Sterling Robertson is in his early 60’s and lives in Farnborough, England.
As a regional sales manager for a payments company, Sterling is busy and on the road a lot. Part of this lifestyle means that he frequently has to eat away from home.
In 2007 Sterling suffered a heart attack, and in May 2016 he was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic with an HbA1c of 63 mmol/mol. His quality of life was suffering and the list of prescription medication was growing year on year.
Sterling had low energy levels, daily exhaustion, and an overall sense of concern about the future. He could not walk more than about a mile without becoming exhausted. Coupled with this he was on 5 prescription medications every day. The prognosis from his doctor was that type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease that will need ‘careful monitoring’.
Sterling said:
“After suffering a heart attack all those years ago, being given the diabetes diagnosis was just brutal, all I knew was that I wouldn’t just accept the diagnosis and that there had to be a way to fight this – and I was prepared to do whatever I had to do to get rid of it; the pills I was taking were giving me all sorts of problems from having to go to the toilet frequently, headaches, and complete exhaustion – it just wasn’t sustainable at all.”
Sterling’s words were completely consistent with his tenacious character, and for many months he sought answers from the medical profession for a solution but didn’t get many answers. There were changes such as a switch in diabetes medication from metformin to gliclazide, due to severe side effects but little else. This was symptom management at best, not a treatment.