{"id":119027,"date":"2023-05-31T22:15:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T02:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=119027"},"modified":"2023-05-31T22:15:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T02:15:56","slug":"how-one-man-is-winning-a-30-year-battle-with-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=119027","title":{"rendered":"How One Man is Winning a 30-year Battle with Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Capital Blue Cross \u2013 \u00a0THINK<\/a>\u00a0(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the latest health and insurance issues.<\/em><\/b><\/p>\n

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A new approach for dealing with diabetes has helped Dan Nissley lose weight, reduce his A1c level, lower his blood pressure, and reduce his medications. Here’s how he did it.<\/p>\n

Dan Nissley was in his 40s when his doctor told him he had Type 2 diabetes. The diagnosis was a surprise to Nissley, given he had no family history of the disease and no typical risk factors aside from having some struggles maintaining a healthy weight.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor years since then, I had been told by my doctors that that there is no cure \u2013 that I would always be a diabetic,\u201d said Nissley, now 76. \u201cI assumed taking medications to control it was the best I could expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in August 2022, Nissley received a mailing from Capital Blue Cross about a new approach for dealing with diabetes \u2013 one that even made reversing Type 2 diabetes a possibility. Instead of focusing on regulating blood sugar through medications, as many diabetes treatments do, this program focused on improving metabolic health through a low-carb, high-fat diet that works to normalize blood sugar and reduce the need for medication.<\/p>\n

At first, Nissley was skeptical.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tried numerous things over the years to lose weight and improve my health, but none of them really stuck, so I didn\u2019t have great expectations,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it was offered at no additional cost with my Capital coverage, so I thought I have nothing to lose by trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he lost was more than 50 pounds \u2013 dropping his weight from 235 pounds to 182 over nine months. He also saw his A1c level plunge from 7.3% to 5.7%. Diabetes is diagnosed when the A1c level (a measure of average blood glucose level over 2-3 months) is 6.5% or higher, according to the American Diabetes Association.<\/p>\n

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As a result of these health improvements, Nissley has been able to safely reduce his daily medications for diabetes and eliminate his blood pressure medication.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysically, I feel a lot different,\u201d Nissley said. \u201cMy knees and ankles aren\u2019t complaining from all that extra weight like they did before. My waist size has gone from 46 inches to 38 inches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many who try to change their eating habits, Nissley was concerned about whether he could move away from the carbohydrate-rich foods he loved to a ketogenic diet that naturally reduces blood sugar.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I did not expect to enjoy a keto diet, but we\u2019ve been amazed at how good the food is,\u201d Nissley said. \u201cWe keep a three-ring binder full of recipes and we add to it almost daily. It is certainly not a hardship for us to eat this way.\u201d (Nissley\u2019s wife is not diabetic, but decided to follow his nutrition regimen so they could share meals.)<\/p>\n

To help Nissley stick to his diabetes control regimen, he has access to a nurse specially trained to guide him. The nurse receives daily updates on Nissley\u2019s weight and blood pressure and can quickly counsel him if it looks like his numbers are moving in the wrong direction. The program also offers optional support groups so others battling diabetes can share their insights and advice.<\/p>\n

The result has been life changing for Nissley, helping him fight back against a disease that has affected him for nearly half his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiabetes was something I just assumed I had to learn to live with,\u201d Nissley said, \u201cand now there\u2019s a real possibility I can live without it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You can find more useful articles at https:\/\/thinkcapitalbluecross.com\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nJERRY REIMENSCHNEIDER
\nSenior Public Relations Specialist | Brand & Market Strategy
\nhttps:\/\/www.capbluecross.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Capital Blue Cross \u2013 \u00a0THINK\u00a0(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the … Continue reading How One Man is Winning a 30-year Battle with Diabetes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482,5742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2","category-think"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Dan-Nissley.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/119030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}