Beating diabetes gave grandad Calum a new lease of life

Published on Thursday 7 July 2011 11:14

RETIRED police officer Calum Laurie ate what he liked and shunned exercise for more than 30 years.

&#149 Calum has lost weight and now runs 10km races after years of neglecting fitness, so that he can enjoy the next 20 or more years

But a warning from doctors that they would have to up his diabetes medication coupled with the prospect of not being around to watch his newborn granddaughters grow up provided the wake-up call the 56-year-old needed and sparked an incredible turnaround.

He has told how a fitness regime and changes to his diet has virtually "cured" his type two diabetes, meaning he can come off treatment altogether in a few months' time.

The Bathgate father-of-three is the latest example of someone managing their own diabetes purely by diet and exercise, meaning his dosage of medication to control blood sugar levels can stop.

He said: "Please don't think of me as one of these fitness fanatics. That is so far from the truth.

"I'm just someone who has made simple changes and taken control of all the ailments that could happen to me, and reversed them."

Medics have told Mr Laurie if he keeps up the routine – which involves watching carefully his calorie count and attending three one-hour sessions of intense exercise a week - he will be naturally controlling the diabetes.

His commitment to a healthy life began with the birth of his third and fourth grandchildren, within three weeks of each other at the end of last year.

It was the prospect of seeing Gracie, three, Rose, two, and eight-month-olds Anna and Emma on their wedding days that provided him with the drive the medics could not.

He joined up with Livingston-based Burn It Bootcamp, and in ten weeks there was a complete transformation.

The organisation uses a "back to basics" approach, involving simple nutritional advice, exercises and stretches.

"I remember the first meeting," he recalled. "It was on January 10, the ice was thick and the sky was black.

"It was in a park in Bathgate and I was wondering what the hell I was doing there.

"I was only able to run 45 yards, and even then my chest felt like it was going to explode.

"But that didn't matter, because they build it up gradually. You don't notice any difference on the scales after four weeks, but thereafter there's an incredible change."

Now Mr Laurie is able to compete in 10km runs and different legs of triathlons, while he has dropped three trouser sizes.

"It's not about revolutionising things, it's just a case of pushing yourself," he said.

"I've cut out things like coffee, and I think I've only had one fry-up since January.

"But at the classes they remind you it's just as bad to eat below your calorie count as above it, as you can't starve yourself.

"This isn't how I thought I'd be spending my retirement.

"Of course the doctors would tell you to eat better, to get some exercise, but you don't listen to doctors.

"They give you medicine and encouragement, but really

you need a motivation of your own to make changes like this.

"For me that was my granddaughters. After the last two were born within a few weeks of each other I decided I wanted to be around in 20 years or so to see them all get married.

"I knew if I kept on the way I was there was no chance of that. It's crucial to have the help of your family too, my wife Evelyn's been incredibly supportive and we've changed a lot of things."

KEY STEPS

THE link between diabetes and an unhealthy lifestyle has been well documented for years.

Studies and trials regularly show how obesity, drinking too much alcohol and no a lack of exercise can all lead to a much heightened risk of contracting type two diabetes.

But the prospect of those already diagnosed freeing themselves from the illness through physical and dietary changes is relatively unexplored.

Experts have said in the past this could be because those being diagnosed probably were so immersed in a certain lifestyle that the prospect of turning it around to reverse the effects was unlikely.

Roy Taylor, a diabetes expert from Newcastle University who has just revealed his latest study into the condition, said: "What I can tell you definitively is that if people lose substantial weight by normal means, they will lose their diabetes."