms. Can you talk about the symptoms that you had and did the symptoms come on quickly or was it a slow process?

Dr. Nicki: 06:10 You know, [inaudible] something I learned in Kabbalah many years ago is that they say there is no such thing as suddenly, you know, whether it comes to like cancer or any illness or really anything in our lives. And in the case with type two diabetes, insulin resistance, which is at the base of it, oftentimes it's building up a decade in advance. So I, you know, my, my answer is that it was building up and then there were more obvious symptoms. The symptoms were fatigue. I got really tired, you know, I would start crashing out or wanting to crash out midday. I had these like tremors almost like, you know, a little shaking. It'd be lying there sitting down and like, wow, you know, what, what is that? A frequent urination and you know, thirsty a lot. And my mood, it hit my mood. I had more anger and rage and irritability. So those were some of the things that that stood out.

Bryan: 07:23 It seems that diabetes is becoming a more and more of an epidemic. Can you talk about how likely it is for someone to develop type two diabetes? And how many Americans, if you know, currently have it,

Dr. Nicki: 07:37 It is so likely. And there there's this statistic, if you go into a room, a group of people, you know, I was at a recovery meeting a couple of weeks ago for, you know, food addiction. And I mean literally a few mentioned diabetes in a room of 20 people, 30 people. Inevitably, I can almost guarantee you there's going to be a few people that, you know, raise their hands and are either, Oh, I'm pre-diabetic, I'm diabetic, my mother was diabetic, my uncle's diabetic. There's this complication. It is so prevalent today with the increase of, you know, processed foods collectively in, in many countries. And you know, of course the United States and the level of stress that insulin is just, you know, out of whack and, and hormonally we're a mess. So there's, there's a very high rate right now.

Bryan: 08:41 And what are some of the mechanisms that are involved with developing diabetes? Like why is it becoming more and more popular?

Dr. Nicki: 08:50 I mean, first answer is processed foods. You know, if, if we're eating you know, junk food, refined carbohydrates, processed sugars, and we're not moving our bodies, we're not dealing with stress, we're activating insulin at a much higher rate than should be happening. And, you know, we're storing fat, we're increasing our triglycerides and we're developing fatty liver. I mean, children have fatty liver now, you know, it's a looks like alcoholism, right? But it's sodas and all the packaged you know, sweet treats that are, that are just filled with chemicals and junk.

Bryan: 09:39 Have you ever looked at the, the cookbook from the American diabetes association to see what type of recipes they have in there?

Dr. Nicki: 09:48 I haven't looked at their cookbook per se, but I've looked at, at the website plenty of times and I've seen their recommendations, you know, and anybody who still recommending a heavy grains and flour a grain flowers at the base of our food plan should be questioned at this point in time because it's high-glycemic and it raises blood sugar and insulin is the exact opposite of how we want to eat to prevent or reverse diabetes.

Bryan: 10:20 Yeah. When I saw one of the cookbooks, I was pretty impressed that their recipes typically have over a hundred grams of carbs in each recipe, which is, I mean if you look at the mechanism of diabetes, that's exactly the opposite of what you want to be doing to someone's blood sugar. So I always thought that was, that was pretty interesting. The big question here is, is type two diabetes curable?

Dr. Nicki: 10:45 I used to say it was curable and now I say that it's reversible. And the reason why is because once you reverse diabetes, you have to maintain a lifestyle because diabetes is a condition that it exists in a particular environment. And when you change the environment, you can change the condition. But if you revert back to the old environment, that condition is going to come up again. And that's why I've reversed diabetes twice now because I stepped out of my practices. So definitely reversible without question. And you know, as long as you maintain it, then you're good to go a cure as in cure it once and then don't do anything else about it. No.

Bryan: 11:38 So you had a relapse at one point. Did that come on faster than the original diagnosis of [inaudible] type two diabetes?

