SAVED FROM DIABETES . . . BY EATING 2 APPLES A DAY
KiKi PhilliPs, 11, was struggling to lose weight and at high risk of type 2 diabetes. his father, Mark, 42, has had sciatica and sleeping difficulties for many years. Kiki lives with his father, mother, cafe-worker Becky, 50, and half-brother, Czare, 22, in Willesden, North london.
KIKI SAYS: I was shocked when Dr Chatterjee put me on the scales. I weighed more than 11 st and I’m only 11 years old [he is 5 ft tall with a BMI of 33, which means he’s officially obese].
He did a test to check my insulin levels (the hormone that mops up sugar from the blood) which was 32. He said it should be, at worst, about 15, and that I might become diabetic.
I was scared, but also frustrated. I’ve always been big, but I eat healthily unlike some of my friends. I have cereal for breakfast and chicken, rice, peas and a plum for lunch. Mum always makes us a home-cooked meal at night — maybe a stew with white rice.
And I’m really active — I play basketball, football, all sorts of sports most days, but I don’t lose any weight. It made me upset because I thought I would grow up being overweight and I was being teased about it at school.
Dr Chatterjee said I didn’t need to count calories but should get rid of things in my diet such as white rice, bread and cereal, because they can cause a spike in blood sugar levels which might make me put on weight.
He also wanted to check the bacteria in my gut because he thought I might not have many types — and this might make it harder to lose weight.
I had to give him a stool sample, which was embarrassing, but it showed there was very little variety.
I stopped eating dairy, wheat and sugar and had to eat different colours of food with every meal, plus two apples a day. Now for breakfast I have muesli or an omelette, a salad for lunch and something with brown or cauliflower rice for dinner.
I couldn’t believe it when I got weighed again after six weeks and I was 9 st 7lb and my insulin level was
ten. I still stick to the diet during the week and allow myself a treat at weekends, such as ice cream or cake.
I’d like to lose more weight — though I don’t have a specific goal in mind. I’m more confident about the way I look.
DR CHATTERJEE SAYS: I have never seen an insulin test as high as Kiki’s — it showed he was well on the road to getting type 2 diabetes.
His diet wasn’t bad and lots of kids who eat as he did aren’t overweight, so I had an inkling something else was going on.
An unvaried community of bacteria in our guts has been linked with obesity, and he did have very little diversity. He needed to eat a more mixed diet and I gave him probiotics. The main problem was the processed carbohydrates such as white rice and breads, so we cut those out. I find that when you focus on the quality of food, you don’t need to count calories. Kiki’s results have been amazing.
We have to make time for this type of medicine. If he had gone on to develop type 2 diabetes then there would have been a cost to Kiki and a cost to the NHS.
MARK SAYS: Over the past 15 years I have slept fitfully and for the past four or five years I’ve had agonising sciatica down my left leg. The co-codamol painkillers the GP gave me didn’t really touch it — I used to run a watch shop and at times the pain would be so bad I had to lie on the floor.
When I first saw Dr Chatterjee, he did tests to check my levels of a stress hormone called cortisol. Mine was sky-high — 43 when it should have been less than 20. He also took me to a biomechanics specialist to see if the way I walked was causing my sciatica. Apparently I was favouring the left side of my body — possibly due to breaking my right leg aged five and a knee injury. I was given exercises to get the muscles on both sides working well.
I also did taiji (a slow form of martial arts) to help with my stress and sleeping.
The more I did the exercises, the better my back got. I have had a few twinges recently but I lost my job so I think the stress levels have been rising again. As soon as I get another job things will improve — I know what to do now.
DR CHATTERJEE SAYS: Causes of back ache are multi-factorial. You can have a physical issue but stress can add to feelings of pain.
Mark was carrying the weight of responsibility for his family — he worried about his job and money and everything he did was for others. He was a classic example of needing to heal body and mind.