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 Toma sitting in the pilots seat of a UH-1 huey helicopter in Vietnam. These helicopters were used in the DUSTOFF mission as air ambulances. Toma recently became involved with CHLY101.7
as a volunteer where he met Pam Edgar and they decided to present a show
proposal based on their combined knowledge and experience in dealing with
chronic disease. Toma is a type-2 diabetic.
A major influence that has affected just
about every thing Toma has done was his service with the US Army as a DUSTOFF pilot.
DUSTOFF was the air ambulance mission that
flew all of Vietnam to rescue anyone who needed his or her help. Beside the wounded
US soldiers this also included all friendly military, South Veitmese civilians
and even North Vietmese soldiers and Viet Cong.
This service instilled values of honor, duty, integrity, and humanitarian
ethics that have affected every thing he has done since. His service in Vietnam
also resulted in a 100% disability rating with the US Veterans Affairs for PTSD.
Toma has had a
very diverse life that brings him to the show with a wealth of unique
experiences and acquired knowledge. After the military Toma was
involved in many different things including: training as a chef and restaurant
manager, salesman, real estate broker, training director, competition dancer,
and care taker for mentally retarded adult sex offenders. During the late 80s
he was a mobile DJ doing events that included celebrities like Kenny Rogers,
the governor of Colorado and others.
Allof these experiences come together to help Toma with his new mission to help
type-2 diabetics which led to his involvement with this Show.  Toma with Kenny Rogers at a party in Denver, Colorado  Toma now has glucose reading compareble to a non-diabetic. His websites include NutriCoach.net , Nutricoach2.com
and Diabetic-Diet-Secrets.com. The following about Toma's bought with type 2 diabetes helps us understand what he brings to this show about managing chronic disease.
Throughout my
life, I've been pretty active. Even as a teen, I was involved in sports and
activities that can take a toll on the human body. My experience as a DUSTOFF
pilot in the Vietnam War gave me a taste for the rush of adrenaline that later
in my life I was able to achieve without the added threat of live ammunition.
Well into my fifties, I participated in sports and activities that many abandon
earlier in their lives, ranging from white-water rafting to competitive Country
Western Dancing. A few years ago, I started noticing some changes. At first, I
thought my age was finally catching up to me. I had no energy, felt achy and
thirsty and I was slowly losing my appetite. I thought I had the flu. Then, near
the end of January 2005, I started feeling discomfort in my lower back around
my kidneys. Thinking I had a kidney infection, I stopped drinking my 10 Dr.
Peppers per day and started drinking juices--particularly cranberry juice.
Unknowingly I was adding to the problem.
Things were getting worse, but since I was in Canada and had trouble crossing
the border, I was hesitant to go to the Veterans Administration Hospital in
Seattle. Finally, I decided to go to a Canadian doctor who told me I had
diabetes and needed to go to a hospital for treatment. I spent the next day on
a ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver and then a Greyhound Bus to Seattle. Near
midnight I finally arrived at the VA Hospital Emergency Room.
Some quick test told the doctor that I was in serious condition. He told me if
I had waited much longer, I might not have made it. It was quickly discovered
that my blood glucose was at 570mg/dl. It should be between 70 and 100. My A1C,
a test to determine the sugar retained in the blood cells, was at 20.5--it
should be under 7. My triglycerides were 1517 and should be under 150. I was
badly dehydrated and my potassium levels were low, my eyes were blurry and my
blood pressure was high. The doctor placed me in the critical care ward where I
spent the next four days.
There, I was hooked up to an IV pump and administered 15 liters of saline over
the next 3 days. Twelve of the IV bags contained a potassium mix. I was given
so many heparin shots I lost track of them. Every few hours my blood was being
drawn to monitor the effect of the treatments. They were giving me pills that
to this day I am unable to identify, and insulin.
Doctors and nurses told me that my pancreas had shut down, and that I was close
to renal failure. My triglyceride levels were so high that there was no way to
tell what my cholesterol numbers were. Cells need potassium to be able to take
in the glucose that feeds our bodies. Lacking insulin, my body was prevented
from using or eliminating the excessively high levels of glucose in my bloodstream.
So much that my blood was the consistency of syrup, and my urine was so full of
sugar it was sticky. Sugar in my lenses even caused my eyes to blur.
In short I was in pretty bad shape. I was in the process of necrosis and had
already entered into severe diabetic ketoacidosis. Over the two weeks I was at
the VA Hospital, I got quite an education on diabetes--a crash course. When I
had stabilized two weeks later, they sent me off with a grocery sack full of
literature about diabetes and nutrition. I soon learned that the literature
provided good advice but was so general it was practically impossible to apply
on a day-by-day, meal-by-meal basis.
