#64: Health Update. Controlling Diabetes with AI

Summary: At 72, I’m experiencing a health and professional "reboot" that feels like a miracle. By using AI to engineer a gourmet, health-focused kitchen and manage my chronic conditions, I’ve dropped my estimated A1c from 7.2 to 5.8 in weeks. This is a report on how I’m using new tools to stabilize my body, clear my mind, and prepare for my 2026/2027 comeback.


Dearest friends and fans,

This is going to sound like an ad but it's not. Not selling anything. Just reporting.

Ever since December, after our show, I've been working on getting my health in order. Lots of obstacles. Diabetes, HIV, Graves Disease, blood fat issues — it goes on and on.

The most urgent challenge was my blood sugars. The stress of putting the December show together was leading to some bad eating habits and I was devastated when my A1c rose to 7.2, the highest it's ever been. I was eating fast food and felt too exhausted and stressed to cook. Also, even though I have competent home cooking skills, both Jim and I were bored with the same routine of meatloaf, chili, and whatever else was coming out of the kitchen. Even just choosing what to make was taxing.

Over the holidays I focused down on my health. First, I created Jacque, my executive chef, inside the AI (in my case, Google's Gemini).

I gave Jacque this order:

"Make everything that comes out of my kitchen taste like it came from an expensive restaurant using basic cooking skills and ingredients." And also, make it easy to prepare, preferably in a single pan, and it has to work for two different diets. Mine and Jim's. Mine, because I needed to control my blood sugars. His with more leeway in terms of carbs.

The result is that I have now, according to my glucose meter, lowered my estimated A1c from 7.2 to 5.8. (I'm not scheduled for a blood draw until next month, so the estimate is what's available now.)

What does this mean? It means my blood sugars are now staying in the normal range. No peaks and valleys like before, which is terrible on your system. Sometimes a reading would go up into the 200s and almost 300s when they should stay around 100. Then they'd dip down below 70 to put me into emergency eating — usually all the wrong things.

Now slowly, those peaks and valleys are gone. The meter shows a FLAT LINE over a 14-day period with an average blood sugar going from 148 down to 103.

The reason this is happening is because I'm tightly using AI to not only analyze my patterns (as I report my readings) but to educate me on what's actually going on metabolically in my body. Why are they high now? What happens when it goes low? etc.

The BEST result comes from Jim who says my cooking is now as good as anything he's ever tasted — and that's after years of us eating high class food on Crystal cruise ships.

The headline would read: Home cook becomes gourmet chef overnight. And that's literally true. The first meal I gave him blew his mind so hard, he thought he was in the wrong house. I'm not exaggerating.

I also had a lot of stress because I'm trying to stage a comeback in my career after years of therapy on my broken shoulder replacement. I have no manager and no agent, so that leaves me lifting the burden of promotion, press releases, booking shows, promoting shows, writing new songs and staying clear headed while doing it.

I am using AI to solve those problems, too. I'll write about it in another newsletter. But at age 72, getting my body healthy, working, and strong enough to go outside in the freezing cold and sing for two hours four times a week, sounding stronger than ever? It's working. It's also exciting and thrilling to not only be meeting all my health goals but doing it with a clear head and an organized professional and personal life. It feels like a game-changing miracle.

Again, I'm not selling anything and I am not sponsored. Just reporting on how the inventive use of AI can help me get control over my bodily health, my professional life and my mental health.

Steve





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Steve Schalchlin

Living in the Bonus Round







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