Dr. Oertle joins The BS Show to discuss how you can prevent diabetes and measures that can be taken to help with management. Read the transcript or listen to the interview below.

Bob Sansevere (00:00):

We are joined by Dr. John Oertle. He is Solidarity HealthShare’s- well, you’re their co-founder. You are the Chief Medical Officer and Solidarity HealthShare. It’s a great alternative to traditional healthcare and you are the one that, I mean, a lot of the decisions are coming from your office and a lot of great ideas. And one of the great ideas is the idea you had for our conversation today. It is American Diabetes Month, and when I saw it, I actually, it’s not often you get excited about diabetes, but it excited me because I was diagnosed over about a year and a half ago with type two diabetes and you actually made some suggestions of some things to take that are over the counter. And I’m taking ’em. I actually have what I consider well under control because I lost a good deal of weight and I’ve just been, I don’t do anything stupid and I’m doing all the things well, most of the things you say, I don’t always get a couple of minutes of walking after I eat. A lot of times I walk from the table to my easy chair to watch Tulsa King or one of my, as I call ’em stories, but Doctor, tell me more about, because let’s help some other people that have diabetes, whether it’s type one or type two because you have some great ideas of what they can do to help manage it.

Dr. John Oertle (01:23):

Thanks, Bob. Yeah, so we’re celebrating American Diabetes Month in November. I think it’s also important as well because we’re coming into the holidays, so it’s how actually managed diabetes at the same time that we’re coming into the holiday season, specifically Thanksgiving. So I wanted to be able to provide some of these tips and tricks to be able to know how to be able to handle this, how to do this well. And we’ve all here, if you have diabetes, control, the sugar, control, the sugar, and there’s medication management. And I get all of that and follow the doctor’s orders as far as the prescriptions and what the doc is telling you. But there’s other tips and tricks that I think can be helpful to coincide with your doctor’s recommendations. And some of these are not just going to be the traditional things that you usually hear.

(02:10):

So let me first start, I wanted to be able to really raise awareness about the role that chronic stress plays in elevation of glucose levels. So not many people understand this, but when you’re chronically stressed, the hormones that are produced in the body, primarily again epinephrine, norepinephrine, that you’re fight or flight hormone or cortisol, which is your stress hormone, it increases glucose levels and it actually increases insulin resistance, which means that it doesn’t allow the body to be able to use your insulin well, which is the problem with type one or type two diabetes. And so as a result of this chronic stress that we get under, and many times we all feel this and coming into the holidays, it’s one of these times that that stress can actually elevate. But I always say we need to prioritize reducing our stresses in our lives to be able to actually make sure that we’re not increasing that glucose and increasing the insulin resistance.

(03:07):

And so things that we can do to be able to help counteract that stress. Again, there’s a lot of things that you can do, but some of the things that I’m recommending or things like prayer and being able to bring things to God and being able to have that time to be able to really settle yourself or bring those burdens and let cast those burdens aside. Other things like again, being able to exercise and to be able to walk because walking and exercise can actually help reduce down that stress. Things like even being able to actually have proper diets can help with the stress, not the garbage, but having really good and healthy, your nutrient of diets.

(03:50):

Also, deep breathing is another thing that I always give too to be able to say, being able to have breathing exercises when you deep breathe, there’s a type of breathing that I like, it’s called box breathing, helps with anxieties, helps with, but box breathing is where you actually are paying attention. You can look it up online, but box breathing, it helps with, again, paying attention to your inhale and stop your exhale stop and then your inhale again. So you’re basically creating this way to be able to have deep breathing exercises. This shows to be able to help relax and calm that body. It gives the triggers to your mind to be able to say, okay, I’m going to take control over my thoughts and start to be able to settle my heart rate down and it lowers your respiratory rate down and gets oxygen to the tissue. All of this is helpful for chronic stress. And so those are a couple of things that I always like to say reduce your stress because it will reduce your glucose levels and it will reduce down that insulin resistance so that the insulin works better. Okay. Other things? Okay, go ahead

Bob Sansevere (05:00):

Bob. I was going to say they picked a good month with the election this month, but

Dr. John Oertle (05:03):

Oh my gosh. I mean we won’t get into that. The stress is leading up to and for people really either side be able to reduce the stress. Exactly

Bob Sansevere (05:11):

Right. Alright, I’m sorry I cut you off now.

