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Complacency of the medical profession

P

Peter Maher

Member
I wanted to apply the research emerging from Newcastle to see if a dramatic loss of weight would reduce, even eliminate my dependency on Insulin.

I had been injecting for 12 years and always got very positive feedback about my blood sugar control. However this was at the expense of injecting circa 150 units of insulin daily; weight increased to over 17 stone and injection sites were increasingly sore, swollen and painful.

I sought help from the surgery diabetic nurse and explained, "Newcastle suggest that this severe diet needs medical supervision." Her answer was brief. I pushed for an appointment with the hospital team and eventually got to see a dietician and a diabetic nurse together. They announced themselves very keen to learn from my experience but needed the approval of their consultant. The same answer.

So here I am 4 months later, 45 lbs lighter, having reduced my insulin by 95% and my metformin by a third and still trying to get the attention of the local medical profession. I need help, my medication needs to be reviewed in the light of the weight loss, I need support on understanding how to sustain the diet and weight loss. Why, when I tried in early June to get a Drs appointment, was the earliest one available on July 15th! Why is the medical profession so complacent.
 
Excellent work. With regards to diet, they will just tell you to follow the high carb low fat healthy plate or whatever it's called these days, you will be wasting your time asking them for dietary advice. You might want to try a low carb high fat diet.
 
NoCrbs4Me said:
Excellent work. With regards to diet, they will just tell you to follow the high carb low fat healthy plate or whatever it's called these days, you will be wasting your time asking them for dietary advice. You might want to try a low carb high fat diet.
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Thanks for that. It has been zero carb, low calorie diet; it's hard but effective.
Peter
 
Peter Maher said:
I wanted to apply the research emerging from Newcastle to see if a dramatic loss of weight would reduce, even eliminate my dependency on Insulin.

I had been injecting for 12 years and always got very positive feedback about my blood sugar control. However this was at the expense of injecting circa 150 units of insulin daily; weight increased to over 17 stone and injection sites were increasingly sore, swollen and painful.

I sought help from the surgery diabetic nurse and explained, "Newcastle suggest that this severe diet needs medical supervision." Her answer was brief. I pushed for an appointment with the hospital team and eventually got to see a dietician and a diabetic nurse together. They announced themselves very keen to learn from my experience but needed the approval of their consultant. The same answer.

So here I am 4 months later, 45 lbs lighter, having reduced my insulin by 95% and my metformin by a third and still trying to get the attention of the local medical profession. I need help, my medication needs to be reviewed in the light of the weight loss, I need support on understanding how to sustain the diet and weight loss. Why, when I tried in early June to get a Drs appointment, was the earliest one available on July 15th! Why is the medical profession so complacent.
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Wow Peter - That is quite a seismic shift in your weight and medication needs. You should feel very proud.

I didn't do the Newcastle Diet (ND), but did manage a decent outcome for my diabetes (so far!). There quite a number of folks on this site who have used the ND; either using shakes, or by using real food, and my observation is the transitional period is key to the longer term benefits.

My I ask what sort of things your zero carb, low calorie diet consisted of? Did you use shakes of any kind, or did you work out a way of still having a variety of food?

I'll tag @Pipp and @andcol who each used the ND, but in different ways. Pipp followed the shakes protocols, and andcol used real foods - each with excellent results, and now some time in the past.

Unfortunately, we do sometimes see folks reporting back to say that having moved on from the strict ND phase they have had issues containing their situations, for a variety of reasons.

It's a very tough protocol, and there must be a temptation to have a big celebration when the harshest phase comes to an end, but that can be counter-productive for some.

I wish you well and I would join in your delight if you were unable to stop injecting insulin, and who knows what more. Please keep us up to date.
 
Looking at your spreadsheet before ND, I'm not surprised your meds were high, your carbs were high too.
Michael Mosley has a book out using the ND but with food, it might be an idea to transition to that.
 
Peter Maher said:
Here is the spreadsheet detailing the story of my diet. The extract starts a week before the diet and gives you a view of what life was like before. The diet started in earnest on March 1st.

Feedback welcome.

Peter.
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You numbers are looking good. How about fasting glucose level in the morning? I find that to be a fairly good indicator of liver fats :)
 
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