Diabetic Teams

Hi Cheryl
I would love a a diabetic team.
Was diagnosed in October and just been told to eat healthy diet but not seen anyone to help me, in fact my first visit with the Diabetic nurse is tomorrow, thank goodness for this site otherwise I would have had no idea what to do.

My wife and I are doing exactly what you are looking at, as she has the same specialism you and has advised, coached and provided me with the nutrition to a so far successful outcome. If I can be frank, my diabetic team has not been instrumental in my progress due to the current mantra, which is a shame because they are "nice" (no pun intended) people. I would have liked the option to either do the Newcastle Diet and or LCHF from the start; rather than what I did which was watching sugary items, but not knowing carbs are effectively sugar, so having to cover this off with extreme workouts.

At my education course there were 2 professionals, 1 of whom rebuffed the feedback that I gave that HiiT exercise reduced my blood sugars (even though my meter told me otherwise); it is sad that neither the dietary (correct) or exercise were pushed, and I fear due to guidelines many diabetics are suffering needlessly.

From my perspective as a "sports fanatic" definitely and major gap - I would advise customised and overseen programmes based on the person; no point giving an 80 year old a HiiT and heavy weights session, when walking maybe twice a day would be better.

When we extend my wife's Physio offering, we will be focusing holistically on the person. My wife has already changed outcomes of secondary issues of non-diabetics by for example getting them to make their own bread, drinking more water and through improved health reducing medication. I have noticed that intervention based HCP's seem well geared up to become the best Diabetic / Obesity specialists (e.g. Dr Fung, Halberg etc). I think this is because they see patients with multiple conditions so can see the links between several conditions. Hopefully you are on board with "our" contrary views i.e. LCHF, fasting and for some exercise, I do know you are well placed on the psychology.

CherylEwing said:

How important is your diabetic team?
Is their advice and support something you value and utilise?
For the sports fanatics, is there a gap between diabetes management and sport?

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My diabetic team is important since they highlighted the problem in the first place and check up every six months.

Their advice has been thrown into doubt since I was told to eat lots of carbohydrates and no fat and only have marge scrape on my bread etc. In fact they have been 100% wrong on all dietary aspects throughout. The support part is that there is some incentive to go for my check ups and watch the puzzlement as to why my diabetes has not progressed as predicted.

I am not a sports fanatic.

Hi @CherylEwing

CherylEwing said:

How important is your diabetic team?

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Very important, although we live with these condition 24/7 it's reassuring to know that there's a support network there and checks on things like HbA1c, kidneys, eyes and feet are routinely carried out.

CherylEwing said:

Is their advice and support something you value and utilise?

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I've always valued their support & advice even in times where it hasn't helped a lot, not everyone in the world are as fortunate as us so we should count our blessings.

CherylEwing said:

For the sports fanatics, is there a gap between diabetes management and sport?

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I'm not into sports but enjoy watching most, but I'd imagine there is a gap between diabetes management and sport, but there's some good resources on the web for people who have type 1 diabetes like yourself, here's just a few:

http://www.excarbs.com/

http://www.runsweet.com/

http://www.teambloodglucose.com/TeamBG/Home.html

Good luck with your studies.

Mbaker said:

I would have liked the option to either do the Newcastle Diet and or LCHF from the start; rather than what I did which was watching sugary items, but not knowing carbs are effectively sugar, so having to cover this off with extreme workouts.

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I wish I'd been shown the light all those years ago.

What I couldn't understand was that my type I paternal uncle and maternal aunt were both carb counters, for obvious reasons. I failed to understand why my GP at the time got so shirty when I asked "should I cut my carbs". I should have dug deeper although I don't think forums like this were around. In fact the endocrinologist that I saw in November '97 (only five months after diagnosis, GP wouldn't prescribe anything) even said "you can't believe everything you read on the internet". I said it was way more than he had told me in our one appointment and way more than my GP and his surgery had told me, where was I to get my knowledge from? Happy days. LOL

I had an interesting conversation with a qualified nurse, working in a non medical setting so just chatting. She rolled her eyes when I mentioned the benefit of low carb or was it aimed a me personally? LOL

She did understand the benefit but said she was trained to say otherwise. I wonder what that is based on?

DavidGrahamJones said:

I wish I'd been shown the light all those years ago.

What I couldn't understand was that my type I paternal uncle and maternal aunt were both carb counters, for obvious reasons. I failed to understand why my GP at the time got so shirty when I asked "should I cut my carbs". I should have dug deeper although I don't think forums like this were around. In fact the endocrinologist that I saw in November '97 (only five months after diagnosis, GP wouldn't prescribe anything) even said "you can't believe everything you read on the internet". I said it was way more than he had told me in our one appointment and way more than my GP and his surgery had told me, where was I to get my knowledge from? Happy days. LOL

I had an interesting conversation with a qualified nurse, working in a non medical setting so just chatting. She rolled her eyes when I mentioned the benefit of low carb or was it aimed a me personally? LOL

She did understand the benefit but said she was trained to say otherwise. I wonder what that is based on?

