A quick note: I am not a native English speaker. This story has been crafted with the help of translators and AI to bridge the language gap. If you notice any awkward phrasing or errors, your feedback would be greatly appreciated. The experience, however, is 100% my own.

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I hope this story finds only those who love Korea, or those who are searching for a truth that feels real. I suspect many who read this will not believe it. And that’s okay… For the last 30 years, this has been my reality. Today, I will share a small part of it.

In April 2018, lying in a hospital bed, I heard words from my doctor that felt utterly unreal: “You need to be prepared to have your toe amputated.”

I was so stunned that all I could manage was a faint, “Okay…” His expression wasn’t a warning or a motivational tactic; it was the grave look of a man stating a 100% medical probability. The seriousness in his eyes told me this was no longer a nightmare I could wake up from. It was real.

And I had proof of that reality right on my own body. The toe in question, on my right foot, was swollen to the point of bursting. The pain had started three days prior, a throbbing agony I had foolishly ignored until it became unbearable, leaving me sleepless and writhing in pain.

The cause of this catastrophe was… almost comically trivial.

A few days before being hospitalized, I had lightly bumped the front of my toe, while wearing socks. It was so minor I can’t even recall where it happened. A brush against a closing door, perhaps. An everyday nothing. The problem was what I did next… I went to a public bathhouse, completely unaware that the tiny, insignificant friction had likely created a microscopic break in my skin.

For a healthy person, this would be of no consequence. But for someone with a blood sugar level consistently in the 300s-400s, it’s an open invitation for disaster. The warm waters of the bathhouse became an incubator for bacteria. The pain began subtly that evening. Had I just applied a simple antiseptic then… none of this would have happened. But I was arrogant. I thought, “It will be fine.” It was the first time I’d experienced something like this.

By the second day, the swelling and pain intensified. I finally applied some ointment and a bandage. But it was far, far too late. The infection was already raging. The pain was excruciating, a feeling like my toe was trying to tear itself from my foot. By the time I arrived at the hospital, the doctor explained the infection had already traveled up past my foot and was advancing up my calf. I had arrived just in time.

Part 1: A 30-Year History of Denial

When did this all begin? My memory is hazy, but it was about 25 years ago, around the year 2000. I was constantly fatigued, had strange pains, and experienced extreme drowsiness after meals—what I now know was a blood sugar spike. A doctor gave me the news: my blood sugar was so high that I should consider hospitalization.

To me, in my 20s, “diabetes” was a common cold. An abstraction. I assumed the doctor was just trying to scare me. It was a terrible habit of mine… to trust my own stubborn judgment over a professional diagnosis.

But his words, “seriously high,” lingered. So I decided to verify it myself. In those days, pharmacies sold urine test strips. A small, pale-yellow square on a plastic stick would change color based on glucose levels—the darker the green, the higher the sugar.

I took the test. The strip turned nearly black. I couldn’t believe it. I tested again. And again. Five, six times. The result was the same. My doctor was right. It was a shock… but not enough to change me. I was young, and I didn’t understand the devastating power of this disease.

So, I continued my life. Two packs of cigarettes a day… and endless nights of drinking with friends. In Korea, soju is the common drink. I could down five or six bottles myself, sometimes more. Beer was like water. I had no idea that for a diabetic, alcohol is like pouring gasoline on a fire.

My body grew heavier, more tired. I remember days in my 20s when even breathing felt like an effort. It was then that my mother gave me a book.

“Your diabetes is serious,” she said. “The book says drinking a lot of this Pi-water can help.” I remember feeling irritated. To me, it sounded like a meaningless nag, like being told “exercise to be healthy” or “study to succeed.” Water? Just drink water? And the ultimate irony was that we’d had a Pi-water purifier in our home since 1996. I had been drinking it for years, maybe a glass or two a day. “If this water is so great,” I retorted, “why did I get diabetes in the first place?”

“You barely drink any,” she replied. “You have to drink at least 3 liters, maybe more, every single day.”

