Episode #47: Interview with Lara May

Ever asked yourself, "Can I really turn the tables on Type 2 Diabetes?" Get ready to dive into the answer with Dr. Lara May – your not-so-typical health guru, bringing the buzz as an Amazon #1 International Bestselling Author and Functional Medicine Health Coach. Let the health transformation begin!

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Show Notes:

• Dr. Lara May, Amazon bestselling author and health coach, emphasizes tackling root causes of diseases, particularly type 2 diabetes.

• Personal experience: Her maternal grandmother was an insulin-dependent diabetic, and she faced glucose intolerance signs in her mid-30s.

• Type 2 diabetes involves insulin insensitivity, disrupting glucose-insulin balance, leading to complications like neuropathy, blindness, and kidney failure.

• Motivation: Impact of pre-existing diabetes on COVID-19 outcomes during her hospital work.

• Critique of conventional diabetes management advice, attributing it to influences from big pharma, big food, and government agencies.

• Holistic approach: Examining insulin levels, food choices, exercise, and macronutrient balance.

• Emphasis on personalized approach considering bio-individuality and assessing insulin levels.

• Multifactorial strategy for diabetes prevention and management, including dietary adjustments.

• Advocacy for evaluating carbohydrates, fats, and proteins balance, and creating a balanced nutrition approach.

• Significance of nutrient testing for deficiencies in minerals like selenium, zinc, magnesium, and iodine.

• Need for individualized approaches, combining supplements and dietary changes to restore optimal nutrient levels.

• Importance of nutrient-dense snacks, like dark chocolate, and enjoying desserts without guilt.

• Introduction of toxic burden concept, using hair testing to assess toxin levels, and recommending periodic detoxing.

• Conclusion on the interconnectedness of diabetes, inflammation, and overall health.

Key Takeaways:

• Diabetes involves insulin insensitivity, leading to disrupted glucose-insulin balance and severe complications.

• Conventional diabetes advice is criticized, with emphasis on a holistic, personalized approach.

• Nutrient testing and individualized strategies are crucial for managing diabetes and restoring optimal health.

• Toxic burden is discussed, advocating periodic detoxing through activities like saunas for overall well-being.

• Lifestyle factors, stress management, and holistic perspectives are vital in preventing and managing type 2 diabetes.

Transcripts:

Today, I am super excited to have Dr. Lara May on as a guest. Lara is an Amazon number one

international best selling author, medicine health coach, and she really focuses on identifying

and addressing the root causes of disease. And she wants to empower all her patients to take

an active role in their health and create lasting change. So welcome Dr. Lara.

Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

Awesome. So I know that today we're going to be talking about type two diabetes and I thought

that I would pick your brain a little bit and ask you, you know, since I know you're seeing a lot of

clients and patients with type 2 diabetes, have you had any personal experience with this?

My, uh, maternal grandmother was an insulin dependent type 2 diabetic and died of the

complications of that. And when I was in my mid 30s, they, um, they, meaning the physician I

was seeing at the time, um, told me that I was showing signs of, um, Glucose intolerance. So

that's sort of what perked me up. It was part of my healing journey.

Um, I said, looking back on it now, I think it was just part of the cascade of inflammation that was

going on in my body. Cause at that time. I was having really regular, um, chronic migraines and,

um, my IBS was in full swing of, you know, flares. So, um, I think that was just part of it. Uh, now

my glucose is great, but yes, um, I do have some personal experience, both direct and indirect.

Awesome. Oh, yeah. Well, that's good. I mean, it's good that everything's under control, but I

thought that might be something driving you. And that makes sense. And so what, um, let's

define some people listening may not really understand what type two diabetes actually is. Type

two diabetes is when insulin.

insensitivity. So your body has become not as sensitive to insulin as it should. So we call that

glucose intolerance, but it's really a dance between the glucose and the insulin. And insulin is a

hormone. So you could also really call it a hormone imbalance. Um, so when your body has

been constantly or for too long, overwhelmed with too much glucose circulating through the

bloodstream, then your pancreas should be responding by pumping out insulin.

