Scientist Reverses Type 2 Diabetes Twice Using Plant-Based Nutrition and Coaching

Hello, everyone. My name is Guillermo Tellez Isaias. Uh, I live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and, uh, I used to have, because I don't have it anymore, uh, diabetes type 2. [chuckles] Well, the first time I got diagnosed with the type 2 diabetes was, uh, four years ago or, uh, in twenty-twenty. That's, uh, over, over a little bit over four years ago. That was July, July of, uh, twenty twenty s- two. I was traveling, um, to the Rockies with my son. Uh, he was doing his PhD at the, uh, y- Roslin Institute, uh, on at the University of Edinburgh. So he came that summer for vacation, and, uh, he wanted to have a trip, uh, um, dad-son trip. Uh, and, and he picked Colorado. So he arrived, uh, with a cold. Uh, I got the cold with from him. And we, we, we just took our truck and we drove. Uh, it was a road trip. And, um, so during the driving, it was a long drive, almost fourteen hours from Arkansas to Colorado. I, I already had this terrible cold, and I feel-- I was feeling bad. We arrived, and, uh, the s- next morning that we arrived, well, I started urinating a lot and having to drink a lot of water. But I thought it was just a cold. The next morning, we decided to do a hike, and we did a four hours hike, uh, to a very high altitude. And [chuckles] I was, I was, uh, struggling. I'm usually I'm in a very good shape. I thought it was because of the cold. I after, after two hours hiking, we almost were at the top, and I had to tell him, "You, you, you finish. I'm gonna wait for you here." So I, I sit down, lay down, and, and wait, and we had to walk down another two hours, and then start drinking a lot of water that night and urinating, urinating a lot. Next day, we did another hike, and then I was very... I was, I was not even able to walk, um, five hundred, uh, feet. I, I was start shaking, feeling incredible bad. I thought I was gonna pass out, and I told him, "Just go ahead. Keep, keep, uh, hiking. I'm gonna wait for you at the truck." To, to make a long story short, we come back from that trip, um, seven-day trip, and when my wife saw me, he told me, "What the hell happened to you?" I was-- I lost a lot of weight. And that's, that's when it clicked me. I thought, "Okay, polyuria, polydipsia, a lot of weight suddenly." Uh, the next morning, I saw my boss, who has diabetes type two, and I told him, uh, "Billy, could you please check my blood sugar?" And he took one of the strip, checked my blood sugar, and, and then he turned pale. He took another strip, test me again, look at the monitor, and he, he couldn't be-- he didn't say anything. He take a-- he took another strip and measured his blood sugar to see if the monitor was working fine. And, and when he's confirmed that the monitor, the glucose monitor was fine, he just looked at me and told me, "Memo, I'm so sorry. You have diabetes. Go immediately to the physician and, and check and, and let him check you." And, uh, I went to the physician. He did more tests, and he, of course, confirmed me that I, I had diabetes type 2. And took me completely out of the blue. I didn't knew, never expected to, to have such a, an, an issue. And, uh, my first question was, "Do I, uh, do I have to take insulin?" And he said, "No, no." He prescribed me metformin, and, uh, and that was it. I was completely in shock. I immediately start reading as m-- listening. I, I do audiobooks. So in one week, I listen. I got five audiobooks, and I starting trying to understand how I got that problem, how I got into that situation, and understand the disease and, and the problem. I am, I am a scientist. I, I just retired f- after twenty-four years working on, uh, poultry science. I am, I am a veterinarian, but m- all my background has been immunology and microbiology in poultry. So most of my work has been gut health. I am very familiar with, with the, with most of the, um, uh, microbiome issues. We have developed probiotics and stuff. So I wanted to understand what happened to me. And, and during all the research and the reading, I found, finally found, of course, I start doing Fasting. And, and I immediately after reading, um, that, uh, I think one of the first things I learned was that diabetes is a reversible disease. It's something that you can reverse. Most people think that when you have diabetes, you're going to die with that disease. And the first thing I learned is that's not true. Nothing can be farther from the truth. It's not genetic. Nothing had to be with, with, with a genetic issue either, um, at least type 2. And, uh, I learned that the disease is, is, is a, is a metabolic problem, but it's... the origin is nutrition. So I start doing... I did my first fasting. I wanted to do a seven-day