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Damage from high sugar levels?

Inchindown

Well-Known Member
Messages
427
Location
Highlands
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
How long does it take for damage to occur from high sugar levels?

I have a binge eating problem that I can't fix and find my sugar levels around 25 mmol/l after a binge.

What I'm trying to work out is the balance of diabetic damage against what time I have left. I'm 67 and have had 2 heart attacks and don't think I have too many years left.

I'm wondering if I should just live with high sugar binges for how ever long I have left and just accept what fate throws at me.
 
I'm not sure if you are on any medications but could you talk to your Dr about medications that reduce appetite? One that I take is very effective for me, and has helped me reduce my binge eating. I don't want to look like I'm promoting a drug but I honestly don't think I would be where I am now if it hadn't been for that helping me.

Are you able to modify what you eat when you binge? I have found that low carb foods can become new favourites and sometimes keep a binge in check. Only sometimes, though... I can't always control it, but I am working on it.
 
Goes back to quality of life, your desire to hold on to it and the fight to face your own issues.

I'd have thought family considerations would also play a huge part.
I don't have any close family.

I've had a couple of heart attacks, and the last one took quite a lot out of me.

I don't have an overwhelming desire for life at any price.
 
I'm not sure if you are on any medications but could you talk to your Dr about medications that reduce appetite? One that I take is very effective for me, and has helped me reduce my binge eating. I don't want to look like I'm promoting a drug but I honestly don't think I would be where I am now if it hadn't been for that helping me.

Are you able to modify what you eat when you binge? I have found that low carb foods can become new favourites and sometimes keep a binge in check. Only sometimes, though... I can't always control it, but I am working on it.
I'm not currently on any diabetes medication. I was taken off metformin after my most recent heart attack last October.

I tried twice to talk to doctors about my eating problems. Neither doctor seemed interested in an eating problem in a man of my age. One of them even told me not to waste his time.

I've tried many strategies to try to beat the eating problem, but I always come back to a specific list of stuff I end up bingeing on. I've tried talking to a psychiatrist but it did not lead anywhere. I was supposed to be referred to a psychologist, but that was about 3 years ago and nothing has happened.

I suppose my question was whether it's worth keeping on fighting the bingeing problem or if I should just let nature take its course with the heart problem.

Probably Hobson's choice.
 
Inchindown, on this thread - https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/sandwiches.158943/page-2#post-1931557 - you received a number of excellent suggestions on how to begin finding help for your eating disorder. I encourage you to go back and follow through with all of those suggestions.

By participating locally in a group or online on a forum, for those with eating disorders, not only will you get help for yourself, you'll be in a position to help others too.

Surveying your recent posts, it looks like you had 4 stents put in back in October. That will likely buy you the time you need to begin understanding how to begin the long process of turning your life around.

Sugars and starches are incredibly addicting. One of my favorite presenters on this topic is Susan Peirce Thompson of Bright Line Eating - (interview begins at 2:29 minutes)...


By listening to this interview, you'll learn...

- about structured eating. "part of the foundation of living happy, thin and free...is planning your food in advance"; having "the structures in place to make the food choices you want to make in the moment"; "the key is making it so that the healthy choice is the easiest and most readily available choice for those moments when your will power is not going to be there for you"; "write your food down the night before, have a little food journal by the fridge, you know, just plan it out the night before, have a really clear food plan with categories and quantities of foods that you eat at each time you want to be eating, so you're not having to think what am I going to eat from the whole range of options in the universe, but rather where's my protein, where's my vegetables, you know those kinds of things."

- about the importance the hormone leptin. It's "the hormonal signal that tells our body that we're not hungry anymore and we really want to be active." "This is the eureka hormone for anyone who wants to lose weight. You've got to have leptin on board. If you don't have leptin on board, you're literally starving, your brain thinks you're starving. That's going to manifest by not being able to move and in shoveling food into your face."

"Leptin is produced by the fat cells actually produced by the fat cells, the fatter you are the more leptin you have." "It's not that you don't have enough leptin. It's that you're brain can't see it."

What's causing the problem? "[High baseline levels of] insulin blocking leptin at the brain". What has caused increasing levels of baseline levels of insulin over the last three or so decades? Eating more and more sugar and flour and the sedentary lifestyle.

I've got to go, but hopefully this is enough information to interest you in listening to the entire interview.

Robert Lustig, M.D., one of the researchers at Univeristy of California, San Francisco, is one of the researchers she refers to on how insulin blocks the brain's ability to get the leptin signal. In this video, Dr. Lustig spends 2 minutes showing how an increase in processed foods over a 44 year period - (1970 - 2014) - correlate with a 4 fold increase in the amount of insulin it takes to bring glucose levels down. This lecture was intended for Dr. Lustig's peers. It's fast paced and difficult to follow, BUT I encourage you to watch just these two minutes 13:57 - 15:45...


If you'd like to learn more from Dr. Lustig, this lecture is easier to follow and understand...

