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Dieticians

taurusmmuk

Member
Messages
21
Type of diabetes
Type 2
I have a simple question, I have type 2 diabetes and would like to see a dietician but several doctors have ignored my request or said they only deal with serious diseases. Are diabetics supposed to be able to see dieticians or not, anyone else have similar problems.

I have to add that I keep a tight rein on my numbers and every year I get told that I am practically pre-diabetic but I feel that I am being led up the garden path.
 
Look on your main hospital website it will tell you who the dietician is for the hospital with a telephone number, ring and ask how to make an apt.
 
oh here they keep referring me and I hate going
 

Well done on keeping your numbers in the right place. I have a nagging feeling that any dietary advice that you might receive these days would not do you much good. Would you like to see a dietician to lose weight, because it sounds like you're doing the right thing for your BG.

I can only speak of my experience in 1997 when first diagnosed. I wasn't referred to a dietician, my GP just asked to look at a food diary which I kept and insisted that whatever I did, I wasn't to cut carbs. When I later had problems losing weight despite 6 months of calorie reduction (reduction of 500 cals - 1000 cals per day) and increased exercise, he just said "Rome wasn't built in a day". I changed doctors and was referred to an endocrinologist rather than a dietician.

I wonder what diseases your doctor refers to? I would have thought weight problems might be their area of expertise.

I saw this on the Association of UK Dietitians website:

You will be able to see a dietitian within the NHS after being referred by your GP Practice, or multi-disciplinary team. Your GP may make this referral or you may request a referral yourself. Why not contact the Dietetic Department at your local hospital to enquire whether they operate a ‘self-referral’ system. Consultations with dietitians within the NHS are free.

If you don't mind paying I'd also suggest seeing a Nutritional Therapist.
 
Personally I didn't find nhs dietician helpful at all, I have just had an appointment with NHS psychologist and he was very disappointed in guidance given by dietician.
I would give this site LCHF diet a try, it might not be for you but at least it is something that has had a fair amount of success.
 
Shar67 said:
I have just had an appointment with NHS psychologist . . . . .
Click to expand...

After seeing the endocrinologist referred to earlier, he advised me to have gastric surgery. At that time those who had had surgery were liquidising chocolate and ice cream to get their calorie intake up to 1200 cals. I could do 1200 calories without surgery and I have done for several months at a time. It would seem that after a WW referral, bariatric surgery is the next thing the NHS like you to try, so I seem to have got onto some sort of referral loop, I managed to get an appointment with a psychologist and a dietician together. Their conclusion was that I don't have an eating problem, I have a weight problem. So I've got nowhere really.

Trying Newcastle approach, see where that leads, mind you, if it's only meant to be for 8 weeks . . . . . . .
 
When I was diagnosed as type2, my diabetic nurse referred me to the hospital dietician. Had to wait 7 months for the appointment.
I went and quite frankly, it was a total waste of time. I saw I young slip of a girl, looked around 20.she weighed me and said to diet, that was why I went to see her. She just said to cut down portion size, to eat bread, some sugars etc
To me this was very unhelpful.
Then she said did I want another appointment so I said ok, to which she replied, ok we will see you again in 6 months time. How was that going to help me.that was 18 months ago, low and behold, I am still waiting for the appointment to arrive.
To be honest, if I did get another appointment, I would have cancelled as I felt I wasn,t getting any help
 
ally1 said:
that was 18 months ago, low and behold, I am still waiting for the appointment to arrive.
Click to expand...

I have a theory, when you are supposed to comply with some rule about waiting lists, you just get rid of the waiting list. Sadly, it's become a game between the bean counters and people who quite frankly would be better employed trying to see the people who need help rather than juggling the books.

Apologies to one and all, mid week whinge.
 
It sounds like this is another example of differing standards around the NHS. There's always a frustration should you end up at a health professional that's either behind the curve on the latest treatments or doesn't seem too interested in your diabetes.

Luckily, I've fallen on my feet with them from day one. My GP had been a member of the Diabetes team at the local hospital, my Diabetes clinic are on the ball, the diabetic nurse at the surgery has her ducks in a row. I saw a dietitian 3 months after I was diagnosed Type one and again she knew what she was doing, advising that I was eating properly and fully supportive of reducing carbs, increasing fat and balanced eating.

Sad to say, I arrived over half an hour before my appointment & was seen straight away as her planned appointments didn't show up. I got the impression that the spirit was slowly leaching away due to patients who didn't turn up, would turn up without filling in the eating diary and would get very upset to be told they were overweight.

I think it's very easy to forget the role of the patient in healthcare and the effect this has on career health professionals.
 
The dietician I was referred to was match stick thin and not up on diabetes. She gave the old NHS plate advice and that cereal for breakfast ect. I was shocked and said 'but carbohydrates turn to glucose in the blood and I'm trying to reduce my blood glucose' . She snapped back that she knew that of course. There was silence and I left soon afterwards.

