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Anyone else feel their Doctor(s) let them down ?

Diabetes, to most doctors (and yes, that includes specialists) it's just something that means a slow end to you. They can't or won't keep up with developments, ( think funding, lack of time, research....) and when there is a clear solution like a low carb lifestyle, years of indoctrination about the EatWell plate or unwillingness of patients to do something more than take a magical pill that'll fix everything, will basically not motivate them to mention the alternative, if they even know about it. They just don't know how to help you. Some do. Some are interested. My doc is clueless about T2, by her own admission, but I'm her guinea pig in all this, and willingly so, because she's learning right along with me...! The only one in her practice who went low carb (Not surprisingly, as the DN doesn't advice it), and ended up beating T2 into submission. Needless to say I am NOT seeing the dietician anymore (I had two, one in the hospital and one at the GP, and both pushed low fat, high carb... Of course. And both realised they got to me too late because I was cutting carbs already and seeing results, so sticking with that!). And I haven't seen the practice's DN more than once either. She was nice, (And her last name was Cat, so I couldn't do anything but love her) but she was clueless.

Basically it is a lack of information, too little time per patient due to time-constraints and finances... Which happens everywhere these days. When a doc takes the time to keep up to date and read books by Dr. Fung for instance, well.. It's rare. I do believe they'd want to, I think being a doc or nurse is a calling and extremely hard and underappreciated work... But T2... The professionals dropped the ball there. But then it IS a lot to take in, and we, those who live with it, have little choice but to make a study of it if we want to get better or achieve remission. We pour time into it (and money, what with all the test strips...), but hey, if it works...
 
Jim Lahey said:
To be fair everyone fasts every day. 18:6 just extends the fast somewhat and gives the body even more of a chance to purge sugars. It’s not something to be afraid of. Also it works
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Hi Jim:
Thanks for backing me up. I posted what I did because low carb eating helped me a lot, but stopped at a certain level. When i added intermittent fasting, it brought me to a whole new level! BG readings are now solidly in the non-diabetic range, thank goodness.
 
I can't say I feel let down by doctors, but more so, let down by the health care system that has failed them and us.
 

Yup. Finding my optimal protein requirement, and more importantly intermittent fasting, completely eliminated my dawn phenomenon and got me off my last Metformin pill.

Everyone is different and should be encouraged to make their own choices, but certainly fasting does us no harm, and in most cases can be therapeutic, particularly for those with T2DM
 

I'd have to say, finding that optimal protein amount is very important in terms of bg control and avoiding liver dumps for me.
 
Jim Lahey said:
To be fair everyone fasts every day. 18:6 just extends the fast somewhat and gives the body even more of a chance to purge sugars. It’s not something to be afraid of. Also it works
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I’ll take it under consideration lol.

I’m still doubtful though...
 
Chicken and fish are just two options... There's all sorts of meat, red and white, you could get into. There's quite a lot of low carb or no carb food out there. Don't be afraid of fats. Carbs, fats and protein make up the three macro-nutrients, and when you cut one, you up the others. Adding fats will make you feel full, and keep you from getting malnourished. Fat'll slow down the uptake of any carbs you do consume, and unlike proteine, it won't mke your sugarlevels go up. (Protein does, a little... Nothing as horrific as carbs do though.)

You want to stay away from anything made with wheat, fuctose-laden or starchy in origin. So cut the bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, corn and most fruits.

So... Meat (bacon!!! ), fish, poultry, above ground-veggies/leafy greens, eggs, cheese, full fat greek yoghurt, proper butter, extra dark chocolate, nuts, coconut, olives, berries, tomatoes, avocado, starfruit... Stuff like that. Couple of simple meal idea's, though more interesting stuff can be found over at dietdoctor.com :

Scrambled eggs with bacon, cheese, mushrooms, tomato, maybe some high meat content sausages?
Eggs with ham, bacon and cheese
Omelet with spinach and/or smoked salmon
Omelet with cream, cinnamon, with some berries and coconut shavings
Full fat Greek yoghurt with nuts and berries
Leafy green salad with a can of tuna (oil, not brine!), mayonaise, capers, olives and avocado
Leafy green salad with (warmed goat's) cheese and bacon, maybe a nice vinaigrette?
Meat, fish or poultry with veggies. I usually go for cauliflower rice or broccoli rice, with cheese and bacon to bulk it up. Never the same meal twice in a row because of various herbs/spices.

There's loads more on dietdoctor.com, like I said, but this is what works for me: very little effort, quick to get ready, easy to have in the fridge or freezer. I keep "failing at" avocado's, so I get them from the frozen aisle. Berries too, cheaper than fresh. Leaves me room to get nice 85% chocolate from Lindt.

