Karen Reduced A1c to 5.8 and Discontinued Statin and Blood Pressure Medications

Okay. Um, my name is Karen Dickey, and I lef-- live in Traverse City, Michigan, and I have prediabetes. Um, it first came to my attention about 10 years ago that my numbers were creeping up. Um, but the doctor just briefly mentioned it, um, didn't give me any, um... Didn't let me-- didn't ask me to do anything to change it at the time. She just said, "Be careful, your numbers are starting to creep up." I didn't do a whole lot for many years because I guess I wasn't aware that since I was prediabetic and I was exercising and eating healthfully, that I didn't really need to worry about it too much. And then, um, about three years ago, and I've been eating a plant-based diet for the most part for ten years, but with cheats here and there, mainly in the form of dairy, like ice cream and pizza and things like that. Um, but my son got diagnosed... Well, no, I should go back. About four years ago, um, I decided to really get serious about a plant-based diet and, um, exercising and doing all the right things. And I was confident that if I did that, that I would be able to reverse things at the time. But I was working with a program at the time, um, that emphasized, um, high protein content at each meal. Um, and subsequently, um, got my A1C tested and, um, my lipid panel and everything, and was shocked to learn that though my total cholesterol number had dropped quite a few points, my A1C had not budged. So I, um, just kinda let that ride for a while, but not without my doctor saying, "I think you should meet with a dietician," who also said, "You need to be getting thirty grams of-- even though you're eating plant-based, make sure you get thirty grams of plant-based protein, twenty-five to thirty grams at every single meal." So I did that for a while, and still the numbers were not changing. So I was out one day for a walk listening to, I think it was the Rich Roll Podcast, and I heard s- either Cyrus or Robby, or maybe even both of them, talking about the Mastering Diabetes Program. So I immediately ordered the book on Amazon and read it, but um, didn't do anything about it yet either. [laughs] So again, I kept thinking, "What am I missing here?" Because I'm eating a plant-based diet, I exercise all the time. Um, I would order the, uh, forks, or buy the Forks Over Knives periodicals with all of the s- uh, great recipes in them and the testimonials from people on how much weight they'd lost, how they'd, um, cured their or reversed their diabetes, how their health was amazing, their lipid panel was good. And I would always think, "Why can't that be me? What am I [laughs] doing wrong?" And, um, once I joined the program, I found out exactly what I was doing wrong. My A1C has been as high as six point four, but not consecutively, 'cause I know once you see it three times consecutively, you are officially diabetic. Um, in-- within the past ten years, it has been hovering around six, six point zero. Um, and now at this point in time, it has gone down to five point eight, which is really encouraging. My fasting numbers were always over a hundred, um, and now they are down in the eighties, which is also really exciting for me. Um, not much, quite [laughs] honestly. Just watch your, you know... My, um, current primary care, I, I go to a physician's assistant, suggested a glucose monitor to keep an eye on things. Um, but not-- there wasn't a lot of direction otherwise, just to keep my eye on it and keep doing the right things, and eventually it would hopefully resolve. Um, I found it by listening to a podcast and learning about it, then buying the book. And once my son got diagnosed a couple of years ago in, um, he's in his late thirties, with type 2 diabetes, that was a real push for me to start learning more, because when it comes to my kids, [laughs] I will do anything I can. So, um I really got serious about it about two years ago and, you know, got, got the glucose monitor and started, you know, trying to make healthy changes, but still nothing was really budging the numbers. Um, and in the meantime, I had developed, uh, higher than normal blood pressure. My, um, lipid panel was still not looking very good. So I decided, you know, I, I've got... feel like I have full-blown metabolic syndrome, and i- if I don't do something now, I will end up like many other members in my family. I should add that my, on my father's side in particular, out of 13 siblings, there are only two that haven't had a, a cardiovascular problem. Um, in fact, my father passed away from complications of quintuple bypass when he was 74. So, and knowing that heart disease is the, is, um, the major thing that usually happens, um, for people with diabetes, that it's the leades- leading cause of death for people living with diabetes, and seeing that my family history is fraught with those types of things, I decided I better get busy and take some action. So I was a bit hesitant at first because I thought it might not be affordable for me at the time, but you can't put a price on health, and I decided, you know, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So it's time to address this head-on and do something about it before it becomes worse. Um, I just felt so confident with everything that I read that there was... that the program worked. I had no doubts about that. I had 100% confidence that it would work based on all of the testimonials that I read in the book and online. And, um, I feel like the first couple of weeks were not that bad. I think they would have been much harder had I not already been accustomed to eating plant-based. But since it's been so much a part of my life for a long time, um, it really wasn't that difficult. I can't say that I loved the flavors [laughs] and the recipes, um, but I understand the purpose of them. I mean, I, I know there was... it was a way to ease you in slowly and to, um... I feel like what was done at the beginning kind of accelerated the process by the choice of meals that were offered. So I just learned to, um, amp them up with seasonings and hot sauces [laughs] and sriracha, all the things that I love. So once I got in the swing of things after a f- a couple of weeks, um, I started venturing out on my own, um, with recipes following the traffic light, you