fast with water. I couldn't finish. I, I was only able to, to do five days. And, um, well, the, what was my, the results of my blood? When my, when my, my boss saw the glucose level, that was three hundred and fifty milligrams per deciliter. My A1c turned out to be ten point two. And, and later that, that day that the-- I got the blood from my physician, my glucose level in my blood, of course, was not fasting glucose, but it was five hundred. And of course, when they took my pressure, it was over the roof. That's, that's... It was not the cold. I, I was feeling so bad because I, I was about to have a shock just in Colorado from this, uh, hypertension and high blood glucose that I had in my blood. So I, I was lucky, uh, that I did not pass out in, in the mountains. Um, in, uh, uh, I, I think during, during those three, four weeks that I start reading books, I, uh, somehow one book was leading me to another, and one of the books led me to Mastering Diabetes, and I got the book, and that book, um... You know, you know what is something is interesting? I was completely reluctant to do, uh, physical and medical examinations because I thought it was necessary that those things were spam, that you don't need to go and check yourself, um, um, do every six or at least once a year. And that was my mistake. In spite that my wife and many people asked me to, to do a checkout, I didn't do it. And, and, and I ha- I paid the price because, um, I, I am not a alcoholic, but I used to drink a lot of beer. I like, I like tequila. I like whiskey. I like beer. I like mezcal. I like to drink. I'm not a alcoholic, but I, I was... There was a, a time where I, I was drinking two, three beers a day. And, uh, I, I'm, I'm not an obese person. I, I was, I was not obese. I'm-- I was not in the perfect shape, uh, in, in terms of body weight or body mass, bod- body mass index. I, I was obese if you, if you consider that, but, um, uh, not over- badly overweight. And, um, I thought I was... I've been fitting. I, um, I've been doing triathlons, marathons, half marathons, so I am a very f- active physical person with, um, I thought it was not too bad nutrition. I was wrong. Uh [chuckles], it, it turned out I... After reading, uh, Mastering Diabetes... And that was, that was the book that completely changed my life because I immediately got into the program after reading the book, and I started doing, um, plant-based, low-fat, uh, whole food diet with fasting, intermittent fasting, and exercise. And I'm gonna go back to that part exercise later. But, um, what was interesting that is that, um, after six months coming back with my physician, my AC one dropped to s- from ten plus two to six. And, and I, I completely, I was monitoring, monitoring my blood, and I was... It was very clear because before getting into Mastering Diabetes, I start doing the keto diets. Yes, with keto diets, my blood glucose, I was able to reduce it, not perfectly, but it was not on, on the three hundred, two hundred. It, it went down to one fifty, one sixty, but never got down, even, even with a keto diet. And to be honest, [sighs] I'm from, originally from Mexico, so I, I miss a lot fruit, tortillas, potatoes, and, uh, it was out of my diet. So I, I start... Uh, well, I basically I start doing, um, completely cut all animal protein from a diet and incorporated, uh, green, um, vegetables and legumes, nuts, um, completely, uh, uh, almost eliminate fat, uh, from cooking. So it was a c- a low, a ver- a low-fat diet. Tried to, tried to follow the principles. The book is not great in having many recipes, and I was... I did the audiobook And the audiobook comes with a PDF, but it's also in black and white, so it was... But it was, it was, for me, it was enough because after doing the program, um, my f- and looking at my, at my, my results, my, my physician was impressed. He told me, "What did you do?" And I told him. Um, I [chuckles] I was impressed myself, and I keep visiting him, uh, every six months, and my A1C went down up to, um, remaining to the five, nine, six. So I was... One day my physician two years ago, he says, "Okay, you're diabetes-free. It's not necessary that you come and see me every six months. Come back next year." That was my, my, my visit with him was going to be April this year. And I thought, I thought, "Okay, so I'm, I'm diabetes-free. I can eat and do whatever I want again." And I did, and that was my mistake [chuckles] because I start drinking again and eating bad. Uh, I mean, yes, start going, eating to the, the, the wrong, the, uh, Western obesogenic diet. I love donuts. I like hamburgers. I like pizzas. I like hot dogs. I like beer. I, uh, Friday nights went to my wife's, uh, pizza, eat pizzas and pitcher of beer between she and