Dr. John Oertle (05:14):

Oh, that’s okay. No, I was also going to say the other things that I really think are helpful for glucose management coming into the holiday season as well. One, you alluded to it earlier, Bob, and this is where being able to just go for a walk after meals, I’m a big fan of just walking, being able to move the body because that does a lot of good for a lot of systems of the body. But specifically even just walking after meals directly, walking immediately after a meal, even if it’s get this for just two minutes of walking after a meal has shown to be able to help affect your glucose levels. So again, you don’t have to have a huge burden, just go out and walk for a short period of two minutes is the very minimum that’s shown to be able to be effective at actually helping support your blood sugar levels.

(06:03):

Obviously I like 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day if you can, but being able to just walk after meals is a really good way because you’re eating the glucose and then what is it doing? It’s getting your body to use the glucose that your body is putting in all that fuel. It needs to go towards being able to be used in your cells. If you are just eating it, what is it going to do? If you’re sitting on the couch and going back and watching television, it’s going to just keep those glucose levels in the blood without being used. And so that’s why just being able to walk two minutes after a meal can be really helpful. So I love it this holiday season, especially Thanksgiving. Just go on a family walk, go on a walk just to be able to move and get that blood pumping.

Bob Sansevere (06:46):

Well, here’s what I’m going to do though, but doctor, I’m, I’m going to park for the farthest from the restaurants I go to so I can walk back to my truck and when I’m at home, I’m going to get up a lot and get more Diet Cokes or Diet Pepsis so then I can walk from my chair to my, the kitchen. Anyway, I digress.

Dr. John Oertle (07:03):

 Yeah, but I don’t know about the Diet Pepsis or the Diet Coke, but I love the recommendation of going into the back of the parking lot to be able to walk when you actually are leaving a restaurant. I think that’s an excellent idea. The other, a couple of other things that I recommend here in my new newsletter as well is this month is going to be high fiber diet. So again, being able to not have the super ultra processed junk when it’s processed, they move, they bring out all the fiber, they oftentimes they’re bringing out a lot of the nutrients as well. So being able to have your things as unprocessed and as natural as possible. I say if it comes from a plant, then it’s good. If it’s made in a plant, then it’s manufactured good. It’s not good. That’s good. So I love this. Again, please make sure that you, you’re having foods as natural as possible. So those Brussels sprouts that are being served at the Thanksgiving, those are great berries are great way to be able to incorporate fiber in your fruits as well. So things that are not processed is a really helpful thing, but fiber helps the slowing of glucose from going from the intestines into the bloodstream, so it slows that down and gives that body ability to process in the glucose that’s going on in.

(08:15):

The other thing that slows the glucose from going into the bloodstream as well, get this, is apple cider vinegar. So just incorporating apple cider vinegar into the diet and you can even do, I know people that are just doing a little bit of apple cider vinegar into water right before a meal to be able to help with the support of the glucose going from the gut into the bloodstream can be really helpful as well. And then last but not least is I always like to say people are always talking about ozempic and ozempic is the new drug, a weight loss drug and it’s the diabetes drug, but it’s an injectable format. There’s a lot of side effects with ozempic. So that’s one of the things that I’m not a huge proponent of just going on Ozempic because of all the side effects and over 50% of the people actually come off resulting to the side effects.

(09:05):

But one of the things that I love is what I call nature’s ozempic. And this is a supplement that you can get and it’s got a lot of incredible properties, but it’s the supplement Berberine and berberine is a yellow herb. It comes in a lot of different things as far as foods, but berberine is spelled B-E-R-B-E-R-I-N-E. And this is what helps to be able to slow down glucose metabolism. It helps to increase insulin sensitivity so your body’s not fighting that diabetic pulses. And it also, it has a lot of the similar properties that Ozempic has, but it’s a lot safer and a lot gentler as far as on the system. So again, that’s one of those things, anytime you’re incorporating something new into the diet or into the protocol, make sure you’re talking about it with your doctor just to make sure that it doesn’t have any interactions or anything along those lines. But it’s definitely something to be able to look at.

Bob Sansevere (09:57):

 And by the way, thanks to you, I’ve been taking Berberine for the last year and my numbers are, like I said, my numbers are where yes, they could be better, but they’re pretty good and that probably plays a part. And I also, well, I take apple cider vinegar in pill form, so is that-

Dr. John Oertle (10:17):

You can! That’s absolutely, that’s just as fine as taking it in the liquid form if you have an aversion to doing it liquid via taste.

Bob Sansevere (10:24):

 And for people that have Amazon or Amazon Prime, you can find both those supplements. That’s where I get ’em from. So check that out. And also check out Solidarity HealthShare at solidarityhealthshare.org. Great alternative to traditional healthcare. And keep listening because Doctor, you have got some great thoughts on whatever the topic. It’s always great. So when we talk to Dr.Oertle, you want to listen meantime, we’ll take a quick break. The BS Show will be right back.

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