#62 - The 5 Beliefs Of The Diabetes Remission Partners

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We pull back the curtain on how we think about type 2 diabetes, why “chronic and progressive” is not the only story, and what it really takes to move toward remission. We lay out our five core beliefs, then map them into three practical pillars you can apply without extremes or shame.

If you or someone you know wants to know where to start to put their Type 2 into remission, this is the episode that lays things out simply so you can start taking action with clarity today.

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Brian & Cory
   Diabetes Remission Partners

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Transcript

Why Remission Is The Goal

SPEAKER_01 0:02

If you have type 2 diabetes and you're tired of being told it's chronic and something you'll just have to manage forever, if your ailment seeds control but your medication that keeps growing or stays the same, then you know deep down you're capable of more than that, you're in the right place. This is the Diabetes Remission Roadmap Podcast for Brian Bitcher and Corey Jenks, two pharmacists who spent over two decades inside healthcare. And we started this show because we got tired of watching capable people stuck getting managed instead of rebuilt. Here's what most people aren't told. Type 2 diabetes isn't just a blood sugar problem, it's a muscle and energy storage problem. When your body loses strength and metabolic flexibility, blood sugar rises. And you can rebuild that. On this show, we break the script to say more meds are inevitable, you're destined to just manage, remission is impossible, and instead we teach you how to build muscle, eat in a way that keeps you full, and regain control of your health again. No extremes, no shame, just practical strategy to help you move toward remission and lead your health again. Let's get to work.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Welcome

Florida Trip And Real Life Friendship

SPEAKER_00 0:59

back to another edition of the Diabetes Emission Roadmap Podcast, Brian. You are glowing today, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

I am. I don't know what it is. I'd just glowing. I'm just very happy, Corey. Yeah. We're about to go to Florida. Maybe that's got something to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah, because it's not warm enough where I'm in Tucson. Let's go. No, I'm excited to go play. I'm here to negate every fun thing you say. No, I'm excited. We're taking a little trip ski. Our families. We're not just friends on podcasts, we're friends in real life, and our families are friends too. So kids play together. This is over this, but you're here in Israel. So today, oh, you are about to say.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Well, hold on. We're gonna say we're gonna have a little three on three of the beach, wiffle ball, my kids, me and my kids versus you and your kids, just FY.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Which is be ready. I think it's unfair because my kids get to play baseball year round and they're a year older than your baseball playing kids, but you are better than me when it comes to hitting. Whiffle ball, I got more practice. You do have that. So this is not the whiffleball beach episode, folks. This is we're

Why We Keep Repeating Basics

SPEAKER_00 1:52

gonna be pulling back the curtain and explaining exactly how we think about diabetes and why we built what we do the way we did. Because if you've listened to this podcast for a while, you've probably noticed something. First, we usually start with some sort of sports-related banter. Check, that's done. But we keep talking about the same things. In our last episode, we talked about why our why do we repeat ourselves? Because we talk about protein, movement, muscles, sleep, consistency, and habits. Because that's these ideas are the foundation of everything that we do. So, Brian, that's why today we're going into the five beliefs of the diabetes remission partners. Yeah. Should we just start with belief number one? Should we hop right? I think we should.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Yeah. Let's go.

Belief One Diabetes Can Improve

SPEAKER_00 2:31

So this is, I think, a core belief that drives everything we do, and that type 2 diabetes is often more reversible than people realize. It doesn't mean that everyone is always medication-free for life. It doesn't mean that everyone's insulin resistance can ever come back. But the standard of care does not indicate how much improvement you can actually see.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

No, I agree. The standard remission rate is 1%.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

And remission meaning getting your A1C down below, I think we'll call it 6.5% on no medicines. There's different definitions of remission. For our case, we would love to be out of the the Goldman case would be like not even pre-diabetic on no medicines. Yeah. But the standard of care tells you that you go to different diabetes websites, is that this is chronic, progressive, and you're going to need to escalate meds for life.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah. And I think that's because they don't address the main cause, which is sarcopenia, which muscle loss every time.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Don't get ahead of ourselves, Brian.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

I won't get ahead. But I will say this is that there you want to explain why do we use remission? Maybe people have not heard that term. Maybe they've heard reversal. They probably see reverse for type 2 diabetes. This is the reverse type 2 diabetes program. Like, why are we not specifically calling out that we're going to help reverse type 2 diabetes?

