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Hey, what if the root cause of your stubborn weight gain, brain fog, type 2 diabetes, and your low energy isn't your genetics, but what if it's something that you can actually reverse, and in most cases reverse without medications?
Dr. Josh Axe explains how to naturally reverse insulin resistance in 30 days through diet, lifestyle, and supplements without medication.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- Insulin resistance is a reversible condition that affects nearly 40% of American adults and is a major health risk.
- Ultra-processed foods and poor lifestyle habits are the primary drivers of insulin resistance.
- Improving diet quality, increasing physical activity, managing stress, and using certain supplements can restore insulin sensitivity.
- Early symptoms often go unnoticed, so awareness and proactive management are critical.
- Conventional medical treatment often relies on medication, but natural approaches can be highly effective.
What the video covers
- Insulin resistance is a major cause of weight gain, brain fog, type 2 diabetes, and low energy, and it is largely reversible without medication.
- Insulin is a key hormone that helps sugar enter cells to produce energy; insulin resistance occurs when cells stop responding to insulin.
- Nearly 40% of American adults have pre-diabetes or insulin resistance, with rates rising globally and especially in children.
- The main cause of insulin resistance is the widespread consumption of ultra-processed, nutrient-poor foods high in sugar and refined carbs.
- Insulin resistance disrupts multiple hormones and is linked to serious health conditions including heart disease, Alzheimer's, PCOS, and infertility.
- Key contributors include obesity (especially visceral fat), poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, stress, poor sleep, and mild genetic factors.
- Symptoms include fatigue, stubborn belly fat, sugar cravings, brain fog, frequent urination, and increased thirst, often unnoticed by sufferers.
- Reversing insulin resistance is possible with the right diet, lifestyle changes, and healing herbs such as berberine and chromium.
- Dr. Axe emphasizes whole food diets, regular exercise, stress management, and avoiding ultra-processed foods to restore insulin sensitivity.
- Free training on natural blood sugar balance and insulin resistance reversal is available at draxe diabetesclass.com.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to Insulin Resistance and Its Impact
- 02:40Role of Insulin and Hormonal Effects
- 05:43Health Risks Linked to Insulin Resistance
- 08:06Reversibility and Free Training Offer
- 10:30Dietary Causes and Contributors
- 13:02Meal Recommendations and Timing
- 15:24Exercise and Lifestyle Changes
- 26:48Scientific Studies and Supplement Insights
- 31:29Supplement Recommendations and Final Advice
- 38:16Channel Support and Closing Remarks
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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Now, today I'll be talking about insulin resistance, why it's skyrocketing in the United States, in the Western world, and the exact diet, lifestyle, supplements, and herbs that have been proven with science to help you reverse insulin resistance, help balance your blood
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sugar, and heal your body at the cellular level. Welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show.
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Now, this is an incredibly important episode because so many people are struggling with insulin resistance. And first off, I want to let you know what insulin is. Insulin is a hormone. It's actually a peptide, tripeptide hormone that is critical for bringing sugar into
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your cell. And once that sugar is into your cell, your body can use it, your mitochondria can use it, your mitochondria and your cells can use that to create cellular energy. That energy then runs your organs, your cells, gives
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you the energy you need to be healthy, to function properly, for your thyroid to produce the right amount of hormones, for your stomach to digest food. Your body has to have cellular energy. And insulin is a critical
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hormone in that. Now, here's what happens. If you have insulin resistance, okay? And this is basically what happens is this is where, like, if you would stand next to a really loud speaker and over time your hearing would go
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diff. Somebody would start talking to you, say, "What did you say? I can't hear you." If that happens over and over and over again, which is what happens to your cells, you have these things called insulin receptors. So they receive the
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hormone insulin. Those can stop working. They basically break. Okay? Stop working. And then insulin can't go to the receptor site. So then now sugar can't be let inside your cell. It's like insulin is like the key, right? Insulin
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is a key to the door. Unlocks the door, opens the door. Now sugar can get inside your cell. Well, if sugar can't get inside of your cell, it causes inflammation in your bloodstream. That inflammation then will set off an immune
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response which will then lead to chronic pain, can lead to autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and then hormone disruption throughout your body.
