Unlock Your Path To Diabetes Remission

William Hsu, MD

Dr. Yates. Thank you so much for having me at this summit.

Beverly Yates, ND

I love having you here as a co-host as we bring this information forward, I’d love for people to have a little overview of your wonderful professional background in this area.

William Hsu, MD

I am an endocrinologist, and I’ve been practicing medicine for more than 20 years. Before my current role, I was a professor at Harvard Medical School and worked at the Joslin Diabetes Center. I did research looking into why people have diabetes; what are the underlying causes of Type 2 diabetes? We have a big name called pathophysiology, but what that means is, why in the world do we get diabetes, and what parts of the body? What’s the mechanism behind all that? It’s been fascinating for about 20 years or so. But about four and a half years ago, I joined a company called L-Nutra and wanted to give options to our providers and also to our patients. That’s what I love to talk to you about.

Beverly Yates, ND

We’re eager to hear about what the options are because both providers and, of course, the patients that we providers serve are looking for options, like what’s going to be effective and what’s doable. There’s one thing to do with a test tube and another thing to have it work in a person’s life.

William Hsu, MD

Very different things.

Beverly Yates, ND

Would you explain to us what it is that you mean by remission? We know we can’t use the cure. Word and cure would not be accurate when it comes to Type 2 diabetes. Please tell us what remission is about and how someone would know if they’ve effectively achieved remission.

William Hsu, MD

This is very interesting. This is a term that we borrowed from the oncology society right there in the cancer world because there is no such thing as a cure for cancer as far as we know. After all, you and the cancer cells can come back again. But there are a lot of things you can do, and there’s a lot of benefit to driving cancer into remission. The first effort by scientists around the globe on this definition of remission came around 2009 when there was a paper published by the American Diabetes Association talked about this concept of remission. But more than 10 years—more than a decade—have passed. Now the scientists, not only here in the United States but also in Europe, got together about two years ago and said, with all the advances and all the new knowledge we have about diabetes, we ought to set a new angle. That is, the goals for diabetes treatment should not simply be, “Let’s control diabetes for the rest of your lives with all the medicine that we have. As long as you get your glucose under control at a certain level, you’re fine.” That has been the practice of medicine in the past few years. But what are these? These experts are saying, we ought to be looking for a new angle where there is a potential to stop the use of medication while at the same time driving this glucose control down to a certain level. The official definition is to get your A1C, and Hemoglobin A1C to a three-month diabetes marker down to less than six and a half for at least three months without the help of a drug. Now, the experts have put it on the map that this is a goal that all of us should be driving towards.

Beverly Yates, ND

We are completely aligned with that goal. because of all the chronic illnesses. Type 2 diabetes is probably the most sensitive to these lifestyle choices, especially nutrition. You can do something about it. That’s the exciting part. You’re not stuck; it’s not hopeless; it’s hopeful. With that in mind, how are you and your career changing now? Your shift over to L-Nutra? How is that supporting this? Why is this approach different? What is it?

William Hsu, MD

It’s very interesting. Organizations such as the American College of Lifestyle Medicine put out a position statement about two years ago stating what inspired this whole discussion around remission. They mentioned the outcomes that came from bariatric surgery. We know that people with cancer who underwent these thoracic surgeries ended up not having diabetes anymore. They’re in remission. People who are on intensive lifestyle medicine with lots of weight loss. They also experience stopping the medications and having their glucose stabilized without the help of a drug. The third thing that this American College of Lifestyle Medicine position statement talked about was the outcomes of the fasting or fasting-mimicking diet. That’s what I wanted to tell you. It was because of that technology that I left where I was practicing medicine to come. L-Nutra for a fasting-mimicking diet. It sounds long. What it means is that since fasting and certain types of fasting—not all fasting, but a certain type of fasting—can drive these amazing results, the most healthful way of losing weight, and other mechanisms, it inspires these organizations to think about the potential for diabetes remission. I’ll go into it a little bit more.

