Silent Type 2 Diabetes Danger

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Even though if you're type two diabetic, you're not having any symptoms, don't think that you're out of the woodwork. Don't wait until the symptoms start, because oftentimes that could be too late. Because many people believe that the symptoms are going to be gradual. And that may be the case for some individuals, but for others, it's traumatic. It's a heart attack, it's a stroke. It's like major neuropathy where they're amputating your foot. Like these are things that could happen very easily, even though you're feeling okay today. Diabetes is a progressive disease. It's not if it's ever going to become a problem. It's when is it going to be a problem? The sooner you get on top of it, the easier it is to handle, to get it to remission, and the less chance you have into those complications.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Welcome to Hormone Heroes, where I share testimonials from real people who have experienced bioidentical hormone therapy. Men and women share the symptoms they have experienced and the difference proper hormone replacement has made.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Hello and welcome to the podcast. Today we are very fortunate to have Dr. Jason Shimard. He is a doctor of chiropractic and he has postgraduate education in functional endocrinology and clinical nutrition. And over the last 20 years, he has worked with patients with a multitude of conditions, specifically focusing on helping people reverse their type 2 diabetes. And Dr. Shimard is passionate about helping his patients overcome their diabetes and take control over their health. How's that, Dr. Shimard?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

It's a pretty wild time here for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

Well, tell us a little bit about you and your health journey.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Yeah. So while I was going to school to become a doctor of chiropractic, I um was traditionally going to be working in traditional chiropractic scene, you know, taking care of um spines. And, you know, I wanted to be more of like a postural type doctor. But during that time, my mom was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. And when she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, like many individuals, maybe watching the podcast today, it's it's commonly known as it can be managed, right? It's, you know, change your lifestyle, exercise, you know, keep your weight down, take your medication, and you're likely going to be okay. But come to find out that's not the reality at all. As she was going through this journey, I saw her health declining, taking more and more medications, and just things were not as they should have seemed. So I took it upon myself to start researching more about, you know, what else was out there. And I found functional medicine, started taking some um postgraduate classes, even though I was still in school, but I still wanted to start educating myself on it a little more. And obviously, we got the student discount, which helped out a lot as well as some of those um classes. But as I learned more and more that there was ways to actually help people literally get their diabetes and remission, where they could get off their medications and get back to living the life they wanted to live, obviously with moderation, because we we know that too much indulgence is not good for the body. But there was ways to do this. And I and I really got into this because of my mom, and I really wanted to help her come to find out that there was a lot of other people that needed this help as well. So it's been an incredible journey. Unfortunately, for my mom's situation, she was never really interested in the help, even though I was trying to help her and her doctors telling her that everything was doing well. And next thing you know, she went to full-blown kidney failure, dialysis. Um, within a few months after that, she had a stroke and she passed. So it was very rapid in her decline. And it was very frustrating as well that you know, we you had the tools to help somebody and they weren't interested. So it was a very big learning lesson for me that, you know, I can't help everyone. Not everyone wants help, but the individuals who are looking for the help, who are interested in the help, we can help them and walk them to the path of truly going to a remission state.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

That's fantastic. And sometimes family members are the hardest ones to convince that we know what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yes, they are. Yeah, I brought you in this world, I'll take you out, type of thing.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Exactly. Exactly. How can you be smarter than me?

Type 1 Vs Type 2 Explained

SPEAKER_01 4:30

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

So, for those listeners that may not understand there's a difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, can you differentiate those?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Absolutely. So, type 2 is literally a cellular disease, right? Many people see type 2 diabetes as an elevated blood sugar problem, but that's actually a symptom of type 2. It's not the cause. So our I make this super simple and I kind of use an analogy with like a car, right? Our car needs gas, the gas goes into the gas tank. There's a gas line that takes the gas from the gas tank to your engine. And where the engine, the gas meets the engine, that's where all the action takes place. Well, our body is no different. We consume food, that food gets converted to fuel or glucose, which is in our gas tank, our intestinal tract, and then it gets released into our bloodstream, our fuel line, and then enters in into our cells with the help of insulin, into our cells, into our engines, which are called our mitochondria. So our body is no different than a machine. But the problem is in with someone with type 2 diabetes, their cells become deficient and the ability for them to bring that glucose in is no longer available. Now, in the early stages, very manageable, not a big issue because there's not many cells that are damaged. But as those numbers increase, well, the sugars have nowhere to go, but to backflow into the bloodstream and the identification as a blood test with an elevated glucose or hemoglobin A1C. For those that know it's a 90-day average of your blood sugars. And when that's elevated, you're diagnosed with either pre-diabetes, which I always say pre-diabetes is like pre-pregnancy. There is none. And if we can identify what's the mechanisms that are driving the cellular damage, that's how we can go into remission. Well, type one is a completely different scenario because it involves the pancreas and the ability for the pancreas to produce insulin in a specific area, which are called the beta cells. And so if your pancreas can no longer produce sufficient amount of insulin, well, that becomes an issue because you can't get the sugars into your cells as well. But the difference is in this scenario, because think of insulin as like a key that's unlocking the door to allow the sugar to enter the cells. Well, in type one, you don't have enough keys, which means you can't open the door. So that's why the sugars increase. Whereas in type two, the lock is broken and the key can't enter. And that's another mechanism that's driving this problem, which is why it's called insulin resistance in type two, because you can't get the insulin into the what are called the insulin receptors to open those doors. And in type one, it's insulin dependent because you can't produce the amount of insulin. Oftentimes, one of the major mechanisms that's driving type one is actually an autoimmune disease, where the immune system is actually attacking, destroying, and killing the beta cells and the ability for them to produce, which is why that individual needs to inject or use um pumps like insulin pumps to get the insulin in to allow their sugars to be managed.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