Dr. Nicki: 11:48 So interesting how it came on. I don't, yeah, I guess so because it was a few years later, you know, so it was probably over the course of a year of letting my practices go and you know, starting to be symptomatic again and create a similar environment

Bryan: 12:13 In the, you had mentioned the mindset part of a reversing type two diabetes. So let's dive into that a little bit. Can you talk about what are some mindset shifts that people need to make if they want to keep diabetes at Bay and to maintain that level of healthiness that they achieved?

Dr. Nicki: 12:32 Mindset is the base and core of I believe everything that we do really, and when it comes to our health and to diabetes or any condition you know, folks have to ask themselves am I in the driver's seat of my health or am I allowing and believing that something, someone outside of myself is going to cure me? Right? So our thoughts and our beliefs, a set us onto the path of the actions that will take or not take. And those actions lead to our results. You know, whether they're results that we like or results that we don't like. So if you take two people and one person says, you know, I got this, I'm going to see what I can do. I'm going to get support or I'm going to do some research. I'm going to be open to shifting my lifestyle, my practices.

Dr. Nicki: 13:41 Ah, that person's going to take certain actions, right. Based on emotions of maybe inspiration and curiosity and openness. And if you take another person who says, well, this is what the doctor said, and I'm on the MCAT medication for life and there's nothing I can do about it, and it's all outside myself, that person is going to have very different emotions, you know? Maybe he or she will feel defeated or frustrated or down. The actions will be very different. And then those two people will have very different a results. Yeah. In their health and in the quality of their life. So that's the first place that I would say mindset plays.

Bryan: 14:29 And for those that just go with the medication route and they think that that's, they're at the point that they are at and there's nothing they can do about it. How can you get across more information to them that there is a way that they can make a change? They just have to make the decision to make the change

Dr. Nicki: 14:48 Coaching. So, so, you know, it's, it's not a onetime thing. It's really a matter of going in and exploring that person's thoughts and beliefs, exploring the stories that you know, that person is telling themselves about themselves, about health, about illness, and to help that person to understand the difference between what we think of as reporting the news as simply saying, well, this is what's happening to me. Versus really understanding that we're charting our course with our thoughts and our beliefs and working through those objections, working through years of myth that we've, you know taken in and, and come to believe and really giving that time to, to open up and say, well, you know, how is that serving you? How does it feel and could you entertain the possibility of, you know, thinking about it this way, feeling into it this way. And it's, it's really a process and some people move through it very quickly, they're very ready and other people, it just takes more time.

Bryan: 16:06 So when you got your diagnosis, did the doctor that diagnosed it for you, did they give you steps that you can take in order to help yourself? Or was it very medication based?

Dr. Nicki: 16:18 It was a piece of paper with a prescription for Metformin and that I believe a was all this woman, all this practitioner knew at the clinic where I was. And so I took the piece of paper and as I said in my book, I knew I wasn't going to fill it any time soon. That's not what I'm saying. Everyone should do, but that was the right path for me at the time. And no, she didn't say anything about nutrition, lifestyle, stress, movement. And in fact, when I came back a year later, totally reverse, she still said, you know, I think you should get on the medication. So

Bryan: 17:00 Wow.

Dr. Nicki: 17:01 Yeah. Yeah.

Bryan: 17:03 So then when it comes to nutrition, there's a lot of different ideas out there of best nutrition for any type of ailment or health issue whatsoever. But let's talk a little bit about carbs. Since diabetes has to do with blood sugar and carbs definitely has an influence on blood sugar. So can you tell us a little bit about carbs, how it influences a blood sugar, and should we be eating a lot of carbs? Should we be low carb? What direction should we go with that?

Dr. Nicki: 17:32 You know, yeah. I always say there's, there's not a one size fits all. It's really when I work with folks, the nutrition as well as every other part of the program is individually tailored to that person because we have to learn experimentation, how our body responds too. You know, all the macronutrients, carbohydrates, fat, protein, and everything else. However, there are some principles that we can take a look at, you know and address the research and experience. So, you know, everything we eat really instigates insulin, Mmm. Calls upon insulin, but carbohydrates more so then protein and fats, protein second in the line. And that's at the very bottom. So carbohydrates and depending on what kind of carbohydrates, if they're carbohydrates, carbohydrates are sugar, right? They're units of sugar. But some carbohydrates convert quickly to sugar in the blood and some convert more slowly to sugar in the blood.