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Because insulin also acts as a key to other things in your body, allowing other hormones to do their job like cortisol, estrogen, testosterone, and thyroid hormones. So, it is critically important that you have proper levels of insulin. But here's the reality. Nearly
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100 million American adults, more than one in three, the exact number is 38%, have pre-diabetes, and over 80% are unaware they have it. A global analysis estimates that 27% of adults worldwide have insulin resistance or just under one in three. But again, in America,
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it's nearly 40%. I want you to sit back and really think about that. Okay? Just sit back and think about this. 40% of American adults have pre-diabetes and insulin resistance. Okay? And this is going to increase your risk of every
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single health disease you can think of. And here's the other scary reality: these numbers are also growing in children. In fact, we're going to have that number that's 40% now or 38% exactly will be at 50% in the near
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future. So half of Americans, 50%, will have pre-diabetes and insulin resistance if we continue with the current trend here in the next 20 years. The International Diabetes Federation says rising rates of insulin resistance and diabetes is alarming and really it's an
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emergency. You know, I know that we tend to worry about other, like, COVID-19, these sort of viruses or infections that are a threat to us. Pre-diabetes and insulin resistance, which is really tied to
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obesity and a number of other health issues, that is a much bigger risk. It kills way more people, way more people than something like COVID did or other types of viral threats. And the main cause of pre-diabetes in the United
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States and insulin resistance is the widespread consumption of ultra-processed foods which are highly palatable. They taste great. They're very calorie dense, but they are void of nutrition. Now, let's compare the United States to other countries. Countries with a whole food
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traditional diets like Japan and certain blue zones, areas like parts of Greece and Italy, they have significantly lower rates of insulin resistance, often under 8%. We're at 38%, they're at 8%. This means that these countries have about one-quarter the rates that we do in the United
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States. And as I mentioned earlier, insulin resistance is a hormonal issue where your pancreas overproduces insulin in an attempt to lower your blood sugar. But again, over time they get burned out. They get broken, the receptor sites. Now the good news, by the
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way, is you can repair these receptor sites. But what happens is they get broken and so now the sugar stays in your bloodstream and so your body produces more and more insulin to try and fix the problem. And then when you
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produce all this insulin, it's a hormone. So when one hormone gets off, all of your hormones get off in your body. And chronic insulin resistance has been linked to, of course, type 2 diabetes, but also heart disease, fatty
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liver disease, Alzheimer's, PCOS, infertility, and so much more. Low testosterone in men. So, major, major health issues.
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And I want to walk you through the biggest metabolic contributors to insulin resistance. Here's what they are. Number one, of course, is obesity, especially from excess visceral fat. So, many people don't know this. Your body fat is an organ. Just like your
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muscle is an organ, just like your heart is an organ and your liver is an organ.
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Your body fat acts as an organ. And when you have too much body fat, it actually causes your body to have more insulin resistance. It imbalances hormones. Your body will actually release or not release certain levels of leptin and
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ghrelin and other hormones which will then cause insulin to be off. Another major contributing factor to insulin resistance is, of course, a poor diet that's high in added sugar, refined carbohydrates, and also ultra-processed foods. But other things also contribute.
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Lack of nutrient density in your diet, like our depleted soil today. A sedentary lifestyle where you're just not moving much, you're just sitting all day long. High levels of stress, poor sleep, and yes, there is a
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mild genetic component that can also contribute. There was a Journal of the American Medical Association study. This was done on 45,000 participants and they found that even mild elevations in your fasting blood sugar, especially combined with high body mass index, so if you're
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overweight, substantially increase the progression of diabetes, which is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States.
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The CDC now estimates that one in every three adults has pre-diabetes. The signs are there long before a diagnosis.
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Things like constant fatigue, stubborn belly fat, sugar cravings, brain fog, frequent urination, and increased thirst. And these are all symptoms of insulin resistance, the root cause behind most cases of type 2 diabetes.
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Now, here's the good news. This condition is completely reversible with the right diet, lifestyle, and healing herbs. And if you or someone you love is struggling with blood sugar issues, head over to draxe diabetesclass.com to watch a free training on how to
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naturally balance your blood sugar and reverse your symptoms. That's draxe diabetesclass.com to take back control of your health today.