And type one usually shows up in childhood.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yes, and then childhood. It can happen in adults as well. We have seen that happen in adults where the pancreas um is no longer functioning optimally, but mostly children, um, adolescents, you know, before the age of like 16, typically for most type 1s.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Yeah. And is it genetic? Is type one, can it be genetic?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Type one also can be genetic because remember, autoimmune diseases can be genetic as well. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

So that's it's a it's a common thing. So even though mom and dad may not have type one, they could have it, they could be a carrier for the gene. And now that gets expressed in the child, and next thing you know, they have a type one diagnosis.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Yes, and type one is not reversible, it has to be managed with insulin.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Technically, there is some mechanisms that can do that for individuals. Now, we don't talk about it being reversible at a high level that you can do with type two, because if you can understand, um, especially if someone's, let's say they get diagnosed in their 15, 16, they start um being evaluated shortly after that. If you can identify the underlying mechanisms that are driving the autoimmune components and you halt that or uh control that, then you can actually still save some of those beta cells, they can still produce that insulin on their own. They could no longer type one. Now it's very rare. It could happen. Absolutely could happen with some individuals.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Interesting. So if anyone is a type one diabetic, they could be patients of yours as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

We do we do evaluate some type ones. The problem is that we don't want to give them any false hope by saying, yeah, we're gonna reverse your diabetes, because that's not actually true. But like you said, oftentimes the goal with those individuals is to try to reduce the amount of insulin needed because unfortunately, insulin is a very toxic hormone at high levels. It's very harmful to the body. It can increase the risk for kidney disease by four times and even cardiovascular disease by four times. So if we can reduce the amount of insulin they need and they can sustain that, that's a win because it'll help them have a longer quality of life, where type ones typically don't have longevity, unfortunately, because of the toxic environments of the insulin.

What Damages Cells Over Time

SPEAKER_03 9:55

Yeah. So walk us through. I know a lot of people may go to their primary care physician and have blood work done and all of a sudden, out of the blue, be told they have type 2 diabetes or they're even pre-diabetic. Walk us through what would have had to happen to get the patient's body in the position to have that kind of diagnosis.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah, obviously we know lifestyle can definitely play a major role. And the reason why, I just want to um help people understand what why lifestyle plays this major role. And the reason is because if you're if you're living a lifestyle that you have huge um sugar spikes, which then is going to in turn then cause huge insulin spikes, that's where the mechanism comes into play. So if you're eating and consuming fast foods, high sugar foods, you know, a lot of carbohydrates and not the protein balance, et cetera, if you're doing this over 10, 20, 30 years, that damage will take its toll. And the reason for this is when you consume, let's say, a hard carb, high carb or high sugar diet, well, that releases very rapidly from the intestinal tract, which causes a huge spike, which then requires the pancreas to then in turn do its job, high spike of insulin. Now, I want you to think about this as like using an analogy, is throwing too much water on a plant. Obviously, water is good for a plant, but if you overwater the plant, what happens? It wilts and dies. Well, the same thing can happen to your cells. If you start pushing too much insulin and you overwhelm the cells with insulin, you're going to overwhelm those insulin receptors, and those receptors are going to start to break down and wilt. And the ability for insulin to enter, remember, insulin is the key to unlock the doors, becomes deficient. So that cell becomes deficient and it can no longer do its job anymore. Now, not just one cell, but let's go to 10, 20,000, 100,000s. And this is happening over 10, 20, 30 years. So this is why I tell people all the time like, you may have been diagnosed 10 years ago, but the reality is it started 10, 20 plus years ago because it requires a certain percentage of your cells to be damaged before you actually get a diagnosis. So that's how lifestyle plays. So if you're eating a more um wholesome food, right? I always say we live from our refrigerator, we die from our covers, right? So your refrigerator, that's gonna be perishable foods. If you're doing that, the likelihood of it from your lifestyle being the case is very rare. But then you have some individuals like, man, I've I've always eaten really well and I'm still diabetic. So how is that happening? That's because when you look at the body, there's multiple ways that a cell can be damaged. So we can have cell damage from like chronic inflammation, right? We could have internal inflammation from it, could be from a like a long-term bacterial infection or viral infection, right? EBV or those things can be common type things that can be in your body or exposed to for many, many years. And that's creating this chronicity of inflammation, damaging your cells. And that could be another mechanism that's driving this. So you could be eating perfectly fine, have a good weight, exercise consistently, and have this chronic infection pattern that's creating chronic inflammation, and that could be another mechanism. So this is why diabetes is so unique, right? It can be it can come from multiple different avenues, and it's the only condition or I guess we can call it a disease factor that can literally affect every single tissue inside your body.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