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Based on flawed science and then the fact that money talks - drug companies benefit when they can give diabetics drugs, food manufacturers who have invested in high carb low fat foods, scientists who are sponsored by food industry, charities who are sponsored by cereal/bread companies, doctors surgeries get extra money for every diabetic on their books (and I believe for every patient they give statins to). It's a National Sickness service not a health service. Doctors are not paid for the people they keep healthy but are paid to follow the NICE guidelines. Plus they get little education in nutrition - that's what dieticians are for. Sadly dieticians have been trained the same way in the low fat mould since the early 80's.
They all seem happy with the disconnect when they blithely say "Carbohydrates are what cause blood glucose to rise so all diabetics must have carbohydrates with every meal". Does that make sense on any level - NO but they keep saying it!

Edited to add not a type 1 so appreciate that type 1 can alter their insulin to cover carbs but from everything I've read low carbing helps type 1's to avoid the such highs and lows and reduces possibility of mistakes.

On the sport front I have found HIITs and weight training to be fantastic tools to help improve BG numbers as well as overall fitness. Ran first ever 10k last year on LCHF and completed it under an hour. Running on fat rather than sugar has proved to be particularly good for long distance and endurance athletes too.

My doctor is the diabetic specialist for the practice. All she ever told me was "you won't be able to do fix it with diet and exercise as you haven't got much weight to lose' and that ' type 2 is progressive and you will end up on insulin eventually'. She runs the diabetic clinic. She couldn't offer me any diet advice but did refer me to a dietician - I declined. If only there was a decent diabetic healthcare team it would be great. But decent means a team who understand there are ways to improve health for Type 1s and that type 2s can halt or reverse their condition with LCHF or Newcastle type diet etc.

CherylEwing said:

So I have been thinking of training as a diabetic educator/nurse. I am currently working as a musculoskeletal physiotherapist but I would love to give back to the diabetic community since it's a community I have been a part of for 15 years..

My question to you is..

How important is your diabetic team?
Is their advice and support something you value and utilise?
For the sports fanatics, is there a gap between diabetes management and sport?

I would appreciate your advice.
Many thanks

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Well done on deciding to do this.

Diagnosed 3 years ago
My diabetic team consists of a nursing sister in my local GP surgery. She is lovely.
I saw her 6 monthly initially, now 12 monthly.
I have never seen a doctor in relation to my diabetes.
Her initial advice was the NHS dietary advice that isn't suitable for diabetics on diet control only. I have always ignored her dietary advice and followed the low carb/high fat route I discovered when I found this forum. She knows this and supports it to a large extent but not 100%. So no, I don't value her advice or utilise it.
I am a sports fanatic but only from my armchair.

I should add that I appreciate my 6 monthly blood checks of lots of different things as well as the HbA1c. plus the annual retinal eye screening.

I'm afraid I don't find my diabetes team of any importance at all. i have an Hba1c done each year with a follow up appointment with the DN and I attend for retinal screening. Depending on the nurse (its a different one each year) I will either get ticked off like a child for low-carbing or have to explain the theory and the practice of living a low carb lifestyle.

I've never seen anyone at the hospital and I refuse to talk to the GP who heads the practice I go to and who 'specializes ' in diabetes after he told me he didn't have the time or patience to talk through my hippy dippy diabetes theories when I said I'd like to discuss low carbing. So I very much rely on this forum.

Chook said:

I'm afraid I don't find my diabetes team of any importance at all. i have an Hba1c done each year with a follow up appointment with the DN and I attend for retinal screening. Depending on the nurse (its a different one each year) I will either get ticked off like a child for low-carbing or have to explain the theory and the practice of living a low carb lifestyle.

I've never seen anyone at the hospital and I refuse to talk to the GP who heads the practice I go to and who 'specializes ' in diabetes after he told me he didn't have the time or patience to talk through my hippy dippy diabetes theories when I said I'd like to discuss low carbing. So I very much rely on this forum.

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This is so like my doctor who calls it "A fad"
I avoid him as it makes me so angry!

CherylEwing said:

So I have been thinking of training as a diabetic educator/nurse. I am currently working as a musculoskeletal physiotherapist but I would love to give back to the diabetic community since it's a community I have been a part of for 15 years..

My question to you is..

How important is your diabetic team?
Is their advice and support something you value and utilise?
For the sports fanatics, is there a gap between diabetes management and sport?

I would appreciate your advice.
Many thanks

Click to expand...

