Twitter threads on why most GP's won't suggest low carb

Jaylee

Oracle
Retired Moderator
Messages
18,213
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
They almost fill a bath before they burst = memories of schooldays when only barbers sold them.
I faced off my pharmacist back in the day..
I've let a few fly pumping with air.. They don't Neander like balloons...

Guys? Seriously. Stay on the initial topic!

Much appreciated... :)
 

Oldvatr

Expert
Messages
8,470
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I faced off my pharmacist back in the day..
I've let a few fly pumping with air.. They don't Neander like balloons...

Guys? Seriously. Stay on the initial topic!

Much appreciated... :)
They are low carb
 

Guzzler

Master
Messages
10,577
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Poor grammar, bullying and drunks.
I stepped off the forum to google something and this thread was top of the list, well done BB.

Perhaps GPs would prescribe or promote dietary changes if their tick box questions were worded slightly differently? Instead of what I suspect the questions include of 'Given weight loss advice?" It might be changed to 'Given encouragement and a goal (to whit fewer medications and possibly complications) with the offer of a few classes on how to self treat your condition?' Or words to that effect.
Small changes per Dr. David Unwin.
 

DCUKMod

Master
Staff Member
Messages
14,298
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Ladies and gents - Several posts have been edited.

Please keep this thread to the original topic, and remember that the thread can be read by anyone - not just members of this forum.

We are a global forum and we there have members in many countries, from lots of backgrounds. Please respect that not everyone is as "robust" as some of you guys on here.
 

ickihun

Master
Messages
13,698
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Bullies
Sounds pretty much like fasting...? Have any of your HCP's thought of that?
Not continuous fasting..... Starvation. No.
800cals is classed as the starvation diet though. So I'm ill on any restrictive diet but I like the medics to see it for themselves so no misunderstandings. Multivitamins with minerals and iron are keeping me from scurvy and anemia.
Frozen veg and cows milk with a Soya based powder doesn't make many people feel nourished. Starvation is what's being monitored currently. Side affects from meds and insulin also being monitored. Still on over 300units of insulin injected on 800cals. Ranging from 7mmol-9mmol finger pricking from sugar in shakes, coatings on meberine and soya which doesn't work well for my underactive thyroid.
I kid you not.
So if a GP had advised lchf like @HSSS keeps insisting I would still be on insulin but with more betablockers, me thinks. Chest pains only started when I changed to low carb eating. Sorry but true. I've been advised not to be so low with carbs and rightly as I don't now get continuous sleepless nights nor faster heartbeats.
Dapagliflozin wakes me every 3hrs with a very full bladder as I'm on high liquids with this med and 800cals.
Lchf has to be adapted for me due to other health conditions. I'm not alone.
GPs aren't practiced in advising patients like me. That's why I see a consultant.
I'm glad doctors don't treat everyone the same.
Maybe one day lchf diet will be in the pamphlet all type2s are given but I think treading carefully is always advisable.
We are not all the same.
 

Boo1979

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,849
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Forgive me, you speculate money on, let's say education, and the long term benefit should be twofold. Improved health outcomes thereby saving real £s on fewer dialysis chairs, orthopaedic surgeons fees etc etc and then there is the saving to the economy from fewer days lost at work, a higher income to the treasury etc.
This, surely, is 'the' best business model?
I spent much of my time as a head of profession in an NHS trust banging on at senior management about the sense / need for a “speculate to accumulate” mindset when service planning - they banged on at me about the importance of more CIP savings.
CIP = Cost improvement programme - other wise known in my Trust as “the snake that ends up eating itself” because you have to deliver x% of savings every year no matter what - once youve cut to the bone, just grind the bone up and then blow some away, CIP is / was king ( Im now retired but dont think anythings changed, or at least not in a good way)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Guzzler

Guzzler

Master
Messages
10,577
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Poor grammar, bullying and drunks.
Not continuous fasting..... Starvation. No.
800cals is classed as the starvation diet though. So I'm ill on any restrictive diet but I like the medics to see it for themselves so no misunderstandings. Multivitamins with minerals and iron are keeping me from scurvy and anemia.
Frozen veg and cows milk with a Soya based powder doesn't make many people feel nourished. Starvation is what's being monitored currently. Side affects from meds and insulin also being monitored. Still on over 300units of insulin injected on 800cals. Ranging from 7mmol-9mmol finger pricking from sugar in shakes, coatings on meberine and soya which doesn't work well for my underactive thyroid.
I kid you not.
So if a GP had advised lchf like @HSSS keeps insisting I would still be on insulin but with more betablockers, me thinks. Chest pains only started when I changed to low carb eating. Sorry but true. I've been advised not to be so low with carbs and rightly as I don't now get continuous sleepless nights nor faster heartbeats.
Dapagliflozin wakes me every 3hrs with a very full bladder as I'm on high liquids with this med and 800cals.
Lchf has to be adapted for me due to other health conditions. I'm not alone.
GPs aren't practiced in advising patients like me. That's why I see a consultant.
I'm glad doctors don't treat everyone the same.
Maybe one day lchf diet will be in the pamphlet all type2s are given but I think treading carefully is always advisable.
We are not all the same.
800 calories is not classed as a starvation diet. I have heard it called a 'near' starvation diet, this is nowhere near the same thing as starving. There is no such thing as continuous fasting as this equates to starving. You seem to class all fasting with starvation and it is a completely different animal. Ask people of the Islamic faith who fast every year whether or not it equates to starvation. Ask yourself if a doctor would prescribe nil by mouth for 24 hours for a patient before major surgery if it was a threat to life.
 