So chronic infections, eating high carb, uh, a lot of sugar, those types of things cause type two. Is there anything else? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

I was just trying to trying to name a couple there, but there's things like you can have hormonal deficiencies, right? So as we start to fluctuate hormones, like especially in females when they're pregnant, hormonal fluctuations, or when they start their cycle and go to and this menopause, all those things could be things with men, right? We have metabolic syndrome where they're increasing estrogens inside their body because their testosterone is overconverting to estrogens through aromatization. There could be um other mechanisms like adrenal dysfunction, right? Our adrenal glands are our stress glands. And when our bodies under chronic stressors, it can impact the ability to have normal blood sugar regulation with too much cortisol production. We could have liver problems. Fatty liver disease is so common these days. And oftentimes the medical model are just using that as a diagnosis and not truly indicating to the patient the significance of what's really going on with that type of condition. Things like aridal bowel syndrome, um, leaky gut, colitis, all these things are like GI issues that can cause this. We could have toxins. I mean, probably one of the most common things that we see with our diabetics is they're overloaded with toxic burden, right? Mold toxicities and heavy metals, environmental toxins, and they have no idea because nobody's even evaluating from these things. So typically for most of our, when we're evaluating our diabetics, and we can go over some of the analytics if you'd like, but we typically see in common somewhere between about 10 and 20 different mechanisms that are driving their cellular damage. So if we take into consideration that let's say this person has 10 problems and they're only focusing on their lifestyle, well, there's still nine other problems, and they're not going to reverse their diabetes, which is why in the medical model they refer to it as a progressive disease process.

SPEAKER_03 15:16

Yeah. And it it is really full circle. Our bodies, everything interacts with everything else. What about just someone that has a high BMI? Is that an indication they may have type two or not necessarily?

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Not necessarily. We see individuals who are obese, like and may have no diabetes. And we see others that are like my mom, for example, she was 90 pounds and she was full-blown diabetic. So can weight play a role? Absolutely. Don't I mean we know it can play a role because it impacts the organs and the tissues and all that pressure, cardiovascular pressure, et cetera. And it's going to put enough inflammation in the body that can create cellular damage. But by losing the weight, does that mean they become non-diabetic? No. In many cases, they may lower their sugars and they may look really well. I mean, I think it was like in 2008, 2012, there were there was a huge study coming out with bariatric surgery, and you know, that it was the miracle cure for diabetes. And people were going in for this surgery and then having their blood sugars are totally normal, they're off medications, and they were being, quote, told they're non-diabetic. And I called it, and I remember to this day, I was at the gym and I was watching it on the news, and I'm like, I guarantee in 10 years, we're gonna start seeing an influx of people with bariatric surgeries and they're full-blown diabetic. And that's what I started seeing around 2018, 2020. We started seeing people coming in, and I couldn't like maybe one out of three had the bariatric surgery, and they're now full on multiple medications. It was just really, I felt so bad for them because now they've got malnutrition, you know, a poor, poor ability to eat eat quality type food because of the smaller stomach and the digestive issues they're having. It's just it's just not a fix, right? The the one size fits all fit fits fix does not happen. There's especially the diabetes, and we're seeing it with other conditions as well.

Warning Signs And Neuropathy

SPEAKER_03 17:07

So that you really do need to rely on history, labs, lifestyle. Walk us through how you would approach a patient. Well, before we do that, even let's say we have a patient that hasn't been to the doctor. What symptoms would they need to be looking for that might tell them they might need to go to the doctor?

