Almost everybody's life has been touched by diabetes. When you are diagnosed with diabetes, you can look forward to amputations, blindness, heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, peripheral nerve damage, and an untimely death—not to mention a whole bunch of pain and suffering. Practically everyone over 40 is pre-diabetic, and if preventative measures are not taken, it is virtually inevitable that this condition will progress to diabetes. We are in the midst of a diabetes epidemic.

When "How We Beat Diabetes" became available to the public, the author thought that his offering was unique, but he was wrong. Shortly thereafter, he discovered another book on the internet by someone who had reversed their own diabetes. Since then, every couple of weeks he has found another one. Here is a list of them:

"Death to Diabetes"—DeWayne McCulley reversed his diabetes in less than six months. His story is quite dramatic, including a near-death coma when his blood sugar reached 1337!

"Insulin: Our Silent Killer"—Thomas Smith became a reluctant medical investigator when he was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. When he discovered that his doctor could not cure it, he took charge and reversed it himself.

"How I Overcame Diabetes and You can Too!: Beat Diabetes!"—Margaret Blackstone used her skills as a medical writer to find an approach to diabetes control that worked for her.

"Sayonara Diabetes, The Three Samurai Health Maintenance System"—Adam Newhouse combined an avid interest in oriental healing arts with extensive reading (hundreds of books) to help relieve his mother's diabetes. After 8 months on the program he developed, she was able to stop insulin, lost weight, and enjoyed normal blood sugar.

"Diabetes and Diet: A Type 2 Patient's Successful Efforts at Control"—Derek A. Paice, a 71-year-old engineer explains how he brought his Adult Onset Diabetes under control.

"Live Like You Have No Diabetes" Jayne Boykin and Bonnie C. Damocles recount Mr. Damocles' experience with diabetes, as well as glimpses into the lives of other diabetics.

"How to Halt Diabetes in 25 Days" Mike Adams tells how he reversed his borderline diabetes and hyperinsulinemia without drugs or insulin.

"How We Beat Diabetes"—Ronald S. Brown tells the story of how his wife's Type II Diabetes was reversed.

One way or another, all of these people claim to have triumphed over diabetes. Then they published a book about the experience. They don't seem to have much else in common. They do not know each other. Their backgrounds and experience are quite diverse. They each used somewhat different approaches to the problem, but the results are similar. They all independently found a way to reverse their diabetes, or that of a loved one. The programs they developed have some similarities, but also some differences. Could there be some truth in what they are saying? While the possibility exists that these people are nothing more than nutcases, liars, or mistaken, befuddled fools, it does not seem very likely.

What is interesting about these eight people is that they have taken charge of the situation and found their own way. Sometimes, they were assisted by their medical practitioners, but sometimes they carried on in spite of them. Here is the significance of their accomplishment: If they were able to beat diabetes, then IT CAN BE DONE!

Pete Seeger recently said the following:

I imagine a big seesaw, and one end of this seesaw is on the ground with a basket half-full of big rocks in it. The other end of the seesaw is up in the air. It's got a basket one-quarter full of sand. And some of us got teaspoons, and we're trying to fill it up with sand. A lot of people are laughing at us, and they say,

"Ah, people like you have been trying to do that for thousands of years, and it's leaking out as fast as you're putting it in."

But we're saying, "We're getting more people with teaspoons all the time." And we think one of these years, you'll see that whole seesaw go zooop in the other direction. And people will say,

"Gee, how did it happen so suddenly?"

Us and all our little teaspoons.

Although he was talking about social justice, what he said could just as easily apply to the epidemic of diabetes that is currently sweeping the world. There is a new mindset afoot. Instead of waiting for the medical profession to adopt, people are taking charge of their own health. Armed with little more than an Internet Search engine and some common sense, they are starting to decide for themselves what to do. They are using medicine, herbs, diet, exercise, supplements—whatever works for them. And it is working for them. I think we are going to see a lot more of these people put their teaspoon of sand into the basket.