Hi All,
I was diagnosed with T2D in 2012. Initially there was some confusion over the type as I'd accidentally lost a lot of weight and was in ketosis (not high, but in the warning range) with very high BG (~25 mmol/l). Between 2012 and 2014 a learned a lot about diabetes, diet etc. and decided to LCHF. To cut a long story short, I was able to achieve remission, good cholesterol profile (if you worry about that sort of thing) and reverse biomarkers of metabolic syndrome. I took myself off all medication and was discharged from the clinic with an HbA1c of 5.4%
Between 2014 and now, things have slowly been getting worse and I kept telling myself that I would sort myself out eventually. For a number of reasons, 2018 was an incredibly stressful year where I pretty much gave up caring and allowed myself to eat / drink things that I shouldn't. The net result of this is that I've probably had blood glucose readings in the mid teens for over a year.
As people started to comment on weight loss, I decided to weight myself and found I had lost 1 stone in about 2 months. As this had happened before due to stresss / anxiety and then stopped, I wasn't worried initially. However, having ordered some ketone test strips I found I was running at around 2.2 mmol/l at the same time a BG around 17mmol/l. It seemed that my pancreas had shut down and that I'd returned to a similar state to when I was in 7 years ago. I'm now on some background insulin and have been advised to eat 40g of carbs with each meal and inject 4 units of humolog - the purpose being to get the ketones down. I have only been eating 1 meal a day (as I have for years) so my carb intake is still relatively low. After a few days of doing this, I'm now starting to see ketones come down and BGs have for this first time entered single digit territory (although I have done a "correction dose" without food to get here).
So, my questions are:
1. Has anyone else had this experience and been able to get themselves off insulin for a second time, or is it likely I have finally killed my pancreas? The literature on beta cell recovery seems mixed, with some suggesting that 10 years is probably the point of no return.
2. I suspect that I'm still pretty insulin resistant (although I seem to respond to the humolog well), so am reluctant to accept carbs. Before this all started, I was considering the carnivore diet and fasting to drop more weight to finally nail the problem but don't know whether to hang fire on this until things have stabalised. I feel incredibly tired most of the time and am hoping this will resolve now once stablity returns.
3. It seems my body is determined to return my BG to 17 in the morning, regardless of evening insulin dosage (including none), although it's slowly edging down. Is it possible that the "set point" is now just too high and that slowly I'll be able to adjust it as lower BGs become normal?
As this has forced me to take some time off work, I'm hoping that some better sleep my also help as I've slept badly for the past few years as well.
Any advice / responses welcome.
Thanks,
Steve
I was diagnosed with T2D in 2012. Initially there was some confusion over the type as I'd accidentally lost a lot of weight and was in ketosis (not high, but in the warning range) with very high BG (~25 mmol/l). Between 2012 and 2014 a learned a lot about diabetes, diet etc. and decided to LCHF. To cut a long story short, I was able to achieve remission, good cholesterol profile (if you worry about that sort of thing) and reverse biomarkers of metabolic syndrome. I took myself off all medication and was discharged from the clinic with an HbA1c of 5.4%
Between 2014 and now, things have slowly been getting worse and I kept telling myself that I would sort myself out eventually. For a number of reasons, 2018 was an incredibly stressful year where I pretty much gave up caring and allowed myself to eat / drink things that I shouldn't. The net result of this is that I've probably had blood glucose readings in the mid teens for over a year.
As people started to comment on weight loss, I decided to weight myself and found I had lost 1 stone in about 2 months. As this had happened before due to stresss / anxiety and then stopped, I wasn't worried initially. However, having ordered some ketone test strips I found I was running at around 2.2 mmol/l at the same time a BG around 17mmol/l. It seemed that my pancreas had shut down and that I'd returned to a similar state to when I was in 7 years ago. I'm now on some background insulin and have been advised to eat 40g of carbs with each meal and inject 4 units of humolog - the purpose being to get the ketones down. I have only been eating 1 meal a day (as I have for years) so my carb intake is still relatively low. After a few days of doing this, I'm now starting to see ketones come down and BGs have for this first time entered single digit territory (although I have done a "correction dose" without food to get here).
So, my questions are:
1. Has anyone else had this experience and been able to get themselves off insulin for a second time, or is it likely I have finally killed my pancreas? The literature on beta cell recovery seems mixed, with some suggesting that 10 years is probably the point of no return.
2. I suspect that I'm still pretty insulin resistant (although I seem to respond to the humolog well), so am reluctant to accept carbs. Before this all started, I was considering the carnivore diet and fasting to drop more weight to finally nail the problem but don't know whether to hang fire on this until things have stabalised. I feel incredibly tired most of the time and am hoping this will resolve now once stablity returns.
3. It seems my body is determined to return my BG to 17 in the morning, regardless of evening insulin dosage (including none), although it's slowly edging down. Is it possible that the "set point" is now just too high and that slowly I'll be able to adjust it as lower BGs become normal?
As this has forced me to take some time off work, I'm hoping that some better sleep my also help as I've slept badly for the past few years as well.
Any advice / responses welcome.
Thanks,
Steve