Get Help Managing Your Type 2 Diabetes
I help clients with Pre-Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes improve or reverse their diabetes using my DIGEST Protocol

Have you been diagnosed with Pre-Diabetes or Type 2 Diabetes, given medication, and not told what else you need to do to manage your condition? There is hope! Through helpful tips, education, specialized lab testing to find the root cause of your diabetes, and simple lifestyle changes you can gain back control and feel better.
The DIGEST Protocol
Get the help you need with one-on-one coaching, diagnostic testing, and customized health designed for you. Don’t have diabetes, but still want to increase your health or manage other conditions? The DIGEST Protocol can help anyone have a healthier lifestyle.
D- Diabetes Education
I- Improved Nutrition
G- Gut Health
E- Environment
S- Stress/Sleep
T- Toxins (Diabetogens)
Click on a protocol step to explore more:
Through one-on-one consulting, you will learn what causes Type II Diabetes, target blood glucose levels, how to mitigate the risks, how your medication works, and how to properly manage it so that you can have a fulfilled and healthy life.
- What is Pre-Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes and what happens to your body.
- How to prevent and possibly reverse pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes.
- How to manage high and low blood glucose levels.
- Goal blood glucose levels, appropriate times to monitor, and what affects it
- Use of glucometers and continuous glucose monitoring systems
- Sick day guidelines on how to manage blood glucose levels.
- How exercise affects blood glucose, how to incorporate, and importance of getting physical activity. Goal exercise amount is 150 minutes per week.
- How to prevent or slow the progression of the complications associated with diabetes such as diabetes retinopathy (eye disease), neuropathy (nerve pain), and nephropathy (kidney damage).
- How your medications work, side effects to expect, best time to take them, if they are causing nutrient deficiencies leading to other health issues.
- Oral medication
- Insulin medication
- Use of Precision medicine (Pharmacogenomics) also called “personalized medicine” to see if the medication you take is right for you and how you respond to medication based on your genetics.
- Hydration, Hydration, Hydration!!
- Foot Care
- Dental Health
- How to use nutrition as medicine
- Reading food labels
- Basic and advanced carb counting (advanced is for insulin users)
- Goal carbohydrate intake to maintain blood glucose control.
- Diagnostic testing used to determine:
- Nutrient deficiencies- Incorporate supplements and nutrition to replenish and use of nutraceuticals to improve insulin function
- Food sensitivities/intolerances- common foods you eat could be causing inflammation in your body leading to increased blood sugar.
- Educate on benefits of intermittent fasting on insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
- Provide lower carb food alternatives
The gut-brain axis (or gut-brain connection) describes the two-way (bi-directional) connection and communication between the gut and the brain. When this communication is disturbed, it can lead to high blood sugars and insulin-resistance. Through personalized diagnostic testing you will learn what is causing an imbalance in your gut that could be leading to diabetes and other intestinal issues.
- Most chronic conditions are caused by an imbalance in the gut and an imbalance of what is called the gut-brain axis.
- Diagnostic testing can be used to determine if you have overgrowth of bacteria, yeast, fungus, or viruses that could be contributing to your intestinal issues and an imbalance of your gut-brain axis that can lead to diabetes.
- Food intolerances, chronic stress, medications, environmental toxins, low acid, and chronic infections could be contributing to negative gut health which could be a root cause of diabetes?
- Food sensitivities/intolerances can cause tears in our gut lining. This, in turn, allows toxins to enter our body that lead to digestive discomfort, irritable bowel syndrome, food cravings, fatigue, weight gain, and even more health issues.
- Acid reducer medications can cause chronic acid suppression that can lead to inflammation in the gut, overgrowth of bacteria that can lead to SIBO (Small intestine bacteria overgrowth), or “Leaky Gut”.
- There is an underlying cause to gut issues. Through specialized testing, balancing the microbiome (gut bacteria), addressing toxicities and food sensitivities helps to balance the gut brain axis which could be contributing to overall negative gut health and diabetes.
- Incorporation of nutrition, probiotics, and probiotic fermented foods help to balance the good bacteria in the gut, in addition to beneficial natural supplements.
Everyone is exposed to environmental toxins (hormone disrupting toxins) either through air, food, cosmetics, plastic, or other items we come into contact with daily. This effects insulin, sex hormones, thyroid and pituitary hormones and can cause diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases. Through specialized diagnostic testing, identification, reduction, and detoxification of environmental exposures, the body can be put in balance and improve your health!
- Diabetes, chronic pain, autoimmune disease, skin conditions, brain fog, fatigue, and fibromyalgia symptoms can be attributed to environmental toxin exposure.
- Exposure to environmental toxins can occur through the air, contaminated drinking water, cosmetics and personal products, and food that has been eaten.
- Environmental toxins can affect and disrupt your DNA and has been associated with obesity and diabetes, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, development of many types of cancers, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, infertility, allergies, and autoimmune disease.
- When we become overloaded with toxins and other stressors, our detoxification system begins to falter, and symptoms and illness can start to develop. When we have reached our limit in terms of toxic load, we may also become hypersensitive, experiencing an abnormal immune response and loss of tolerance towards chemicals and foods that at one time didn’t seem to bother us.