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Now, as I mentioned earlier, one of the greatest contributing factors to insulin resistance is poor diet. And again, I just want to be so clear about this. You may think to yourself, "Well, I don't think I have insulin resistance." Eighty percent of
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people that have insulin resistance don't know they have it.
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people that have it don't know they have it. Okay? That that's the problem. That's the reality. And the biggest way to fix it, the most effective way to fix it is via your diet. Now, I want to walk
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you through some studies and strategies that can help. Now, the first strategy here is for men, not as much for women due to the differences in hormonal nature of men versus women. Um, doing timerestricted eating like intermittent fasting has been shown to balance
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insulin in men. Okay? And so, I think that is a good strategy for men. For women, I think you can get your eating window down to about 9 hours where you're maybe eating at like 8:00 a.m.
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and noon and then again at 5:00 p.m. Okay, within a 10 hour window or so, maybe even 9. I still want you doing three meals a day, though. That's that's fine. But but only eating within a 4 to
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6 hour window for women, it's it's um it it's it typically imbalances the hormone of most women. So, it's not something you want to do in most cases. It's not to say there's not some women in a group
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that uh are very very healthy where their body can handle it, but the most it's going to be too big of a stressor on your hormonal system. The biggest thing of course that you want to resist to reverse insulin resistance is
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ultrarocessed food. Okay? So, it's fast food, it's the sodas, it's the stuff that all of you know you should be staying away from and you want to eat more real whole foods. Biggest culprit though by far is going to be sugar and
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refined grains that cause insulin resistance. Okay? So if you're doing again soft drinks, if you're doing anything with added sugar, added sugar and then refined carbs, white bread, white pasta, potato chips, those sort of things, they're going to contribute and cause
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the biggest problem. Okay? So again, stay away from processed sugar. And you want to make sure and listen se highly processed fats and seed oils are not good for you either. And you want to stay away from those. That's probably
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secondary. But the biggest is refined carbs. You want to increase your content of protein, fiber, and healthy fat.
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That's the key. All right? That's the key right there. The most effective diets for reversing insulin resistance are whole foodbased diets, Mediterranean diets, and diets that are more ancient nature like like a biblio diet. These are these are diets that are consist of
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eating real food in real food alone. Okay. Um, you know, when you look at a Mediterranean diet, it's high in wild caught fish. It's high in extravirgin olive oil. It's high in uh a lot of tropical fruits like citrus, right? It's
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eating uh it's eating that sort of diet. You look at a biblio diet that what they ate in the Bible, it's a lot of pomegranates, it's figs, it's avocado, it's lots of olive oil there as well.
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It's lots of grass-fed red meat, raw organic dairy, those sort of foods. And so, uh, so, so, so, but the key is this high protein, high fiber, moderate fat, low moderate carb, not low carb, not keto. You don't need to do that. You
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want to eat carbohydrates that are high fiber, high nutrient. Okay? So, if you're choosing fruits or you're choosing carbohydrates, skip the white flour products, skip the, you know, refined pasta. You know, do pomegranate, do an apple, do berries,
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very high fiber, low glycemic fruits. Those are better options. Even sweet potato and butternut squash, those are better carbohydrates for you to choose.
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even quinoa and whole grain brown rice. Those are better options for you to choose from. And but again, those are more on the low to moderate amount. And you want to do high protein and high fiber. Here's one other thing I want to
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share with you. It's not good typically to do high carb at any meal. But high carb and high fat together will cause you to gain the most weight. Okay? So typically in the morning, what I recommend for my patients is do high
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protein, moderate carbohydrate. For lunch, do high and and of course high fiber. For lunch, high protein, high fiber, and then you could do either carb or fat. And for dinner, high protein, high fat, low, no carbs, very low carbs.
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Okay, that's sort of the ideal way to eat is lots of protein, lots of fiber, lots of nutrients in your food. And if you can do that with lots of organic meat, lots of vegetables, some fruits and healthy fats, you will heal, you
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will balance your insulin, and you'll do it fast. Now, there are other things you can add in your diet, which I'll get into in a little bit as well. Some specific herbs and supplements that will take your blood sugar to a whole new
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level as well and lower it to where it needs to be. And here's the great news is that these beta, they're called beta cells on your pancreas. There's certain types of cells that have these insulin receptors, right? That that that allow
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that help bring sugar inside the cell. You can repair those. You can heal those. You know, I had a patient, actually I had a couple, they were both professors in Nashville. Uh we have a lot of great schools here in Nashville.
