From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
Being conscious and aware of the insulin hormone in your body – the hormone at the heart of blood sugar regulation – is essential for anyone who wants to feel and function at their best. The bottom line is blunt: if, as an adult, you’ve been diagnosed with an illness related to insulin production, it’s because your system has been overwhelmed by chronic sugar intake and depleted magnesium stores. Period. End of blog. But I’ll continue!
Of course, if you search online, you will not find any mainstream medical advice to suggest that quitting sugar and taking magnesium in the picometer, stabilized ion form will help you take charge of and even reverse faulty insulin production.
Mainstream advice in 2025 still misses the root cause
Much mainstream information, including that from doctors, says that insulin-related diseases arise when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin or can’t properly use the insulin it does produce. These conditions are considered chronic, progressive, and irreversible.
When asked why the body stops producing, using, or processing insulin correctly, the usual explanations include:
- Autoimmune attack on insulin-producing cells
- Pancreatic damage from vital infection
- Genetics
- Obesity
- Certain medications
- Age
In some cases, articles may mention diet as a contributing factor but will then blame processed foods, carbohydrates, and saturated fats. Sugar is not mentioned. Instead, leading medical sites emphasize genetic research so that drug companies can target and market to people with this genetic profile.
Standard recommendations for insulin sensitivity
Oral or injectable medication will be prescribed to control and maintain blood sugar. Oral Metformin and synthetic insulin are the main prescriptions. It’s expected that you will be taking these medications for life.
NOTE: This is not to take away from the fact that before Banting and Best discovered insulin, patients who did not produce insulin because of a non-working pancreas died a terrible death.
What I say about insulin
Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas. Your body breaks down food into glucose that enters the bloodstream and raises blood sugar levels. That rise signals the pancreas to release insulin, which should bind to your cells and allow glucose to enter them to be used as energy. Insulin also communicates with the liver, which stores excess glucose as glycogen.
It sounds simple enough, but it’s a complex process that’s been hijacked for the past 50 years by an American diet that’s high in sugar, processed foods, and carbs.
The simple but (rarely told) physiology.
The bloodstream takes on sugar or glucose when you’ve processed a meal. At any one time, your bloodstream can safely hold two teaspoons of sugar. So, when your meal includes drinking a soda (10 teaspoons of sugar) or a heavily sugared dessert, your body is forced to deal with extra sugar that it was never designed to handle.
What does it do? It freaks out! Alarms go off throughout the body. Your pancreas releases more insulin into your bloodstream to lower your blood sugar. But excess insulin pushes the blood sugar too low, triggering the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline and cortisol to try to stabilize the blood sugar.
We suffer the anxiety, pounding heart, and sweating that parallels the internal biochemical chaos —meal after meal, snack after snack. And over time, it burns out both your pancreas and your adrenals.
Insulin can’t do its job if cells are jammed with sugar
Again, your body needs glucose to create energy. Insulin opens the receptor sites in your cells to welcome in sugar. But if there’s too much sugar there will be too much insulin and the cells’ receptor sites shut down from overexposure. This shut down is called insulin resistance.
It’s not some mysterious genetic condition that needs to be studied for decades. It’s your body’s reaction to years of being bombarded with sugar and insulin that has no where to go.
And there’s more: Stress keeps sugar high
When you’re stressed, the adrenals produce cortisol which increases blood glucose levels (so that you have the energy to escape the perceived danger!) Cortisol works to keep sugar levels high, blocking insulin from shuttling it away into your cells. Add dietary sugar on top of cortisol and the metabolic load becomes even harder for your body to manage.
This is huge – Sugar competes with vitamin C
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is used by every cell in your body. And it shares a transport system with insulin. Who knew? So, with too much sugar taking up space on insulin – vitamin C is out of luck. That’s why diabetics can’t seem to fight off infections and can’t heal wounds – that can even lead to amputation.
Let me repeat. When you have too much sugar in your bloodstream it blocks vitamin C from getting inside the cells to enhance your immune response. Vitamin C is essential in your body. It assists the growth, maintenance, and repair of skin, blood vessels, bones, and teeth. It is a powerful antioxidant, essential for wound healing, a strong immune system, helps eliminate bruising, strengthens the adrenals, and helps absorb iron.
Don’t take “emergency vitamin C” drinks
These gimmicky packets have 500 mg of ascorbic acid but are saturated with sugars (fructose, sucrose, glucose) maltodextrin and corn starch. The sugar load wins. The vitamin C loses. Your body loses.
What you can do to support your insulin production and processes
Magnesium should be in the picometer, stabilized ionic form. And the dose should be around 600mg per day. This liquid magnesium is diluted in a liter of sea-salted water and sipped throughout the day. Magnesium is necessary for the proper processing of 80% of known metabolic functions.
Vitamin D is a prohormone, which regulates the production of hormones as well aiding the absorption of calcium to protect our bones. Most vitamin D blood tests show that we may need about 5,000iu a day along with a dose of vitamin K2. Remember, magnesium is necessary for the activation of vitamin D.
Vitamin B Complex – a methylated and food-based B complex formula along with two sulfur-based amino acids provides several vitamins that are necessary for adrenal support and detoxification as well as all the critical methylation functions of the body.
Multiple Minerals – picometer, stabilized mineral ions support thyroid hormone production as well as adrenal and sex hormone balance.
Vitamin C – I recommend extra food-based vitamin C and ascorbic acid (1,000-2,000 mg a day) for people with insulin issues. A vitamin C powder can be used in your mineral water to give your drink a pleasant taste. But don’t forget to remove sugar from your diet so vitamin C can actually enter your cells.
The above formulas make up my daily protocol, and I feel better now in my mid-70s than I did in my 30s!
Important disclaimer: This is not medical advice. Type 1 diabetics and anyone on glucose-lowering medication MUST work with their physician before making drastic dietary changes – you can go hypo if you drop carbs dramatically while still medicated.
The bottom line
- Stop poisoning the system with sugar.
- Replenish your magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin C, and mineral levels.
- Move your body and manage stress.
- Do that consistently, and your body has a remarkable ability to recover.
Carolyn Dean, MD ND
The Doctor of the Future