Dr. Nicki: 18:44 And the pancreas sends out insulin to dip, go grab the sugar from the blood, [inaudible] bring it to the cells. And if we're insulin resistant the cells are not having it and the sugar continues to build up in the blood and creates high blood sugar and moves into fatty liver, prediabetes, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. So certainly we know enough now to know that we must lower our carbohydrates and we don't essentially need carbohydrates. We create our own carbohydrates. Really. the liver creates as much glucose as we actually need, but a low carbohydrate food plan, a lot of people are having success with it. So, you know, particularly you cut out first the high converting carbs, the obvious sugary desserts, the sugar in all its wonderful forms. And then grain flowers, you know, wheat and bread and all the pretzels, cookies, crackers, [inaudible], et cetera. Now you can still do not flowers, you know, like almond and coconut flour. So there's great stuff that you can make and even by now and it's really all over Instagram and Pinterest and you know, you can Google it, but yeah, carbohydrates, we certainly don't need to be eating an excess amount of carbohydrates, which creates a high insulin or you know, high insulinemia and it leads, it sets you on this spectrum for fatty liver, metabolic syndrome, prediabetes, and type two diabetes.

Bryan: 20:50 So a lot of times when people hear like a low carb, a nutrition plan, meal plan, or not eating carbs whatsoever, they then think that they should completely remove vegetables and whatnot from their diet as well. Can you still be low carb while eating vegetables?

Dr. Nicki: 21:10 Yeah, certainly, of course. And we need to be eating vegetables. You know, we, we love veggies for their micronutrients, the vitamins, minerals and nutrients and their fiber. There are anti-nutrients you know, and more and more research is coming out about that. But you can eat your veggies, you know, and you want to keep it to non starchy veggies and lots of leafy greens and herbs and you know, even low-glycemic fruit may mainly sticking with organic berries and limiting other fruit or eliminating it all together depending on where you're at, you know, on this continuum.

Bryan: 21:59 And can you name off a couple a low-glycemic fruits that you really like to use in your protocols?

Dr. Nicki: 22:06 You know, the main ones are going to be blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, ah, blackberries, sometimes great fruit, no, depending on, but again, you know, you, if you, you take a, a great fruit, an Apple, a banana, and you know, you have a fruit that has 30 grams of carbohydrate. Now how many carbohydrates, how many grams of carbohydrates do you want in your day? You know, a few, you want to keep it definitely below a hundred and for a lot of people below 50. And you know, people are even going lower than that. So you really have to pick and choose wisely.

Bryan: 22:50 Are you looking at carbs as just carbs? Are you looking more at light net carbs?

Dr. Nicki: 22:56 I look at net carbs,

Bryan: 22:57 No carbs.

Dr. Nicki: 22:58 I looked at that carbs.

Bryan: 23:00 And then earlier you were mentioning some of your symptoms was irritability and you would get angry and you might've said brain fog in there. Do you ever work with insulin resistance at the brain level, which is one of the first places to become insulin resistance, which is why so many people get irritable.

Dr. Nicki: 23:22 You know, I definitely work with folks who, like you say, are foggy and you know, it's created this irritability and this sort of zone of confusion. So yeah, we'd go in on the cognitive level. Now the first thing to do is, you know, rid the body of the sugar, right? So can start with the clean playing field and it miraculously, it doesn't take long for most people. Once they get their nutrition in alignment, I mean it affects mood and cognition quite quickly.

Bryan: 24:01 And then can you talk a little bit about why people with diabetes tend to have kidney issues and also have a hard time healing from wounds on their lower extremities?