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Vanderbilt Belmont Lipkcom Middle Tennessee State. Uh just there there's a lot of great schools here. And they were both professors. They were both around 60 years old and they came into my practice. Uh, you know, I want to say he
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he was about 60 lb overweight, she was about 30 lbs overweight and they'd been on type 2 diabetes medications for she'd been on it for 10 years. He'd been on it for 25 years and they just said, "Hey,
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we want to get healthy. You know, we we feel like we want to start aging well." And um and we reversed both of their type 2 diabetes off A1C levels completely normalized. reversed it uh for both for her it took 40 days. For
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him it was like 60 days completely off their medications. And by the way, I've seen this over and over again. I've been able to help thousands of patients completely reverse their type 2 diabetes and some of them in as little as two
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weeks. Complete reversal off their medications. You can do it. Your cells can heal and heal quickly. Those certain cells heal faster than others, right?
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Certain organs heal. Those insulin receptor cells heal very quickly. Okay, your bones take a little bit longer to heal. Your brain tissue, your nerve tissue is probably the slowest healing, but those cells heal quickly. So, if you have insulin resistance,
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you can ab or type two diabetes or pre-diabetes, you can absolutely reverse it in most cases in 30 days. And at the very max, most people can reverse it in 90 days. Complete reversal if you do the right things. One of the most important
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things to do, by the way, when you want to reverse insulin resistance is lose weight. A Yale University study revealed that a 10% weight loss significantly reduced liver fat and reverse insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Weight loss itself is the strongest predictor
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of improving insulin sensitivity, whereas weight regain significantly predicted reduced insulin sensitivity. So your body weight, if you're storing onto much body fat, that is the single biggest predictor of insulin resistance.
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Now, that's not to say I haven't had patients I've worked with that came in that were the term that is oftenimes used as skinny but fat and where your body is holding on to this body fat even though you're fairly, you know, you
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might look skinny in the upper body, but you're still holding on a fair amount of body fat in your midsection. I still have had plenty of people that have been lean who have had uh insulin resistance in that way. But again, the single
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biggest thing to fix this is losing the excess body fat. You know, the most common medication prescribed for type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance is metformin. I want to say though that metformin does not come without major side effects. One of the side effects of
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metformin is that it depletes your body of vitamin B12 and numerous other nutrients. And so when you're taking this drug, your body is is is losing more B12 and more B12 and more B12 and a number of other B vitamins and
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nutrients. Um, you know what's so crazy to me? There are even prominent doctors that you would recognize that are in the medical space who talk about longevity and they him themselves have promoted metformin taking it like a vitamin a
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longevity drug and the reality is these people are highly unaware of the nutritional deficiencies it's causing.
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And so if you ever see a doctor saying you should take metformin. It's a good longevity drug. Listen, I'm I'm sure they can pull up a research study to show that metformin supports the body in some area and maybe even with a group of
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people where they're severely diabetic, it will increase their longevity. I'm absolutely certain that there are research studies because I've seen those research studies studies myself. But the reality is if you're comparing taking metformin to instead taking the supplements I'm going to hit on in a
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minute and changing your diet, that's the cure. doctors should be sued for malpractice. If you come into their clinic, they prescribe metformin and that's all they do. That's malpractice. Okay? It's it's violating the hypocratic oath. It's first do no harm. You're harming them
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and you're not doing the best thing for them. The first thing you should do is put them on a very specific diet high in protein and fiber. You should give them the nutrients they need. If you're going to give them metformin, at the very
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least also give them the nutrients along with the probiotics for absorption so their body doesn't become deficient while taking this medication. But that never happens. You know, there was a study, it's called the diabetes prevention program that found that diet
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and exercise achieved nearly twice the risk reduction for progressing of type 2 diabetes compared to the medication metformin. So we have very clear evidence and data that diet recommendations and exercise are double far far more effective than the
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medication metformin and they also don't have the serious side effects that come along with it.
