Medical Professionals Advice

[Gadget_man]

Please excuse me if you've read this somewhere else on the site but I can't find where I perhaps wrote it so I'm recapping here, with further information.

I recently started checking my blood glucose levels after being invited by a friend to join a 'health & fitness programme' he's involved in, a euphemism for let me sell you some high priced food supplements that probably have no medical or scientific proof that they're any good. Anyway, to humour him I watched the video and was surprised by a claim they made in it which said that everyone needs a sugar hit from food first thing as their blood sugar is always low first thing in a morning and we need some sugar to get us going and feeling good. I was certain that diabetics wouldn't really want to be following that advice and so, having access to a brand new test meter I decided to check my fasting blood glucose levels and see if I could prove, or disprove, this statement.

I was shocked when I did this because I found that my readings didn't seem to be anywhere near what they should be against what are thought to be the range for a non-diabetic. So I decided to get an appointment with my GP and persuade her to send me for a full test. In the meantime I continued to test both fasting and postprandial levels, which did continue to give concern.

I've written the response to my visit here http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/questionable-gp-knowledge-advice.115225/
so I'll not write all that again.

Anyway, today I went to see the nurse to check my meter against the 'only accurate one' the GP accepted. Interestingly I had a very similar, difficult conversation with the nurse as I did my GP, being told that she didn't see the purpose of checking my meter against hers etc etc. But she finally agreed and the readings were 4.8 from mine and 5.6 from hers. I'm not going to argue about what the significance of all that is, I'll keep my ideas of what they mean to myself for now, but what was interesting was the general content of the discussion.

Apparently I should only follow advice from medical professionals as they are the only one's who can give proper advice. I should only follow what the NHS says with regard to diabetes treatment and not follow what others might say they find useful and have found works. I must only accept the guidelines from NICE as they are the authority in this country on such matters.

I wonder if anyone would care to comment?

 

[walnut_face]

I have 2 meters and I posted the results of a test from the same sample the other day.
Accu check mobile = 4.8
SD Code Free = 5.7

Given the accepted margin of error both reading are acceptable. In your case neither you meter or hers are right, nor are they wrong. As I have posted many times before don't read too much into an individual reading, but look for trends over (say) 7,14,30,90,180,365 days

And as many post here, and IMHO the best advise "Eat to your meter"
@Indy51 posted a link to a Micheal Moseley talk the other day in which he talks about his training. He was told that over the next 5 years they would learn an awful lot, but that in 5 years time it would be out of date. Seems your GP is living in the past
Leaching was good practice in the 17th C

 

[daisyduck]

This frustrates me so much ! There are so many people on here who feel the same. The DN's GP's can see we are all having great results with what we are doing yet they seem scared to admit it works.
My own specialist at the hospital who was consulting me about fatty liver ( I won't say treating because she never did anything useful) was so pleased with my results (after six months my liver was back to normal) She saw me for another two 6 monthly appointments and then said.. Your liver has been consistently normal for over a year now so I'm discharging you. How have you done this ? I replied it's the low carb high fat diet and she shrieked You can't do that !!

 

[Bluetit1802]

The following is a string of comparison tests I did a couple of weeks ago on my two meters over 2 or 3 days.

5.4 6.4
5.4 5.8
5.5 5.8
5.1 6.1
5.2 5.3
5.6 6.1
4.9 5.7
4.7 5.7
5.1 5.7
5.0 6.0
4.7 5.6

These results are not unusual. There are no 100% accurate meters, and our blood rushes round our bodies very quickly, changing all the time. In the spot of blood you draw there are many hundreds of haemoglobin cells and each one will have a different amount of glucose attached to it.

As for advice. I take advice from research and from fellow diabetics.

 

[asparagusp]

I have two meters, The main one is Glucolab which usually reads at least two points higher than the backup one, Accuchek Nano.

 

[Oldvatr]

I have 2 meters and I posted the results of a test from the same sample the other day.
Accu check mobile = 4.8
SD Code Free = 5.7

Given the accepted margin of error both reading are acceptable. In your case neither you meter or hers are right, nor are they wrong. As I have posted many times before don't read too much into an individual reading, but look for trends over (say) 7,14,30,90,180,365 days

And as many post here, and IMHO the best advise "Eat to your meter"
@Indy51 posted a link to a Micheal Moseley talk the other day in which he talks about his training. He was told that over the next 5 years they would learn an awful lot, but that in 5 years time it would be out of date. Seems your GP is living in the past
Leaching was good practice in the 17th C

Leeching is back on the NHS now for dealing with burns, gangrenous tissue and necratising faciliitis. But bloodletting is only practiced by HMRC,

 

[Alison Campbell]

You should have told the nurse that NICE recommends structured education and blood glucose monitoring equipment be offered to newly diagnosed type 2's and asked her whether this is offered at the practice?

Medical professionals advise and prescribe for diabetes but we have to manage it.