Your A1c by the Numbers: How Food, Exercise, and Supplements Affect Your Blood Sugar: The Non-Drug Side of Diabetes Care

What works, ranked by a doctor. What actually lowers your A1c, and what doesn't. Your feed says cinnamon, ice baths and "nature's Ozempic" will fix your blood sugar. Your doctor has 15 minutes. This book fills the gap. Family physician Dr. Ryan Kasky, DO, went straight to the published medical research, clinical trials and meta-analyses, which pool the results of many studies, and asked three questions of every food, habit and supplement: Does it work? How much? Is it safe? Each one gets a plain grade, from SUPPORTED to HARMFUL, and a real number that says what it measures. A few of the verdicts: Moving about 150 minutes a week: about 0.6% lower A1c, in a review of 127 trials. Vegetables and protein first, carbs last: about 43 mg/dL lower blood sugar an hour after the meal. Beans and lentils: SUPPORTED. Fruit juice: HARMFUL. Psyllium fiber: about 0.75% lower A1c. Berberine: about 0.6%, and it changes how your body handles many common medicines. Cinnamon pills: UNLIKELY TO HELP. Ice baths, alkaline water and "GLP-1 drops": Skip. Inside you'll find: One scoreboard that ranks everything: Start here, Add next, Optional extras, Skip A 90-day plan: one change about every two weeks, then recheck your A1c Supplement cards with a grade, a safety badge and buying tips A safety chapter, with extra care for anyone on insulin or a sulfonylurea What getting your A1c below the diabetes range without medicine really means, and why it's still management Food and exercise first. Supplements last. Apart from meal-replacement shakes used in a planned weight-loss diet, no supplement in this book earned the top grade for lowering blood sugar, and many land in Skip. This is not a cookbook and not a crash diet. It does not replace any medicine your doctor prescribed. It's meant to work alongside your care, one change at a time. This book is for adults with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, and the people who help them. It's written at a plain reading level, with the deeper science in skippable boxes. It is not for type 1 diabetes, gestational diabetes or diabetes during pregnancy. Those need care directed by your own doctor. And no, I don't sell supplements. Dr. Ryan Kasky, DO For education only, not medical advice. Talk with your doctor before changing your eating, exercise, supplements or medicines.