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Now, now I want to revisit fasting. And I do think being aware of how much we eat and not overeating is important. But I think the biggest thing is more protein and fiber. Remember, protein, fiber, protein, fiber, protein, fiber. And
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you're going to get that from organic meat vegetables and high-fiber fruits like apples, berries, and pomegranate. Okay, those are the absolute best there for you to be eating on a regular basis. And then maybe even some things like walnuts on
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occasion, right? So, so, so that's kind of the ideal there of what you should be consuming. Um, fasting can have its benefits. I would say if you are a woman and want to fast, then I would recommend fasting one day a week and not every
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day. Maybe you skip breakfast and lunch one day a week and then you eat dinner, but not overdoing it. Remember this, fasting is a type of stress on the body.
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And if you're already very stressed, let's say you have a condition like hypothyroidism or chronic fatigue or PCOS, your body's already stressed.
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Adding another stressor to it every day is going to be just far too much. This is another reason why for women, I'm a huge fan of infrared sauna. I'm not a fan of cold plunge, okay? If you're sick
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and ill, men, I think, can do better with cold plunge long term. Just remember, women and men, your bodies are different. Okay, women, sauna, sauna, sauna, amazing for your body. Doing infrared or a regular sauna. Um, do that
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instead. Men, fasting in a little cold plunge, not too much, by the way, but a little bit, maybe a day or two a week, that's great for you. Okay. Um, but, uh, but you want to really, for women, get
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on the sauna. Men, you could do cold plunge and you could do sauna. And men, you can do fasting as well. Women, if you're going to fast, do it like the early church did. They took one day a
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week and fasted. And maybe it's just breakfast or maybe it's breakfast and lunch. You spend that time in prayer.
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But you wouldn't want to do more than that uh for most women. Now, one other thing I want to mention, and this is important, is the amount you eat and the time of day matters. Okay? Uh there's an
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ancient Chinese medicine, which of course is this is a lot of what's inspired Japanese medicine today. We talked about this earlier. Japan is one of the two healthiest countries in the world. greatest longevity, lowest rates of uh of of insulin resistance. So, what
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are they doing over there? Well, they were inspired with Chinese medicine, Compo. That's part of their medical system over there. And they say this, eat like a king for breakfast, a popper for lunch, and a peasant for dinner. So,
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basically, they're saying you want having a big breakfast is great. Your body can handle it. That's when your digestive system is the strongest. You just got off a fast. Lunch, eat a moderate meal. Dinner, eat a small meal.
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Now whether you know I I tend to do more of a you know I eat my bigger meals at breakfast and lunch and try not to eat a real big dinner. I I eat dinner I eat till I'm 70% full then I stop. Okay. Uh
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studies have shown that if you ate a big meal at 8 a.m. versus a big meal at 8:00 p.m. it impacts your body very very differently. Okay. If you eat a big meal at 800 PM, you are much much more likely
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to store that as fat and for it to cause insulin issues than if you had your big meal for breakfast. So, just remember that, okay? That the time of day, what you eat at what times matters. Again, remember, more carbs in the morning,
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less carbs at night, more fat at night, okay? And high protein throughout the day. That's the key to healing. Now, let's talk about exercise, sleep, and stress before we get into the supplements. Both resistance training and aerobic activity significantly
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enhance insulin sensitivity and glucose disposal. On the other hand, stress and sleep deprivation elevate cortisol, which listen, here's what happens. When cortisol goes up, insulin resistant goes up. Okay? And so stress, being in a fight orflight state all the time,
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causes that insulin resistance issue. Cortisol is this master hormone that sort of causes every other hormone in your body to get imbalanced. This is why having a practice of gratitude, spending time in prayer, meditation, um having good sleep hygiene, right? When you're
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at night, not being on your devices or on TV again, maybe you stop that at 7:00 or 8 at the latest and then it's you're one to two hours before bed. you're reading a book, connecting with family, uh spending time in prayer, reading your
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Bible, personal growth book, or just a novel for fun. That's what you should be doing at night, okay? Um it's going to help you get better sleep. That's also going to help your blood sugar and your hormones. There was a study done on
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exercise. This is published in the Journal of American Medical Association in 2010. And they found that patients with type 2 diabetes found that a combination of aerobic and resistance training lowered ABA1C levels more than either alone in the
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control group. So the reality is you want to do both weight training and aerobic training. Now here's the ideal and I remember reading a medical study years ago on this of what had the biggest difference. The ideal is let's
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say if you could work out one hour three days a week. Okay? 1 hour 3 days a week or even 45 minutes 3 days a week, something like that. Okay. Um, what you'd want to do is start off with the
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first 23 or so or three, four should be weight training and then the last bit should be cardiovascular exercise. Okay?