I. Diet. Yeah, m-metformin, I, uh, stopped taking the metformin because I thought at that, that those, at that time it was not doing anything to me. Nothing, uh, no any bad adverse signs that people usually have, but I didn't see that it was helping reducing the blood glucose. So I just keep... I just discontinue taking the metformin. I just continue with the diet. Of course, I did not took insulin. Um, and I keep doing my, um, exercise. Um, but after in, after, after the doc- my, my physician told me, "You are diabetes-free," and I come back to the bad habits of nutrition and drinking, uh, this year in February, once again, I start experiencing polyuria, polydipsia, and then I lost a lot of weight, and I thought, "Oh my God." I went to Walmart to buy another glute monitor because mine, I, I discontinued using it for the whole year. Didn't measure my blood glucose, my A1C for a year. It was not necessary. My physician go- told me, "You're free. Go." And when I took my blood, it was 250. So I got it again. I got the same t- I got into the same problem I got before, and it's because it was my fault. I thought this, I am completely cured. I don't... I can eat, uh, bad, have bad drinking, and I was wrong, and I paid the price. So this time, this time I listen the book, the audiobook again, and I wanted to have more, uh, recipes with colors. So I got into the website of Mastering Diabetes looking for recipes in color so I could, uh, cook more meals. And then I found the coach, uh, the coaching, Mastering Diabetes coaching, and I registered myself. And to my surprise, on the first interview, Robin was there. And, uh, uh, he and, and Cyrus, they were my heroes because they cured me completely for the first time, and I was expecting that I was gonna see a different coach, and it was... No, it was Robin himself in the first interview, and he got me. I mean, that was from the marketing point of view, that's brilliant because, yeah, I got into the program, paid the $3,000, um, for three months. He put me in contact with Coach Jacinda, and, um, the first sessions were a complete shock for me because originally Robin wanted me to put in a group of people, and I am, I am a lone wolf. I don't like to mingle with people. That's why I like triathlons because it-- when you do triathlons, you bike alone, you swim alone, you run alone. I am... I don't like to be with coaches. I don't like to mingle in groups. So I told him that to Robin. I said, "Okay, I'm gonna put you with, with a personal coach. It's gonna be Coach Jacinda, and she's gonna be working with you." But once again, uh, the, the, the program of the coaching system included a pla- a meal plan weekly, and I hate it. I, I didn't like it at all. Uh, Jacinda also put me on the Dexcom monitor, and, and also she wanted me to use the chronometer, and once again, I could not stand it. I registered. I paid for the premium of the chronometer thing. Um, I mean, I'm 62 years old. I'm not, uh, a person that is-- likes to do this playing with the Apple apps all the time, the, the, the playing with the, your phone and following and entering calories and grams of food. I could not stand it. Even though I paid for the premium for a year, I, I, I told Jacinda, "Jacinda, there are three things I'm not gonna do with you." First, I'm gonna... I, I only was able to do this, the meal plan for one week, and I-- and that was it. That was it. Because I am, I am a very good... I like to cook, and I enjoy food. Well, I knew what I needed to do. Mastering Diabetes program worked one time for me, completely reversed diabetes, so I knew what I needed to do. Uh, it was clear for me. I go back to my plant-based diet, low fat, whole food, um, fast and exercise. And the thing is, I got into... I was-- I thought I was missing something. I got into the website looking for recipes in colors because that's what I, that's all I need to do. If I see or I taste a food, I can do it. I can replay. I can do it, and I can do it better than the chef in the restaurant or the recipe in the magazine. I can do it. I just need to see. I- that's what I was looking. I got with Robin. He convinced me. I got into the program, and I'm not regret at all. I think meeting Coach Jacinda has been a bless in my life because she's extraordinary. One, not-- She has a, a big heart, but not only that, she's a great human being, but the knowledge that she has on nutrition and management on diabetes, she was able to, to guide me. To guide me, of course, after removing the chronome- chronometer thing. Uh, Dexcom, I only used it for, uh, a month, I think. And, and I bought the other... I bought three, um, three of those monitors. I only used two. The other one I said, "I'm, I'm not using this anymore." She said, "Okay, that's fine. Just measure your glucose every