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Yeah. And one thing I've I've found in you know almost 20 plus years of working with type two diabetics is the interesting thing for many of them, they have no symptoms. They feel fine. I can't tell you how often someone said to me, I've I'm healthy, I'm just a type two diabetic. And it's because their mindset is I must have symptoms to identify with being sick. But common ones that individuals will see in the early stages is maybe some fatigue. But then oftentimes they may, you know, chop that up to I'm getting older and you know, that's the process. So they may put that one under the rug, if you will. Constant urination is a huge one, right? Because the body's trying to push the sugar out, so having to urinate a lot more. Very common one. But in males, they may think, oh, it's just my I have prostate, whatever. So they may be so oftentimes it can be things they kind of don't recognize as being diabetes. Poor sleep could be an issue as well. Um, they're getting starting to gain more weight in the belly area. Um, that's a common one. And females, maybe in the hips would be another one as well. Those are those are the more common early stage symptoms. I mean, I've talked to patients where they went in to see their doctor and they were 500 blood sugar with no symptoms whatsoever. Wow. And it's it's pretty incredible. The body has this amazing ability to adapt to that type of scenario. But as those things sustained, the next thing you know, they start getting neuropathies, um, especially with the high sugars. You'll start getting neuropathies in the early stages, more brain, uh brain fog, excuse me, feeling like crashes between the two to three, waking up between two and three a.m. crashes between two and three p.m., needing to take naps. Like you're just seeing some of this, this, these things happening. Maybe the blood pressure's increasing, you know, the chest pain could be a common one we see as well. So those are those are some like more gradual ones if they don't pay attention to it. Some patients don't pay attention at all, and they're a year into this, and now they start getting neuropathy, and they're like, man, they go see their doctor and their blood sugars are 500.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

Describe what neuropathy is.

unknown 19:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

So neuropathy is where you're gonna get either um different types of symptoms, and it typically is gonna happen in diabetes in the feet. It's most common in the feet, can happen in the hands as well. Um, but nerves, when you look at nerves, they're obviously made of nerve cells, and nerves have different sensations. So a nerve can be a numbness, um, it can be pain, it could be cold, it could be hot. So some people, their neuropathy can be their feet are burning. Some of them are just they're just feel cold all the time. And some of them can just be numbness or just pain as well. So it depends on the the sense the type of um sensors that are being impacted on the nerves to determine what type of symptoms they're going to be experiencing. Now, if someone has 500, 300 to 500 blood sugars and they have this neuropathy, oftentimes if they get their blood sugars down into the like 100s or one between 100 to 140, that neuropathy will likely go away. And it's because the excessive sugar that was in their body was decreasing the circulation to the nerves. Because when you look at sugar in the bloodstream, it becomes dense, right? And so density makes it very challenging to get to your extremities and the small capillaries, those areas where they're supplying the blood supply to your nerves. So if you reduce the sugar, the symptoms start to go away. Now, more chronic neuropathy is the circulation and the nerve cells themselves. So remember, the nerve cells also need glucose. So, and they also need um insulin. So if those nerve cells are damaged, you can't get the sugars in. As more and more of those cells become damaged, the symptoms start to get worse. And that's when you can get the infections where they start having amputations, et cetera. And that's why it occurs. The neuropathy itself doesn't cause the amputation, it's the lack of signaling and circulation to the tissues, and that tissue is dying. So that's where the amputations occur.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

Uh, and that's so sad. It could have, it could have been avoided.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

100%. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

So walk us through how you approach a patient.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Yeah. So the first thing we want to do is obviously when we get some paperwork and history, like you mentioned, but we want to understand, you know, what they've been experiencing, what they've been doing, what medication they're taking, what symptoms they're having, the problems, um, um, some family history, of course, is a is another important because there is some um genetic because there is some genetic predispositions, meaning there isn't an ice, there has not been an isolated diabetic gene in science to date, at least, but there are other genetic predispositions that can increase. It's like other, like, for example, Hashimoto's, which is a autoimmune disease to the thyroid. Well, the thyroid is heavily involved in blood sugar regulation. So Hashimoto's to the thyroid can be a triggering point to someone developed. Type 2 diabetes. It's a very common stepping stone. That's an example of a genetic variant that someone can be passed down from mom to child or father to child. So that's something we want to look into as well. That first that history. The next thing is just, you know, understanding what they're experiencing, you know, how long have they been dealing with this? Whether and having a conversation about their lifestyle. How do they eat? What do they do? Are they active? Are they sedentary? Et cetera. Those are all going to play roles in the customization of what we do. Labs then are a huge component to this because of course we can understand their lifestyle and how they're eating. And that's something that is likely going to have to be adapted. And that could be just, you know, going for a walk after dinner for 15 minutes type of thing. It doesn't have to be extensive, you know, hit in the gym for three hours a time, type of thing. But becoming more active is going to be helpful, eating properly, keeping your weight down, getting good sleep, lots of water, et cetera. That's that's a staple, right? I call that foundational work, right? You can't, if you're not doing those things, your body can't heal. Like it's just part of the foundational work.