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So, like here's what it looks like for me. Like I went in this morning and I I'll pick a few body parts and let's say I I work out more than this, but if I did three days a week, one day I would
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do legs uh and core, another day I might do back and chest, another day I might do arms and maybe more intense cardio or something like that. And then what I'll do, so if I go in, I'll do 45 minutes of
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weight training. And then my last 15 minutes I'll do aerobic cardio or I'll do a five minute warm-up and then I'll end with 10 minutes of cardio. Okay? um some sort of ratio like that where you're doing at least a little more
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weight training than cardio. That's the ideal for you losing the most amount of weight and the most insulin resistance.
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And when you do your cardio, it's best to do some of those intervals where you're going hard one minute, easy for a minute. Like I use a Pelaton bike. I love using the Pelaton. Uh I have no financial connection. I just my wife and
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I enjoy having the trainers there and doing it like that. We have a bicycle.
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I'll go out and cycle around the neighborhood. I swim as well. And I also get on one of those incline those curved treadmills uh and I will run on there as well and do intervals. Okay. Um that's the sort of cardio I do. And and the
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studies show that a combination of weight training and with weight training you want to work your bigger muscle groups. You want to work your butt, your hamstrings, your quads. You want to work your legs and butt the most and then
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after that your back, okay? Your back, your chest, your shoulders. Um that's going to move the needle the most. So, working those big muscle groups combined with the um the interval cardio, that's the best for your blood sugar. And there
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was one large scale study published in JAMAMA in 2011. And what they found was this was done on over 8,530 patients.
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The benefits were those who exercised about 150 minutes per week. So, that's about working out for at least, this is the at least you want to do, 45 minutes three days a week. Okay? Those people when they combined it with diet saw
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tremendous results at reversing type two diabetes, balancing insulin, reversing PCOS, any and all of those conditions.
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Another thing I do want to mention is there are so many studies on sleep deprivation. It is so bad for you. You need eight hours of sleep a night. Eight hours. Um, a study published in the Lancet found that restricting sleep to
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four hours for six nights in healthy men caused a 40% reduction in glucose tolerance, mimicking pre-diabetic levels. So, losing sleep, not getting sleep is really bad for your body. Get good sleep for hormone balance. And then the last reality is this before we dive
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into the the the herbs and supplements. Your mindset matters. There was a study on this. Five systemic reviews in a meta analysis found that mindfulness interventions gratitude prayer, reading your Bible, meditation modestly improve your A1C levels, and reduce stress, depression, and anxiety
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with people with diabetes. So, it makes a difference as well. Having these good practices that help lower cortisol, improve your mood, give you purpose, this helps heal your body as well.
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If you're constantly tired, gaining weight for no reason, or feeling mentally foggy, these could be signs of a thyroid issue like hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's. The good news is there are natural ways to support your thyroid through the right foods, herbs,
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nutrients, and daily habits. And if you or someone you love is struggling with thyroid problems, I've created a free resource just for you. You can head on over to draxe thyroidclass.com to discover practical steps you can take today to start healing your thyroid
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naturally. That's draxe thyroidclass.com. Your journey to better energy, focus, and healing starts now. Now, let me walk you through the supplements and herbs that most improve insulin resistance and help heal and reverse diabetes, including pre-diabetes. Number one is bourberine.
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Bourberine is a compound that is found in berry leaf, Oregon grape, and golden seal. And it's a plant alkaloid with effects similar to metformin without all the side effects. It helps fasting glucose and improves your A1C levels.