morning, fasting glucose, and that's it. Don't use the chronometer. Cook yourself. Don't do the plans." Because she, she realized I'm not-- I cannot follow recipes and programs like that. Not me. Uh, I am strictly... I knew what I need to do in terms of cooking, what I need to do in terms of eating. I did it myself. And with the guidance, something that Jacinda did for me, she immediately s- asked me to make a complete full analysis of different biomarkers in my, in my body. She asked me to test every single biomar- possible biomarker, uh, to see where was I was. Uh, not only, uh, i- including checking vitamin B12 and, uh, D3 levels and, uh, looking at the microbiome biomarkers, uh, looking at, uh, possibility of type two, uh, type one, um, antigens, uh, uh, because she wanted to con- to confirm that I was type two, looking at my pancreas insulin production levels, everything. I mean, if I show you the list of all the blood tests for biomarkers, she asked me, it's, it's a long, long list. Nobody in all my life, not even a physician, ever recommend me or ask me to do this whole profile of biomarkers. It turned out I was fine of everything with three exceptions. Of course, I needed to, to, to reduce because my A1C once again was ten point two. Um, my lipid, my vitamin D3 was low, so immed- she immediately asked me to, to increase the daily dose. I was taking 2,000 international units. She said that's not enough for the, the result you have. She asked me to take 10,000 international units of vitamin D3. And, uh, B12 was fine. I was start taking metformin this time, and, um, she, uh, uh, look at my lipid profile, and my LDL levels were, were high, and cholesterol were high. So that, that was something that she i- it concerned to her. And, uh, of course, when my physician saw those results again, um, it's not that I'm going to blame him, but, uh, the fact that, uh, if at least I knew I needed to keep looking every six months, I perhaps I, I was not gonna be able to, to get again into the problem that I get again the second time. But I didn't check my blood. I'm sorry No, don't, don't hesitate in if you wanna get out of the problem fast, you need to change your nutrition. Diabetes is a nutrition problem. It's, it's, it's, it... You do it yourself with what you eat. We become what we eat. If you don't change your habits, if your nutrition, you are not gonna be out of the problem. Uh, first, something that you need to do also is, is exercising. And it's something that, uh, I had to do. I thought I was doing, uh, gymnastics, uh, for 45 minutes, doing some yoga and high intensity. I thought that was enough. That was... That's not enough. You need to do, you need to do-- You need to increase the production of gluc- for proteins in your muscles. So it's not enough to just do... Of course, you need to do at least, at least 10 or ideally 20 minutes walk after meal. That's very important. Taking Metformin, I learned it's very useful for many other things. It's not just the glucose control. But nutrition, you need to, you need to change your habits, and Mastering Diabetes is the best program to... if you wanna really get out of this situation. Um, you need to stop, stop do- eating. Stop eating that Western obesogenic diet that, uh, it's in our culture here, and that's the problem. That diet Before Mastering Diabetes on my second time when I got a-again into the same problem, once again, 10.2. And, and just three months after the program, getting back into the program, uh, last week my A1C dropped to 5.8. Right now, today, my, my fasting glucose level was 92, uh, with an average of 108 on a week. Uh, so yes, I'm very happy. I have not stopped any medication. I'm, I'm, I'm taking Metformin because Metformin I learned that it does much more than helping your, um, regulating the blood glucose from your liver. Metformin comes from, um, uh, the, the, the chemical that is the synthetic chemicals that is now produced. That's why it's so cheap. Does much more things than just controlling blood glucose. It helps to establish microbiome. Something that you need to learn is I learned, and this is because Coach Jacinda told me, diabetes is a problem and it's a disease that you develop after having fatty liver, and that disease turns, uh, to... It takes at least 10 years to develop. So that's, that's the problem with this disease, and so many people around the world, they don't know they are pre-diabetic. And when the disease completely manifests, it's already too late. You already have insulin resistance. Fortunately, this is something that you can reverse mostly with nutrition and with exercise and good h- uh, food habits. That's it. Yes, of course. I'm, I'm very grateful with, uh, you guys, especially, uh, Robyn, Cyrus, and Coach Jacinda. Yes.