Insulin is that hormone that grabs the glucose to either put it to use, put it into storage, which it

turns into fat, or, you know, so those are the main two avenues. And so if you have enough in

storage, your glycogen stores are full and you're not using it enough, then it's just, it just floats,

you know, it just circulates in your bloodstream.

And that's what causes a lot of these downstream consequences of diabetes, uh, neuropathy,

the, um, you know, the going blind, the kidney failure, a lot of those things are because of, it's

just, if you think of, you know, a teacup. And. You know, you can, the teacup can only hold so

much glucose, and if it's just overflowing, then, you know, then now you have a big mess on the

table, and that's sort of what happens in our body.

I don't know if that's the best analogy, but, um, yeah. Can I also go back to what you said? What

motive, what's motivating me about this? The diabetes piece of my practice. So sure I didn't, um,

you know, throughout my journey of both my own HE health and healing journey, but also as a

practitioner, I didn't originally gravitate towards diabetes or, you know, um, glucose intolerance

or pre-diabetes, if you wanna call it that too.

Um, but it was. Around the time of COVID, when I was working in a hospital as a clinical

pharmacist, that I just saw so many people, um, that if you, they had a pre existing diabetes

and, or if they were, um, glucose intolerant, younger, but overweight, then they were at much

higher risk of having either a really hard time with COVID, um, meaning symptom wise and

recovery and, or, or.

You know, they had a higher rate of mortality overall. So, um, and to me, this area of our health

is so preventable and it was frustrating as a practitioner to see what we were telling our patients

and the families of our patients about diabetes and, and how to manage it and what to eat,

because in my opinion, it's all wrong.

Um, all of that comes from big pharma, big food, um, you know, the FDA, the ADA, so our

government in conjunction with those industries. So am I surprised? No, but it's something that's

preventable and that's sort of what motivated me to take my practice in this direction. Okay.

Well, that's, yeah, that's really important.

I'm so glad that you shared that. And so when it comes to becoming, let's say even pre diabetic

or, you know, headed towards that type two diabetes, knowing that it's preventable, it seems like

elevated blood sugar from what I'm hearing is, is kind of a determinant. Like if you have your,

your blood sugar starts to rise and, and, and not being able to, um, You do anything with all this

excess glucose, right?

That we have. So what is it, you know, like, how can we prevent that? Is it cutting back on sugar

or, you know, kind of help me understand, like, can somebody cause themselves to have, um,

diabetes, type two diabetes? We can definitely take ourselves in that direction. For sure. One of

the things from the functional medicine perspective of this process that we test for is an insulin

level.

So what are your insulin levels? So, you know, um, in the Western. Sphere of things. We look at

your HbA1c, which is an average of your blood glucose over three months, and we look at your

fasting glucose. And if you have two fasting glucose pretty, you know, consecutively over 126,

then that usually buys you a diagnosis of type two diabetes or an HbA1c greater than 6.

1. So, um, but in the functional medicine world, we look at some other things too. So we want to

see how much insulin is circulating. How much insulin is your body pumping out? Because

maybe your numbers are borderline. Maybe you're not full blown diabetic yet, but they've been

creeping up. And so if I have a client that comes to me and they usually what I hear is, well, my

doctor said, you know, I'm headed down the road of diabetes.

Or, you know, I'm pre diabetic and I don't want to be, I want to stop it and it shrinks. How do we

do that? And so I look at the insulin because maybe your body is already doing, you know, the

pump, pump, pump without insulin, trying to stay ahead of the game because it's just a really

telling thing that we can look at.

Um, but to answer your question more directly, uh, what do we do about it? How can we prevent

it? It's multifactorial. Yes. Food. Food is number one. It's Um, and I look at not only refined

sugar, but the total carbohydrate load overall. So what kind of carbs are you eating? How much

are you eating? How are you, um.

moving and exercising daily, how much are you burning? So, you know, looking at that balance

and then looking at the balance of macro. So what is your fat and protein intake as well, and

really honing in on that and creating more of a not keto. And you know, depending on the

person, depending on where they are, maybe not even like classic low carb, but I'll definitely

like, we'll take a step back and we'll look at, okay, how many carbs are really in the picture?

