I Have Good News. Type 2 Diabetes Is Not a Disease! by Lee Harrington
I Have Good News. Type 2 Diabetes Is Not a Disease!
People have often asked me to write a book on Type 2 Diabetes. I always wonder why they wouldn’t just read the books I read? I do understand, though, that while I may not have the medical credentials of a Fung or Bikman, I do have a voice and style that helps make the complicated easier to understand for some folks. So with this preamble – what would be THE most important message I would start such a book with?
Type 2 Diabetes is not a disease.
Why would I say such an absurd thing. Of course it’s a disease. The AMA (American Medical Association) itself has described it as not just a disease, but a progressively degenerative disease. This is the standard view across all the major global health organizations. How dare I speak otherwise? Well, counter information has been available for more than a century and over the last 10 years doctors and researchers like Fung and Bikman have radically turned the tide. The agency gatekeepers have even cracked the door open over the last couple years to acknowledge that MAYBE Type 2 Diabetes can be overcome.
What am I trying to say? Here it is in plain language: Type 2 Diabetes is a condition, like obesity, that you can do something about. I’m playing word games, I know. But I’m not arguing words so much as advocating a mindset. I am trumpeting with joy, conviction and personal testimony that Type 2 Diabetes, while a devastating condition unmanaged, a challenging condition even when managed, can be HEALED. That’s right, healed. That’s my preferred choice of phrase over “in remission” or “reversed.” Type 2 Diabetes is not cancer. There are no “diabetes malformed cells” lurking in your body eager to rise back up.
If someone has a peanut allergy, no one says they are diseased. A peanut allergy can run from mild to deadly – but it’s a condition that is completely harmless – when – you don’t eat peanuts. If someone with a peanut allergy eats peanuts, gains a rash or other adverse effect (short of death), the body heals by merely ceasing to eat peanuts.
With Type 2 Diabetes, it is carbohydrates that we become allergic to. And yet, instead of ceasing to eat them, or lowering the quantity, we take medications or even insulin shots “because we have a disease.”
The mindset I advocate helps align action to the best outcome. When you recognize your own agency and your own body’s healing processes – you are empowered to make the difficult changes that will restore health. You won’t see “hard” as a stop word, but a challenge that you can grow to overcome.
Why should you listen to me? I have no credentials and offer no authority. I’m simply someone who did pay attention to Fung, made the changes and got off all my diabetes meds and to a non-diabetic A1c. Lost 85 lbs and went from walking with a cane and driving with a handicap sticker to running a 5k without stopping. Then regained the weight, and diabetic status, when after several years I fell back into my old eating habits. I haven’t given up, I’ll never give up. People find motivation in my authentic journey and ability to make the science easy to understand.
I advocate that folks talk to their doctors AND that they educate themselves. It doesn’t take reading the 30 books I’ve read, but reading the two I’ve referenced here would be a great start. My diabetes specialist on April 20, 2021 informed me my A1c was 11.2 and she added the $1000/mo Trulicity to the two meds I was already taking. I was to start on an insulin pump at our next appointment.
Instead, I got Dr Fung’s The Diabetes Code, changed my diet and exercise, and come July she removed the last of my diabetes meds. My A1c was down to 6.5, and as that covers three months, she already knew I didn’t need the meds. I never had to start on insulin.
I asked her: why isn’t what I did what you teach? Her reply: not everyone is willing to make the changes you did. Changes available to all (if not all, LOTS) that will allow your body to heal itself.
I wrote about my journey as it was happening. Many people were inspired and they too saw that “hard” is not “impossible.” Making changes in what you eat, how you exercise, sleep and even fast is hard. But you can do hard things. I’ll show you how.
Fung, Jason. The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally. Greystone Books, 2018.
Bikman, Benjamin. Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease—and How to Fight It. BenBella Books, 2020.
The Ex-Diabetic
Healing Is A Natural Process
A Guide to Effective New Year's Resolutions
A How to Count Carbs
In Praise of Yoyo Dieting
Diabetes and the Myth of Drinking Water
Written by Lee Harrington
Published June 7th, 2025
Social Media:
Website
Twitter
YouTube
