If you’ve recently come across an exciting and new remedy for reversing type 2 diabetes, there’s a good chance it’s the Halki Diabetes Remedy. Is this for real or is it just another “too good to be true” scam that makes false promises and empties your wallet at the same time?
What is the Halki Diabetes Remedy?
This program is touted as being a solution to type 2 diabetes. The premise of the program is that toxins — which are everywhere, by the way, including in the air, your food, your cooking utensils, your home — are thought to cause type 2 diabetes (according to the creators of the program, that is). The solution is apparently super-easy: combat these toxins and you can “reverse and repair your body.” You don’t take any magic pills; you just consume certain ingredients and eliminate your diabetes. Just like that!
What’s the basis of the program?
As the creators of the program point out, diabetes isn’t just caused by eating too many carbs, medications or genetics — it’s caused by a “certain environmental toxin.” The toxin is a particulate called PM2.5 that is linked to insulin resistance. PM2.5 stands for “particulate matter 2.5” and according to a study published in the journal Diabetes Care in 2010, diabetes prevalence increases with increasing PM2.5 concentrations. Other studies have linked pollution to a higher prevalence of diabetes in the U.S., as well. The authors of this Diabetes Care study state that PM2.5 “may contribute to increased diabetes prevalence in the adult U.S. population.” Yet, researchers from the landmark Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study did not find strong evidence of a link between exposure to PM and incident diabetes. Another study, published in 2015 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives acknowledged that pollution and diabetes may be related, but that further studies were needed. No doubt, air pollution may play a role in the incidence of diabetes, but it’s just one factor — other environmental factors likely have an impact, as well.
The crux of the Halki Diabetes Remedy program is practicing a 60-second habit twice a day that’s known only to inhabitants of an Aegean island called Halki. This habit apparently helps you flush out PM2.5 from the body and reverse and repair any damage. The habit is based on eating special salad dressings twice a day that don’t cause spikes in your blood sugar and that contain ingredients that have been shown by studies to help those “dealing with type 2 diabetes.”
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Meet the creators of the Halki Diabetes Remedy
Amanda Feerson is credited with creating this program. She is a “professional researcher” who has devoted 20 years of her career to finding healthier alternatives to medications for treating diabetes.
Eric Whitfield, an iron worker from Owego, New York, came across Amanda after he almost “lost” his wife to type 2 diabetes. According to Eric, his wife was minutes away from slipping into a diabetic coma with a blood sugar of 488. The doctor apparently told him that they were trying to lower her blood sugar but the medications weren’t working and he had never “seen it this bad before.” What Eric doesn’t share is what happened to prevent his wife from slipping into a coma (“severe ketoacidosis”). One can only hope that her doctor followed the protocol for treating what may have been diabetic hyperosmolar syndrome by giving her IV fluids, insulin and electrolytes.
The good news is that Eric’s wife survived the crisis (although we don’t exactly know how she was minutes away from a coma and then sent home). And this led Eric on his journey to find a treatment for type 2 diabetes and eventually connect with a researcher named Amanda Freeson. In fact, after just a few weeks of following the program that he founded, his wife reversed all of her diabetes symptoms and her blood sugar dropped from 488 to 125, “no matter what she ate or drank.” She was able to toss her diabetes medications, meter and test strips in the trash, too. Oh, and she suddenly lose 56 pounds of deadly belly fat. The secret? The twice daily 60-second habit that has also reversed diabetes in 33,405 people (according to https://research.halkidiabetesremedy.org).
Pros and cons of the Halki Diabetes Remedy
The Halki Diabetes Remedy website states that the Halki Diabetes Remedy will provide you with meals, recipes and exercises to help you control your blood sugar. In particular, the salad dressings that you eat on this program are made with ingredients, such as kohlrabi, broccoli sprouts and marjoram, that protect and repair cells against oxidative damage caused by PM2.5. There is also a detox tea that is supposed to boost the power of these ingredients. You receive recipes for these salad dressings, along with a three-week protocol to follow. The recipes only take 60 seconds to make! And best of all, you get access to this “remedy” for only $37, as well as bonus material on how to achieve your goals, how to increase your energy, and the mind–body connection as it relates to diabetes. And if you don’t find that this program is working for you, Eric promises that you’ll get your money back (as long as it’s within 60 days of purchase, of course).
There is unlikely to be any danger of whipping up your own salad dressings. And there is some evidence to support the link between particulate matter and diabetes incidence. However, claims of reversing diabetes are disingenuous at best; mostly they’re concerning and potentially dangerous. To insinuate that you’ll be able to throw away your diabetes medicines and stop checking blood sugars is irresponsible. Also, without plunking down $37 (which, admittedly, is not a lot of money), it’s difficult to know if the nutrition protocol and recommended exercises are safe. Eric Whitfield is to be commended for doing his own research and for his efforts at helping his wife, but he is not a health-care professional or trained scientist. Amanda Feerson is apparently a known medical researcher, but an Internet search brings up her name only in reference to the Halki Diabetes Remedy.
You’ll find a handful of testimonials from customers who claim they’ve reversed their diabetes in a matter of weeks (and if there truly are 33,405 people who have reversed their diabetes, one would think that there would be more buzz about this in the scientific community…). Bottom line: Consider putting your $37 towards something more worthwhile to boost your health, such as a new pair of sneakers, fresh produce and whole grains at your local farmer’s market, or a yoga class.
Want to learn more about managing type 2 diabetes? Read “Blood Sugar Monitoring: When to Check and Why,” “Improving Your Recipes: One Step at a Time” and “Add Movement to Your Life.”