Beverly Yates, ND

The fact that colleagues from different aspects of medicine are looking at this and are embracing it and understanding that we can’t let the current situation with these wild animals increase, with the number of people with Type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and Type 1.5 that there are, we can’t let that go. Human health will not be sustained going forward, and we’re having younger and younger people affected by these things that frankly shouldn’t be happening that way. In that process, what role does supposedly what people think of as normal or typical aging have to play with all this? Some people think that as you get older, you might have diabetes. It’s not a big deal. They don’t appreciate how much things are breaking.

William Hsu, MD

Dr. Yates, you appreciate this very much. In conventional medicine, we treat diseases as if they were unrelated, while technology treats diabetes. The cardiologist treats heart disease, and the neurologists treat Alzheimer’s. But when you think about it, if you have to tie all these conditions—cancer and others—all together, what is the common denominator? You will say these things don’t typically happen when people are younger like you don’t; you don’t see people with heart attacks at age 30, generally speaking, you see them as they age. You don’t see diabetes happening. Someone who is 28 years old, right out of college, and working is not right. I’m talking about Type 2 diabetes. The one common denominator is the process of aging. I often use this imagery, like it’s like a river. You should think about how you pollute the rivers and all the branches of a river you pollute by dumping toxic waste upstream. If you dump all this bad stuff upstream, what happens? You don’t have to go to every branch to dump that stuff. All you need to do is dump that toxic waste upstream. Then and then the entire river chain gets polluted. That’s what happened. Aging is like when a pollutant gets into our body and leads to our body’s inability to repair. When it happens in the metabolic areas, diabetes happens. When it happens in the brain area, Alzheimer’s happens; when it happens in other cells in the body, causing mutations, cancer happens. Aging is tied to many of these conditions. yet we are treating each disease by each specialist as if they were unrelated. That’s a big miss in the way we practice medicine.

Beverly Yates, ND

I agree. It’s an opportunity to do better. for all concerned, especially for the patients and clients that everyone serves, because there’s so much unnecessary suffering and harm behind all of that. I love your words of wisdom here. When we think about aging, we think about Type 2 diabetes, and we think about remission. What’s the role that weight loss plays? Because sometimes people are so fixated on a number on a scale or weight. But body composition is a factor here too. Give us your thoughts, please, if you would. What is weight loss?

William Hsu, MD

A great insight there? One thing is for sure: the aging process and weight gain are correlated. We often say that with every passing year, we reduce our basal metabolic rate by probably one percent or so. That’s why, by the time you’re in your forties, compared to the times when you’re in your twenties, you lose about one pound. You gain about one pound per year. It’s easy to see 20 years and 20 pounds. Aging is certainly part of that. But it’s also very interesting that the opposite is also quite interesting when we lose weight; a lot of times we only care about the absolute body weight that’s lost. Let’s say you’re on a low-calorie diet and want to lose 10 pounds. But little do we know that when we lose weight, most of that weight can be fat but also muscle. Now we’re seeing very often that with a lot of the strong drugs that we see, the GLP one, the Ozempic, and others, up to about a third of all the weight loss is due to muscle loss. Now let’s say you think about 10 pounds of weight loss in which you lose three pounds of muscle, three and a half pounds of muscle, you might think that three, and a half pounds of muscle is not a lot. Go to the supermarket and pick up a steak that’s three and a half pounds. To gain all that back is hard. But we lose it just like that without even paying attention to it. This is mostly going to be relevant for two populations. One is people who are aging because they lose muscle naturally. Now, with weight loss, they’re going to lose even more muscle. It’s even harder for them to gain muscle back. Number two: women. Because women, by nature, have less muscle mass, you want to cherish those muscles. You don’t want to give them up. From a physiological standpoint, what’s quite interesting is that a lot of people don’t realize all the blood sugar flowing in the bloodstream. Where do they go to? They go to the cells; they go to the tissue. But by far, there’s one tissue that absorbs most of that glucose. That is the muscle. 80% of all the glucose flow in the bloodstream eventually goes into muscle form, so we can move our body. With every passing year, we’re losing muscle. With every weight-loss attempt, we’re losing muscle. My goodness. There’s less sync for these glucose molecules to go to. What do they do? They stay in the blood, causing. Leading to insulin resistance and all the complications of elevated blood glucose. That is just a terrible idea. aging, the loss of muscle mass, and what we do to our body to lose weight—there’s a lot of insight we think can be gained from this discussion here. The best smart way to lose weight. We have to think about the fact that we should not be aiming for weight loss at all costs.