HSSS

Expert
Messages
7,465
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
.
So if a GP had advised lchf like @HSSS keeps insisting I would still be on insulin but with more betablockers, me thinks. Chest pains only started when I changed to low carb eating. Sorry but true. I've been advised not to be so low with carbs and rightly as I don't now get continuous sleepless nights nor faster heartbeats.
.
And I keep saying that as a starting point at the gp and then allowing for more complex cases such as yourself to be treated differently by specialists. You are not a standard case,and standard starting points are what we’re discussing.

No for you it hasn’t worked I get that, but it does for many. For many it would avoid or lessen the need for ever increasing meds and complications That is the point you continuously miss in this thread and the reason I keep trying to make it clearer.

I too wish we would get treated as individuals because we are not all the same. But realistically there has to be a baseline they begin with
 

ickihun

Master
Messages
13,698
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Bullies
And I keep saying that as a starting point at the gp and then allowing for more complex cases such as yourself to be treated differently by specialists. You are not a standard case,and standard starting points are what we’re discussing.

No for you it hasn’t worked I get that, but it does for many. For many it would avoid or lessen the need for ever increasing meds and complications That is the point you continuously miss in this thread and the reason I keep trying to make it clearer.

I too wish we would get treated as individuals because we are not all the same. But realistically there has to be a baseline they begin with
I wish i hadn't had it suggested without been monitored. 4 less a&e admittance for suspected heart attacks and 6mths of a cardiologist dept. Please. A very expensive experience for me and the nhs.
Can the nhs afford all the extra work it will churn up? From complex cases.
Only complex if it causes chest pains, severe palpation and fast heartbeats after a Dr has suggested it?
I needs careful kid gloves.
Most GPs know that.
 

HSSS

Expert
Messages
7,465
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I wish i hadn't had it suggested without been monitored. 4 less a&e admittance for suspected heart attacks and 6mths of a cardiologist dept. Please. A very expensive experience for me and the nhs.
Can the nhs afford all the extra work it will churn up? From complex cases.
Only complex if it causes chest pains, severe palpation and fast heartbeats after a Dr has suggested it?
I needs careful kid gloves.
Most GPs know that.
No idea why my post is “creative” and obviously your personal experiences of low carb aren’t good and my point of the many v the few simply isn’t being made. I personally think the nhs can’t afford to keep approaching diabetes the way it currently is. I hope you find your solutions as lchf clearly isn’t it.
 

Guzzler

Master
Messages
10,577
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Poor grammar, bullying and drunks.
I wish i hadn't had it suggested without been monitored. 4 less a&e admittance for suspected heart attacks and 6mths of a cardiologist dept. Please. A very expensive experience for me and the nhs.
Can the nhs afford all the extra work it will churn up? From complex cases.
Only complex if it causes chest pains, severe palpation and fast heartbeats after a Dr has suggested it?
I needs careful kid gloves.
Most GPs know that.

Are you suggesting that your experience with LCHF is so common that anyone contemplating lowering the carb value in their diet should be closely monitored by a health care professional because it may cause symptoms of a heart attack? Or, indeed, an actual heart attack?

You had palpitations and chest pain that doctors quite rightly investigated and they would have still investigated whatever diet you were on to try and diagnose the cause. Did a HCP actually tell you, in as many words, that LCHF was the definitive cause of your symptoms?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Member496333

kokhongw

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,394
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
A friend of the family (T2) died recently on too much insulin. He was producing his own insulin but too much insulin injected.

Sorry to hear that.

My father too had multiple episodes of hypo induced coma that required hospitalization and emergency medical assistance due to insulin overdose. So I am conscious of the dangers.

But that is precisely what a low carb approach seeks to avoid as it would lower insulin needs. Dr B's law of small numbers...smaller input, smaller errors.

And with high levels of insulin circulating, the body is unable to respond with enough neuro-protective ketones when glucose drops suddenly. As Dr Keith Runyan had pointed out from his own experience and in his detailed blogs, one of low carb ketogenic approach most significant benefit for him was the reduction in hypoglycemic events.
https://ketogenicdiabeticathlete.wo...-diabetes-mechanisms-avoidance-and-treatment/

Hence the fear that low carb will result in life threatening hypoglycemic events is largely misplaced and misguided. It actually results in less glucose variability.

It is the potentially large glucose fluctuation when using insulin/insulin medication with large amount of carbs that is life threatening. I believe that's the point of the original tweet...
 
