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J.A.K. is a sixty-seven-year-old business executive who had had Type II diabetes for twenty-four years, and had been taking insulin for twenty, when he started on our regimen. He writes the following:

"I visited Dr. Bernstein on the recommendation of some good friends, as I had just lost the central vision in my right eye due to subretinal bleeding.

"It took hours of instruction, counseling, and explanation to make me clearly understand the relationships between diet, blood sugar control, and physical well-being. I was hoping for the possibility that I might experience an improvement in my already deteriorated physical condition. I have diligently followed up on what I was taught, and the results are obvious:

• I no longer have cramps in my calves and toes.
  
• The neuropathy in my feet has normalized.
  
• Various skin conditions have cleared up.
  
• Tests for autonomic neuropathy (R-R interval study) totally normalized in only two years.
  
• The difficulty I had with digestion has cleared up completely.
  
• My weight dropped from 188 to 172 pounds in six months.
  
• My original cholesterol/HDL ratio of 5.3 put me at increased risk for a heart attack. With a low-carbohydrate diet and improved blood sugars, this value has dropped to 3.2, which puts me at a lower cardiac risk than most nondiabetics of my age.
  
• My daily insulin dose has dropped from 52 units to 31 units, and I no longer have frequent episodes of severe hypoglycemia.
  
• My overall physical condition and stamina have improved considerably.

"All these improvements occurred because I learned how to control my blood sugars. As a matter of fact, my glycosylated hemoglobin (a test that correlates with average blood sugar during the prior four months) dropped from 7.1 percent to 4.6 percent, so that I am now in the same range as nondiabetics. I have developed full confidence in my ability to manage my own diabetes. I understand what is happening. I can adjust and compensate my medications as the need arises.

"If I have to miss a meal, for whatever reason, I can adjust accordingly and am not tied to a clock, as I was before I learned these new approaches to blood sugar control.

"I would say that not only has my physical condition improved, but my mental attitude is far better today than it was ten or fifteen years ago. My only regret is that I did not learn how to be in charge of my diabetes years earlier."

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