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works by activating something in the body called AMK activated protein kinase pathway which enhances insulin sensitivity, regulates glucose and promotes longevity. And what I find such a shame is that doctors are still prescribing metformin when bourberine is more natural and equally
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impactful on the body. So, but if you've got blood sugar issues, number one herb, bourberine, by the way, bourberine also has some antimicrobial benefits and it can be great for treating candida as well. Now, how you want to take
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bourberine is typically 500 milligrams three times daily for three months. Okay, that's about what you want to do.
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500 milligrams three times daily for three months and see where you're at. In studies, there was a reduction in A1C levels by an average of.9% similar to the effects of metformin.
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very very similar in its effects. Number two, vitamin D. It lowers insulin resistance. One study found that vitamin D deficiency was observed in 48% of patients with type 2 diabetes. And remember again, vitamin D is also a pro
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hormone. Many, many benefits there for your metabolism. Here's another one that's sort of underutilized in America today, but this is one of the number one remedies in all of Asian medicine for blood sugar, and it's called mulberry leaf. It's been shown to slow
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carbohydrate absorption, reduce postmeal sugar spikes. There was a study done on 37 individuals and they found that at doses of around 250 milligrams and significantly lowered postmeal blood sugar by around 33%. So loads and loads of benefits there. A mulberry leaf I I
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do that as a powder. It's almost like a like a like a green tea matcha, like a little bit of that flavor. Um, but you can buy in capsules or do it as a tea.
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But malberry leaf is amazing for your blood sugar. Uh uh gymna sylvestre this is known as the sugar destroyer in ayurveetic medicine. So this was one of the number one herbs used in ayurveetic medicine for balancing blood sugar and
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it's the number one herb used in India today for blood sugar. So gymna is a great option as well for blood sugar.
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Number five. Now, this is a trace mineral that I love and I would put it up there as maybe number two behind bourberine for me in terms of what's the most effective for blood sugar and it's chromium or chromium pcolonate. This
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enhances insulin receptor binding and improves your blood sugar. A randomized trial in 180 people with type 2 diabetes found that chromium policoninate supplementation of doing around 1,000 micrograms a day significantly improved A1C levels fasting and 2-hour glucose uh
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compared to control groups. Also, it improved cholesterol. So many many benefits there. So, if you're like what are the top two things I could take period, bourberine and chromium will make the biggest difference on your blood sugar. This is what I found in my
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clinical uh by working with a lot of patients. And and not to say that gymna isn't amazing. Um vitamin D isn't amazing, but I think those two are the biggest needle movers. Another one that can be important for blood sugar
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statistically according to studies is magnesium. Magnesium is just responsible for so many functions of your cell that if you're deficient, it's going to cause you to uh have insulin resistance. And so it's not typically as effective as uh
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chromium or bourberine or even the others but but it has been found to be deficient in people in study after study. Another big one this is also used in ayurveetic medicine is fenugreek.
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Fenugreek improves blood sugar. Now in Chinese medicine it's known as a yang booster. This is also good for testosterone. It's also good for breast milk production for women um because it's more anabolic. It helps your body better regenerate. Um but there was a
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study done and they found that fenugreek lowered blood sugar, lowered LDL cholesterol and also supported testosterone levels. Also was observed that the controls had a 2.5 times higher chance of developing diabetes compared to subjects in the fenugreek group when
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we look at studies. And so fenugreek is another favorite. And then one of my absolute favorites, this is maybe number three for me if we're ranking them under bourberine and chromium is cinnamon and specifically sylon cinnamon. It's been
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shown to improve blood sugar as well. There was a metaanalysis where they combined 24 different clinical trials and they found that cinnamon supplementation significantly lowered fasting blood sugar, A1C levels, and insulin resistance in people with type two diabetes. Now, the way that I like
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to add cinnamon to the diet is just do that as a powder rather than a supplement. And so, here here is the smoothie. I want to share this. I had another patient who reversed her type type two diabetes and she reversed it in
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30 days. literally 30 days was completely off her medications and she'd been on it for about 15 years and she was severely overweight. She was obese.
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Uh she lost it was amazing. I mean she lost like 50 pounds in in in 3 months.