Beverly Yates, ND

I agree with you 100%. The observation that I’ve seen over the years and most recently is that people’s obsession with weight loss as a number on a scale is misguided. You need to know what your body composition is and understand that. That’s where the conversation will shift to people like yourself and others who are like-minded. We’re going to be the thought leaders around this because people have to be better informed about the beauty of their muscle mass. We have to build it, increase it, and preserve it if you already have it. But whatever you do, don’t lose it.

William Hsu, MD

It’s so important there. and so a lot of people would lose weight by restricting calories. That’s the most common. There are other ways, but intuitively, people say, I need to lose weight. Which is to reduce my calorie intake. That could be true. But remember that a third of that weight loss could be due to muscle loss. There is yet another very distinct way of losing more healthful weight, and that is through fasting. Fasting is a different mechanism than just eating low-calorie foods for six months. I often use this analogy when we are losing weight little bit by little bit—one pound per week, one pound per month—very slow weight loss. What happened? It doesn’t create any reaction in the body other than. It’s a net in, a net out. I’m eating less than what I’m putting out. I’m going to lose weight in that, which is simple mathematics. What happens is that the body says, “What?” calorie deficit. Muscle gives some calories away. Fat gives some calories away. I can sustain that in my body. The body doesn’t discriminate where those savings all come from. muscle could be burned. Fat can be burned. Now, when we fast in the right way, we’re going to do that right away when we fast for an extended period. It’s a stress on the body. The body says, there’s no food. The body said, there’s no food, we’re supposed to go hunting. We’re supposed to go gather. There is an entrenched system in the body that, for example, stimulates the secretion of growth hormones. It’s other acts as well. Then come and support the integrity of the muscle. In other words, when you fast to lose weight, you protect muscle mass during that process. Now, I’m not saying you’ve been fasting for 30 days and you’re not going to lose your muscle. What I’m saying is that the mechanism of action is very different because now it preferentially goes to the fat, burning the fat while protecting muscle. This is very logical because you think about how all these species and all of our life forms exist on Earth when there is no food. The animal’s got to go out and gather. If, during that process, your muscle gets weaker and weaker, that species would have died a long time ago.

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s great to make those two statements about the different mechanisms and what’s preserving our muscles. Now that you’ve made such a great case for the importance of muscle, maintaining it, growing it, and having a great reservoir, if you will, for blood, you’re for glucose to park in. Please tell us what you do with your programs and your offerings at L-Nutra, because you all have put together a system that gives people the keys to being able to handle their blood sugar weight if they need to correct that and preserve their muscle mass.

William Hsu, MD

Some of our listeners, as they listen to us, say, there’s no way I’m not going to fast; I don’t want to fast; I’m hungry; I like to eat. This is where we are now in the twenty-first century. We don’t have to just go to the mountains and hide for five days, fast, and pray. We’re in the 21st century, and by leveraging our understanding of how the molecules inside the cells work, we can now simulate or mimic fasting. That’s what the fasting-mimicking diet means—the FMD and the sugar for the fasting-mimicking diet. It’s a set of precision nutrition that gives you the benefits of fasting without going hungry or fasting. Real Fast with Water for Five Days is a five-day structured meal kit. Everything you need comes in that box. But our program, because he works, is also, especially for people with diabetes. Since this is a diabetes summit here, for people with diabetes, we want to make sure that people do this fasting even with nutrition very safely. That journey is overseen by a team of physicians and dieticians to hold you through that entire journey to reduce your medications over time so that you can truly reach two goals. One is to reach diabetes remission. Remember I mentioned earlier that it was in us for six and a half months with no mass for at least three months? Number two, and this is something that will be very interesting to our listeners, is that I mentioned aging as a big factor here. When you fast with FMD, there’s evidence now, and by the time this summit is aired, we will have a newly published study to show that when you do these prolonged fasts with nutrition with FMD, you’re able to reverse or decrease biological age. Think about this. It’s all-natural. It doesn’t involve medications. It’s five days a month, repeated, done repeatedly, and done repeatedly under the watch of a physician. You can reduce your medications, reduce your A1C, and also reduce your biological age. This is why I left where I was to come and help people find a natural way to drive Type 2 diabetes remission.