Dr. Nicki: 24:12 Well, I mean, these are some of the complications that you see from untreated. A high blood sugar, right? Cause high blood sugar is a symptom. And really diabetes is a name for a symptom as well. So if we don't treat it with lifestyle, right? And you just, you decide to go down the chemical pharmaceutical realm while if you take a note at most, if not all of the people who you find with, you know, amputations, ah, they're on kidney dialysis. Ah, they're losing their eyesight. They can't heal from wounds. Those people are on pharmaceuticals, right? Those people are often on insulin, which is very dangerous to take with type two diabetes. Or they're doing nothing. So you can't do nothing, right? But if you take your health into your own hands and you get support, then you can defend against those further complications. We can't have high blood sugar at those levels, you know, staying in the body, staying in the blood and not develop these kinds of complications down the road.

Bryan: 25:35 So can you talk a little bit about your holistic practices lifestyle? What all is involved with that and how can that people all right, how can that teach people to reverse their diabetes?

Dr. Nicki: 25:48 Yeah, you know, this is something that I've been honing and practicing and crafting over a decade. It's a holistic approach, meaning it's body, mind, spirit. And that is because we are body, mind, spirit and we can't fully heal, fully live our life's potential if we negate any essential part of ourselves. So my holistic practices lifestyle is simply a set of practices and it's designed individually for each person of, because no two people are alike and everybody's at a different place. So you know, we look at nutrition, moving your body, stress reduction and sugar and food addiction. And then simply and slowly we start practicing. And you know, that might mean a morning walk. That might mean, you know, cutting out the sugar, start out with a few things. That might mean 10 minutes of affirmations in the morning of which are extremely powerful. And what happens over time and with commitment and prioritization is that our life begins to wrap around our practices to a degree. And so we are living this holistic practices lifestyle, which is nothing short of transformation as we reduce these unwanted symptoms and then we eliminate these unwanted symptoms and we can prevent and reverse diabetes and other conditions. And then if we want, there's an opportunity to move into a place of optimal health, which really is this more full bodied spectrum of the quality of our lives.

Bryan: 27:54 And what do you love most about coaching? Because it sounds like you're pretty passionate about helping people. So what is it about coaching that just gets you so fired up?

Dr. Nicki: 28:03 I love these aha moments that my clients have just from thinking about a concept differently, but mm. It going in on an emotional level because really when we make changes, not just the thought, but when it goes like, it feels like it goes into ourselves, right? And it really hits our emotion and we get this shift. And then that shift creates a different action. So different results. And that's where I'm seeing, you know, transformation and people just really moving into greater amounts of joy in their life and liberation from suffering. That's what I love.

Bryan: 28:51 Well, we can definitely hear the passion behind those words. Is there any last things you want to touch on about diabetes and how people can reverse it?

Dr. Nicki: 29:01 You know, I just want to say that you got this and you can do it and keep it simple. Get the support you need, and you have to make a decision too. Surround yourself with people who are going to positively support your direction. And that means going against the mainstream voice and mainstream protocol. Just know that that's part of it and that you can do this. And many people are, it's, it's really not rocket science, but it's, it's a commitment and an openness.

Bryan: 29:46 Awesome. Well, people can find you at dr Nikki steinberger.com/practice and at that URL you have a checklist for 12 simple practices to reverse high blood pressure and diabetes. Where else can people find you?

Dr. Nicki: 30:02 So I have a wonderful Facebook group with the engaged. I had engaged, passionate, loving folks and we all support each other and answer questions and go in there and share what practices are working, what we need help with. And that's at dr Nicki steinberger.com/community. And I am on Instagram too. Dr Nikki Steinberger.

Bryan: 30:31 And my final question for you is, do you have a morning routine? And if so, what is it?

Dr. Nicki: 30:36 I absolutely have a morning routine. It's, it's the foundation to my day and, and my life and this is where I practice [inaudible] and it evolves, you know, like anything else. Our practices evolve. Our supplements of all of everything you know, is allowed to evolve. Right now, a part of the practices in my morning routine consists of

Dr. Nicki: 31:02 Hydration. So I'll drink water with either Apple cider vinegar or lemon. And then I had outside with my iPod and I begin my walk. My walk includes Hills because I need to do Hills or stairs. Two, really get everything going, really pumped my heart. Before I hit play on my iPod, which is going to be for a podcast for either health or entrepreneurship business or writing before I hit play, I launch into my affirmation kind of slash mantra slash gratitude practice and that's where I have you know, a lot of thoughts and beliefs that I practice and I find tune and I repeat because I'm setting my direction in the course that I want to go in and and there, so I do my walk 30, 40, sometimes 50 minutes and come back and I'll hydrate again with some minerals added to the water and usually do some meditation and that will kind of conclude my morning practice.