What can we eliminate to help your body start to recover? Because that's the other thing too. is

when our body is in this constant state of inflammation, then it almost can become like that

snowball rolling downhill that just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And before you

know, it has more momentum and it's harder to stop.

And so I want to also look at how often you eat. Are you eating every three hours? Are you

keeping your blood sugar elevated because of someone along the way or you've heard through

the media that eating every three hours is good for your metabolism and helps keep it up? Um,

that's a myth. We don't want to do that.

We want to allow our body to rest and digest. And that actually includes, you know, periods of

fasting, even if it's just a period of eight hours. You know, from that last meal of the day to when

you first wake up in the morning that, you know, giving your body enough time to really rest and

digest, have your stomach empty out completely and allow that food to work through your

system.

So you're not constantly dumping food in and forcing your pancreas to respond. Yeah. Yeah.

No, that's interesting. So I, so a couple of things come to mind. Um, and I just use myself as an

example because I've worked with a naturopath, you know, naturopath before, and they want

you to eat more like three meals, like a breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Now that doesn't work for me. And I'm here to tell you that I need to have a little snack mid

morning. And I need to have a little snack in the afternoon. That's me. That's, that's, that's what

works for me. If I don't do that, it's worse. And so what are your thoughts on that? I'm not

opposed. I'm, you know, one of my core principles in my practice and my approach is bio

individuality.

So absolutely. But what we look at with those snacks is what are they? What are they composed

of? How nutrient dense are they? Because a lot of times when our body is sending the hunger

signal, it's dehydrated. Or it's searching for a nutrient that it needs to perform some sort of

process in our body. And we don't often think about our hunger signals as our body, you know,

telling us, we just think of like, Oh, we're hungry, but why, why, why is our body telling us to eat

something?

Well, we receive minerals and nutrients, cofactors, enzymes, all the things. through our mouth

through either eating or drinking. And so our body has created this signal called hunger, to

provide itself with the tools that it needs for the building blocks of all the other things that our

body does.

And so one of the baseline things that I do with every patient is food sensitivity testing, nutrient

deficiency testing, And toxic burden. And so it's, I think, you're very telling to look at that nutrient

deficiency testing and see, okay, do you need more, um, selenium, zinc, magnesium, iodine,

even, uh, because a lot of my clients also come to me, not just with complaints of glucose

intolerance or pre diabetes or type 2 diabetes, but, you know, maybe their thyroid is, They're

already on some sort of, um, centroid or, you know, pharmaceutical supplement, or, you know,

they're having symptoms of hypothyroidism and, you know, um, I was taught that, you know, we

look at.

The hormone system within the body is sort of like a three legged stool. We have the sex

hormones, we have the stress hormones, and um, I'm forgetting the third one. It's okay. It will

come. Oh, the thyroid. Duh. What I was just talking about. Gotcha. So, if any, you know, you

have the three and You know, your stool might get a little teeter totter if one of the, you know,

legs of the stool gets a little weak.

So let's say that your insulin, you know, we're talking about glucose intolerance. So like you're.

The body is showing stress on this side of the stool or triangle, but you let it go long enough

and it starts to affect the others. So then maybe the next one that, you know, shows up for you

could be thyroid dysfunction or it could even be estrogen imbalance, progesterone.

A lot of these things show up for women as they move through perimenopause and menopause

because it's a change. It's not uncommon that this stressor has been present long enough that it

can cause downstream again. Downstream, uh, consequences. So, um, you know, providing the

body with selenium, iodine, zinc.

Those are great thyroid foods. And a lot of people can start feeling better just by bringing those

nutrients back into their body and to levels that are therapeutic. I would like to be able to do that

with food only, but unfortunately, you know, our soils and our food supply, it just isn't as nutrient

rich as it used to be.

But that doesn't mean, so for me, for my approach, it's a combination of supplements and food.

And then ideally, I'm able to wean the supplements off and then by the, you know, towards later

on while you're working with me, then it's just food. Interesting. Yeah, that makes sense. And,

um, definitely when it comes to women, a lot of women can be experiencing thyroid issues.