The diabetic team to me are of no use whatsoever and in fact would be detrimental if they are pushing low fat hi carbs. in order for me to get my bloods done I was constantly arguing regarding not having statins and having what they class as high cholesterol and therefore a life threatening diet that we know as ketogenic. They advised exercise but just like all the other advice they offered, if you were to ask why, you rarely got a coherent response. Having said that there is one nurse who is fine with what I do but of course she did not advise me to go Ketogenic as she had never heard of it, she does however at least support me based on my results. If you are newly diagnosed, don't use computers and your education is not great your in real trouble! My opinion!

Funnily enough now that I have "reversed my diabetes" I have my first appointment with a diabetic multi disciplinary team next month. Basically because that's the only way I can get a referral to the podiatrist and it may help in dealing with the complications I have neuropathy loss of kidney function and maybe the retinopathy will wait and see.

CherylEwing said:

So I have been thinking of training as a diabetic educator/nurse. I am currently working as a musculoskeletal physiotherapist but I would love to give back to the diabetic community since it's a community I have been a part of for 15 years..

My question to you is..

How important is your diabetic team?
Is their advice and support something you value and utilise?
For the sports fanatics, is there a gap between diabetes management and sport?

I would appreciate your advice.
Many thanks

Click to expand...

Hi,
I'm probably not the best judge as only been diagnosed 4 months, but in my minor experience I've been lucky both of the diabetic nurses at my GP practice have been really nice and seem very knowledgeable, it was them who recommended this website, they also knew about low carbing, I was advised not to use too many high fats but that was more to do with me being over weight. They organised all my annual checks at my first appointment (which I only had to wait 2 weeks for). They also supported me when I was having a problem last week. I'm having 3 monthly appointments at the moment.
As for the dietitian She was hopeless; said she had heard of LCHF and a colleague was experimenting with it and having some success but it was only being used for poorly controlled diabetics, her general knowledge of diabetes over all was very poor as well.
Having heard of very poor experiences on here I consider myself very lucky. Hope this is useful.
Good luck with your studies and career change.

Squire Fulwood said:

Their advice has been thrown into doubt since I was told to eat lots of carbohydrates and no fat and only have marge scrape on my bread etc. In fact they have been 100% wrong on all dietary aspects throughout. The support part is that there is some incentive to go for my check ups and watch the puzzlement as to why my diabetes has not progressed as predicted.

Click to expand...

I had the exact same issue with my diabetic team - in particular the nutritionist - who seemed very concerned about how few Carbs I took in and the volume of food I consumed - her first question was - are you trying to lose wait and I told her my weight hadn't fluctuated over the last 10 years because I don;t eat to be full. She then suggested other foods to try - all bad bread carbs. So I just kind of smiled - said okay and I haven;t been back and don;t plan to go back - that was 5 years ago .....

I live in a remote area with a small population so I just figured the nutritionist was not up with the times or had not come across the latest conventional wisdom ....

I would say years 1-6 my team (for want of a better word) was utterly useless, I may as well have had no help at all. Life was quite depressing, control was impossible, meds made me feel terrible. Diet advice was eat healthy lots of potatoes pasta etc, hard to get on with diabetes when what you are told was fundamentally wrong for me anyway

Even now trying to get even basic information is incredibly difficult, my consultant and GPS seem to communicate with each other well enough, but for some reason they don'the tell me anything it took me over a year to find out that I was diagnosed with bi-lateral non proliferative retinopathy which as of October has left me with macula edema in both eyes


As far as my DN is concerned the last 2 year have been substantially better, new DN new meds and gained some control. Sadly damage has already been done thanks to retinopathy, so that's a new journey I have to look forward to.

I was given my diagnosis in November by GP told Practice Nurse would contact me then shown the door.
2/52 met with the Nurse who checked my BP and weight and advice given was eat wholegrain rice, wholemeal bread & pasta. No frozen mash or pre cooked packet rice, appts will be sent to you to see podistrist and eye screening and you can attend a half day course on diabetes.
I did attend the appts and the diabetes course I finally managed to get on last week, was told would be from 1-5 and there would be a DSN and Dietician. I was out by 3.15 first part was held a Diabetic tesm support worker 2 months into his role, DSN popped in after 45 minutes asked if anyone had any questions, when people asked she said Dietician would have the answers and disappeared tsking her support worker wuth her.
Dietician was a little better but just answered the queries but basically said eat 3 square meals a day, no snacking in between, dont drink fruit juice, stick to wholemeal, wholegrain.
What has made me more angry was when the GP told me my diagnosis I said can you just get diabetes he told me that my previous 2 annual tests were 6.2 and 6.3 so was classed as pre-diabetic but now tipped over at 6.7 so diabetic now, when I asked why I hadnt been informed before so I could have at least tried to do something about it he apologised and said because patients dont always see the same GP things get missed then went on to say that its the crisis within the nhs and the pressure and lack of funding thats to blame.
Since then I have scavenged every piece of information I could which led me too this site which thank God I did as for me this site and everyone on it is my Diabetic support team, and the so called NHS support is at best inadequate and at worst none existant.

Wish you every success as there is a hell of a lot of room for improvement.