unknown 23:05

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

The labs are gonna help us identify more advanced problems that are going on. How's the adrenal glands? How's your liver? How's your gut? How's your um your hormones? How is do you have any underlying infection patterns? Is there inflammation? Um, do you have any toxicities? So we're looking at all these things and and ruling out and ruling these things in. And so we could have 10 diabetics we're evaluating the exact same way, and all 10 of them will have different mechanisms, which is why it has to be customized to their needs. So it can't be a one size fits all. So when you see these things, and and I'm not saying they're bad, but these these diets to say, oh, we'll reverse your diabetes in 60 days, or take this product and you're gonna help, you know, um improve your A1C. And yeah, those things do help, but they don't have longevity because unless you're addressing these problems going on, you'll you'll get better for a short period of time and then it'll come right back again because those problems are just consistently getting worse and worse.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

So I always tell people, I'm like, listen, the work that we do is not sexy, right? When you compare like building a house, we're like the the guys who are putting the concrete down for your foundation because we're trying to create this foundation. But everyone, no one looks at the foundation. They look at the carpet, they look at the walls, they look at your cabinets, et cetera. And that's like all the sexy stuff. And so, but unless you have a strong foundation, you can't build into that type of house. And this is no different. We have to get you into a stable foundation, and then we can build from there. And that building can just be something you continue to do throughout your life.

SPEAKER_03 24:38

So you get your diagnosis through lab work, and uh do you include food sensitivities in that GI testing?

SPEAKER_01 24:47

I typically do not. And the reason why is that when we were doing that for I did that for about five years, we noticed was because oftentimes individuals, their immune system is so hyperreactive, they're reacting to so many different things. And so what I have found is that if we can do is again, we have to get the body into a more stabilized place, less inflammation, help the gut with absorption and digestion, fill in those leaky hole gaps, uh, stabilize the adrenal glands, stabilize, you know, your liver. Um, so it's so it's um detoxifying, getting your kidneys detoxifying, getting these excessive toxins out, et cetera. And once we get there, and if we start to see a plateau, then we can do some more advanced type since it's food sensitivity, so we can identify what foods you should be staying away from and how you should be eating and not be eating. But it there's been I I had I ran a we used to run Cyrex. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Cyrex. Yeah, and they have like I think it's like 180 foods. And I I saw patients with like 90% of them reactive. They're like with eat. And I'm like, they're so reactive, right? And so we just have to calm this all down, and so and and so it became like a test that was it was it was expensive, number one, and it wasn't really necessary. So we do it later if that's something someone's interested. But usually once we get these these toxins out, we get the the organs and tissue stabilized, they're usually cruising pretty well. I mean, I just met with someone just last week. They started with us with uh um, I think it was an 8.5 A1C, and they're on two medications. And so we just tested them after we did our initial program with them. They're a 5.5 A1C and no medication.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

That's essentially they're they're non-diabetic at this point through medical standards because they're not taking any medications. And now it's just, you know, and they they still had some problems that when we retest them, they needed some work with still, but they're showing in diabetic. And so I just mentioned to them you could either stay here and just keep on maintaining this, or we can continue working on some of these things to optimize to reduce it from coming back in the future, which would you prefer? Of course, they chose to continue working on it, and so we'll put them on another six-month protocol and we'll reevaluate them. At that point, my guess is we'll be more of a maintenance. We can now maintain this for the rest of their life.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

So you are able to do this work with patients and using no pharmaceuticals, correct? Correct. That's incredible. And who doesn't want to take less medicines? 100%.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Yep. And I think people are finally coming around to that. I think for a long time it was like, you know, um, doctors were held on a pedestal. They were, you know, almost like godly, if you will. Okay. You know, I remember I, oh man, I I just I can't ever forget this. I had a woman, I was probably three years in the practice, and she's probably in her late 80s, and she's with there with her granddaughter, and we're we're talking, and she looks at me, she goes, Honey, when I was growing up, if your doctor told you to jump off the bridge, you asked them before lunch or after lunch. And I was like, Right, wow, that power was just incredible. And I think, you know, with the day and age of AI and Google and everything, that being able to search, people are asking more questions, and I think they're they're coming around and saying, maybe medication isn't the only option. Right. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

And it is very important to have someone like you to guide them through it. You can chat GPT answers, but um, I think it's not going to get it right every time. And then also the accountability that someone like yourself or your team can provide is so valuable. And so, would part of the protocol, once you get all the testing done and you figure out where whatever's going wrong, you figure all that out, you learn how to address it. Then are you also including lifestyle changes? Are you are you recommending certain diets or exercise program?