SPEAKER_00 3:44

I'm afraid I'm going to get this this one.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Actually, it might even be in our episode or title. So maybe it's not. Maybe we need to adjust our episode. Our podcast title. Sorry. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

I think when we say permission, it means it never comes back. Like reverse can continue to reverse. And what I said, number one, is that it's more reversible than people realize. I think that is the case, but we believe in also that getting to permission. And I think what happens is that our beliefs can really make our actions happen. And when people stop aiming for improvement and reversal, they stop believing that it's even possible. They start believing that they have to go back for another prescription. They start believing that they're going to end up on insulin eventually. Start believing that they have to fight the insurance companies every month. And sadly, we've seen this throughout our clinical pharmacy careers. Is the people get stuck in this mindset that I obviously I'm just a diabetic and I'm going to be for life. My family was, my kids are going to be. What can I do? And this sort of learned helplessness is what really bums us out, which is why we use different language.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Yeah. Call it the patient mindset versus I'm going to start the coin in like the rebel mindset or the leader mindset for type 2 diabetes. And I think I was fumbling my words there, but all in all, I wanted to say that in our podcast title, it does say reverse type 2 diabetes. Really, that probably is that's not the most accurate thing. You're more like reversing insulin resistance, which then leads to putting type 2 diabetes in remission.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

But it's not that's hard to fit in a I know that's hard to fit. It's hard to fit on a Canva for our the cover of our title. It's a it's too much of a mouthful. So we just we use that, but yes, Brian, your language is much more accurate. And so that is number one.

Belief Two Blood Sugar Is A Symptom

SPEAKER_00 5:24

And number two, we believe that blood sugar is a symptom, not the entire problem. Brian, what could this possibly mean?

SPEAKER_01 5:32

This could mean that the symptom of high blood sugar is just it's a sign of something much deeper going on. Like we talked about with insulin resistance at your muscle. It's not insulin resistance, it's the real problem.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Blood sugar is the symptom. Because over time, your high blood sugar, when you go in and your doctor finally says, Hey, you congratulations, you get the diabetes card. Is that over time there has been this building of insulin resistance, which is where the insulin which takes your sugar out of your blood and puts it into your muscles, your body starts becoming resistant to it over time. And this happens years before your blood sugar spikes because your body wants to compensate and wants to maintain homeostasis. So it's going to work really hard. Your pancreas is going to pump out lots of extra insulin as long as it can when that blood sugar runs high. And the high blood sugar, that is a symptom of insulin resistance, which is a symptom of a lack of storage for glucose, which is, as you said before, muscle issue, which we'll get into more. And then also energy toxicity. So what you're putting into your body as far as what you consume, that is the underlying root cause, is what we're putting in our body, how our body's able to partition it and use up for energy or store it. That is what's building over time. The end, unfortunately, when you say you have high blood sugar, damage has been happening for years. And the disease process has been building for years. And so we don't believe in just managing the symptoms of sugar. That's what medicines do. And we're pharmacists, we know all about what medicines can do. But we care about your blood sugar because it reflects what's actually happening underneath in your body.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Yeah. Corey, when you say energy toxicity, I really like that term, but I'm not sure that our listeners are familiar with it. What do you mean by energy toxicity?

SPEAKER_00 7:12

What I mean by energy toxicity is that in your body, you have energy in the form of carbohydrates and fats, and then carbs turn into glucose in your body. And there is too much energy in your body for it to be safely stored in the form of sugar or body fat. So when you are energy toxic, it just means that your body is overloaded with energy. And the end result is you have high sugar in your blood and high actually lipids, cholesterol in your blood too, in the form of triglycerides can be a sign that you've run out of places to store energy. So when we say toxic, it's because it's causing damage, especially the sugar. When we talk about, and these analogies can get a little oversimplified, but think of a bottle of maple syrup. It's all sugary and sticky. When you have sugar swashing around in your body, it is causing damage in the form of what we they call advanced glycation end products. And so that high sugar is causing damage because it is toxic to your body.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Yeah. And then the high fat, well, the intracellular, like intramuscular fats, it means inside your muscle tissue, you get fat built up in there, which that blocks insulin from working as well. And insulin, that's a primary place where insulin needs to work to store sugar safely. So I think that was a really long way of saying that.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Quick pause

Follow Us For Daily Support

SPEAKER_00 8:28

for a second. If you're finding the podcast helpful and you want more practical ideas to help move your blood sugar in the right direction, come follow us on Instagram at Diabetes Remission Partners. We share quick tips, food and exercise insights, and blood sugar mistakes people don't even realize they're making. It's also where we can answer your questions directly in the DMs. So if you want more help between episodes, Instagram at Diabetes Remission Partners is the best place to find us. And when you follow us, make sure to say hi.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

All right, back to the show. High blood sugar is a symptom, not the actual root cause. So what's belief number three, Corey?

