Simple lifestyle modifications and willpower help man recover his health

McALLEN — It started with a tingling in Humberto Garcia’s extremities that became most pronounced in the middle of the night.

The condition, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, is a type of nerve damage that occurs in the arms, hands, legs, feet and toes, often causing pain or loss of feeling in these extremities. Experts attribute it to a combination of factors that include high levels of glucose and, possibly, low levels of insulin.

“I would wake up in the middle of the night and felt my feet were burning,” Garcia, 45, said in Spanish.

The condition, if allowed to progress, can lead to serious injuries. The numbness, for example, may result in minor wounds going undetected and festering. And muscle weakness and impaired reflexes associated with the condition may make a person prone to stumbling and falling.

Garcia felt so bad that living past age 50 began to seem unlikely to him. He estimated he had no more than five years left to live.

Today, though, the man who struggled with Type-2 diabetes for a decade is a stalwart testament to the difference simple lifestyle changes can make for someone with the disease.

Garcia attributes much of the turnaround to a green cocktail of vegetable juice that he began consuming religiously, but doctors say it is the combination of improved diet and increased exercise that have given him a new lease on life.

“Lifestyle modification, where you combine a low-calorie diet and exercise, works better than any combination of insulin plus medication for this condition,” said Dr. Enrique Griego, a board member of the Rio Grande Valley Diabetes Association.

Where others may have a difficult time making those modifications, Garcia had only to look to his family for motivation. He wanted to stick around for his sons, and for his wife of 21 years.

The numbness and the tingling were the tipping point for the former Univision senior reporter who now works as a cable web producer for the city of Mission.

Using his journalism experience, he launched into Internet research, looking for information from which to develop a strategy for recovering his health. One key answer he found was a recipe he found for a juice cocktail consisting of celery, cucumber, ginger, green apple, kale and lemon.

At first he would blend it, but soon committed himself to the new diet enough to buy a juice maker — though not before again applying his research skills to decide which one to purchase.

“You do not need to get an expensive one,” he said in Spanish. “A $49.99 one from Walmart does the job like the $200-plus one.”

For an entire month, Garcia said, he detoxified himself by consuming nothing but the juice — 64 ounces of the stuff each and every day. It’s more filling than one might think.

“I do not feel hungry,” Garcia said.

More to the point, the 5-foot-9 man shed 30 pounds — about 13 percent of his body weight — and he felt better than he had in a long time.

“It was either that (the juice) or dying,” said Garcia, who was down to about 200 pounds by the end of that month.

“As a broadcast journalist, I was never worried about my looks. I was more worried about the content of my stories,” he said. “But this is a matter of health.”

Remarkably, Garcia no longer requires medication to manage his diabetes.

“He was receiving insulin twice a day, plus other medication for diabetes, medication for hypertension, medication for peripheral neuropathy,” Dr. Griego said.

“The first thing we did was to remove the insulin,” the doctor added. “His blood sugar got controlled with the weight reduction and he’s not taking any medication at this point.”

Ditto for his blood pressure, neuropathy and the diabetes itself.

After that first month, Garcia combined his juice regimen with a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, meaning he has cut out meat, fish and poultry but still consumes egg and milk products. The other key ingredient in the recipe for a healthier Garcia was exercise.

He described his initial efforts to increase his physical activity as clumsy. But by gradually increasing his exertion, he was able to increase the length and regularity of his workout sessions.

“There is no diet that will work without exercise,” he said, noting he still working on his fitness goals. “I am not there yet. I want to weigh 180 pounds and stay there.”

After seeing the dramatic initial results, he is keenly motivated not only to keep the extra weight off but also to avoid the need to manage his disease with medication.

Dr. Mariano Salinas, who treated Garcia 10 years ago, when he was first diagnosed with diabetes, stresses that his former patient did not discover any magic juice. Patients with Type-2 diabetes simply need to control their weight.

“These patients, if they really lose weight and go to 165 from 200” pounds, he said, offering an example, “they don’t need medication.”

Patients with Type-2 diabetes need comprehensive care to help them make decisions that can improve their health, a holistic approach that Griego incorporates in his practice.

Salinas, meanwhile, worries about his young patients in particular — the ones for whom he see obesity and diabetes in their futures. In some cases, parents fail to consider the best interests of their children over the long term.

“They say, ‘My son doesn’t like P.E. Can you give them an excuse?’ Of course, no.”

Miffed by his refusal, he said, some parents have removed their children from his care and sought services elsewhere.

Garcia affirms that much of the health turnaround he has experienced hinges on something that can’t be bought at a pharmacy: willpower.

“No one said it was not going to be difficult,” he said.

Make it for yourself

Humberto Garcia’s green juice recipe:

>> 5 to 10 kale leaves

>> 1 or 2 cucumbers

>> celery stalks

>> 1 green apple

>> 1 thumb-size piece of ginger

>> 1 lemon

>> Wash all thoroughly, juice all in a juicer.

>> Adjust ingredients to your preference.

>> Some remove stems from apple, and peel lemon. Humberto does not.