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Yeah. So obviously, lifestyle is gonna play a role in this. And again, I always tell people your lifestyle, your nutrition, if you will, is going to create an environment that is conducive to healing, right? Because if you bring in the wrong types of foods, it's gonna be challenging for your body to heal. But if you bring the right types of foods, it's easier for your body to heal. So the food will do some of the healing, but it won't do all of the healing. It's more of an approach to keep it more effective. Then we can start bringing in more of the nutraceuticals, the herbs, the supplements that have been shown to the clinical research to start healing the areas we're working on. If it's trying to get mold removal, we're gonna use protocols for mold removal. If it's for adrenal support, we're gonna use for adrenal support. If it's for leaky gut, leaky gut. So, but everything has to be strategized because you know, when you start throwing the kitchen sink and see what sticks, it's overwhelming for people. Right. So we strategize this very efficiently and we'll we'll oftentimes work on, like, for example, if there's toxic burden, we're gonna work on toxins only, right? Because that's enough of an impact in the body. I mean, I there's something called Herzheimers, which you're probably familiar with. It can be very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, and it has to be slow and progressive. When you start trying to pull out multiple toxins at one time, you're gonna injure that patient. It's going to happen. You have to be very slow. So we usually are very strategized, like working on one specific toxin at a time for a period of time to allow their body to go through that level. And then we'll move on and then move on, and then we eventually get to working on the different organs, et cetera. So we we we space this out for them and paste it in a way that it's manageable and easy for them to follow to reduce the risk of any negative symptoms.

SPEAKER_03 30:13

That's awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about you you had a brick and mortar practice for how long?

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Uh 20, almost almost 20 years, almost 20 years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:25

20 years. And you you were starting to focus in your practice more and more on diabetes and the endocrinology and more functional medicine, correct? And now you have gone completely virtual, correct?

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Completely virtual, yeah. We've been virtual since 2021.

SPEAKER_03 30:44

And you have 22 members of your team that help you run this practice.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

We have an amazing team. We all have um, you know, when when we bring a team member on, we want to share with them our mission or vision um to make sure they're on board with that. And they're because we want to make sure that these individuals are gonna be able to support our our patients in a way that if I was meeting with them or someone else that I really trust was meeting with them, they would get the same type of care, the same type of um conversation and instructions, because this is this is a um a legacy, if you will, for my mom, or her sacrificing her life, if you will, for the diabetic condition her diabetic condition, which is what got me into the doing this in the first place.

Free Webinar And Consultation Path

SPEAKER_03 31:30

That's awesome. I'm so happy for you. Just another question here about your website, which is by the way, dr shumard.com, and all this all this will be in the show notes, but it's dr-sh u m-ar-d.com. Do you you have a chance where people can go to a seminar? I see. Explain that to us.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

Yeah, so on the on the website there, there's an opportunity where they can join our um webinar. So the webinar is is very important because many people have this belief about diabetes that if I just get my sugars down, it's gonna fix everything. Well, unfortunately, that is a misconception. So the webinar is is really there to help individuals understand what diabetes really is, what we talked a lot about here today, but also some of the missing areas that are being done in the traditional model that is missing their diagnosis, if you will, of understanding what's really going on. So we go through different types of tests and things that we evaluate for and the things that need to be that are more specific to their needs, more customized to their needs. So we walk through that process. Now I get it, not everyone is interested in watching a webinar, but I but trust me, if you watch the webinar, you're gonna learn a lot of phenomenal insights about what you're being missed and what you can do to start helping your diabetes or helping a friend or um you know, spouse or sibling, because unfortunately the information is not being fully given in the traditional medical model. Yes, it's a free webinar. Yep, it's an educational webinar. And at the end of that, there's an opportunity to schedule a one-on-one consultation um to get your case evaluated to see if something we can help with.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

Oh, that's wonderful. And how long is the webinar?