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Belief

Belief Three Muscle Is Medicine

SPEAKER_00 9:11

number three, I think you've alluded to it, is that muscle is the missing medication because muscle, skeletal muscle is the primary site that we dispose of blood glucose in the body. So the more muscle you have, the more places there is for it to be stored. And when you have better, better functioning and more muscle, it improves your insulin sensitivity. Your insulin can work better and you just increase resilience. A lot of people come to us saying, I want to be able to go to my kid's graduation and have a piece of cake someday. Am I gonna have to eat chicken and broccoli my whole life? And the reality is muscle's a cheat code for having some of those more higher energy foods, your sweets and whatnot. Not advocating to eat sweets all the time, but when you have more muscle and use it regularly, you can have a metabolic buffer to get rid of that sugar.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Yeah. I read the stat that we lose three to five percent of our muscle mass every decade after age 30. And then that's what we accelerate.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

That starts to accelerate after age 60. I think that's with no intervention. That could definitely speed up with even less doing less, like being very sedentary, very low programming.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Work from homers and desk job, yeah, desk job people who sit all day. That three to five percent is probably gonna go faster than thanks to the city. Yeah, three to five percent.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah. And then so then that's where people really get thrown off thinking, like my metabolism slowed down. So reality, like metabolism doesn't truly slow down. People just move less than they realize.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

But muscle is I've heard 60 is when the actual like there is there's a bigger drop-off of metabolism. It's 60, and everyone likes to say, Oh, I hit 30 and everything fell apart. I'm like, no, you hit 30 and you started working without moving, you kept drinking and you didn't move your body. So yeah, and the cool thing, we've talked about it before. I revisit our muscle masterclass with Dr. Penn is having muscle, there we talk about insulin resistance. When you use muscle the right way, you can actually get sugar out of your blood independent of insulin with glute four transporters. One of my favorite nerdy things to reference here. And so, with when we talk about blood sugar number two, blood sugar is not the primary thing, it's a symptom. Medications manage the symptom. But sometimes the best blood sugar medication isn't always a medication because when you build more muscle, you're actually getting at the root of the issue and fixing the underlying biology versus just masking it with a pillar or shot.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Yeah, you can't we put this in our mask quest, so you can't out-medicate zero training and a you can't outrun your fork.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

You can't out exercise a bad diet.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

So sorry to or out supplement, really. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Yeah. We're not anti-supplement, we're just anti-excessive supplement and believing that it's some miracle cure. So yeah. All right, let's move on to belief four because we've been dropping a lot of knowledge on you.

Belief Four Knowledge Is Not Enough

SPEAKER_00 11:49

But I got bad news if you think this is going to do everything, because number four belief is that knowledge is really the problem.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah. I was just re-watching something and I basically started off this video with if information was the answer, then why is big pharma racking in billions every year? Because information is abundant, it's free, it's everywhere. There's YouTube videos, there's podcasts. But if information was the only answer, like why are so many people still need medication?

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Did you know, Brian, that drinking regular soda is not good for blood sugar? Shocking.

