People near Orange County, California who want to learn how to manage blood sugar levels and other effects of diabetes without the use of prescription drugs can attend a lecture held by Dr Julian Whitaker on July 7.

"Hundreds of clinical trials demonstrate that diabetes can not only be prevented but actually reversed – not with drugs but with simple, inexpensive lifestyle measure," he said.

Whitaker says that while many doctors include lifestyle changes to help manage diabetes, they also are more likely to prescribe drugs that may only help a fraction of patients who want to effectively treat their symptoms.

The talk is sponsored in part by the Orange County Diabetes Resources Group, which calls itself the nation’s largest support group for the condition, and will be held at the St Joseph Pavilion Medical Offices.

For those who can’t attend Dr Whitaker’s lecture, Duke University Medical School researchers say that eating foods with a low glycemic index could be one way to control type 2 diabetes.

The National Institutes of Health report that nearly 8 percent of Americans suffer from diabetes, or roughly 29 million people.