I know myself, that's an issue. Yeah, I found that out. And so there's, it's multifaceted, which

makes sense now. Um, So I'm familiar with the food sensitivity. I've heard that a lot now, but, so

what, when it comes to the nutrient deficiency, what, um, do you use to test that? What, how do

you test for that? Well, I work with a platform called Rupa Health, and that is, um, sort of like a

huge database of all of these different companies of, um, labs.

So, um. Um, I have, I've found, um, a group, I'll just say a group of tests that I've brought

together that are, um, both economical and, um, um, reliable so that I know I can trust them.

Um, so, but it's just a simple, micronutrient panel. Okay. And do you? That's just what it's called.

Yeah. No, that's good to know.

And do you find that, um, magnesium is also one of the things that we're missing a lot of? Cause

I've heard that a lot. Yeah. So usually what I find is unless you're like having ramps, but a lot of

people are, you know, um, because when you start having glucose intolerance, then it, it alters

how your kidneys filter out, uh, you know, the electrolytes and that means water for you, right?

And so, um, if you're exhibiting cramps, then you're most likely deficient in magnesium. Most of

the clients that I see are on the low end of normal. And just because you're within the normal

range doesn't mean that you don't need a little bit of extra help. Because if we know anything

about how those normal ranges were established, that was mainly tested on a certain group of

men between a certain age.

And they just took up a whole bunch of levels and then averaged them out and that's how they

came up with. So the normal levels are pretty vague and not specific to you at all. So maybe

you're, you know, right smack dab in the middle, but you don't feel well at that level. So we want

to, you know, supplement a little and see if we can get you feeling better to really establish what

is your normal and where is it within that spectrum that you feel good.

Okay. Okay. And that makes sense. So it could be like getting back to liking, not eating three

meals a day and eating more like three meals with a little snacking in between. It could be that

somebody is nutrient deficient. Um, then what, what about the case where if somebody Isn't and

their body is actually really hungry.

You know, like, like I'm thinking to myself, like it's standard. Like I know I'm going to be hungry at

this time. My body, this is what it is. And yeah, maybe I do need to take a nutrient test and it

could explore that route, but you know, what I wanted to run by you is that one thing that I've

learned is that when I do have a snack nail that I typically tend to go for, um, either a protein or a

coupled, um, fat, um, protein.

Uh, with fruit. So I'm not just eating a fruit or, you know, so I tried to do that. And I've noticed a

big difference because from what I've heard is that if we're constantly just having like a shot of

glucose, let's say I have like a bowl of fruit, then that's going to destroy us more. And just

wanted to kind of say, how's that related to diabetes and all this stuff we're talking about?

Yeah. So Um, chemically and biologically the way it works is if you just ate like a bowl of fruit

with no source of fat or protein, then I like to call that the shot to the liver. So all of that sugar,

you know, when we eat it, it is absorbed through the lining of our GI tract straight to the

bloodstream and it goes straight to the liver.

And so when that happens again, either your body uses what it needs to, but beyond that

you're, it's going to signal, um, the insulin to be secreted, and then it's going to be stored as fat if

it's not getting used. And so this also is what can lead to fatty liver over time. And so we see, you

know, a lot more these days of the non alcoholic fatty liver.

Wow. And people are like, why? I don't even drink. How could, you know, my liver be in this

state? And that's really sort of, it's a, it's a carb overload. It's an inflammation, um, problem. A lot

of that too can be traced back to, um, the seed oils and how inflammatory those seed oils are.

Our livers are a master filter for our entire body.

So it really does so much work for us. Both in, you know, excretion absorption, filtering out what

we need, what we don't need. And so it, it takes, it, it doesn't, you know, it takes quite a beating

if you will. And, um, so having that unopposed sugar, you know, it doesn't, doesn't have

anywhere else to go. And so it's important that if you're going to, you know, apples are fantastic.

