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A knock me down with a feather moment at GP surgery

Angelmum21

Active Member
Messages
33
Location
Horsham
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi
Went to see GP because I had painful gout in my toe and after reading the NHS advice online about gout had spotted a line saying low carb diets may promote it.
I was amazed to hear said GP tell me that the LCHF diet I am on for diabetes is the hottest topic in medicine at the moment. He also said he and others did not believe they would have to prescribe any metformin in a couple of years if it became widely accepted.
Now whether or not you like or get on with this particular diet it is not often one finds oneself being greeted enthusiastically like this in a GP surgery or am I wrong?
 
I had a similar moment on Monday, not with my GP, but with a radiologist. I mentioned I had lost weight in the last couple of years, and because of some of the stuff he deals with, I'm sure, he immediately asked if my weightloss had been investigated. I laughed and told him the investigations (bloods showing diabetes) led to me losing weight, not the other way around.

He asked how I had done it (reduced carbs) and he got all excited and enthusiastic! I couldn't quite believe it!! He was right on point with the whole shebang. I don't know if he is diabetic, or has a family member affected, but he was certainly bang up to date in his knowledge, although he was unfamiliar with Professor Taylor.

Yes, I do believe the tide is turning.
 
@Angelmum21

Wonderful news!

How did your doc balance the low carb with the gout?
(I'm interested cos a friend's husband has just been diagnosed with 'the worst gout we've ever seen in this Surgery, can we take pictures?' - after 2 years of symptoms, where his prev doc told him he didnt know what it was, but it wasn't gout' )
 

He just agreed to test the urate levels in my blood and said to take painkillers and sent me off for a blood test. The NHS online gout stuff gives you a clue to what causes it if you are on the diet because a lot of oily fish is high in purines and I definitely eat a lot of fish. So I have reduced that for a while and the gout has subsided which is the nature of the beast because ultimately it is an acute arthritic flare up caused by crystals in the joint which should wear off in 3-10 days so not sure if your friend's husband had gout itself or another form of arthritic flare up?

By the way on the plus side of doing this diet, I now have a cloak of invisibility as far as biting insects are concerned. Before I was like a babe magnet for any buzzing things that like to suck blood and would spend hours of sleepless hunting for perpetrators in my bedroom! Now I hear them and turn over safe in the knowledge that they cannot find me! Curious but for me life changing difference as I already carry a scar on my leg from an encounter with some particularly vicious black midges in Australia.
 
Friend's hubby has always been a bug magnet too!

He gets flareups, often in the summer. Been tested for gout repeatedly and told 'tests inconclusive'.

Then he goes back to the surgery this time, in agony, with the skin split over the swollen joint and a brewing infection And the new-to-the-practice doc takes one look at him and all the old test results, and can't believe he was never diagnosed with such obvious results

Anyway, sorry. Didn't mean to derail the thread - or turn it into an anti-doc rant. I just think old doctors should be examined annually to see if they are still competent!
 
Hello, this is a really interesting thread. The doctor who praised lchf sounds wonderful. I was really interested to read the gout info. I have had flare ups for years but was never diagnosed as having gout, probably because I was never tested for it! I had to change doctors when I moved to a new town. I had a particularly bad flar e up and went to the doctors as paracetamol didn't touch the pain. They tested and yes I have gout. But flare. Ups do not last 3 to 10 days! I can be fine all day and in the evening have so much pain in one or more joints I can barely walk or sleep! Then next day it's gone. I have had over a week now where the only meat I have eaten has been chicken or bacon. Fingers crossed , no flare ups! So I'm beginning to wonder if red meat is a trigger for me.
 

Not forgetting the low carb diet, also popular in diabetic circles. I had a bit of a surprise with the colon surgeon that I saw on Wednesday, bit of a nutter who thought swimming and golf were not exercise, I didn't argue, I'd come for something else. He did go along with everyone cutting their carb intake and explained how he had lost 4 stones just by reducing carbs, but as I said, I'd come for something else.

I'm waiting for an urgent CT Scan and I'm not impressed with his parting shot, "phone the office if you don't hear anything in 2 weeks". I should cocoa, they'll be hearing my dulcet tones within the week if I don't get an appointment for an urgent CT scan.
 
Yes funny how their idea of URGENT! and yours are so out of whack - hope that appointment comes soon!
 
@graj0, phone the consultant's secretary and explain your symptons and ask how soon they can fit you in. My mum had some very ominous symptons and was waiting ages for a investigative procedure, I phoned the secretary and got her in the next week. I was extremely charming. If she hadn't had fitted her in she actually advised it would have been better to go to a & e with her symptons, to be admitted and get a faster investigation.
 
When I originally joined,my hello post included the fact my GP who apparently, specialises in diabetes, was totally on the LCHF diet mantra.
He even went as far as told me to ignore the dietician, when I told him for the past 15 years she has advised the high carb, little and often diabetic diet
She is a dietician, I am a doctor, was his exact words, sugar is your enemy,he said to me whilst pointing his finger at me.
 
Thanks for advice, just received a letter, August 4th is the earliest appointment available for a virtual colonoscopy, a CT Scan after drinking some horrible stuff and eating chicken soup for two days. Onwards and upwards, I hope. Do I assume that the powers that be consider my problem not worth being too panicked about? I'm OK with that, just tell me, it's not so bad as it has been. Time will tell.
 
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