Prasad Vedantam: From 120 Units of Insulin a Day to 10

Prasad Vedantam had been living with Type 2 diabetes since 1999, twenty-two years by the time he started with BBDO in March 2021. He was 69, in Hyderabad, on 120 units of insulin a day. By January 2022, ten months later, that number was 10. His HbA1c moved from 8.0% to 5.5% in the same window. His weight went from 104 kg to 84 kg.

"Insulin dose changes of this size happen under a treating physician's supervision, tracking blood glucose closely as the body's own insulin sensitivity improves. Nobody should read this story and reduce their own insulin on their own schedule. That's not how Prasad's result happened, and it's not how it's supposed to work."

The starting point

Twenty-two years is a long time to carry a diagnosis. By March 2021, at 69 and 104 kg, Prasad was managing his diabetes the way most long-term Type 2 patients do: with escalating medication, because that's the standard path when lifestyle factors haven't been addressed directly. 120 units of insulin a day is a significant dose. It reflects years of insulin resistance that hadn't been targeted at the root.

The approach

The 5-Finger Punch framework doesn't target insulin dosing directly. No lifestyle program does, and none should claim to. What it targets is insulin resistance: the food choices, the fasting windows, the movement, the sleep and stress patterns that determine how much insulin the body actually needs to do its job. As resistance improves, the insulin requirement drops, which is exactly why the dose reduction has to be managed by the treating doctor, tracking the numbers in real time, not decided in advance.

The result

Ten months. 120 units of insulin down to 10, a 110-unit reduction. HbA1c from 8.0% to 5.5%. Twenty kilograms lost. Twenty-two years of diabetes, and the numbers moved further in ten months than they likely had in a long time.

The takeaway

This is the case that matters most for anyone who's been managing Type 2 diabetes for a long time and has been told the trajectory only goes one direction: more medication, not less. Prasad's twenty-two-year history is exactly the profile where that story usually holds. It didn't have to, here.

If you're on insulin and considering a lifestyle-based approach, read how the 5-Finger Punch framework works, and talk to your treating physician before changing anything (what to ask your doctor first). Start your reversal to see what BBDO's approach actually involves.