They're really great detoxifiers. Have some peanut butter, almond butter, you know. Um,

something like that with it, uh, you know, I definitely would lean more towards fat and protein

because that's going to help you stay satiated longer. And so, you know, maybe like a chia seed

snack or, you know, something that's like really nutrient dense hemp seeds.

You don't, it doesn't have to be meat. If you're a meat eater, you know, you can definitely have

some, you know, um, unprocessed uncured bacon if you want, or, you know, avocado. Um,

there's so many options out there for healthy snacks. I'm totally not against healthy snacks.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. Go ahead. No, that's great.

And I, you know, it's like a couple of things come to mind. So like staying away from processed

and I know that, you know, ultimately that's what we want to do. And I think ultimately too, it's

important to be realistic because there are some things that I know myself that I choose to eat

processed because it's easy.

And so, for example, That might be, for me, a grass fed beef stick. Um. You know, and I'm like,

you know, am I killing myself doing that? Is that a better choice than some, um, you know, but

we do have to sometimes make these decisions. No, that's definitely better than a Slim Jim.

Okay.

So, I mean, I'm, I'm in, right in that boat with you. Like I, let's say like you're on a road trip and

you want a snack while you're, you know, driving to wherever you're going to. You thought you

didn't. Maybe. preemptively pack. I do this a lot. And so you stop at a gas station for what kind

of food is available.

Um, so I try to find something like a, um, nitrate free sort of jerky or something like grass fed

beef, you know, something that, you know, is leaning towards as least amount of processed as

possible. And even if it is processed, what is the way that it's processed? So, you know, looking

at that label and say, okay, are there nitrates or preservatives in here?

I want to try to stay away from that if possible. But honestly, I'd much rather have a bag of ghee

than a bag of potato chips. Okay, because the potato chips are what's going to cause the

overload. It's going to be the bad stuff for the liver, all that glucose coming in. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Most potato chips, not only are they high in carbohydrates, but they're also, um, fried or however

they're processed in those seed oils.

So. Again, really paying attention to the label and what that's really hard, actually, like even if

you, um, I know I've tried to find solid dressings that are quite unquote healthy, but even if you

look like the green goddess or. Um, Newman's own, or, you know, the organic one, there's so

many out there.

They still, most of them have soybean or canola oil, which is so frustrating. So yeah, I really like

ranch dressings. So that's one of the things for me and my pantry that I'm like, all right, I'm going

to do the best that I can and then, you know, try to be really clean in other ways. So again, it's

about doing the best you can.

It's not about being perfect. Yeah, and I think that's important to hear and for other people to

hear too and because the other thing that if you are not diabetic, but you want to be careful and

you don't, you know, you know, the doctors are saying or even naturopathic physicians stay

away from sugar or desserts.

Now, I don't think that's possible for me and that actually creates another issue, a deprivation

issue that just is not healthy. And so, I have come to terms with, well, if I'm going to have a

dessert, I'm going to have a dessert, but is it better? My question for you would be to have that

dessert after a meal so that it's not just, you know, you're getting that shot of glucose.

Yes. Yes. Okay. Um, and I would say too, if you're going to have dessert, enjoy it. Yes. Thank

you. Yeah. Our thoughts around what we're eating are really important too. So, you know, when

I talk about having a holistic practice for me, that also includes a look at, you know, the health

coaching and life coaching aspect of it too.

And so like. What are your thoughts around having that dessert? Are you beating yourself up

about it? Are you stressing yourself out, you know, or are you saying like, this is amazing. This is

beautiful. It was made with all these amazing ingredients. I'm really going to enjoy it. And it's just

going to complete my meal or my evening.

And then, you know, and, and, That's it, you know, so it's like, how attached are you to, you

know, quote unquote, what everybody else is saying or doing or telling you, you know, like, let's

release that self judgment. And if it's right for you, and it's part of your, your approach that

includes moderation, then absolutely, it's okay.

Yeah. No, that's great. Well said. And so just curious, like how many days a week would you

recommend having dessert? Oh, well, let's see, I guess my, can I answer the question with a

question? Sure. Are you exercising every day? Yes. Let's assume that we're at least taking a

walk or a bike ride for 20 minutes.