Hope this helps! And if you want more info, check out Dr. Jason Fung's The Diabetes Code. Invaluable resource!
Jo
PS: I don't know whether you're testing, but if you test before a meal and 2 hours after first bite, you don't want to see a rise of more than 2.0 mmol/l. If it is higher than that, the meal was carbier than you could process out again. Golden advice: eat to your meter!
 
Patrick66 said:
[...] I’m still doubtful though...
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And you’re right to be cautious. You shouldn’t take the word of people on the internet as gospel, but hopefully we’ve sown the seed that will spur you to think more about it.

The results of my own n=1 experiment are in my signature
 
Well, if it matters any: Dr. Jason Fung is connected to dietdoctor.com along with a couple of other (actual) experts who have done proper research, and they do put on a lot of information, recepies, and youtube video's with information for free. Not a teaser with and-if-you-want-to-know-more-PAY-ME-OR-DIE! You can join the site and become a paying member, but I never did.... Could find everything I wanted to find without paying a single penny. I didn't read his books until I'd already started practicing what he preached. They seem to be more about raising awareness and helping people than making a buck. Unlike some other , indeed so-called "experts" I've come across. But it's not bad to be sceptical... There's enough out there (even people who say T1 can be cured with an extreme diet that'll leave patients malnourished. Unless of course death is counted as a solition, they're so far off!), so yeah.... Not just money hungry fools, but dangerous money hungry fools at that. Any dodo can write a book. Me, I just read as much as I could, and implemented what made sense, and disregarded what didn't. And here I am. I may still have other issues, but I'm healthier than I have been in over a decade (and skipping breakfast as my intermittend-fasting regime... )
 

I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone in this field, but if I had to pick one person to pin a medal on, it would be Jason Fung. It’s no embellishment of the truth to say that he saved my life. He can become a trillionaire for all I care
 

I’m feeling very let down at the moment. Not heard a peep from the doc since June/July when I was diagnosed and initial checks done. I had another Hba1c in October via the hospital and doc there told to get another via GP in 3 months. I’ve just been refused it! “No need until July.” So they expect me to work totally blind (they don’t know I self test although did issue a meter). I think this is pretty poor. I know Im probably doing ok but they don’t know that! Sorry. I needed a rant

Ps. Edit to as I take it back. It wasn’t the doc who refused. It was someone else. He is happy to test. Going for an appointment with him on Tuesday.
 
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Rant away. Its not uncommon for the period between tests to be a bone of contention. I was told every 6 months, then yearly...and then got told off for not having one every 6 months...which then became 9 months..and, when I asked, I was told I would be notified when the time was right...so, basically, "Go away"

I think I'd be going back to the doctors or speaking to the practice manager about your care.
 
2 years ago I requested a blood test which included HbA1c. The normal practice after blood tests is to call the surgery for results – which I did – and was told by the receptionist – everything was normal. For a few years I have kept all blood test results after being diagnosed with fatty liver and subsequently requested a copy of my blood test results. When I arrived home to read through the test results all the other blood test results were fine but I was not happy to read the lab comment “High risk of developing DM suggest repeat in 1 year” against a reading 0f 42 mmol/mol for the HbA1c test – especially after being told everything was normal. I met with a doctor at the practice a couple of weeks later and brought this up – i.e. that receptionists or whoever should be better trained to properly read and flag up anything out of the ordinary in lab results and that any mention of “high risk” must surely be flagged up for immediate preventative action. For me, this was tantamount to negligence. However, not a very positive response from the doctor and, amazingly, no proper advice on how to proceed, dietary recommendations etc. It just looked to me as though “we’ll wait until he gets diabetes” then add him to the statistics. Then the adage is trotted out – You can sell more “cures” than you can for “prevention”. Reading through the comments on this and other sites, shares in the makers of Metformin must be on a never ending roll! While searching on line for what could be done, I found an Australian specialist who confirmed that diabetes is reversible, primarily through diet, although I guess it depends on the extent at the time it is diagnosed. I have been vegetarian for a few years now, nearly vegan more recently and my last two results have been 39mmol/mol, but will closely monitor future test results to hopefully stay out of the woods. Incidentally, another local surgery charges £5 for a copy of blood test results and, when challenged about this extortion, said they can charge whatever they like!
 
In 2018, I learned that the routine blood tests since 2005 Indicated pre diabetes & Type 2 diabetes.

I assumed, year after year, if there was an issue, my doc would let me know since I’m there faithfully 4x a year.