Bryan: 32:22 Wow. That's a very detailed morning routine. I love it. Well, thank you dr Nikki so much for coming on and we appreciate it. Like you said, type dude too. Diabetes is definitely becoming an epidemic and pretty much everywhere you look someone, at least of someone that has

Bryan: 32:40 It. So it's something that we, it's a lifestyle disease in reality. And if we can get to it before it gets to that point, then that would be ideal. So thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you. As the rates of type two diabetes continue to climb, we can get ahead of the issue and start to monitor on our own how our blood sugar is doing. You can use a blood glucose monitor, which can be picked up at a local pharmacy or you can order my favorite one that's called the Kito mojo from summit for one to [inaudible] dot com slash Kito mojo and test first thing in the morning before you eat anything to see what your fasting levels are. If your fasting levels are in the a hundred plus range, that might be something you want to start to at monitor. Remember, all of our show notes with links, resources, and transcripts can all be found on our website.

Bryan: 33:33 Just add the episode number after summit for wellness.com to be directed to the correct episode. So for this episode, go to the summit for wellness.com/ninety is it time for you to take charge of your own health? If so, we will support you along the way with our functional medicine approach and our habit changing processes. We help you to discover the root causes to your health issues and make actionable and achievable steps to get you to feel your best. So to get started, go to the summit for wellness.com/ready next week we will officially be in the holiday season, which means everyone's stress levels are about to escalate. Karen Salinas will be joining us to work through our mindset around stress. So let's learn a little bit about Karen. I am here with Karen Salinas. Hey Karen. What is one unique thing about you that most people don't know?

Karen: 34:26 Most people don't know that I have an overly developed pattern of not wanting to make people feel uncomfortable.

Bryan: 34:36 Oh, can you talk a little bit more about that?

Karen: 34:39 I think that that is that's probably a technical way of saying that I'm, I'm a, I'm a people pleaser through and through and it has led me to take on a much more of other people's needs then I should have. And I have as a result been learning over the past several years how to ask for help.

Bryan: 35:10 Do you try to avoid awkward situations?

Karen: 35:13 Yes. Yeah. So, so here's I, here's a really silly one, but it is really true. Back in the day when, you know, say my kids were in elementary or middle school and I wanted to ask one of them to unload the dishwasher, I wouldn't ask them during the television show cause I didn't want to interrupt them. I would only ask them or have them do it after the show was over.

Bryan: 35:40 Oh, that's super interesting. Yeah. Well, what will we be learning about in our interview together?

Karen: 35:46 Okay. Well we're going to talk about the kind of the, the pervasiveness of, of stress in most of our lives now and particularly a lot of stress that, that women feel, but also some ways to think about stress differently and, and really shift our mindset around some things related to stress, how we talk about stress, that kind of thing.

Bryan: 36:15 And what are your favorite foods or nutrients that you think everyone should get more of in their diet?

Karen: 36:21 I am a real fan even though they don't always taste as amazing as a, say some things that are in the carb category, but I really think we have to get more vegetables. I think some of us even do probably fairly well on the fruits, but we really need to eat a lot more vegetables.

Bryan: 36:41 And what are your top three health tips for anyone who wants to improve their overall wellness?

Karen: 36:48 Prioritize sleep. It's, it's, it's just it's almost a prerequisite for anything else. I really would like people to drink a lot more water. It helps the body function better and it also gives you energy. And then the other thing would be make time for some fun.

Bryan: 37:11 If you want to minimize your stress levels, then make sure to listen next week. But until then, keep climbing to the peak of your health.