Okay. Then, I would say honestly, you know, depending on what that dessert looks like, you

could have something every day. Um, I'm, I'm a big fan of dark chocolate and, you know, you, it

only takes a little bit of dark chocolate to satiate that sweet craving. Uh, so if you get a really

good quality chocolate, then you're really probably eating.

Less, um, sweetness or quote bad things than you would if you had, like, a. Slice of apple pie,

for example, or pumpkin pie, you know, since we just came out of the holidays. So if it's

something like that, I'm not opposed at all. Have it every day. Dark chocolate is high in

antioxidants. It's great for your serotonin levels.

Um, yeah, do it. Yeah. I really like you and I do that. I'm a big fan of dark chocolate too. I speak

that same language. So yeah. And other things, ice cream and now the gluten free desserts for

me, because I'm gluten free have been something I have to be careful of because I'm like, You

know, but it, you know, but once in a while, so yeah, thank you for sharing that.

That's helpful for people to hear too. And um, so, so I know you mentioned earlier on, I just want

to circle back to the word, um, toxic burden and testing for that. And just, I wanted to understand

a little bit more about what that test entails and what it is and what you mean by that. So the

test I do is a hair test because a lot of the toxins that are in our body are stored in the tissues

and they're not circulating through the bloodstream, but because of where they're being stored,

they're causing problems.

So if you think about, uh, mercury, lead, arsenic, you know, there's a lot of bad things that are

out there, but they're also part of nature. And so it's normal for us to have some and be

exposed to a little bit here and there throughout our lives. But it's not normal if we have had, you

know, an environmental exposure.

Uh, through work or through, I don't know, I keep saying, I don't, but this, the news is bringing

me all these training things with the spills lately. It's so weird. I'm like, there's so many tricks all

the time. Um, so like if you've lived near a water source that's contaminated, or maybe if you

have a well, um, having your water tested to see, you know, and what's coming out of your tap

versus like you can test what's in the well versus also what's coming out of your tap.

To see how good your system is about filtering it out, depending on what kind of system you

have. So there's so many different ways. I mean, just breathing the air. If we live in a big city,

we're going to be inhaling, you know, things that are not good for us. Microplastics, um, vinyl

compounds, so many things.

So a lot of those things, because our liver can only do so much, don't get excreted and they

start taking up shop and then. Before we know it, we have, you know, all these different mystery

symptoms that a doctor can't put their finger on, can't put a diagnosis on. And so I think it's really

important to do periodic detoxing on a regular basis.

I'm a big fan of sweating, you know, your skin is your largest detox organ. Uh, surrounding your

body, obviously, and then your liver is the second inside your body. And so to take some of that

burden off of your excretory organs, then sweating it out is a great way. Because also your

pores are pretty big, relatively speaking, to the other cell linings within your body.

And so the bigger chemicals actually come out better through your sweat and your skin. Then

like maybe say your urine or feces. So, yeah, so it's a hair test. Oh, and I didn't say why,

because over time, um, you can actually track what your body is trying to excrete through the

growth of your hair. So that's probably the best way we have to really look at what's going on.

There are some more expensive tests out there, but it's really hard to say, um, Accurate or

comprehensive they are and so the hair test is pretty inexpensive and it tells me what I need to

know. Yeah, no, that's good. And I know that detoxing. So like, because I knew for me originally

when I had found out that I had the Hashimoto's, I became paranoid about toxins.

And then I get in there, reach this level of like, okay, well, you're just going to lighten up a little

bit, do the best you can and, you know, just grow with it. Because it can be overwhelming. And

so then I'm not sweating as much. And so what you said really resonates with you and at a

personal level.

So I got, um, yeah. a sauna black blanket so that I get in there and I sweat out. That's a form of

detoxing and that can get rid of some of this stuff is what you're saying. And I like that. And like,

how frequently should you do that? Is it like once a month, once a week, does it matter or is it

better? I think all leaning towards the more is the better side.

If you have time and you rehydrate appropriately, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of sauna

every day. Um, but you know, if you can do it once a week, that's fantastic. And then, you know,

if you don't have a sauna available, you can always, you know, draw yourself a nice hot bath

with some Epsom salts.