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Lost 50 lbs. But even within her first 30 days, she started doing something where she would add in uh she did almost a full tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice a day or sylon cinnamon a day. So, she would do this smoothie in the morning
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that included uh half a can of pumpkin. So, she just did some canned pumpkin.
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She would do 40 grams of protein powder. She would do 40 grams 20 grams of collagen, 20 grams of plant protein. And she would just do a big old teaspoon of sylon cinnamon. And she completely reversed her diabetes in 30 days. Her
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type two diabetes and insulin resistance. It was amazing. And um and cinnamon was like her number one go-to.
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And it's something that I had her do, but I I have all my patients do that with uh with with with with insulin sensitivity is loads of cinnamon. Ginger is also very good, by the way. So that's why pumpkin pie spice is a really good
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mix to add in there uh as well. Uh but but her diet with again, here's the deal. If you want to reverse type two diabetes here, here's the biggest things in ranking order. Number one, your diet.
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Protein and fiber. Protein and fiber. Protein and fiber. Stay away from refined carbs, ultrarocessed foods. Stay away from this stuff. meat, vegetables, high glycemic fruits like pomegranate, berries, and apples. Okay? If you do, if that's your your diet predominantly,
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maybe you do a little bit of sweet potato too pumpkin butternut squash those types of things, some healthy fat like avocado, coconut oil, extravirgin olive oil. If that's the basis of your diet, that that is going to go such a
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long way. That's number one. Number two is exercise. Okay? Three days a week, do a combination of weight training and interval training. And if you just can't do that, then walk and walk and walk, okay? Especially up and down hills. Wear
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a weighted vest, but walk more, okay? And then the number three thing that can make a difference is these supplements.
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I would recommend bourberine. I'd recommend chromium. You can take any of those others as well, but those two at the very least. And then loads of cinnamon in your food or or pumpkin pie spice. And if you can do that, you can
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reverse insulin sensitivity very quickly. Now, I do want to mention there's a few others I really like. I do like alpha lipoic acid. That would be the other supplement I would add to the list. It's an antioxidant that supports
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insulin signaling. And then if a woman also has PCOS, which if you do everything I I I just told you, the PCOS will be improve dramatically and very quickly. But inositol um I really like as well and it's useful
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for balancing those hormones if you have PCOS there as well. So remember this, insulin resistance is incredibly common.
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Nearly 40% of Americans are insulin resistance or pre-diabetic. Yet 80% of people don't know they have it. But it is completely reversible without medications. Diet is decentral. Exercise and supplementations are also critical at supporting the body. Um but remember
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if you follow the advice I shared with you, you can see incredible results. Remember also, hey, get good sleep, have fun, keep the stress low by doing things you love to do. And if you follow this advice, you can reverse it incredibly
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quickly. And remember, there are so many conditions that are insulin related. So if you're struggling with obesity or just being overweight, you're 5 to 10 pounds overweight, that's insulin issue.
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If you are having low energy, like your energy's up and down and up and down all the time, okay? uh heart disease, PCOS, risk of Alzheimer's disease, oftentimes cancer, non-fatty liver disease, all of these issues have an insulin component.
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So, if we can fix insulin, your body can heal and it can heal very, very quickly.
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I want to say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show.
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Remember, each and every week we're diving deep into the science and principles of how you can heal physically mentally spiritually and take your health and your life to the next level. Uh, I want to encourage you to subscribe to the show. I know many of
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you are not subscribed. Uh, by the way, the number one thing you can do to support the channel is subscribe. By the way, um, we talk about a lot of things on the show that tend to be controversial. I actually just was
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interviewing with Gary Brea and Barbara O'Neal and we've got Mark Heyman coming up in the future and so many people. We talk about some pretty controversial stuff and because of it, sometimes my videos get shadowbanned on YouTube. So,
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if you're not subscribed, it may not show show up on your feed and you may miss one of our best episodes. So, I want to encourage you, make sure to subscribe. And also, there are so many people now that have insulin resistance,
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they don't know it. So, thank you all of you that are on mission with me for sharing this episode. I can't wait to see you on the next one.
Topics:insulin resistancereverse insulin resistancetype 2 diabetesblood sugar balancenatural remediesDr. Josh Axediet and lifestyleberberinechromium supplementspre-diabetes