 
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@Inchindown you sound to me as if you might be heading for depression which is quite common after a heart attack I understand.
I really think you should go back to your doctors and try to talk to them again, if you get the same lack of response then could you find a new GP?
You haven’t said what you binge on but as @jpscloud has also suggested - could you try focussing on low carb foods when you are binging?
 
I tried twice to talk to doctors about my eating problems. Neither doctor seemed interested in an eating problem in a man of my age. One of them even told me not to waste his time.

Good grief. Are you in a practice where you could see another doctor without it looking awkward? I just happened one day to see a different doctor at our local practice who also suffers with binge eating disorder, but he's not the doctor I'm registered with. I always ask for him now. Please keep fighting, keep trying, keep asking - most people simply don't understand how helpless we are when it's in control of us but when you do find health professionals who take it seriously, it can help a lot.

You have my respect and my sympathy in your battle... I say keep fighting.
 
Today's binge included the following,

12 rashers of bacon
5 custard filled doughnuts
5 choc chip cookies
2 packets of chocolate biscuits
1 family size packet of crisps
200gm cheese
1 cheese and onion sandwich

All this was eaten between 10AM and 1pm. Nothing else was eaten for the rest of the day.
 
Do you like eggs? They're pretty filling, so I find I have less room for a binge if I've had eggs.

Also, I know it sounds a bit crazy but have you considered a fast? Try skipping breakfast for a while, keeping up low carb as much as you can, ignore the binges if they happen, focus on increasing the amount of time you don't eat. Set yourself a time and don't eat till then. Have a low carb feast set up to break your fast, bacon and eggs or a huge juicy steak with fried mushrooms?

I know our type of eating disorder does not obey the laws of reason or logic, but the one stand-out undeniable good sense book I've read thanks to people on this forum is Jason Fung's The Obesity Code. It convinced me to try intermittent fasting, and I am honestly really surprised that I can do it and - even though binges still happen - I'm reasonably successful with it and feel empowered.
 
I take it you know what this means in the long term .... Lord knows there's enough evidence out there to suggest you do.

I am not a therapist, but you might be well advised to see one. It'll be one long journey back, so please at least, take the effort and the resources available to you.
 
How long does it take for damage to occur from high sugar levels?

I have a binge eating problem that I can't fix and find my sugar levels around 25 mmol/l after a binge.

What I'm trying to work out is the balance of diabetic damage against what time I have left. I'm 67 and have had 2 heart attacks and don't think I have too many years left.

I'm wondering if I should just live with high sugar binges for how ever long I have left and just accept what fate throws at me.
 
Today's binge included the following,

12 rashers of bacon
5 custard filled doughnuts
5 choc chip cookies
2 packets of chocolate biscuits
1 family size packet of crisps
200gm cheese
1 cheese and onion sandwich

All this was eaten between 10AM and 1pm. Nothing else was eaten for the rest of the day.



Oh Lord....I fear that that is lowering the odds on "nature taking it's course"

Sad that you appear to have given up?

One more try?
 
Today's binge included the following,

12 rashers of bacon
5 custard filled doughnuts
5 choc chip cookies
2 packets of chocolate biscuits
1 family size packet of crisps
200gm cheese
1 cheese and onion sandwich

All this was eaten between 10AM and 1pm. Nothing else was eaten for the rest of the day.
Well the cheese and the bacon aren’t so bad and they’re the sort of thing you’d be encouraged to eat on a low carb high fat diet.

I hear you about the sugar intake. I’ve just had an operation, one that I battled hard to get my blood sugars down for. Now I’m signed off work, have terrible depression and have had to, not so much binge, but get sugar in me because it’s all I can face eating at this time.

I’m not overdoing it and know I will get back to my diet shortly but it’s something I need to get out of my system.

I sympathise with your predicament but sometimes you just need to start swapping the bad for the good. There are a range of diabetic sweets out there you could try. Diabetic ice cream or certainly versions with much less sugar. There’s fruit, particularly berries, that you could have. You just need to try and wean yourself off the sugar and onto something that tastes sweet but isn’t, so to speak.

I wish you the best of luck.
 
Today's binge included the following,

12 rashers of bacon
5 custard filled doughnuts
5 choc chip cookies
2 packets of chocolate biscuits
1 family size packet of crisps
200gm cheese
1 cheese and onion sandwich

All this was eaten between 10AM and 1pm. Nothing else was eaten for the rest of the day.

You could have at least invited us over :hilarious:

On a serious note, your post broke my heart:( I would find another DR and I know help for mental health has a very long waiting list. but if your DR/GP is a good and understanding one, he or she might push you as priority so you could be seen asap. Again with some supportive people here, maybe you could find the time with the imformation provided to repair your relationship with food. like swap out those cookies, crisps and biscuits for some different food items of protein, I too, tend to find protein quite filling.

As for your diabetes, where is your consultant? to speak to about your eating problem/binging and your diabetic control.
Please give yourself another chance
 
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