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Wrong Diagnosis?

bakedalaska

bakedalaska

Well-Known Member
Messages
62
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
After a six month period of binge eating because I was lonely and depressed following a personal loss I became very glutted, I totally knew I was over indulging. Sometims a whole loaf of bread AFTER a full supper. Two or three Gin and Tonics...a half bottle of wine.

Then on a routine medical for a new job my blood sugar was 6.5 which didn't cause the Doc suspicion but there was glucose in urine which did. I was not suspecting D2 but I went to see an ebdrocinologist to find out what was going on. Fasting BG that was 8.2. I then went and had a huge breakfast with lots of potato and cam back with a BG of 12.0 2 hours later. That was August 4th. She said you are diabetic.

I was put on 500mg of glucophage x 2 daily and told to diet. She said I could still drink alcohol in moderation. I decided to cut alcohol out completely and lose the excess weight I was carrying. I love to cook as a hobby, so I decided to use different ingredients with no obvious carbs: no potato, bread, pasta or rice. Now on September 14th - 6 weeks later I have a FB glucose of 4.2 and during the day - after meals etc my BG remains below 5.9. I have lost 36lb/12 Kg and exercise for ten minutes morning and night after food - climbing twenty stairs ten times and doing 5 mins of exercise to reduce tummy flab. I swim 60 lengths once a week and go for one hour walks twice a week.

Obviously, once the BG dropped this much which was after about 5 weeks I stopped taking the medication and it continued to fall. Is this just because of the changed lifestyle or might the original diagnosis simply have been wrong. I suspect it was a measurement of my disgusting overindulgence rather than insulin chemistry!

Thoughts welcomed, please....
 
A fasting BG of 8.2 is definitely diabetes. 7 is the cutoff. I don't know if 6 months of overeating would be enough to trigger diabetes - you may have been gradually building towards it for years. I think if you were to go back to the lifestyle you used to have, your fasting BG would creep up again.

Here is some info about what causes diabetes:
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14046739.php
 
CatLadyNZ said:
A fasting BG of 8.2 is definitely diabetes. 7 is the cutoff. I don't know if 6 months of overeating would be enough to trigger diabetes - you may have been gradually building towards it for years. I think if you were to go back to the lifestyle you used to have, your fasting BG would creep up again.

Here is some info about what causes diabetes:
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14046739.php
Click to expand...

Thanks, friend. I get what you mean and appreciate the feedback. I have been doing a fair amount of research, including the Newcastle studies - which inspired me. Isn't EVERYONE who leads an overindulgent lifestyle creeping towards diabetes? As someone once said - we are what we eat. I am referring to Type 2 here. I mean Type 2 doesn't develop in people who eat a natural mammal diet and have a correct BMI and otherwise lead a healthy life - right? Peter
 
bakedalaska said:
Thanks, friend. I get what you mean and appreciate the feedback. I have been doing a fair amount of research, including the Newcastle studies - which inspired me. Isn't EVERYONE who leads an overindulgent lifestyle creeping towards diabetes? As someone once said - we are what we eat. I am referring to Type 2 here. I mean Type 2 doesn't develop in people who eat a natural mammal diet and have a correct BMI and otherwise lead a healthy life - right? Peter
Click to expand...
About 20% of T2 diabetics are normal weight. About 2/3 of obese people don't have diabetes.
 
bakedalaska said:
Thanks, friend. I get what you mean and appreciate the feedback. I have been doing a fair amount of research, including the Newcastle studies - which inspired me. Isn't EVERYONE who leads an overindulgent lifestyle creeping towards diabetes? As someone once said - we are what we eat. I am referring to Type 2 here. I mean Type 2 doesn't develop in people who eat a natural mammal diet and have a correct BMI and otherwise lead a healthy life - right? Peter
Click to expand...
Also, why would
bakedalaska said:
Thanks, friend. I get what you mean and appreciate the feedback. I have been doing a fair amount of research, including the Newcastle studies - which inspired me. Isn't EVERYONE who leads an overindulgent lifestyle creeping towards diabetes? As someone once said - we are what we eat. I am referring to Type 2 here. I mean Type 2 doesn't develop in people who eat a natural mammal diet and have a correct BMI and otherwise lead a healthy life - right? Peter
Click to expand...
Also...having discovered the correct lifestyle - why would a person want to go back to the old unhealthy lifestyle. It's not about will power - cos I have none! One reason I can see is cost. Healthy food is more expensive. Processed food abounds in supermarkets and shops in poor areas. But when I used to live in the States there were also these restaurants you could go to where you could eat as much as you wanted for $5 or so. All the people eating there were obese - some grossly so. Surely this is a political issue? Should governments not outlaw such places and health care systems penalise obesity - as of course they should smoking? May seem a bit radical - but my experience, and those of others I have read suggests this condition is 90% about lifestyle = obesity + lounge lizardry!
 