Beverly Yates, ND

Beautiful. With that, then, one of the thoughts that I have, particularly for those people here, are some of the attendees who are here in the U.S. It would be great if they knew how they could pay for this program because sometimes people are looking to make sure they’re making smart decisions both for their wealth and their health. Is my understanding correct that people can use health savings accounts or flexible spending account plans to pay for these pretax dollars, essentially?

William Hsu, MD

That’s exactly right. If your employer has these provisions and you can certainly use this health savings account to pay towards them, we certainly have the end goal of getting them reimbursed. As soon as medicine is available, we will be part of the drivers of this movement. But we also have different-tier programs. We would invite you to come to our website to learn that they are coaching only our longevity and diabetes coaches and dietitian coaches. There’s the counseling program. Our metabolic health programs are run by our R.D. and with our FMD solutions. There is also our flagship program, which we call L-Nutra Health for Diabetes. I will invite you to come to our website. It’s called l-nutrahealth.com.

Beverly Yates, ND

Thank you for telling us where we can find these wonderful resources, so people can check them out and make the choice that’s right for them. I’m curious: Is L-Nutra Health available in other countries outside of the United States?

William Hsu, MD

We’re actively working right now. I have colleagues since we are in over 14 countries right now. Our company portfolio and product portfolio in Europe will be launching this, hopefully by the time this program is airing. The model is in Italy and likely the UK and other places in Asia-Pacific, places like Taiwan, and other places are soon to follow. We’re very excited to make this available not only here in the United States but also around the globe.

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s so great to know. Our international friends are trying their best to expand the span of goodness and go around the globe. If you’re not sure if it doesn’t currently show your country, I’d say check back in every month to be sure, because the team behind the scenes at L-Nutra is working hard to expand the help. After all, this issue with Type 2 diabetes is an international phenomenon. It’s been amazing to watch this.

William Hsu, MD

It is incredible. Beverly. The burden of this condition exceeds over 500 million people.

Beverly Yates, ND

Mind-boggling number. 

William Hsu, MD

It is the most expensive chronic disease, paid for by the government through insurance and other means. We’re doing a lot of good by empowering people and providing a natural means to drive Type 2 diabetes remission.

Beverly Yates, ND

I’ve got that; that stands alone right there. Any final thoughts as we come to wrap up this episode?

William Hsu, MD

Our listeners in this series are different people. They want to be empowered. They want to learn. They want to stay at the forefront of technology and what’s new here. This is great news. Because it’s these people who want to take care of themselves. They don’t want to just rely on a physician, although they could be great partners in your healthcare. But take your health into your own hands. Learn as much as you can. Look out for the resources that we have to offer at this summit. So many experts have come by and come on the programs, and hopefully, you also find our program exciting and relevant for you as you take control of your health.

Beverly Yates, ND

Friends, please take advantage of this wonderful offer that Dr. Will Hsu has put out here. Because we put this together and have the science behind it, the research is done. It’s already packaged and ready to go. People are waiting and able to help. If you can find any way to say yes, please do; it’s an opportunity to reclaim your health. This way your health span can equal your life span for so many people. One of the things I hear most commonly is that if I’d known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself if I were younger.

William Hsu, MD

Doctor Yates, no regrets. Today’s the first step you could take towards your better health.

Beverly Yates, ND

Friends, you know what to do? Go check it out. Thank you so much for being a wonderful co-host and a partner with me here at the summit. it’s great. The synergy is so beautiful. Thank you.

William Hsu, MD

Thank you, Doctor Yates.