I would recommend that you carry on with what you are doing and give dieticians a miss
 
Hi. Whilst there are some good dieticians out there, it seems that a large number the NHS use are useless. They often know little about diabetes and follow the (overall bad) government mantra about low-fat, low-salt and low-sugar. The low-sugar bit is fine. The low-fat bit is wrong and the low-salt bit is only an issue if you have raised blood pressure. They rarely mention low-carbs which is our No.1 concern and society at large. These forums have all the diet advice you will ever need.
 
I would just like to clarify, my NHS psychologist appointment was for pain management, the reason the dietician was mentioned was because of the very restricted diet I have put myself on (restricted as there is only about 6 things I can eat that don't give my pain problems).
 
I had a very positive experience when I was referred to a dietician, she was very helpful and supportive of my then 60g a day lc diet, but then I wasnt adding large amounts of fat to it, in fact the one negative comment she made to me was that I should be eating more oily fish, but unfortunately I have never liked oily fish other than tinned tuna and that apparently doesnt count

I was using insulin when I was referred to a dietician and she was attached to the diabetic clinic of my local hospital but I would have thought most doctors would be happy to refer you as it shows you are being pro active in your control, so keep badgering your doctor and keep asking for a referral, even if you dont gain anything from the experience it will have added to your knowledge base.

Knowledge is power the more you can learn about your condition the more easily you will be able to find out what works for you.
 
I saw 2 dieticians, neither very good regarding diabetes, to be fair at that point I knew more than them. I got a leaflet with the healthy eating plate on it, not good for diabetics. She said she couldn't help me, duh how good was that!
 
I think that looking on the web is as good as an nhs dietician, I am inspired by other people's health journeys deliciously Ella is a great one to follow had all sorts of illnesses at a young age and over 18 months has transformed her health, she hads good books out on cooking to.
 
I was told that diabetics do have the right to see a dietitian and I was duly sent to one. A complete waste of time however. She said I had to take more exercise and eat carbs with every meal. When I looked perplexed she thought I didn't understand so she explained that it was like doggies and bunnies racing round a track and did I want another appointment.
 
When I saw a Dietitian I used the term "restricting carbs" which seemed to go down a lot better. I explained that most of my carbs came from veg and fruit (mostly berries) and she was very happy with that.
 
Thanks for all the replies and as I thought most of you that did get to see a dietician are none the wiser. I didn't think that seeing a dietician would help me greatly but was hacked off because the medical profession seemed to think that because I was taking care of myself then they could save money by not referring me. Since local doctors now run the medical commissioning service in my area I think that it has generally been harder to get a referral, and I think this is to do with saving money for the commissioning group (my personal opinion) but I probably will not be able to prove it. I know two people who do not watch their diet and eat high sugar foods and have had to go on insulin and also get a free meter and test strips for being lazy about food choices. I don't envy them but I try to take care of myself and was told that I couldn't have a meter or test strips from the NHS.

Because of this website and my list of diabetes related books I think that I know as much or more than the NHS about this subject. I wouldn't presume to advise anyone else except in very general terms about keeping the numbers low, because what suits me may not suit someone else.

I have cut out red meat and also ham, but sausages are a once in a very long while treat, but they do taste good when it happens. I pay about £30 a month to go to the gym and they have a Bodytrax system that give a very specific readout of body fat totals and BMI, weight, visceral fat around the stomach organs and metabolic age. My metabolic age has recently caught up with my actual age (69) but when I started in May this year it was 84.

Type 2 since 2012, HbA1c 44, no meds and a lot of effort and hope.
 

I think seeing the dietician would probably help the dietician. I was recently looking at the type of things they learn to become qualified and the training course syllabus that I was looking at started with the Eatwell Plate, 1/3 calories coming from carbs. I didn't bother going any further. That obviously would be OK for some people, although I question the 1/3 bit for anyone really.

I agree with you, the more you do to help yourself the less the NHS has to do to help you and I suppose that's a good thing. They recognise that you've got it sussed. I asked why my 6 monthly HbA1c was now annual and the nurse just said "Do you think you need it?" She knew that I make good use of the good old meter so she was probably right.

I do believe that I was never considered for knee replacement because I coped by doing specific exercises including walking about on Altos shoes (mushrooms on the soles) and tolerated the pain. Thank heavens for health insurance and a company that accepted pre existing conditions.
 
My doctor initially told me that I didn't need to see a dietician when I was first diagnosed. I did attend an X-Pert course; and knew that I was in trouble when the first thing I was told is that there is no special diet for diabetes. Obviously type 2 diabetics are carbohydrate intolerant. Recently I saw a consultant about my cholesterol and was referred to a dietician, who told me they recommend eating carbohydrate at every meal - I told her diabetes means I am carbohydrate intolerant, so obviously I can't. She also suggested I eat porridge, obviously having absolutely no idea how it affected my blood glucose. Then she gave me a diet book which read like a fairy tail. You are unlikely to get much sense out of a dietician. My advice would be to see what people say on here.
 
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