Hi silvertiger
I can feel for your pain, we are in the same boat it seems. I have done a lot of research since being diagnosed on ways/means to beat this illness or at least make it easier. Heres what i do and im not sure if it'll work but i hope so:
So here's what i would do if i were you:
First change your diet IMMEDIATELY. If you are like me you probably eat quite healthy anyway and are most likely slim. As soon as i was diagnosed i changed my diet and i hope that is what has and will keep me going for a long time (touch wood) without needing insulin. Typical readings for me are 4.7 when i wake up, 4.9-5.4 an hour after a meal. For the first 3.5 months i went straight onto a PALEO diet, minimum carbs and energy sustained by increasing the fat intake. I eat eggs for breakfast every morning with bacon, spinach, sometimes sausage. I usually add some thickened cream into the egg mix for the extra fat. Lunch is a salad every single day with either extra virgin olive oil or low crab ceaser dressing for the fat. I have a MASSIVE salad with lots of meat and cheese for the fat. I add a whole avocado to it every day. I DONT eat fruit other than strawberries and thickened cream.
Dinner is always a bit more taxing because you need to think about it. Its alway meat/chicken/fish with veggies cooked lightly. I make cauliflower rice to go with it some days, most days just the meat and veg tho. I also throw in shirataki noodles sometimes (0 carb japanese noodles).
Preparation is key with this diet, i make prepare my breakfast and lunch all the night before. It will be hard at first.
Second for the first 3 months i ran 3-4 miles every day, mostly straight after my evening dinner to burn off any excess sugar. I was slim then - 12.5 stone and im 5'9". Now im 11.3 stone. You will lose weight even if you dont want to but you will stabalise. The biggest thing that loses the weight is the panic/stress, if you are like me when i was first diagnosed i was a wreck (see earlier posts) and was waking up several times a night sweating profusely. Im a lot better now but still think abot it most days.
Third and finally look at these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPPGpVobyNo&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDvuBOkG ... plpp_video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qILQfi-P ... plpp_video
Google something called "simply raw" its a dvd about 6 people that went on a raw vegan diet to get rid of their disease. One of the type 1's is apparently going totally without insulin now, he's kirt tyson in the videos ive linked to above.
Now i dont know if its a whole load of marketting **** but these videos were rare and I got extremely excited when i saw them. I got the simply raw dvd but i havent watched it yet. Even if it is bull it at least gives me hope that there is a solution.
My next step is to go on the raw vegan diet.
So far im still doing the paleo diet, but now i've incorporated a savory green smoothie every day. Im going to slowly phase out the dairy, then the meat, then the eggs while all the time re-introducing fruit in the low GI form. I had to buy a blender and a food processor to do these special diets by the way. If you are ging to try the smoothies get a blender with at least a 2L jug. You can make batches of smoothies in one go.
Anyway, as i said i dont know if any of this will work for you but i think its worth giving it a shot. You might decide to go straight up raw vegan and bypass the paleo. I have been following a girl on youtube called tasha who has been doing the raw/vegan thing and she is full blown T1. It seems to have reduced her insulin dramatically but she still needs it which is why i think this only works for some people and not others. There must be sub-groups of T1 that the doctors dont know about yet but i think if you have any beta cells left you stand a better chance of it working. Thats my insane thoughts anyway
EDIT another thing to consider, which i am taking very seriously is going alkaline with your raw/paleo diet, it is supposed to have huge benefits to all round health and should be relatively easy considering veggies/fruit are all alkaline. I have ordered some alkaline drops which i'll be adding to the water i drink every day but ive heard you can get a filter tap that plumbs straight into your kitchen sink.
Look after yourself and let me know how it goes. I'll be updating on here every few months but if you need to contact me sooner send me a PM.
You are not alone, keep your chin up and keep telling yourself you will be FINE. The best description i heard about it was that its merely an "inconvenience"
Regards,
Karl
EDIT
I forgot to mention im still taking 1 x januvia 50mg a day, i dont know if its doing any good but my endo is using me as a guinea pig to see if the drug will preserve my beta cells as apparently it has done in mice
EDIT
I also forgot to mention that stress increases your blood sugar level, when i first found out about i started doing everything to help myself - i see a counsellor regularly, i do meditation, i do yoga, i read books a lot now and most importantly the run after dinner each evening for 3+ miles. I am no runner or fitness freak and it was death doing runs like that at first but after doing it for 2-3 weeks it gets easier. It took me a while to get my stress/panic under something that resembles control (around 2 months), it was horrendous and i still worry about it daily but the anxiety has mostly gone. My determination to beat this is keeping the stress away
