Do you guys agree with this doctor to take NO medication?

Dark Horse

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,840
The problem is, I don't believe, at all, that NICE guidelines are based on a consensus and the best possible evidence, because I absolutely believe that much medical research is fatally flawed and unduly influenced by commercial interests. A quick look at the Mayo guidelines reveals, to my mind, some good advice, but some bad, that has gotten us where we are today. Yes, we can all agree, stop smoking, exercise more, avoid stress, but I would absolutely disagree with the dietary guidelines - a low fat diet? Eating whole grains and fruit? I don't think so! The thing that lowered my blood pressure spectacularly was a high fat diet, no grains, no fruit, aka Atkins, LCHF.

So from years of being on Atenolol (which gave me awful swollen ankles and restricted my mobility - counter protective in terms of heart health) and Ramipril, I am now drug free. Hibiscus tea, I think, helps, as does ground flax seeds.

And following a LCHF diet you NEED salt, just make sure it's good quality, natural unrefined sea salt. Again, all of the research on the harmful effects of salt were conducted using normal refined table salt, I don't have that in the house. My salt is bought from the producers, on the salt pans of the Ile de Re, and lovely stuff it is.
  • I said that NICE guidelines are based on the best available evidence not the best possible evidence. :( Pharmaceutical companies tend not to publish results that are unfavourable to their product, so the published evidence is biased in their favour. Health experts are aware of this, but even so, it is difficult to judge what the true picture is. Anyone who is concerned about this can sign up to the alltrials petition which is calling for all trials to be registered before they take place so that all the evidence is available, not just that which is biased towards a particular pharmaceutical product. http://www.alltrials.net/petition/
  • The Mayo suggestions for lifestyle changes to reduce blood pressure are aimed at the general public, not specifically at diabetics. Salt reduction and eating whole grains and fruit are helpful to most people. The reason that people following LCHF are advised to add salt is that a LCHF diet generally is a lot lower in salt than the "average" diet. People who are following specific diets will need to use discretion when following generalist advice.
  • I don't think that there's much difference nutritionally between table salt and sea salt but I think it's fine to choose the latter because it's "lovely" :)
  • Congratulations on your achievement of being drug-free :)
 

Sarahlou404

Member
Messages
6
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Sorry, misunderstood, must confess, didn't follow the link.
Did anybody watch the BBC 1 programme last week on trying to reduce prescription medication - might be interesting. I enjoyed the first part. I wonder if one of the programmes will cover diabetes. I wouldn't be surprised.

The show has now finished. It was only over two episodes