  • Like
Reactions: HSSS and Guzzler

Ian_Laye

Well-Known Member
Messages
296
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
I wish i hadn't had it suggested without been monitored. 4 less a&e admittance for suspected heart attacks and 6mths of a cardiologist dept. Please. A very expensive experience for me and the nhs.
Can the nhs afford all the extra work it will churn up? From complex cases.
Only complex if it causes chest pains, severe palpation and fast heartbeats after a Dr has suggested it?
I needs careful kid gloves.
Most GPs know that.
If you had read up on LCHF diets the you should have known about the risks of doing this diet and taking insulin. If you had done your research properly you would have reduced your insulin intake to compensate for the fewer carb consumed.
 

rosco 2

Well-Known Member
Messages
279
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
#74 how very interesting. Mod took out a sentence in my post (re black guys). This was in no way racist, just a comment on how things were and the age old issue of size. Pretty much a running joke for us all. I find it pretty concerning when people believe it’s ok to censor. I had this once before on a survivors site and it was very upsetting. I may decide not to use this site.
 

tim2000s

Expert
Retired Moderator
Messages
8,934
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Other
"Multiple studies demonstrate that T1DM patients experience an average of 0.5 to 5 severe hypoglycemic events every year"
I've been on insulin (Novorapid/Levemir) for 2 1/2 years. I've never had a severe hypoglycemic event. I've read about them on this forum, but never experienced something I've needed to recover from, or which has affected me for hours/the rest of the day.
Are they down the line ?
Is it being LADA that helps ?
Currently I credit low carbing.
Geoff
It's a fairly complex equation. In 30 years I've had 3 severe hypos. All are directly attributable to issues with Lantus. I'm not LADA.

I've also never had a hypo, severe or otherwise, that has stopped me getting up and carrying on, or knocked me out for a day. This seems to be very much something that is a case of YDMV.

What LADA does give you is a less aggressive autoimmune attack, where you are more likely to still produce your own insulin (even at low levels), which maintains signalling between the alpha and beta cells in relation to glucagon release, and therefore limit hypos.

Are you likely to see more severe hypos down the line? Who knows, but while they get a lot of publicity, for some of us, severe hypos and bad subsequent consequences aren't something we recognise as an ongoing concern.
 
  • Like
Reactions: librarising

KK123

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,967
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
#74 how very interesting. Mod took out a sentence in my post (re black guys). This was in no way racist, just a comment on how things were and the age old issue of size. Pretty much a running joke for us all. I find it pretty concerning when people believe it’s ok to censor. I had this once before on a survivors site and it was very upsetting. I may decide not to use this site.

I agree with the moderators. What has 'black guys and size' got to do with diabetes? You may think it's a laugh but it's stereotypical and that can be construed as racist, it's not about being a 'running joke' or about people being overly sensitive, it just has no relevance to a diabetes forum. Well done Mods.
 

Guzzler

Master
Messages
10,577
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Poor grammar, bullying and drunks.
#74 how very interesting. Mod took out a sentence in my post (re black guys). This was in no way racist, just a comment on how things were and the age old issue of size. Pretty much a running joke for us all. I find it pretty concerning when people believe it’s ok to censor. I had this once before on a survivors site and it was very upsetting. I may decide not to use this site.

Please stick around, I for one, think you bring valued experience to the forum. I was upset the first time I was moderated but it is only first dozen that hurt!
 

ickihun

Master
Messages
13,698
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Bullies
And I keep saying that as a starting point at the gp and then allowing for more complex cases such as yourself to be treated differently by specialists. You are not a standard case,and standard starting points are what we’re discussing.

No for you it hasn’t worked I get that, but it does for many. For many it would avoid or lessen the need for ever increasing meds and complications That is the point you continuously miss in this thread and the reason I keep trying to make it clearer.

I too wish we would get treated as individuals because we are not all the same. But realistically there has to be a baseline they begin with
I understand your plea.
Just wonder how it won't cause some.. more difficulties; courtesy of an NHS dr.
And for the Dr not to be blamed for causing the anguish.
After all that happens now without the lchf factsheet or encouragement.
 

ickihun

Master
Messages
13,698
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Bullies
800 calories is not classed as a starvation diet. I have heard it called a 'near' starvation diet, this is nowhere near the same thing as starving. There is no such thing as continuous fasting as this equates to starving. You seem to class all fasting with starvation and it is a completely different animal. Ask people of the Islamic faith who fast every year whether or not it equates to starvation. Ask yourself if a doctor would prescribe nil by mouth for 24 hours for a patient before major surgery if it was a threat to life.
Tell my tummy that. Ha ha.
Seriously though 800cals is as close to starvation I want to get too, without aid. I'm so hungry.... all of the time and very very prickly (not that you've noticed and sorry about it). Tired all the time with the energy of a Nat.
I'm getting bored. How I'll get to February is anyone's guess. Dapagliflozin side affects aren't helping...... on top.

Things I agree to for the sake of improving my diabetes status.
Which is no better for it by the way. Humf!