It may be that your recent efforts have reduced you to below your personal fat threshold - you will probably be familiar with that idea if you have been reading up on the ND.

So I would say that your diagnosis on the tests was the right one. Clearly diabetic results at the time.

However, your success and improved readings are wonderful!
And you may have dipped into reversal, but PLEASE don't rest on your laurels, reversal is just that - going back to former habits and weight will reverse the reversal, plus personal fat thresholds have a tendency to move, with age, activity, muscle loss, medications...

But congratulations! Wonderful result.
And my condolences on your loss.
 
bakedalaska said:
After a six month period of binge eating because I was lonely and depressed following a personal loss I became very glutted, I totally knew I was over indulging. Sometims a whole loaf of bread AFTER a full supper. Two or three Gin and Tonics...a half bottle of wine.

Then on a routine medical for a new job my blood sugar was 6.5 which didn't cause the Doc suspicion but there was glucose in urine which did. I was not suspecting D2 but I went to see an ebdrocinologist to find out what was going on. Fasting BG that was 8.2. I then went and had a huge breakfast with lots of potato and cam back with a BG of 12.0 2 hours later. That was August 4th. She said you are diabetic.

I was put on 500mg of glucophage x 2 daily and told to diet. She said I could still drink alcohol in moderation. I decided to cut alcohol out completely and lose the excess weight I was carrying. I love to cook as a hobby, so I decided to use different ingredients with no obvious carbs: no potato, bread, pasta or rice. Now on September 14th - 6 weeks later I have a FB glucose of 4.2 and during the day - after meals etc my BG remains below 5.9. I have lost 36lb/12 Kg and exercise for ten minutes morning and night after food - climbing twenty stairs ten times and doing 5 mins of exercise to reduce tummy flab. I swim 60 lengths once a week and go for one hour walks twice a week.

Obviously, once the BG dropped this much which was after about 5 weeks I stopped taking the medication and it continued to fall. Is this just because of the changed lifestyle or might the original diagnosis simply have been wrong. I suspect it was a measurement of my disgusting overindulgence rather than insulin chemistry!

Thoughts welcomed, please....
Click to expand...

I would say your improved bloods are due to the changes you have made - to your way of eating, exercise and losing weight.

As regards the 6 months of over indulgence causing this? It is theoretically possible, as there is a theory, with growing acceptance, that each person has a personal fat threshold where their body becomes less able to deal with blood glucose. Unfortunately, as it is personal, it's impossible to say where it is, either on the upward or downward trend of weight scale.

Professor Taylor, at Newcastle University, has done a lot of work on this, using a very low calorie diet to bring weight and blood sugars down quickly, resulting in a significant percentage of his T2 subjects reversing their diabetic blood scores into the "normal" arena. Having achieved that, it is critical for those individuals not to regain their weight (and thereby re-cross their personal thresholds), or to go back to their pre-loss diets, as that is a likely regain strategy. His work can be found here:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal.htm

There are also some YouTube videos available.

Although you may not necessarily have used a very low calorie diet, Professor Taylor believes the weight loss and subsequent dietary control is the key, not the method or timescale of weight loss.

With your blood scores, at the time of diagnosis, the diagnosis appears to be correct, but it looks like you may have nipped things in the bud. Well done, and for heaven's sake, keep doing as you have done.
 
CatLadyNZ said:
About 20% of T2 diabetics are normal weight. About 2/3 of obese people don't have diabetes.
Click to expand...
Wow I am amazed by this data! Those poor obese people without Diabetes. They are deprived the wake up call I had and something else will get them because of their obesity.
 
AndBreathe said:
I would say your improved bloods are due to the changes you have made - to your way of eating, exercise and losing weight.

As regards the 6 months of over indulgence causing this? It is theoretically possible, as there is a theory, with growing acceptance, that each person has a personal fat threshold where their body becomes less able to deal with blood glucose. Unfortunately, as it is personal, it's impossible to say where it is, either on the upward or downward trend of weight scale.