unknown 12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Did you know that eating vegetables is generally good for you? Assuming for to my people who are intolerant to certain vegetables, don't yell at me. I know that there's, but did you know that vegetables are like pretty good? And like lean protein is good for you, Brian? This is mind-blowing stuff. Now, in fairness, we have come across folks in our clinical experience that legitimately don't have the information. And when we give them, when they hear simple information like that, they're like, what? Huh? Or they're, for example, they think they're doing something right and they're drinking something like the Arizona iced tea with honey. It's got honey, Brian. Honey's natural, it's good, right? It's got like 40 grams of sugar a serving, and people are drinking a gallon of this a day, and we give them that information and they take action and they improve. But if knowledge isn't the problem, what is? Or what are the problems? And unmute yourself, please.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Yeah. I was looking it up. Knowledge, there's the famous quote out there, knowledge is power, right? We've talked about this before. Knowledge is potential power. You have to actually be able to implement it. So the missing ingredient is the skill, the implementation of the knowledge. And for that, it takes small, simple steps. That's why we break down habits and skills into very small, simple steps. I like to say if you're at this place of you think a habit has to. So repetition does form habits. Yes. You need some repetition, you need some triggers. There's a lot of things that go into building habits that are positive for you. Listen, read the book, Atomic Habits. I think that's the best book on actual building habits and the principles behind it. We won't go into everything here. But you definitely need to learn how to build the skills and break things down. And I also think not just repetition, but the feeling that you have from doing the habits. So if you start to feel successful when you do the habits, you're more likely to do them and continue doing them. That's why I've told people in the clinic before set a goal so small, you feel like you can just step over it and then you just build from there. You just keep raising the bar.

unknown 14:21

All right.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Excellent. I think I agree. And I think having to me, it's like a system, having the right system, the right environment. But essentially, you can have all of the right information, but if you don't have a way to implement it in a way that's sustainable, the information does you no good.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

I'll also say another missing ingredient. It's not motivation. People, you know, you don't need motivation. You need desire. You literally need to just want this and that you need to be willing to, as a mentor of ours once used to say, run through a brick wall to make this happen, to get off medications. You have to be willing to run through a brick wall. You have to act like it's you have to act as if you would if you had a loved one who was missing and you had to do anything you could to get them back. We would do a lot of things for our the loved ones in our life. So why don't we do a lot of those things for ourselves?

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Yeah. Great. All right. We'll move on to number to number five. And

Belief Five Coaching Speeds Change

SPEAKER_00 15:12

I'll be honest with you, Brian, with our audience, this is a bit of a self-serving belief, but it's a belief we have nonetheless, and that coaching accelerates change. And it's not because we think that people are broken. And we talked about, you know, motivation isn't what we need, it's desire. But behavior change is hard. And especially in our modern environment, the reason that so many people have type 2 diabetes, are obese, have metabolic syndrome, fatty liver, is not that people suddenly become weak. I think that we are mismatched to our environment. And so changing our behavior in this environment is hard. And I used to honestly think coaching, unless I'm playing sports, why would I need a coach? But athletes have coaches, business owners have coaches, executives have coaches because information can change minds, but having the right person in your corner can help you change that behavior. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

I was just about to say that. Did Michael Jordan have a coach?

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yes, he did.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

He had several coaches. So even the best of the best have coaches. So I don't know why people, why we think we're any different or any better than some of the best. If they had a coach walking in through, give them guidance. Like, why do we think we could do something and achieve something great without that? I think the people who are successful and in areas of our life, like I think of this too. I've started to ask who, not how. Who can help me do this? Because I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to, when the stakes are higher, like when it involves my house, the structure of stability, or something like that, I'm gonna ask who can help me achieve this, not how can I do this myself? Because I just I'm starting to value my time, Corey. I'm starting to value a lot of things that I didn't use to value as much.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Let's put it that way. If you don't think that I'd also along with you in valuing my time, we have hired someone this week to fix a screen door that has been broken for literally six months, sitting outside of our sliding door, and also patch holes in our floor that have been there a long time because we realized we were just not going to get to it. And so, yeah, ask who not how. I love that. Now, Brian, we've gone over our five principles. And what I would like to do is go to our three pillars.

Three Pillars For Real Progress

SPEAKER_00 17:13

We talk about kind of repetition, we talk about the same stuff because it's the implementation. So, Brian, would you want to walk people briefly because we're nearing the end of our time here? Like, what are the three main pillars that we focused on helping people to put type two in remission?

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yeah, the three pillars are steady strengthening. So doing it in a way at home, it's accessible.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Doing strength training, strength training in a way.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Steady strengthening. I said that. Yeah. Doing strength training in a way that's progressive at home, a way you can be consistent with it, and low injuries that you just can keep going because injuries actually are what derail people the most. And just having the actual clear guidance on what to do. So clarity a lot of times leads to motivation. Second thing is did you have something to add on it?