know, the red, green, and yellow light, sticking with the green light foods, sometimes yellow because I love tofu. Um, and then now it's just like second nature to me, and I absolutely love it. Within a week, I noticed a big difference. Yes, definitely. And it was so exciting to watch those numbers drop. And, um, my coach, Megan, who was amazing, by the way, she was a true gift to me, suggested that my numbers might be more accurate if I got a, um, glucometer and started, you know... and just, I asked her would it be okay to just discontinue the, um, the CGM, and she said, "That depends on what your primary care person says." Um, and I knew that wasn't a problem for her. So I ended up dropping the monitor because I found that I was obsessing [laughs] over the numbers regularly, and it was driving me crazy. So being able to do a finger stick and know that my number was accurate was a real motivator for me. So when I started, initially the numbers were, um, in the 90s, and then when they dropped down into the 80s, I was just overjoyed because I've never seen that before, so... Yes, of course. Um, I have them written down here. Um, so my... the last time I, um, have a record of being tested for my overall cholesterol was on June 5th of '25, and at that time it was, it was at 244. It's now at 175, which is just so exciting. My triglycerides were at 102. They are now at 81. My HDL, my HDL has always been higher. Um, that was 82. It's now 85. And my LDL was at 151, and it's now at 74. Um, at that time, my, um, A1C was 6.0 with an average, uh, daily glucose of 126. It's now at 5.8, um, with an average daily glucose of 120. So Um, I feel like the numbers have improved dramatically, and I'm just so excited. In the meantime, I had found out that my, um, Lp little A is at a very, very high level, which to my knowledge at this point in time, there's not much... It's genetic. There's not much that can be done to change that. But it's an ether- even greater push to me to work on controlling the other risk factors for heart disease, this being one of them. So, um, I'm also happy to report that my primary care person has said that I can discontinue the lipid, or, or the, uh, statin, I'm sorry, the statin that I was taking, and we'll retest in three months and see how I'm doing. And also, that I could drop my blood pressure medication with the stipulation that I keep close tabs on it, um, for a couple weeks to make sure it's staying in range, and so far it's, it's good. [laughs] Um, the biggest change for me in terms of diet has been the elimination of oils. I always thought that I was eating healthy when I included olive oil and avocado oil. Those were really the only oils that I used. Um, I did tend to make curries with, um, coconut milk, sometimes not low fat. [laughs] Um, so eliminating the fats was huge for me. Um, exercising after every single meal, which now I feel strange if I don't do that. It, it's just a part of my day, and it feels amazing. Um, and if I sit for a little bit too long after I eat, my husband reminds me it's time to go for my walk. So, um, that and I always ate a lot of beans before, um, but now, you know, I'm- I've been really good at continuing to include the beans and greens even with breakfast, which was new for me. So, um, yeah, it's just the... At... The energy level is so much better. Um, I feel like I can... I had a knee replacement surgery a few years ago, and with the extra weight on me, I found that it bothered me at times. Now it's not bothering me at all, so I feel like I can walk farther. And so far I have dropped 15 pounds, so, um, the weight loss has been a really big deal for me because I tend to carry my weight in the abdomen, and I knew that, you know, it's that, that fat surrounding the organs that's metabolically active, and that's what was really concerning me, and that appears to have really, really, uh, diminished. So, um, yeah, I can't really say anything but how excited I am about all of these changes, and I hope to inspire my son to do the same. So I know it's sometimes harder when you're younger, but this has worked so amazingly well for me that I can't imagine doing anything else. And Megan told me, you know, even farther down the road it just keeps getting better and better, so that's really something to look forward to. Oh, 100%. I mean, just, um, the program is so well organized and so full of really great information. Um, the coaching is just a shot in the arm. Um, I really enjoyed talking to Megan, and she was always responsive to all of my questions, um, every single time. No question was too big or too small. Um, it was worth every penny. I mean, it, it just... I would tell someone, "If you're thinking about doing it, and you're as worried as I was about my health, don't hesitate." Because it causes so many problems down the road. I mean, I f- I feel like I'm lucky that I paid this much attention to it at the pre-diabetic range, because I think it was only a matter of time before I would have crossed into full-blown type 2 diabetes. And I just think that in so many ways there... I mean, we... I think we all know that doctors are not the best in terms of their training in nutrition, and I just don't know if there... without finding this program, if I could have made the changes that I needed to make, because otherwise the information wasn't out there. I mean, everything I was hearing was, um, putting the emphasis on more protein in the diet, which I got so tired of hearing because, of course, if you have a certain amount of protein, um, I, I saw that it did affect my numbers, but it's not correcting the underlying problem. I mean, it was interesting for me to learn that it's the fat in your diet that's causing your insulin resistance, and that was a revelation for me. I didn't know that before. Um- So it, yeah, it's just all good. I learned a lot of things I didn't know. And fiber I think should... That's another thing I, you know, I've heard and read since that we should be focusing more on fiber [laughs] than we are fat, because 90% of the US population does not get enough daily fiber in their diet. Before Mastering Diabetes, my A1C went from 6.0 to 5.8. Since being on the program, I have stopped my statin and my blood pressure medication. [laughs] Okay. Okay. Sure, of course. Yes. Okay.