I am responsible for blind trust in medical profession.
 
Thank you for the info very much appreciated. At present not testing and don't have meter, again not given any advice on the subject so not even sure what would be a good/bad reading or what to do to correct it!
 

Okay...
 
chris66 said:
Thank you for the info very much appreciated. At present not testing and don't have meter, again not given any advice on the subject so not even sure what would be a good/bad reading or what to do to correct it!
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Right now you're bound to see relatively high numbers. As you start to eat differently you'll see those go down, but it's good to know where you're starting from. (Also why you need to keep tabs on your HbA1c results. They can be quite motivating/encouraging... ) Most important right now is that you test before a meal and 2 hours after first bite. If you don't go up more than 2.0 mmol/l, the meal was good, and will also contribute to getting your numbers lower overall, own the line. At this moment your liver is used to you having high numbers, and it will take a while for it to realise that this is the new normal; for some time, most likely, your liver will dump stored glucose into your system to get you back up to your old numbers. It thinks it's helping. So if at first it feels like low carbing isn't helping, then the liver's just trying to help out and it will get used to lower numbers if you hang in there. It'll stop dumping as much. That's why I don't personally reccommend checking fasting glucose numbers in the morning: everyone gets a morning liver dump, because it gives you energy to start the day prior to eating. Once you go low carb, that is the last number to come down, and it might be discouraging, even when you're doing great the rest of the day. Eventually you'll probably aim for about 4.5 to 8.5, but don't put too much pressure on; it doesn't have to happen overnight. We're all different, and while for some the results are instantaneous, for others it takes a few weeks. Depends on where you're coming from, and we all have different levels of insulin production, insulin resistance/insensitivity, liverdumps... So just keep an eye on what affect food has and don't immediately aim for non-diabetic levels, as they may not appear straight away. You'll get there, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, but it'll happen, on low carb.

For me, if I eat in a restaurant for instance and they put more sugar in my meal than I was expecting, and I go higher than usual, I just take a brisk walk after I pay the bill. (If the car is parked close by, I'll just walk around a block or something before heading home). That'll get my numbers back down to where they should be. All in all, don't panic, they'll come down eventually. Getting it wrong over one meal means you just have the next meal to try again!

The doc won't perscribe a meter by the way. NHS doesn't like paying for them, so they give a myread of excuses not to give you one unless you're on hypo-inducing meds or insulin. (It would give one stress... Personally, I stress more if I don't know what's going on. And sore fingers... Well, if you prick on the side of your fingertip rather than in the centre of the pad, you're fine.) At first that means paying a lot of money for teststrips, but after a while you know what foods work for you and which don't, so the testing becomes less frequent. i only test now when I eat out and am not sure what I can order, am ill or feel otherwise funny. In my first full year of being a T2 I spent 1000 euro's on teststrips. I didn't know there were cheaper strips/meters out there, and considering I have 3 meters of the same brand, as it was the only one my pharmasist carried, it feels kindof silly to switch brands now. Plus, I test a lot less than I used to.

Hope this helps!
Jo
 
briped said:
Talk about being ahead of time
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OOOOPs, Thank you @briped, I shall send it back in time. !!
And if were minded you could report said doctor to the Medical Board.
 
Thanks again Jo, when i saw diabetic nurse she mentioned the figure 5.8 which i assume was my blood and said it was high but again time i had the appointment was 6 weeks after blood test so maybe it wasn't about that. My late wife was type 2 so have a rough idea of where to prick finger as she did once test me years ago, i'm sure she used to say if her blood was under 5 and above 4 it was good but i could be wrong, anyway looks like i will have to invest in a meter and look to further change diet, shopping tomorrow it is then
 
I think the 5.8 may have been your HbA1c (an average of 3 months), which is measured differently from a spot test with your fingers. Could it have been 58? In any case, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are perfectly fine... Wouldn't worry overmuch over an 8 either. But yeah, get a meter, wash your hands so you can be dead certain nothing skewed the numbers, check before and after a meal, and if you're so inclined, share the results. The first time I did a rading throughout a day, the day after I found out about the T2, I hit 18.-something-or-other after eating two white rolls with cheese for lunch. You could've mopped me up, I was crying so much and was terrified to eat anything. It was obvious that food was messing with me, but I didn't know what part of it was responsible. And when metformin made me really ill, I read whatever I could get my hands on to find out how I could tacle this. Turns out remission was a possibility. And I have been in remission for about 2 years now. (Was diagnosed +/- 3 months when my numbers came back as non-diabetic.)
 
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