Celebrating my improvement!

[RussK]

Hi everyone - I have managed to change my life with some great support. I now understand how important this is to managing diabetes and how serious a disease this actually is and it has changed my life profoundly.

I decided to take positive action having read about Professor Taylor's research. I am a type 2 diabetic, was on 120+ units a day of insulin and metformin. I am in my 50s, was 116 kilos at 6 foot tall and feeling awful physically and mentally. I took myself off to my surgery, asked for a referral to a different hospital (I never saw the same consultant twice at the previous hospital) and this has been the best thing I have ever done as a diabetic.

The new consultant helped me to feel confident in being able to manage my diabetes, gave me some amazing support and advice. I radically changed my diet and my fitness regime. After about 6 months, these are my results:

Start
Weight: 116 kilos
HBA1C: 74+
Blood pressure: About 132/90
Medication: 120+ units a day of insulin and metformin, along with several other drugs.
Physical and Mental: Always tired and very unfit
BGL: Regularly at around 10

Current Status:
Weight: 81 kilos
HBA1C: 46 when tested in December - I am expecting a much better figure this time around.
Blood pressure: About 119/70
Medication: Metformin only!
Physical and Mental: Feeling fit, alert and strong!
BGL: My blood sugars for the last four days are below (from my tracking spreadsheet) and have been steadily improving:

.

I have also read three amazing books, to help me to get a handle on how my body is working - I learnt so much from reading them:

Eat to Beat Disease: The Body's Five Defence Systems and the Foods that Could Save Your Life
by Li, Dr William,

The Personalized Diet: The revolutionary plan to help you lose weight, prevent disease and feel incredible
by Segal, Dr Eran a

Life Without Diabetes: The definitive guide to understanding and reversing your Type 2 diabetes
by Professor Roy Taylor.​

Please feel free to get in touch if you want to chat about what I have done to improve.

Good luck - Russ

 

[HSSS]

Amazing result. Well done.

What changes did you make? What are you doing now?

 

[catinahat]

Well done Russ

 

[RussK]

Hi HSSS - I took stock of what I was eating. I did some research because I felt that I was not getting good advice or support from the initial hospital. I took the initiative to go and find an alternative and the new hospital and consultant I am under, has changed my life. She if far more supportive and offers more personalised advice - this is vital.

I decided to conduct a lot of research, so that I could understand what was happening to my body, through diabetes and the effects of food and exercise on it too. I also looked into the effects on my mental health as a diabetic. It is revealing and made me feel sad but upbeat because I could do something about it.

I read the three books I have mentioned and used the advice in each, to change my diet. Each is a part of the diabetes jigsaw and together they are amazing!

Life Without Diabetes: This book helped me top understand more about what Type 2 diabetes is, how it works, the potential damage to your body it can do and it offers great advice and encouragement on how to change for the better and improve your BGL.​

The Personalized Diet: Is a brilliantly innovative book. It explains that food can operate in different ways for different people. I started to take the advice of the author, having already ditched refined carbs, and I was amazed to find that if I eat deli roast beef with wholemeal bread, my BGL goes up quickly. It does the same for bananas, jacket potatoes (or indeed any potatoes), sweet potatoes, raisins etc. Not what I would have expected in several areas but having made the changes they work. I tested my BGL after different combinations of food and now have an avoid list. It seems to be working quite well at the moment.

The author also explains the importance of you microbiome on diabetes and other aspects of your health. I have started to eat Kefir and Skyr yoghurt.​

Eat to Beat Disease: For me it has been the final piece of the jigsaw. It explains which foods and beverages are good for helping top fix some of the issues in five different areas: Angiogenesis, Regeneration, Macrobiome, DNA protection and Immunity. It is written by a renowned doctor and suggests the key foods and beverages for each area and offers recipes and a plan.​

I also started to exercise more. I started by walking slowly for about a mile, then I increased the tempo and the distance. I lifted light weights too to begin with. I upped the intensity gradually for both and I am now leaner and have a better proportion of muscle than for a very long time. I have recently signed up to top a hike for life in memory of a close friend, for MacMillan.

I am by no means finished and I have a lot of ambitions to fulfil but if I did not make these changes, I would never have experienced the profound changes I have gone through.

Happy to help - we are all in this together; diabetic brothers and sisters!

Russ

 

[HSSS]

Thank you. So in essence you have increased exercise and muscle mass, reduced carbs of all types not just the refined ones and established this by self testing. These methods have worked well for lots of us in here too and are what we advocate people to do. Stick around for like minded support in your ongoing journey.

 

[RussK]

No - not necessarily.

I still eat carbs but only those that I know will not spike my BGL. That is the essence of Dr Elinav's research (supported by Dr Li), in papers and his book. I eat bread but only wholemeal bread that is seeded. If I eat just wholemeal, then my BGL rises. I eat lots of veg and fruits (not bananas), which cause a BGL spike but I believe they do this for other people), all carbs. I eat weetabix but if I eat shredded wheat, then my BGL rises. There are lots of examples of this that I have found in my exploration of what suits me.

It is also about cultivating a healthy microbiome. Current cutting edge research shows that if this gets out of kilter and is not sorted out, then you will not be efficient in dealing with diabetes. This isa research being done by top scientists and doctors. Easy to find on the internet if you search. here is a link to Dr Elinav and his colleagues. see: www . weizmann . ac . il

It takes patience, time and a will to experiment. Once you have done this then you can personalise your diet. To simply throw out carbs won't work. Trust me. I tried. This way it is more balanced and suited to your body and your needs. If you read the Dr Elinav book, you will understand what they are saying. We are all different and we all react differently to different foods...e.g. allergies or glucose/lactose intolerance.

Hope that helps.

Russ.

 

[HSSS]

Fair enough you’ve found what works for you. For me any type of bread and any cereal causes the rise. So I stick to my carbs coming from veg mostly, a little in my dairy and a few berries.

 

[RussK]

Hi - that is the crux of the books' message. There is no one-size-fits-all. we are all different; our DNA is just so diverse.

I would urge you to buy the books and take a look. I think that you will be pleasantly surprised by what you read.

Good luck - Russ