Strange experience with Diabetes?

[Sandra.stephenson]

I'm pleased your feeling good but when I do low carbs I have more hypos any advice pls I'm trying to lose weight aswell

 

[Brunneria]

I'm pleased your feeling good but when I do low carbs I have more hypos any advice pls I'm trying to lose weight aswell

Hi,
Are you type 1 or 2? And are you on insulin?
@Spiker has experience of low carbing while on insulin.
Hopefully he will pop in and make some suggestions on how to tweak your insulin...

In the meantime, what kind of things are you eating? And when do you hypo?

Sorry I can't be more help, but I'm not on medication, so I can't contribute on that subject.

 

[Spiker]

I'm pleased your feeling good but when I do low carbs I have more hypos any advice pls I'm trying to lose weight aswell

Hi Sandra

Are you on a basal/bolus insulin regime (fast acting insulin shots at each meal)? Are you Type 1? Have you done DAFNE or BDEC or other carb counting course? Assuming Yes to all of those, most likely reasons for having hypos on low carb are

1. Your basal rate/dose is too high. You need to do a basal rate test to correct your basal rate.
2. Your carb ratio is too high. After verifying your basal rate is correct, you need to test your carb ratio

The bottom line is that when you are low carbing, you need to reduce your insulin, in proportion to the reduction in carbs.

 

[Spiker]

Hi I'm type 2 I'm on humulin I insulin 30 mls twice a day

Oops missed this earlier in the thread.

OK so you need to gradually reduce the humulin until the hypos stop. It's possible you may be able to reduce the insulin to a very low level or maybe even stop it altogether, eventually, depending on how well low carb works for you.

 

[Sandra.stephenson]

Thanks for your reply iv tried reducing my insulin in the morning and have an omelette for breakfast have a hypo 2 hours later do eat some carbs like bread and some biscuits feel fine then I do my blood sugar at t time and they r up to between 8&9 so iv started having cereal in the morning a sandwich at dinner and potatoes with my evening meal my sugars seem to b ok with this but I'm not losing any weight iv lost 17 pound altogether but seem to have stuck since starting insulin 8 weeks ago x

 

[this is too difficult]

Thanks for your reply iv tried reducing my insulin in the morning and have an omelette for breakfast have a hypo 2 hours later do eat some carbs like bread and some biscuits feel fine then I do my blood sugar at t time and they r up to between 8&9 so iv started having cereal in the morning a sandwich at dinner and potatoes with my evening meal my sugars seem to b ok with this but I'm not losing any weight iv lost 17 pound altogether but seem to have stuck since starting insulin 8 weeks ago x

No carbs in an omelette really.

 

[Sandra.stephenson]

Yes I no I just tried to c if I cud go without oops can't

 

[Spiker]

How many grams a day of carbs is your low carb target?
How much did you reduce your morning insulin to, when you had the omelette?

You might want to consider going on DAFNE, or learning how to do basal/bolus, it will make it a lot easier to do a low carb diet on insulin.

 

[Lamont D]

Oh, that is brilliant news! Very pleased for you - and delighted you are feeling better! Hope it continues!!!

Just an update, went to see specialist again only a week after my stay in the madhouse. Have had no adverse reaction to new meds, except I am feeling the cold! Still on a restrictive diet. Low carbs high protein. Meat and salads etc. no need to eat as many meals, have to experiment gradually with different foods, again! So far so good no hypos, no blurred vision for two weeks, feeling a lot better. Lost over a stone in two weeks.
The specialist has told me that he might want to use me as a guinea pig, as I have a rare condition. A paper maybe!
I go again in two weeks and also see the dietician.
I cannot leave this, without thanking all the people on this site who have contributed to all the articles and the information that has helped me over this period of my condition. I have learnt so much! Keep up the good work people!

 

[Spencer67]

Ok here is a strange experience. I went on a course to learn Reiki. This is an esoteric healing technique. I am primarily rational in my outlook, evidence based, scientific, etc. But people had done Reiki on me and it made me feel better so I thought I would learn how to do it on myself. What happened was that my insulin correction factor (ISF) jumped overnight from 1:1.5 to nearly 1:3, the highest it has ever been before or since, and remained there for several weeks, dropping slowly to 1:2 for several months, which is about as good as it ever gets when I am super healthy. The other thing I did at the same time was stop caffeine cold turkey, no other health changes. Whether it was the caffeine or the Reiki, it was an incredibly dramatic overnight change with clear and consistent physical evidence.

I have wondered if what happened was a sudden reduction in my overall stress levels. Both the Reiki and the caffeine cessation could have contributed to that. But I think it was more the Reiki because I could reliably increase my ISF at any time just by doing a single treatment. Very strange.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

This is interesting, i'm thinking of getting some professional reiki treatment myself, are you still using this, would you still recommend it?

 

[Spiker]

This is interesting, i'm thinking of getting some professional reiki treatment myself, are you still using this, would you still recommend it?

I would highly recommend it but keep an eye on your blood sugars in the hours and days afterward.

If it doesn't work for you try another practitioner.

 

[Brunneria]

My experience of doing a Reiki course was that I came down with REAL flu 3 days later. Wiped me out. Thought I was dying.

The practitioner warned us that we would experience 'a cleansing experience' after the course - in which case mine was a stonker.

The sad thing was that while I was ill, Reiki was the last thing on my mind - so I never got into the habit of using it. Wish I had, because I've found it very effective when I have paid for a treatment.