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Typically, it's about 45 minutes from his webinar to maybe 50 minutes. Sometimes there's some QA's at the end, so that may extend a little bit longer. But um, yeah, it's about 45 to 50 minutes typically.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

That's fantastic. So once again, you go to Dr. Shimard's website, drshamard.com, and uh right there on the top of his website uh homepage is a seminar link and you can go there. I think for someone that's listening, that's been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, or a family member or a friend, uh just the chance to listen to your webinar and even have a chance to do QA with you. That's that's a wonderful service.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Yeah, I think people really enjoy it and they really get a lot out of it. Oftentimes we get a lot of pushback saying, Well, just can't you just tell us? Well, the unfortunate thing is, I mean, just today you can see it's not an easy just conversation. There's a has to be a lot of, you know, defining and a discussion so you really get it. Because the mindset is, oh, if I just lower my sugars and be fine. But I can tell you with absolute certainty with that type of mindset, your diabetes will progress. I mean, I'll give you a quick, quick example of this. Earlier, when I mentioned my mom and she went into full-blown kidney failure and eventually needed dialysis. Well, the interesting thing about that was when she went into full-blown kidney failure, her A1C was a 6.1. So she was managing her sugars very well with the help of the pharmaceuticals and her lifestyle, but her condition progressed. She still experienced a complication. So even I did this, I said, I went to her doctors. I'm like, how is this possible? How can someone with a 6.1 A1C go to full-blown kidney dialysis? And they had no answers, obviously. But the reason why this happened was because her sugars are not the mechanism that is driving her diabetes. It's the cellular damage. And because the kidneys are made of cells, they were the first to go. They were the ones that were damaged first. And then as she went into dialysis roughly eight to nine months later, she had a stroke. And when she went to the hospital, she survived the stroke, by the way. But the problem was the disease had progressed so bad that she had multi-organ failure.

unknown 35:35

Why?

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Because the progression continued. And this is what many people understand is they can't see it because it's not on a piece of paper. They can't see their organs declining and the cells declining because they don't feel it. And when you finally feel it, it's too late.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

Yeah. What do you think caused your mother's cellular damage that caused her diabetes?

SPEAKER_01 35:56

I wish I knew because she wouldn't let ever let me evaluate her.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

She never would even let want to go through the testing. She was not interested because and the main reason for her was is that um, and maybe I did this wrong the wrong way. I should have probably run the testing on her first, but yeah, I I went with her first with the lifestyle changes. And because the lifestyle changes were not something she was interested in doing, she was like, I'm 60 something years old, and I uh I but my life, I want to build and enjoy my life, etc. And my doctor's saying my blood sugars are fine, so I'm good to go. So since she was not able to make those changes, there was no way she was gonna really yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

I I hear that a lot, actually. I've lived my life this long, enjoying doing you know, the hamburgers and milkshakes and smoking and drinking, you know, why change now? You gotta die of something. I hear that a lot.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Oh, 100%. And that's part of why we have the initial consultation, because if somebody's in that mindset, I'm not here to judge, right? I I mean, yeah, I always tell them like, listen, if I wasn't able to convince my mom, my best friend, and someone who I love dearly, I'm not here to convince you. Like it's not my job to convince you. If you are interested in finding more about what's going on with you and some options to help you get to where you need to, I can walk you down that path. But if you're looking for me to like sell you something or convince you, you're bark of the wrong tree.

Nutrients Supplements And Medication Pitfalls

SPEAKER_03 37:22

Yeah. And that's a great approach. It's very non-threatening. So I'm looking here at some of your recent blog posts, and there's one titled Which Nutrients Do Diab Do Diabetics Often Miss? What would that be?