Professor Taylor, at Newcastle University, has done a lot of work on this, using a very low calorie diet to bring weight and blood sugars down quickly, resulting in a significant percentage of his T2 subjects reversing their diabetic blood scores into the "normal" arena. Having achieved that, it is critical for those individuals not to regain their weight (and thereby re-cross their personal thresholds), or to go back to their pre-loss diets, as that is a likely regain strategy. His work can be found here:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal.htm

There are also some YouTube videos available.

Although you may not necessarily have used a very low calorie diet, Professor Taylor believes the weight loss and subsequent dietary control is the key, not the method or timescale of weight loss.

With your blood scores, at the time of diagnosis, the diagnosis appears to be correct, but it looks like you may have nipped things in the bud. Well done, and for heaven's sake, keep doing as you have done.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Friend. I admire your steady and steadfast improvement and aspire to the same. How the heck do we let ourselves get out of shape in the first place? There is much work to be done on the 'psychology of happiness and despair' in an existential sense. I have long believed that it is essentially despair at some unconscious level that makes people smoke cigarettes. Every one of them....I think it is probably the same with food overindulgence...as you might guess I am a Jungian analyst. I am guessing you are a medical practitioner?1
 
bakedalaska said:
Thanks, Friend. I admire your steady and steadfast improvement and aspire to the same. How the heck do we let ourselves get out of shape in the first place? There is much work to be done on the 'psychology of happiness and despair' in an existential sense. I have long believed that it is essentially despair at some unconscious level that makes people smoke cigarettes. Every one of them....I think it is probably the same with food overindulgence...as you might guess I am a Jungian analyst. I am guessing you are a medical practitioner?1
Click to expand...

There are so many factors that influence whether an individual trips over their personal fat threshold, and not all of them are under our control. At least part of this equation is our genetic make up. As others have said, not all out of shape people become diabetic, and that has to be down to a mixture of genetics and sheer luck.

I'm not a smoker, but I don't agree with your speculation on smokers. Why any individual tries a cigarette could be for many reasons, and of course not so many years ago, the harmful nature of smoking tobacco was not understood. Indeed, for a period, it was thought smoking tobacco cleansed the lungs, and acted as a relaxant. These days, that is understood better, but sadly, smoking is extremely addictive, no matter how much a smoker may protest they could give up any time they wanted to. Similarly carbohydrate can be addictive. Many diabetics, changing their diets, find they have carb cravings, which like any other form of addiction are only relived by either consuming more carb, or working through it, until the cravings stop. The good news is not everyone has these, and secondly, they don't last long, usually.

Don't be too hard on yourself. There's little point regretting what you did, because you certainly can't change history, so I would advise you concentrate on the future and making that as good as you can.

For myself, I wasn't incredibly overweight at diagnosis, and I decided to concentrate on one objective at a time. My first objective was to bring my blood scores into a decent range. I did my reading and decided to trim my carb consumption, and start self testing. My meter very quickly informed me what I could or couldn't credibly eat and drink and what to avoid. Once I started paying attention to my meter and my diet, I lost weight and have ended up pretty skinny, without any (weight loss) effort. Having continued to read, by then I understood that having lost my spare pounds, it was likely my insulin resistance would improve, and as such I was on a positive curve.

It sounds like you've had a tough time. Take it steady, and ask lots of question of the forum. We all started by doing the same.

Hopefully, like may of us, you will be healthier in a few months time than you have been for some time. Good luck with it all.

And, for completeness, I'm not a medical practitioner.
 
AndBreathe said:
There are so many factors that influence whether an individual trips over their personal fat threshold, and not all of them are under our control. At least part of this equation is our genetic make up. As others have said, not all out of shape people become diabetic, and that has to be down to a mixture of genetics and sheer luck.

I'm not a smoker, but I don't agree with your speculation on smokers. Why any individual tries a cigarette could be for many reasons, and of course not so many years ago, the harmful nature of smoking tobacco was not understood. Indeed, for a period, it was thought smoking tobacco cleansed the lungs, and acted as a relaxant. These days, that is understood better, but sadly, smoking is extremely addictive, no matter how much a smoker may protest they could give up any time they wanted to. Similarly carbohydrate can be addictive. Many diabetics, changing their diets, find they have carb cravings, which like any other form of addiction are only relived by either consuming more carb, or working through it, until the cravings stop. The good news is not everyone has these, and secondly, they don't last long, usually.