I then headed back to join my Canadian
wife at our seasonal home in Nanaimo. When I reached the Canadian border, I was
told I would be refused admittance until I applied for and was granted
permanent residency by Canada Immigration. Although my health had improved, at
that point my Blood glucose level was still way too high. Frustrated, I headed
back to my home in Denver.
Dan, a friend of mine, asked me to come stay with him and his partner, Jamie,
for a while. It was while staying with them that my education really began.
Jamie is a nurse and had worked for an endocrinologist. She was also a body
builder and very much into nutrition. They gave me a book that really opened my
eyes, called The Insulin-Resistance Diet, by Cheryl R. Hart, M.D. and Mary Kay
Grossman, R.D. I recommend this book to anyone who is nutritionally challenged.
It can be purchased from our books section on this web site. The book was a
godsend. It was much better than anything else I had encountered thus far,
especially when it came to controlling my blood glucose. However, like the
literature given to me when I left the Seattle VA Hospital, I felt it wasn't
specific enough. In the meantime, Jamie was teaching me to select and cook
foods properly. I found a little nutrition counter that helped but was rather
limited and a little clumsy to use. It only had 2000 foods listed and a lot of
them were useless to me, particularly the fast food items. Nevertheless, I was
making really good progress with the little hand held counter and I knew I was
really on to something. I just wanted something even better, so I kept
searching. Six weeks later, I finally found a software program that listed
30,000 foods and 90 nutritional values for each.
I down loaded the trial version of the software and found it far superior to
anything I had found so far, but there were still some minor issues I knew
could be easily fixed. I contacted the developer and started negotiation with
him to produce a version of his software that would meet and exceed all the
requirements I was looking for. I applied all I had learned and have been able
totally controlled my blood glucose too less than 100mg/dl ever since. Then
there was also the side benefit--I lost 35 lbs and am well on my way to my
healthy body weight.
 Blood Gucose Chart 2/05-4/05
NutriCoach was born. We realized we have information, techniques and tools that
are desperately needed by millions of people. I am bringing it all together in
one place for easy access. The original NutriCoach website had navigation
issues that made it a little difficult to use so I started looking for a better
way to present what was working so well for me. The second attempt is www.NutriCoach2. What I leaned about web
design in building those sites has been incorporated in www.Diabetic-Diet-Secrets.com
Update 5/19/2005 3:00 pm.
To get my meds refilled I had to do a physical, including full blood and urine
tests. I just got off the phone with the doctor I saw yesterday at the Denver
VA Hospital. What she told me was quite surprising--all my numbers were exactly
where they should be. My A1c in February was 20.5, yesterday, 5.3. Anything
under 6 is good. All other numbers were in normal ranges. Based on my blood
test and what I told them I was doing nutritionally, they decided to take me
off all my meds. She also stated she had never seen or heard of anyone making
such progress in so a short time. Like I, she believes we really need to get
this information to the general public. I am scheduled for a follow up in 30
days so there will be another update then.
Update 6/22/2005
I went for my 30-day follow up and all my lab results were normal, even without
the meds. I was doing it all with just nutrition. If what I learned to do
nutritionally works this well for others, and me it must be a good thing. I
believe it will work for anyone willing to make major lifestyle changes to
obtain better health. If nothing else, it does no harm to try.
Update 8/18/2005
My Daily Blood glucose is still staying right where it should be. I am finding
it a bit strange that I am getting resistance from the medical community. There
is a Chief diabetes trainer at the VA in Denver who could find nothing wrong
with my approach and my results, excepting that I haven't spent the years in
school that she has to obtain a degree in nutrition. I would find that a valid
argument if I were presenting this as my own method. In fact, I have nothing that
can't be found in well-documented medical research available on the web. I
simply combined it into a cohesive program and simplified the presentation so
it is easy to understand.
Update
August/2007
I have been
following what I preach concerning healthy nutrition and diabetic control. In
July 2006 I finally found a Canadian doctor willing to accept payment from the
US Department of Veterans Affairs, Foreign Medical Program administered by The
Canadian department of Veterans. The intake physical and labs were so good that
he was questioning the validity of my original diagnosis.
HbA1C was 5.4
and my typical glucose readings with my One Touch meter are between 4.2 and
4.9 since I am now in Canada I am using a meter that is calibrated to the
Canadian standards.
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Toma Grubb 