SPEAKER_01 37:37

I think you know, a a common um um common nutrients are so many people are not doing the the the combination of the vegetables and fruits, right? I think diabetics are oftentimes afraid to eat fruit because they think it's gonna spike their sugars, and it very well could. But when you bring in the fruits that has a lot of that fiber, and so it's not a bad thing to be introducing. Now, you can go with the low glycemic of like the berries, etc. You can do those things, which is fantastic. But if you want to talk about like real nutrients, I think things like magnesium is a huge one missing. Vitamin D. I can't tell you how often I see deficiency in vitamin D. And like, well, I'm out in the sun. I'm like, they just don't understand that that conversion is maybe enough, or sometimes they're not converting it properly in their body. Uh I think omega-3s, like, yeah, these are maybe people that may not call that a nutrient, but I think it's so essential, so essential for anti-inflammatory, cardiovascular health, brain health. I mean, every single one of our cells is a phospholipid bilayer that has that needs that fat, that fats and everything. People think that fats are bad. It's actually really good quality. We don't get enough. We eat more omega-6s and nines, which are very pro-inflammatory, or the threes, the EPA DHA or that anti-inflammatory component. Huge, huge things that we can do there. And those are easy things that can be brought in. But of course, you know, it's we we talk about these things, but what's an important thing to discuss is where you're purchasing these products as well. Yeah. Because not all products are equal. And I will tell you, you probably know this as well, that you know, many of the products that are being sold on Amazon are not quality products. They're often oftentimes being relabeled with the same labeling with a poorer product in there. So if you ever buy anything on Amazon, what I typically recommend is there's a section there it says you can identify is the manufacturer the one who's selling this. And that's how you can know if you're more comfortable there. If it's not the manufacturer, I would not purchase it. But typically, um, your local health food stores, um wherever you are in the country, things like you know, natural grocers, whole foods, sprouts, these are better quality because they vet the companies prior to putting them on the shelves rather than like Walmart's, Target, the big box stores, they do not. Right. There was I read a study once before, I think it was on Centrum, where they spend like 70 cents of every dollar they make on marketing. Okay, which means they have less money into the product itself and they spend more on the marketing aspect of it. And when you understand things like bioavailability, which means how much your body is actually consuming of the product because of how it's manufactured, most of those products from independent studies show they're less than 10%.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

So taking a thousand milligrams of vitamin C, but you're only you're only absorbing a hundred. Thinking you're gonna need stuff, but you're not, where it's you you use more of like the um pharmaceutical grade type products, if you will, like where healthcare practitioners can um provide, and they're 85 to 95 percent bioavailable. So then you cost more, but the quality is better, and you're gonna be able to absorb these nutrients more efficiently as well.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

Yeah, I think our sewage system has more centrum in it than any of our bodies do. For sure. I see here, this is an interesting fact. You you write about metformin interferes with B12 absorption in the gut. So most metformin takers are that have to take that medication are B12 deficient.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

So true. So true. And it's so funny how often people ask me um, you know, to run like a B12 analysis on them on a blood test, which can be easily done. But I think in general, not only B12, many of the B vitamins are deficient in most people, anyhow. And on top of that, many individuals have the genetic mutation in THFR while not absorbing the traditional B vitamins that are in our food supply, right? The folic acid, et cetera, which is very toxic to individuals. So, you know, most people should be on a B vitamin, methylated B vitamin. Um, even be careful because even when you go to places like sprouts, I remember I went there about six months ago and I saw I think it was eight B vitamins on the shelf, and only two of them are methylated.

SPEAKER_03 41:53

Yeah. Yeah. We just kind of we started giving all our patients methylated B's, even if we don't do the genetic testing, just to cover the basis.

Final Wake Up Call And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 42:04

I I agree. I think it I think it's a standard.

SPEAKER_03 42:06

Well, Dr. Schamard, we definitely consider you a hormone hero. And is there any last comment you'd like to make to our audience?

SPEAKER_01 42:15

I think the biggest thing is even though if you're type two diabetic, you're not having any symptoms, don't think that you're out of the woodwork. Don't wait until the symptoms start, because oftentimes that could be too late. Because many people believe that the symptoms are going to be gradual. And that may be the case for some individuals, but for others, it's traumatic. It's a heart attack, it's a stroke, it's like major neuropathy where they're amputating your foot. Like these are things that could happen very easily, even though you're feeling okay today. Diabetes is a progressive disease. It's not if it's ever going to become a problem, it's when's it going to be a problem. The sooner you get on top of it, the easier it is to handle, to get it to remission, and it the less chance you have into those complications.

SPEAKER_03 42:58

And there's really no age limit on either end, is there? You can't be too young, you can't be too old.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

I've had 95-year-olds heal faster than 25-year-olds. Yeah. So it's not there's no, I I always say, listen, if you have a heartbeat, you have nerves that are working, and you're above ground, you can heal.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

Oh, amen. I love that. So just uh the way you can get a hold of Dr. Shimard is dr shimard.com and his phone number is 858-564-7081. And uh, we just really appreciate your time today.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

Uh thank you so much, Rao. It was a lot of fun being here with you today.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

Yeah. And everyone, reach out to Dr. Shimard. If you have someone or yourself is dealing with diabetes in general, thank you, Dr. Shimard. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

Thanks for listening to Hormone Heroes. Take a moment to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. While you are there. Help us spread the word by leaving a rating and a review. If you would like to share your bioidentical hormone story or need help finding a physician in your area, please email us at drkelly at hormoneheroes.org. That's D-R-K-E-L-L-Y at H O R M O N E H E R O E S dot org. We want you to be a hormone hero.