Craig Simons knows first-hand how type 2 diabetes can affect the body — he has struggled with the disease for 15 years.

The 48-year-old credits education with slowly helping him to get to grips with the condition where the body does not use insulin properly, leading to high blood sugar levels.

Mr Simons, of Southampton, is now urging those in a similar position to educate themselves in the hope of better managing and even reversing their disease.

“Respect your doctors but do your research,” he told The Royal Gazette. “Learn it for yourself. That goes across the board for me. If you learn why not to do something, you have a better understanding of how to reverse it. It’s possible with type 2.”

Unlike type 1 diabetes — an autoimmune disease caused by the pancreas producing insufficient insulin — type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance.

It happens when the body no longer produces enough insulin — a hormone that enables people to use the sugar from foods eaten to provide energy — or cannot use it as effectively.

Consistently high blood sugar levels can lead to complications including stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, as well as problems with the eyes, skin and feet. Making lifestyle changes can help control the condition, and there are medications available to help.

But Mr Simons said: “I was so against taking medication at first that I was probably doing more harm than good.”

Learning how the medication works and why it is important made him change his mind. However, he stressed that it is not a prevention or cure.

“You have to make the lifestyle changes and you have to stick with it. The only person you are cheating is yourself.”

Mr Simons found out he had type 2 diabetes about 15 years ago — he was driving his in-laws home from an amusement park in Florida when his vision started to blur. The next morning he was baffled to find the trash full of empty two-litre soda bottles.

After returning to Bermuda he had his eyes tested and got glasses. He had his blood sugar tested after waking up a second time to find the trash full of empty soda bottles.

At 590, it was more than eight times the minimum recommended amount of 70 — the normal range is between 70 and 120.

It turned out he had been waking up thirsty in the middle of the night and was drinking the soda without realising it.

He was referred to the diabetes clinic, where he learnt “how to make the adjustments” and his eyesight got better.

Mr Simons credits a “phenomenal” weeklong course at the clinic — the precursor to the Dream Centre at MWI — with helping him get to grips with the condition.

“In essence, the problem of blurred vision was due to my high sugar levels,” he explained.

After losing “a bunch of weight”, he felt invincible and slowly started “picking” at chocolates again, eating starches and not consuming a balanced meal.

“That put me back and gradually things got bad again. Now I have very poor vision in one eye due to diabetes and possibly high blood pressure, which are all complications of diabetes.”

He has been to the Lahey Hospital & Medical Centre four times in seven years — twice to have stents put in his heart.

Mr Simons now drinks more water, controls his portions, swims daily at 5.15am, walks and does breathing exercises — things he never used to do.

“I hope that everything I’ve done works because I’ve seen the other side of it. No control, no exercise — I’ve seen what that can do to my body.

“It’s a matter of experimenting and sticking to it and not getting discouraged.”

Despite his cholesterol levels plummeting, he is still struggling to control his sugar levels, which had gone up at his last test.

“We haven’t attacked that yet,” he said, adding that his willpower — or lack thereof — is the biggest obstacle.

But he also noted that sugar is more addictive than cocaine, adding: “A man my size is supposed to have 2,000 calories a day. I can get that in one meal if I’m bullheaded. That’s what I mean by understanding.”