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5% CLUB

Although I do eat a lowish carb diet, I am happy and ok with an a1c of around 6.7 to 7.1% and have no intention of jeopardising my ability to recognise the hypo feeling by aiming to have an a1c of just 5%.......way too dodgy for me

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I'm interested and a bit shocked to see my last two weeks CGM readings put me at about 6.7 on the hba1c scale!

I don't think I would have ever been this low even as a child.

Thanks guys couldn't have done it without you all!


Type 1 diagnosed 1990
HBa1c current 8.3
Pump and CGM used (animas vibe)
 

In a way, making your choice of your target A1C and BG levels is the beauty of having to manage the chronic disease diabetes in comparison to other chronic disease.

A year ago I would have laughed you off if you said I would be following Dr. Bernstein's protocol like I am now - especially regarding the fat in take.

My strategy is to do everything medically safe as possible to keep my sugars as normal as possible without large post meal spikes.

The goal is to prevent future diabetes induced complications and try and reverse the damage I've already done and to stop or slow done the diabetic progression in my body.

After reading and following Dr. Bernstein and studying the research of Judy Rhul. I am r'ight now' convinced that the target goals for H1ACs are too high to prevent complications in many of us.

There are risks on each side of this puzzling equation and each one of us must figure out our own level of risk aversion - that coupled with the fact that the disease presents itself differently in each individual.

For me right now, the key for minimizing the risk of hypos is Dr. Bernstein's law of small numbers - the smaller the number of carbs the smaller the units of insulin the smaller the errors.

I am amazed that I can follow this restricted diet and be happy and mostly satisfied and for the first time I believe it is possible to have a BMI at the low end of the scale.

I owe a lot of this to the people on this forum who convinced me that increasing my intake of saturated fats was a good thing - an idea I scoffed at only a few months ago.

I think no mater where we are the key is to be vigilant to the changes to the disease, test and test and more test and refine and make small changes in our lifestyles that we can maintain over a life time, keep an open mind to other peoples protocols and ideas and share our experiences.

On a side note, maybe the reason I am so positive is that I tested drinking a stout american craft beer 'Old Rasputin' with 9.6% alcohol and it had a reducing affect on my BG - this was not the case 6-months ago - it wasn't a full pint but enough to lighten my mood.







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Industrial amounts of insulin.....................I don't think so James

I eat around 180g a day and often a little more on a weekend, my TDD is 34-38 units made up of 18 units of lantus and the rest novorapid, eating 200g of carbs a day won't lead to weight gain as you suggest as long as you don't consume more calories than you burn, however your spot-on by saying insulin timing is an important factor in preventing hypo's and hyper's.
 
200g carbs, that all lol.
I do eat more than that and am due a check up within the month, awaiting a hospital letter, but, recent readings I am hoping to see a hba1c of anything between 6~7. Still on 8 units basal, and currently bolus of 20~25 units daily. Hardly industrial amounts either.

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James12 said:
I don't get when people say they have fixed amount of fast acting insulin per a day
Click to expand...
It does seem crazy but for a good chunk of the last 20 years people have been taught at diagnosis to do a form of "basal bolus" that specified fixed amounts of quick acting insulin with each meal. For example, 8u for breakfast and lunch, 12u for dinner. No carb counting was ever taught to these people - and I am one of them. No dose adjustment was taught apart from "if it's a bigger/smaller than usual meal have a bit more/less insulin". As vague as that.
 
Plus some of us type 2 being treated as type one are on pre mixes and it adds another level of difficulty especially for me

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I saw Jenny Ruhl's segment on that Reversing Diabetes Summit and she said something that shocked me. She said that the studies showing increased morbidity for tight control (HBa1c under 6.5%) are flawed. Her points included:

The studies compared deaths in the tight target group vs deaths in the loose target group, but the excess deaths were people who failed to meet the tight control goals of the group they were assigned to.

A large proportion of the people studied were on a drug later claimed to cause fatal heart disease, and this was not factored out of the data retrospectively.

The only other large study on this found no such correlation.

I guess the detail is on her website.


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What did you do - and still do - to achieve your HbA1c's? They're fantastic!
 
30 years ago I was taught exchanges and moderation.

Then it changed to low fat, high carbs.

Now its changed to low carbs high fat..

Personally I have kept to what I thought at the time was moderate everything. I now realise that my moderate everything actually came in pretty much low everything, so have now increased my fat slightly.

However I do wonder what will be written in 30 years. I hope that in 30 years that they have significant data on people like us to make decisions actually as to the best diets for diabetics.

The thing I remember most significantly is that pre insulin diabetics lived longer on a no carb diet and even children diagnosed were given lettuce AND whiskey.. The children in those days survived longer without carbs..

We are tomorrows guinea pigs, until somebody at hospitals and gp's take note about our diets and living successfully withot complications how will they compile data except from a few random trials.


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I'm not sure if you were referring to me using fixed insulin numbers numbers, I can assure you I alter my insulin accordingly its usually different weekly albeit slightly, my diet is very regimented however and thats how I like it; any changes in insulin sensitivity are very obvious and I can tweak it immediately.

I'm well aware of how easy it is to control sugars with a LC/HF diet as I achieved my ealier a1c with that with virtually no lows. But you're right the reason I'm eating this many carbs is to gain mass and also to see if I can viably maintain it, will update in a month or two .

Also; hardly industrial amounts of insulin though it may have to be for certain people.
 
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