SPEAKER_00 17:56

I did have. So when we talk about steady strengthening, like we literally are talking about 15 minutes twice a week of strength training, along with smart movement around meals and throughout the day. We can't just do 15 minutes twice a week of strength training and sit on our butts the rest of the time. We do believe in other sorts of smart movements throughout the day that are not invasive, that fit with life. So just so that we're not just 30 minutes awake and I can lay down and the rest of the time. We're not saying that, but I think like we talked about muscle is the missing medicine. That's a big thing that's missing from your doctor's appointment. So that's pillar one. Steady strengthening. Number two, Brian.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Nourishing your needs. So crowding out the energy dense food that leads to energy toxicity with satiating, filling food that gives you more nutrition without less energy, without having you. More nutrition with less energy. More nutrition with less energy. Yes. So you're not feeling like you're starving or white knuckling through the day. And really, like you can do this in a way without tracking calories. You just track satiety and fullness. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

And the quick tactical beats of this, we hit on it so many episodes, is protein is very filling. It fuels your muscles, it doesn't spike sugar. So focusing on enough protein with your meals and then fiber, which is just secret hidden code for vegetables and fruit. Because you can to feel full, oftentimes having them, those receptors in your stomach making you feel full, you can eat a large volume of low energy dense food like lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower. If you're someone who struggles with hunger, let's focus on foods that make you feel full without throwing a lot of extra calories in there. There, I said the calorie word for you, Brian. So in that way, this is a sustainable way of eating so that you're not feeling hungry all the time. And in doing so, your body will naturally consume less energy, getting back to that energy toxicity we talked about before, reversing that.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Okay. Third and final, we call florist freedom. That's just the fancy way of saying basically you need to learn how to collaborate proactively with your doctor, learn how to help them de-prescribe, have those conversations that they're not really trained to have and bring up because that's just not what they're taught in school.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

And I would add into that the mindset to make this a lifelong pursuit so that you can put diabetes in the rear view mirror for good. Because we talked earlier about mindset. And so you've gone over the three pillars: steady strengthening, nourish needs, flourish to freedom.

Who This Approach Is For

SPEAKER_00 20:06

And we gotta be, I'm gonna be real honest with our listeners, Brian. We're not for everybody. Okay. And you might be new to us. We've been getting a lot of new listeners. And so this is why we wanted to put this sort of guide post episode out. Who are we? What do we believe in? Because we are not for someone, if you're looking for a magic supplement, if you're looking for a secret hack, a seven-day cleanse or a seven-day fix, we're probably not your people. And we won't be offended if you move on to someone who's selling one of those things. But who we are for, if you're here for simplicity and to focus on things that actually work and just to apply them consistently, then you're probably gonna love what we do. We keep it as simple as we can and we hammer home the need to do it regularly. And really at the end of our day, our goal is to not create dependence on someone else. We don't want dependence on a healthcare system that has probably failed you. We don't want you to be dependent on a coach for life. We want to teach you the skills to live life forever on your own. Because we always want to help build the skills, habits, and competence so that you can take ownership and agency over your own health.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Great. So

Share The Mission And Closing

SPEAKER_00 21:11

if you if this resonated with you, please subscribe. Please share it with somebody, leave a review. We know that there are people suffering out there with type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes. I just had two people in my circle of acquaintances that mentioned casually how they're pre-diabetic, or my doctor said I have trouble with my blood sugar. It doesn't always show up as we classically would think with type 2 diabetes. So this is a message that people need to hear. And if you liked our message and jive with us, great. Share it. And if you don't, we'll see you when you're ready to come back or never. And that's okay. We won't take offense. But Brian, thank you for going through those. You did a great job of explaining them. And we're gonna end the episode like we always do, because this is what we practice, this is what we preach. So thank you for listening. Keep it simple. Can I say it? Oh, we get oh yeah. Oh yeah. Please, can I can I say it? Yeah, Brian's gonna Brian's gonna take us home today.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Keep it simple and do what works. If this episode gave you clarity or hope, share it with one friend who's been stuck in the diabetes trap. That's how this mission grows. One person, one family, one story at a time. And if you haven't yet, leaving a quick review helps more people find the show and realize they're not stuck with feds forever. It takes less than a minute, and it means the world to us. Thanks for being here, and thanks for being part of this movement towards three. Thanks for listening to Diabetes Remission Room app. The ideas discussed here are for general informational purposes only, and do not constitute medical or nutritional advice. We are pharmacists, but we're not your personal healthcare providers. Always consult your own physician or qualified clinician before changing medications, exercise routines, or nutrition plans. Results vary, and what works for one person may not work for another.