Recent Content by Caleb Murdock

I may have caused confusion with my use of the word "fasting". I tend to use it to mean any time that I haven't eaten for many hours, long enough for the carbohydrates from the last meal to have been digested. I guess that's my mistake. My experience is that the morning reading reflects the...

Normal fasting BS is about 5.0, and normal post-prandial numbers are about 7.0, and those are the numbers you should aim for (or perhaps a little higher to give you a cushion against hypos -- say, 5.5 and 8.0). I used 9.5 only as an example -- it is really too high. As a type-1 diabetic who...

It looks like we were at cross-purposes. I was thinking in terms of which is worse for the body. I agree with everything you say. Incidentally, the same principle applies to insulin as to diet. Many doctors prescribe Lantus for their patients because the patients don't want to take more than...

That's not my opinion. I don't think the experts are certain about it. Which is better, a BS level that is constantly 8.0, or a BS level that ranges from 6.0 to 9.5? I don't think we know. Certainly, BS spikes after meals aren't good, but it is also important to get your BS down between...

You are right. I misread the original post to say that she had eliminated fats from her diet, but she said she had only eliminated high-fat foods. There is no need to purposely eat a high-fat diet. However, I'm not going to say IMO or IMHO because it should be understood that everything...

When you overhaul your diet, be sure to put the fat back in. Fats -- especially monosaturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids -- are important for good health. They will also make you feel full. Only saturated fat and trans-fats need to be controlled.

Well, if he's not diabetic, what is happening? Non-diabetics rarely have any readings above 8.0. Clearly, something is going on.

I don't think there is any official cut-off where a hypo begins. If a normal fasting blood-sugar level is 5.0, with some people going as low as 4.5, then it seems to me that anything that is 3.5 or lower could be considered a hypo. Of course, you are not going to pass out at 3.5, but anything...

I have added an article to my blog entitled "Instructions for Taking Insulin for Type-2 Diabetics", and I thought that those of you who take insulin might be interested in reading it and giving me your opinion. When I was first prescribed insulin last March, I was really in the wilderness, and...

I haven't said anything yet because I really have very little self-control. I do have some suggestions, though. - Don't try to be perfect; if you are following a diet that is too stringent, then you are setting yourself up for failure. - Your first and most important goal is to keep your...

I'm not familiar with your health-care system in England, so there's not much that I can say about it. However, blood-sugar numbers that go as high as 14.8 and average over 11 are seriously high. As I said before, Lantus is designed to keep your basal blood-sugar numbers in check (your...

I have low thyroid. I don't know if it is related to diabetes, though. I got it before I got diabetes, and the treatment is completely separate. I just want to warn you that it is important to take the right level of thyroid hormone. More than once I have over-dosed on thyroid hormone and...

I'm wondering if perhaps you are not a diabetic at all, but rather have (or had) some condition that drove your blood sugar up temporarily. You should quiz your doctor about that, because those numbers are very suspicious. You want to make sure you have the right diagnosis. I'm not familiar...

Gordon, I think you have the most cheerful attitude toward your diabetes that I have ever encountered.

There's no point in disagreeing about this. If some diabetics get to the point where they don't need to test more than once a fortnight, that's great. But my diet is varied enough, and my liver and pancreas are unpredictable enough, that I'll always want to know what's going on with my blood.