- Things to consider:
- Reduce exposure to known toxins
- Replace all regular cleaning products with nontoxic cleaning agents.
- Choose organic foods
- Consider a water filtration system
- Reduce time on electronics as electomagnetic fields (EMFs) have shown to have negative effects on diabetes.
- Some environmental toxins can have effects on insulin production, metabolism and obesity, male and female hormones, breast and prostate cancer, thyroid, and cardiovascular health.
- Diagnostic testing can be performed to determine if you have an accumulation of toxins in your body that could be contributing to your diabetes, work to eliminate those toxins, and incorporate detoxification protocols.
Stress is recognized as a key contributor in the development of poor health and chronic degenerative disease. It is a major factor to elevated blood glucose levels and a new onset diabetes diagnosis. A full assessment of how stress may be affecting your digestion, hormone levels, blood glucose, sleep, mood, and immunity will be conducted. Tests can be performed to determine how well your body is responding to stress and help you make diet and lifestyle changes. In addition, incorporation of adaptogens and mindfulness help significantly reduce some of the negative effects of stress.
- Stress can cause an imbalance to your whole-body system.
- Your brain tells your body you are stressed and sends a signal to your adrenal glands to release cortisol and adrenaline to deal with the stress. This causes an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar (fight or flight) so your body can deal with the stressor.
- If your body is constantly under stress, these levels will not return to baseline and therefore chronically high levels lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, insomnia, burnout, digestive issues that can also lead to depression and anxiety, and cardiovascular health issues amongst many other chronic conditions.
- Incorporation on adaptogens helps stress resiliency
- Adaptogens are herbs and plants used to help the body adapt to stressors of all kinds and help the body regain balance.
- You will be educated on how to incorporate mindfulness, breathing techniques, prayer or meditation, and calming exercises like yoga.
- Meditation has been studied in many clinical trials. The overall evidence supports the effectiveness of meditation for various conditions, including:
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Pain
- Depression
- Insomnia
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Meditation/Mindfulness can help you experience thoughts and emotions with greater balance and acceptance. It also has been shown to:
- Improve diabetes control
- Improve attention
- Decrease job burnout
- Improve sleep
- Chronic stress is associated with worsening peripheral neuropathy (nerve pain from diabetes) and other chronic pain, therefore managing stress should be a priority.
- Bad sleep can lead to impaired blood glucose and diabetes
- Most adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night, and less than 6 hours a night is rarely enough for anyone.
- Poor sleep causes changes in some powerful hormones:
- When you’re low on sleep, your cells aren’t as sensitive to the hormone insulin (causing insulin resistance) which can increased blood glucose.
- Weight increases because the hormone that causes you to feel full (Leptin) decreases and the hormone that tells you are hungry (Ghrelin) increases, which causes you to eat more.
- Increase in the stress hormone cortisol is released because your body is not getting enough rest. This makes it harder for your glucose to get into your cells for energy and leaves more in your blood stream.
- You will be educated on sleep hygiene and incorporation of nutraceuticals and natural alternatives if needed.
- Sleep apnea is a contributing factor towards lack of sleep and should be considered.
- Clinical studies suggest that obstructive sleep apnea (A sleep disorder where breathing is interrupted repeatedly during sleep. Characterized by loud snoring and episodes of stop breathing) is also independently associated with alterations in glucose metabolism and places patients at an increased risk of the development of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
Exposure to certain environmental toxins known as diabetogens have been correlated to blood sugar dysregulation leading to diabetes. Diabetogens impair the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar appropriately by causing dysfunction in the pancreas, affecting insulin release and blood sugar control. You will be educated on what and where you may be exposed to these toxins, how you can reduce or eliminate them, and be supported with personalized detoxification protocols. This can help prevent diabetes and improve a potential stressor in your body that is contributing to diabetes and impaired blood glucose.
- These compounds enter our bodies and wreak havoc on our hormonal systems.
- The most common toxins contributing to the development of diabetes include:
- Arsenic: Exposure to arsenic is primarily through diet (seafood, poultry, rice) and drinking water.
- Bisphenol A (BPA): BPA is utilized in the production of plastics, including food and drink packaging and liners in canned food.
- Dioxins: These “persistent organic pollutants” are used in many industrial processes.
- Pesticides: Countless amounts of pesticides are sprayed on conventionally grown produce to repel bugs and other nuisance critters, but runoff is also a problem. Pesticides routinely contaminate drinking water and the air around farms.
- Phthalates: These chemicals increase flexibility and durability in plastics. They’re also utilized in health and beauty aids, fragrances, and cosmetics. These toxins have been detected in milk, butter, and other fatty foods that are stored in plastic containers (because they are easily absorbed and stored by fats).
- With the ever-increasing toxic burden of our environment and developing knowledge of the corresponding health implications, it is essential to mitigate your exposure to these toxins when treating or preventing diabetes.
- Detailed toxicology tests can help determine what toxins are affecting you and help to personalize a detox protocol that is best for you.