And that helps your body detox too because you sweat in the water. Um, there, you can also,

um, hot tub if you have a, you know, a spa or a hot tub at your house. Although I would say, you

know, I would caution with that depending on, um, how you treat your spa. So, um, so those are

the main ones, but then, you know, if you live in a hot environment, just go outside for a walk.

Yeah. I lived in the southern, southeastern part of the country. It didn't take much to just step

outside and get a good sweat on. Right. Right, right, right. Because all that, the heat is what we,

I love the summer because you can just go outside and sweat. You don't have to worry about

any of the other stuff and that's good.

Um, and so. Yeah, so much good information, you know, to me from what I'm hearing is that

there's a lot of correlation between Diabetes and and also you had mentioned inflammation

Yeah yeah, and so and that's through the foods we're eating a lot of it can be prevented first and

in addition to lifestyle factors Yeah, so stress.

So I, there's, um, usually I'm not always, but a lot of times I will come to this point in the program

with my clients where they say, I'm doing all the things I'm doing everything you tell me to, I'm

feeling a lot better, but my numbers are still higher than I want them to be. What, what gives like,

what's, what are we missing?

And so at that point, that's when, once they have their baseline and, and they're, you know, In

the rhythm of, of the program, then I look at, let's say, okay, well, what's your stress level?

Because when you're stressed, your body is producing, we call them stress hormones, but what

are they really? It's cortisol, it's epinephrine, it's norepinephrine.

And what happens when your body pumps those out? Then your body also releases glucose for

your fight or flight mechanism. So your body can get ready to run. It'll have that food available to

it to run as glucose to, you know, pump those muscles. To contract those muscles, your muscles

need glucose to do that.

So that's what the glycogen stores are there for. And so if you're stressed, then your body is.

releasing glucose that it doesn't really need unless you're really going for a run, then, you know,

that's different. But if all day long, you're in a very stressed out state, and your heart rate is

elevated, your blood pressure is elevated, and your body is pumping out these, you know, stress

hormones, then glucose is going to be a byproduct of that.

And then therefore, we're dry, we're still driving that mechanism of the glucose intolerance

forward. I see. So, like, if you, um, manage the stress, though, by going for a walk or doing

diaphragmatic breathing, then it can diminish that from occurring. So you can intervene.

Absolutely. Yes. Yes. That's what I love about this process in our body is that it's actually all

within our control.

We just have to figure out what we need to shift in our lives and in our head. And in our practices

too, to create that balance. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense to me. And there's so much power

in, in that and, and knowing that that's possible because like you said, so we take a case where

maybe there's somebody listening today that has had type two diabetes for a long time and now

they're on medication.

So giving them some hope and, and also speaking to them about what you've seen about. This,

this can be reversible, it, you know, let's talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. So even if you're at the

point to where maybe you're having some neuropathy symptoms, uh, maybe you're in, you

know, even early stages of kidney disease, it goes from stage, you know, one to five, five being

the worst, um, to a certain point, you still, there's still hope.

And I don't ever want to take hope away from anyone because I think even if you're at a, you

know, in more advanced stage of, let's say, kidney disease, there's still things that we can do to

help you to reduce that inflammation. And maybe even if we can't get you off of the medication

totally working with your physician, then at least maybe we can decrease some doses.

Maybe we can, you know, get you back to the point where, again, feeling good. And feeling

better than you were from where you started with a practitioner like myself or, you know, another

functional medicine practitioner near you, if that's, you know, what's most convenient. So, um,

there's definitely hope I would say, it's always, yeah, you know.

That's good because I know there's, there's probably people listening that want to know that this

can be reversed and, and that you've seen it and yeah.

Wow. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Lara. This has been great. You've shared such wonderful

information with our audience today and everybody listening, if you want to know more about Dr.

Lara May, um, what she does and where you can find her, I'm going to include the link to her

website in this episode. So you have the availability to reach out to her directly.

And remember we do new episodes every week on Wednesday, and I look forward to having

you join me then.