Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 23 restricted eating and getting active. The results were almost immediate — within the first week, his insulin dropped by 40 per cent and his blood sugars dropped to five to seven millimoles from more than 15. By eight months, Dave was 70 pounds lighter and was off insulin completely. His diabetes remains controlled on medication and his insulin resistance continues to improve. Most importantly, he has a whole new outlook on life. Emerging evidence shows that by better understanding and addressing the root cause of diabetes as a disease of energy overload, it can be reversed, often all the way to complete remission. Impressive ROI What would the return on investment look like if this was done as a standard of practice? Let's look at what the data shows us: • The average age of diagnosis for Type 2 diabetes is 45 years • The initial medication prescribed is often metformin, which is cheap • By nine years, there is a 75-per-cent chance that another medication will liver, pancreas) and the beginning of the metabolic vicious cycle. Age, genetics and lifestyle behaviours — especially nutrition, activity levels, sleep and stress levels — may increase or decrease our risk of developing insulin resistance. To reverse this metabolic vicious cycle, we need to reverse the energy overload and get ectopic fat out of the pancreas and liver. The cycle can be broken when weight loss leads to the decrease and elimination of ectopic fat in the liver a nd pancreas. The Wellness Garage has combined the learnings of the Twin Cycle Theory with other lifestyle medicine research to develop a systematic, evidence-based, lifestyle behaviour approach to reversing insulin resistance. As a lifestyle medicine clinic, our mission is to help people take control of their health by improving the six pillars of lifestyle behaviours: nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress tolerance, relationships and purpose. For Dave, this meant a shift toward whole foods, eliminating sugars and refined carbs, introducing time- be required — the choices here are not so cheap (for example, the annual cost for one drug is $1,833) • By 10 to 12 years, there is a 50-per- cent chance that insulin will be required • The total drug cost from age 45 to 65 can easily be greater than $50,000 • If we factor in other costs to employers (reduced productivity, missed work), the cost will be greater than $80,000 • There's the potential for short- and long-term disability • There are potential costs around co-morbidities (such as hear t disease, hypertension, kidney failure, retinopathy and neuropathy). Compared to the cost of an intensive, year-long lifestyle medicine approach to lifestyle change (roughly $2,000 to Generally, nine years after diagnosis, less than 25 per cent of diabetics remain on one medication, and after 10 to 12 years, more than 50 per cent are on insulin. $4,000), the potential ROI appears massive. For benefit providers and insurers, the time has come to rethink diabetes as a preventable, reversible condition that does not have to result in high personal and financial costs and can be addressed through a systematic, evidence-based lifestyle approach. CHRR Brendan Byrne is the medical director and co-founder of the Wellness Garage in White Rock, B.C. Anyone interested in participating in a pilot study for diabetes reversal in the workplace can contact him at brendan@wellnessgarage.ca.

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