ST. LOUIS — Food as medicine. It's become a passion for one doctor at Mercy Hospital in St. Louis.
Dr. Philip Clerc, with Mercy Endocrinology, is using it to treat Type 2 diabetes and is seeing remarkable success.
For patient Gerald Calaway, 84, it's completely turned his life around.
Years ago, something as simple as a step was impossible for Calaway.
"I couldn't walk from the bedroom to the kitchen. I didn't have the energy. I literally didn't have the energy," he said.
Calaway has lived with Type 2 diabetes since 2006 and always did a good job of controlling it, until it got out of control and medicine was doing the opposite of what it's supposed to do.
Eventually, Calaway's A1C got up to 8.3.
"They put me on metformin. Metformin almost killed me," she said. "I didn't want to get up out of bed. I just didn't have any life energy at all."
That's when Calaway's wife gave him the idea to go see an endocrinologist. He met with Dr. Clerc and learned he could swap the pills for food.
"It works well because we find these are foods the body is naturally meant to process in a way that your body likes, and so the longer you do that, your body kind of gets back into this homeostasis or rhythm that it enjoys being in. What we find is the longer that you eat this way, your body kind of keeps getting better and better over time," he said.
Dr. Clerc said all it takes is setting goals and incorporating the right diet, exercise and, most importantly, the patient has to be motivated.
"If patients are motivated, that's when we really find that it works really well and it's mainly because it's just using physiology. Everything we do is evidence-based. That means they've been studied to eat certain foods patients have and shown that it lowers their blood sugars in the long term," he said.
No one was more motivated than Calaway. Just three months after visiting Dr. Clerc and setting food-as-medicine goals, Calaway is officially in diabetes remission.
"It's so encouraging, every time I see Gerald that he's just feeling better, he's more functional. He's spending more time with his family, less time with doctors, and that's what we want for patients is to give them the tools to help themselves and empower themselves to make those decisions and not need to see us as much," he said.
Calaway was able to lower his A1C from 8.3 to 6.4 without any medication. All he did was change his diet and follow the exercises Dr. Clerc gave him.
"As a result of that, I can do things that I could not do two, three, four or five years ago," he said.
Each visit, according to Dr. Clerc, Calaway's A1C has continued to drop and at his last visit, it was at 6.0.
"Gerald has experienced some other beneficial effects, such as losing weight, coming off some medications for pain, for trouble sleeping," Dr. Clerc said.
Calaway isn't the only success story though. Since Dr. Clerc has been with Mercy in September 2022, 10 of his patients are now in diabetes remission and 50 more are getting close.
"It's one of the most gratifying sensations you can experience as a healthcare provider. Every day we have new patients we're seeing that are interested and are making good progress," he said.
Now, Calaway is back to doing what he loves like playing the piano, gardening and being with his grandkids. He has even found the energy to build cornhole sets for his grandkids, as well.
Calaway said he hopes by sharing his story, others will be inspired to take that first simple step.
"I can't make the world better, but I can make my world better, and Dr. Clerc is helping me do that. I want more than anything else in the world to see people enjoy life" he said.
Dr. Clerc said Calaway is a role model patient to everyone.
"Listen to some of the things Gerald has done. It doesn't take perfection. We say don't let perfection get in the way of progress, but he's made a lot of wonderful changes. He's a prime example that age really isn't that much of a deciding factor, as long as you're motivated and have Type 2 diabetes, it's possible," he said.
Calaway said he lives each day not worrying about what he can't do, but focusing on what he can do.
"That doesn't bother me. You know why? Because life is made up of changes and interruptions and new normals," he said.
The food as medicine method, according to Dr. Clerc, also helps people with Type 1 diabetes lower insulin doses.
"Changing your eating pattern can help you become more insulin sensitive and decrease the amount of insulin you need to keep your blood sugars at the same level, which in turn can help you lose a little bit of weight, especially around the waist. It can help your cholesterol and blood pressure numbers go down, so it's also helpful for patients with Type 1 diabetes," he said.
Right now, according to Dr. Clerc, Mercy is working to build up its food as medicine program. If you want to learn more about food as medicine, you can reach out to Mercy.
When Dr. Clerc was in the US Air Force, he created a free online nutritional cooking class called 'Air Force Nutrition Kitchen.' He uses some of the same principles in that class to help patients with diabetes.
Dr. Clerc also strongly encourages people living with diabetes to work with a registered dietitian.