A new patient to my practice was referred for treatment of her psoriasis and arthritis. She did well on her initial therapy with Humira and had almost total clearing of her skin. Her visit last April started with a tearful statement, “my doctor is sending me for gastric sleeve surgery or gastric bypass.” The patient was deathly afraid of surgery. I looked over her list of medications and she was on three medications for diabetes. She was on insulin, metformin, and trulicity. She weighed 248 lbs. “Stop your insulin,” I told her. Her jaw dropped. “How can I do that?” Easy. Every day test your morning sugar if it is below 250 taper her insulin by 2 units daily. Her lab results showed that in fact, she had extremely high levels of insulin as well as leptin. This means she was suffering from both insulin resistance and leptin resistance. Take a chance with me for 12 weeks I begged her.
We agreed upon a menu for the next seven days and she would decrease her insulin 2 units every day. One week later she was down 10 lbs. She owned her future at that moment. In 5 months she lost 50 lbs. and was completely off Insulin. When she went to her diabetes doctor, the doctor advised she add sugar back into her diet to cover the insulin she needed. That was their last visit. A year later she remains off insulin and has maintained her weight loss.
– Dr. Hopkins