Don't be too hard on yourself. There's little point regretting what you did, because you certainly can't change history, so I would advise you concentrate on the future and making that as good as you can.

For myself, I wasn't incredibly overweight at diagnosis, and I decided to concentrate on one objective at a time. My first objective was to bring my blood scores into a decent range. I did my reading and decided to trim my carb consumption, and start self testing. My meter very quickly informed me what I could or couldn't credibly eat and drink and what to avoid. Once I started paying attention to my meter and my diet, I lost weight and have ended up pretty skinny, without any (weight loss) effort. Having continued to read, by then I understood that having lost my spare pounds, it was likely my insulin resistance would improve, and as such I was on a positive curve.

It sounds like you've had a tough time. Take it steady, and ask lots of question of the forum. We all started by doing the same.

Hopefully, like may of us, you will be healthier in a few months time than you have been for some time. Good luck with it all.

And, for completeness, I'm not a medical practitioner.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Friend. Things seem to be moving in the right direction: I lost 12KG (36lb) since diagnosis 6 weeks ago. Average random readings now 5.5. Fasting readings 5.1. Post exercise 40 lengths of the pool 2 x weekly can drop me into 4s. Climbing my flight of stairs (22) 10 times is a magnificent BG slammer. I recommend it to anyone. Have moved my BMI from obese 97Kg to overweight 85Kg - but tummy fat is soooo slow to go...now I empathise with those girls who crave flat bellies - oh talking of which sex is a lot better (i.e. penetrative sex much more likely), but a lot of ED is psychological...so it is complex. Amusingly, and without TMI and without getting into the nitty gritty I'm told I don't taste as sweet! We should all be aware that sweet treats at the kitchen of love should not be enjoyed but trigger a conversation with the partner about his or her pancreatic health!! Religiously testing - spending all the money that went on alcohol on testing strips, I reckon!
 
bakedalaska said:
Thanks, Friend. Things seem to be moving in the right direction: I lost 12KG (36lb) since diagnosis 6 weeks ago. Average random readings now 5.5. Fasting readings 5.1. Post exercise 40 lengths of the pool 2 x weekly can drop me into 4s. Climbing my flight of stairs (22) 10 times is a magnificent BG slammer. I recommend it to anyone. Have moved my BMI from obese 97Kg to overweight 85Kg - but tummy fat is soooo slow to go...now I empathise with those girls who crave flat bellies - oh talking of which sex is a lot better (i.e. penetrative sex much more likely), but a lot of ED is psychological...so it is complex. Amusingly, and without TMI and without getting into the nitty gritty I'm told I don't taste as sweet! We should all be aware that sweet treats at the kitchen of love should not be enjoyed but trigger a conversation with the partner about his or her pancreatic health!! Religiously testing - spending all the money that went on alcohol on testing strips, I reckon!
Click to expand...

All good news then.

Which meter are you using? Have you discovered the SD Codefree meter and strips many of us use? It's significantly cheaper to run than most.

http://www.homehealth-uk.com/medical/blood_glucose_monitor_testing.htm

There's also a discount if you buy 5 pots or more at the same time. Have a look.
 
Just a note about ED. It's not mostly psychological, especially in cases of diabetes. It tends to be caused by microvascular damage due to high blood glucose over a long period.
 
CatLadyNZ said:
Just a note about ED. It's not mostly psychological, especially in cases of diabetes. It tends to be caused by microvascular damage due to high blood glucose over a long period.
Click to expand...
Thanks - but mine has been on and off forever caused by anxiety. Obviously over recent times exacerbated by D2
 
Where are you based (just country)? Homehealth do ship to non-UK addresses too, but in UK, as a diabetic, you don't have to pay the VAT, which knocks 20% off to the top line. I haven't looked at the impacts of overseas delivery on costs/VAT/shipping etc.

Should you need it, the discount codes, you add at the online checkout are as follows:

5 pots: 264086
10 pots: 975833

Using the discount, brings each pot down from around £7 to just over £5. That's significantly less than most other manufacturers. It's worth noting you can only apply the discount going directly to HomeHealth. Although they also distribute via amazon and eBay, they don't offer the bulk discount via those routes.

I spend significant periods of the year overseas and buy in bulk from Homehealth. I think my last order was 25 or 30 pots, and the shelf life has always been way in advance of my use rate.

Good luck with it all. It gets easier.
 
:)Wow! Well done. You must feel so much better with your lifestyle change. I'm sorry about your loss, they would be proud of you ;)
 
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