I dismissed her. For months, I continued my self-destructive path… until my body began to fail me so completely that I had to make a choice. I was too lazy to exercise and too stubborn to go back to the hospital. “What have I got to lose?” I thought. “If the water works, great. If not, it’s just water.”

I started forcing myself to drink. At least 3 liters. Sometimes 5. After about 20 days, I took out the test strips again. I expected the dark green. But the strip… it remained a pale, unchanged yellow. I tested again the next day, and the day after. It was the same. A visit to the hospital confirmed it: my blood sugar was normal.

And here, I made my greatest mistake… I thought diabetes was a trivial disease. I believed that if my sugar ever got high again, I could just… drink a lot of water. It cemented in my mind a profound and dangerous misunderstanding of my condition.

Part 2: The Unsung Guardian and a Final Realization

That mistake led me on a 16-year rollercoaster. From 2002 until that moment in 2018, I lived in a repeating cycle of abuse and recovery. I would neglect my health, my blood sugar would skyrocket, and then I would drink Pi-water and exercise just enough to bring it back from the brink, only to fall back into old habits.

It was only after the 2018 crisis, when I was forced to confront my own mortality, that I began to seriously study the nature of diabetes. And as I did, fragmented memories began to connect… and a chilling realization washed over me. My symptoms didn’t start in my 20s. They had started back in 1993, when I was just a teenager. The constant, crushing drowsiness after every meal… the heavy feeling in my body despite my youth… the frequent trips to the bathroom, noticing an unusual amount of bubbles in my urine… I had dismissed it all as just part of growing up. But it wasn’t. My war with diabetes hadn’t been for 25 years. It had been for 30.

Even after narrowly avoiding amputation, I didn’t fully change. The photos of my blood sugar readings in 2021 and 2022 show levels near 300. I had quit smoking and drinking, but I couldn’t stop the binge-eating and stress.

So what about now? As of two months ago, I finally got serious. I am on a strict zero-carbohydrate, controlled diet. I exercise. And I drink a minimum of 5 liters of Pi-water every single day. My fasting blood sugar is now consistently near or below 100.

The diet and exercise are the foundation. That is the undeniable, core reason for my current health. But it begs a question that has haunted me for years…

How did I survive those 30 years? How, with such high blood sugar, such a reckless lifestyle, did I avoid the common diabetic complications: blindness, kidney failure?

I’ve had many close calls. But looking back, I realize that during the absolute worst moments, I was also the most neglectful in drinking Pi-water. And during periods of stability, even with a bad diet, I was drinking it more consistently. The diet is the framework that controls my blood sugar… but I believe the water has been the fuel that allowed my body to endure the decades of damage. It was my unsung guardian.

My belief in its importance grew so strong that for about two years, I had two purifiers installed side-by-side in my home. It was an assurance, a way to make sure I never ran out of this vital resource. I switched back to just one about a year ago, but the lesson had been learned…

A Final Thought… A Humble Plea

If you have read this far, you might be thinking, “This man is incredibly stubborn and foolish… if he had just trusted the water and his body’s own signals 20 years ago, he could have avoided all this pain.”

You are correct. I was. And my greatest concern is that someone else will waste their golden years making the same mistakes, trapped by their own stubbornness and skepticism.

Most people know health is important, but they are not interested in health. Most people know water is important, but they are not interested in good water. I am here to tell you, after a 30-year war with my own body… not all water is the same. Good water is the single most important factor for your health.

And the Pi-water I have written about today… I believe its value is incomparable to any other water in the world. I will be sharing the evidence and the data to back this claim in the stories to come.

I know some will read this and be moved to act. Others will remain skeptical, analyzing and doubting, even after seeing the evidence, just as I did for over 20 years. To those people, I truly understand. That is why I am preparing these stories with such care. I sincerely hope you don’t have to learn through painful experience, as I did. Your health is the most important asset you will ever have. Please… take care of it.

#livingwithdiabetes #bloodsugarcontrol #koreanhealth #piwater #healthjourney #truestory #benefitsofwater #naturalhealth #chronicillness #bloodsugardiet #koreanwellness