Organic Diabetes – Reversing your Diabetic Complications Hi, my name is Kris, or you can call me The Organic Diabetic. I first became a Diabetic 39 years ago in 1970. I was 13 years old with big life dreams. I wanted a horse. I had wonderful parents that did what they had to do to get me my dream. After I was diagnosed, we moved to an old 1850’s farm with a big old cow barn that my dream horse could live in and I worked hard cleaning the barn and the old house. I was only on one shot a day back then and this was before there was long acting insulin, but I was young enough and active enough that it must have been the strong amount of exercise that kept my sugars down. In 1970 there was not any blood sugar testing, only urine testing which tells your blood sugar levels 20 minutes after they happened. I stayed pretty healthy, that is, no organ side effects that I knew of, until my 23rd year of being a Type 1. I’m going to start off with one of my personal stories. I had been a Type 1 Diabetic for 22 years when I became pregnant. Everything was going ok; I was taking my prenatals, exercising and keeping my blood sugars between 70 and 90 like my Drs told me, until my fourth month. I was outside walking with my mother, when I very quickly, like out of the blue, became very, very tired. I had about ¼ mile to get back home and I knew my mom couldn’t drag me if I went down, so I made myself walk; and it was bad, two steps forward, stop, another step, stop, with my Mom steadying me the whole way back. The first thing checked when we got home was my blood sugar and it was 80, which was good, so we called my Dr’s. office and found out that I needed to sleep on my left side until I felt better. What had happened was my blood pressure suddenly jumped up, and I had to come in the next day and get medication. It was a rough pregnancy, with more complications like my kidneys almost failing. Through all this I was in good hands with my Drs. They made sure my baby’s lungs were fully developed and my kidneys were still working before they induced labor. My baby was born 7 weeks early, and he was ok, only 5 lbs., but ok. I had been drinking 8 cups of water daily and only going ¼ cup, so my kidneys were literally down to their last breath. Good news is they started working better right after the birth. One year later, the movie “Steel Magnolias” came out and I realized that it all could have gone horribly wrong. What a difference between Julia Roberts’ character and me. I kind of wondered why I was still here. I felt extremely fortunate. My mother was just like Sally Field’s mother role. I often say “Sally Field should have gotten an Oscar for playing my Mom” in that movie. Speaking of my mother, the nurse, she and I had noticed that when I was on the prenatal multi vitamin, that my fingernails grew better, and my hair had more color. It was a real eye opener! So I asked my Dr. If I could stay on them for a while; she said yes and I stayed on them for another year. I had good health insurance and because it was a high risk pregnancy, it had been a very good prenatal, which in hind site was certainly very good for me. Four years later, as a Mom with an active 4 year old, I went to see my diabetic Dr. for a check up. I was off the prenatal for 3 years then. She did blood and urine tests and checked my Kidney function. The results came back and it showed that I was in the beginning stages of Kidney failure; she told me that Dialysis was in my future. I didn’t know what to think. Julia Robert’s role in “Steel Magnolias” kept creeping up in my brain. I did not want to leave my son, not even for the hours each week on Dialysis. So I prayed. I wanted to be a young and healthy Mom for my son. What happened next answered my prayers. I received a phone call from my sister in law, Annette, about some great nutritional vitamins she started taking a month earlier. She told me she had energy, and that was a good thing for Annette, you see I used to think I must be a very boring person, because I would be sitting and talking with her and she would fall sound asleep. Out cold for about 15 minutes at 3 in the afternoon! Granted, she had 6 kids, so she was very busy; maybe she just fell asleep with everyone. Well, on the phone when she told me that these nutritionals were very highly rated, I said “I want some!” I knew the power of high quality nutritional supplements. I thought if these were as good as the ones I had during my pregnancy, I would be able to tell. So, it was in 1998 that I first tried Usana Health Science’s Essentials. The Essentials are Usana’s multi vitamin, mineral, antioxidant formula and they come in two bottles. The Mega Antioxidant is a comprehensive formula of high-potency vitamins, antioxidants, and other important nutrients to support optimal long-term good health.* The Chelated Mineral is a full-spectrum blend of essential minerals and trace elements in a balanced, highly bioavailabe formulation.* Annette let me try a one week’s supply of the Essentials and Active Calcium. I was amazed at how good I felt after that first week. I woke up on the seventh day feeling great. I felt refreshed after a good nights sleep, and this was important because I had not felt that way for a while. I had been just plain tired and it didn’t matter how much sleep I had. They had passed my test. Today, I am still a type 1 on an insulin pump, but with a combo of high quality nutrition, fresh raw veges, and exercise, I am managing to beat the odds of any bad Diabetic symptoms. As far as the Organic lifestyle, I feel that I already have Diabetes and I do not want to hurt my health any more with anything that is chemical, so I am learning and slowly changing many poor eating habits, plus exercising more and I embrace the new Green wave of energy, recycling, organic gardening and composting, home repair and building. So, I have a lot of experience to offer on simple things you can do to improve your health, which goes right along with helping our home planet Earth better support us. Thank you. • Usana Health Sciences 2—8-2009 Product Information Book