Lifestyle medicine reverses diabetes for Gina Lupton

By Gina Lupton as told to Leilani Hortaleza

What is it like to be diabetic for fifteen years? The developing pain and numbness in my lower limbs kept me from walking more than 40 feet. The weight piled on and strained my back; retinopathy of the eyes damaged my vision. I maxed out on medications to 190 units of insulin and 2,000 mg of diabetes medication daily. As each day passed, I was just waiting to die.

I needed help and half-heartedly looked at different lifestyle centers where I could find it. Then I met a lady who went to the Hartland Lifestyle Education Center, only a five-hour drive from home. She left the impression that not only did her health improve, but she also received spiritual and emotional healing. I called the number she gave, but only the answering machine picked up. Too discouraged to keep trying, I soon hung up. I’m so glad the director, Maria Gligor, called back five minutes later and encouraged me to come.

When I finally arrived, I could only walk across the parking lot before the pain stopped me. I was a pasty, dour, and miserable creature! Nevertheless, Maria motivated me to walk 50 steps more each day. Today, I walk over a mile. It’s a miracle! My husband is shocked and awed at the transformation because I look happy and I am happy. I feel alive!

There were struggles. As a “meat and potatoes person,” I didn’t eat vegetables or fruit. The thought of going to a lifestyle center where there would be nothing to eat but these items terrified me! Instead, the mouth-watering food they served surprised me. I loved the flavors; I enjoyed everything! Eating became a delicious, health-giving experience.

The results? Initial lab work found my white blood cell count at 12,000, signaling an infection, but it came down to 5,500 in only 18 days. I also lost 25 pounds. All the lab results showed great progress, and I am now down to only 45 units of insulin.

Coming to the lifestyle center definitely improved my health, but I also needed to be healed spiritually. That has happened largely as a result of the influence of the staff and students. These dedicated young people love the Lord; being surrounded with their energy filled me, fed me, and led me back to His arms.

I praise God for His goodness. I’m not just existing anymore, but I’m learning to live again. If you or someone you know needs help with diabetes, tell them to find a place where they can get help—and I suggest, by experience, that they come here!

The clock struck one in the morning. Jose Rodriquez tossed and turned on his bed. He’d had this problem before, but now it was worse. “I was so dizzy again, and I could not sleep.” He tried to cure it through sleeping pills, but nothing would work. Finally, his brother suggested going through the Hartland Lifestyle session, and he agreed. “I have faith in this place. I know I will get help here.”

Did you know that some types of insomnia can be easily healed through God’s eight laws of health? This is what Jose had to find out the hard way. Each year about sixty million people suffer from insomnia, which leads to serious sleep deficits and other health problems. One’s likelihood of experiencing it increases with age, affecting 30% of men and 40% of women.

The session went smoothly for Jose. He enjoyed the food, the staff, and the whole environment. “The food was very good. I never thought I would eat like this, because I’ve never been on this kind of diet before,” he recalls. “The people were just beautiful inside and out. The staff and students were friendly, kind, and thoughtful. They taught me how to eat, how to cook, and how to manage my stress.”

“I learned that we don’t treat our bodies well,” he said. “I have to be more careful now. Yes! I know how to live.” Having been a meat eater, Jose had developed some health problems, but now he wants to keep a healthy diet. “No meat, no coffee—nothing like that. God wanted to change my lifestyle.”

“The most important part that I learned was prayer. In everything we did, we prayed, whether it was a hydrotherapy treatment or before going to bed.”

The Hartland Lifestyle session was truly a blessed experience for Jose. Now he sleeps well and is thankful that God taught him to live by His principles through the Hartland Lifestyle Education Center.

On March 30, 1996, while administering anesthesia at Marion General Hospital, a feeling of extreme weakness swept over fifty-one year old Dr. Ben Sanidad, and he slipped to the floor. After being helped to a gurney and resting he felt strong enough to stand up again. Another doctor urged Ben to stay overnight for tests.

The next morning an endoscopy revealed a small, fast-growing tumor on his esophagus. This grim diagnosis of esophageal cancer sounded in Dr. Sanidad’s ears as a death sentence. It seemed there was nothing he could do, so he numbly resigned himself to his fate. He had personally seen the rapid physical decline of patients with this condition and expected to live no more than six months longer. It seemed hopeless, with no possibility of seeing his children grow up or of enjoying his wife’s companionship, no chance to get serious about his relationship with God.

But wait—what about prayer? Ben wondered if God would even listen after he had ignored Him for so long. “Oh, God, please hear me,” Ben prayed. “I’m powerless to face this problem alone. Before I die, Lord, help me draw closer to Esther, the kids, and to You,” he pleaded.

Indeed, God was listening, and in a marvelous way, He completely answered Ben’s prayer.

While waiting for the surgery that would remove the tumor prior to chemotherapy, Ben began reading his Bible and earnestly praying for guidance and healing, if this was God’s will. “God was my only hope,” he says. Ben’s children left school to be by his side.

His wife Esther contacted many friends to request prayer for Ben. She encouraged him to exercise faith in God’s way. Ben was anointed in their home, and his faith began to grow.

After surgery, due to complications, chemotherapy was delayed for several weeks. During this time, Ben and Esther researched the two most common cancer treatments: radiation and chemotherapy. The statistics were bleak and unpromising, so they researched alternative treatments. Ben also read Counsels on Diet and Foods and Ministry of Healing, by E.G. White.

As he read, Ben began to make lifestyle changes. He quit taking all medications and put off chemotherapy. He contacted Hartland Lifestyle Education Center. With God’s help, Ben turned his back on all he had learned as a physician and headed in a different direction—God’s way of healing.

At Hartland Lifestyle Education Center, Ben entered wholeheartedly into the program. He learned about God’s eight natural remedies and other things medical schools don’t teach. During the eighteen-day program, Ben’s strength gradually returned, and he began to feel health and joy again. Upon his returning home, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances saw the radical change and asked, “What has made the difference?” Ben has had many opportunities to give his testimony of God’s healing mercy and power.

Ben’s personal testimony in his book Choosing to Live is a most effective means of sharing the good news that it is possible to maintain or regain health by following God’s plan.

Over ten years have passed since the original diagnosis, and Ben is still following God’s plan for health. The cancer is still in remission. On many occasions, he has shared God’s principles of health with patients at Marion General Hospital, where he works.