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Do I have Diabetes or what?

P

Paul Stan

Newbie
Messages
3
Hello, everyone!
I’d appreciate if you could give me your view on this.
Long story short in November 2018 I had some digestive issues and my doctor decided to put me on the carnivore diet, consuming zero carbohydrate. I felt really bad as I was suffering from chronic hypoglycemia, but I pushed through. I did not have diabetes at that time nor had any problem with carbohydrates.
In March 2019 I did something really stupid and after about 5 months not having any carbohydrates I consumed in about 60 seconds 500 grams of honey. Then after 14 hours I consumed another 500 grams of honey. That’s when everything changed. I started to experience unbearable headaches, brain fog, blurry vision, it was like my eyes did not have any ‘image stabilization’, extreme fatigue and sleepiness.
The symptoms got worse when I ate carbohydrates, the higher the glycemic index, the worse the symptoms. After that shock with the honey I tried to slowly reintroduce carbs in small quantities, but it was too late. The symptoms never ended. It is only in the past 3 months that the headache started to go away, but it is still there.
Even now, if I eat any carbs at all, after about 40 minutes I get extremely sleepy, blurry vision and my arms and fists feel very weak. These symptoms last for about 4 hours.
This does not happen if I only eat fat and protein. It’s just from the carbs. Especially if they are eaten alone, but I never do that. I always combine them.
I regularly test my blood glucose.
If I eat 200grams of white rice, 30 minutes after - 190 blood glucose ; 60 minutes after - 110 blood glucose
If I eat 200grams of quinoa, 30 minutes after - 170 blood glucose, 60 minutes after - 100 blood glucose
During the last year and a half I tested regularly my a1c, fasted insulin, fasted glucose and I once tested my C peptide, they were always in the normal range, except for the insulin, in the last couple of months it was beneath the lower range, it was 1.01 uU/mL
Fasted glucose always 80
A1c usually at 5,4%
C peptide 1.21 ng/mL

My current doctor says that I shocked my body with that amount of honey (no doubt) and she does not think it’s diabetes, but she does not know what to do with me. My reaction to carbs does not seem to get any better. She uses some advanced scanning bioresonance technology and it shows her that I have a dysfunction with insulin, that my pancreas is a bit inflammed, but that the beta cells are still working.

I need to eat carbs otherwise I get hypoglycemia symptoms, I can’t be on a low carb diet. I need about 100grams of carbs to function properly, but I react so badly to them.

I’d appreciate if you could not call me an idiot for consuming that much honey, I know what I did and why. An expensive lesson, I must admit.

Thank you!
 
Hi @Paul Stan, you are certainly NOT an idiot! I'm afraid I don't know the answers to your post but hopefully someone will have some suggestions soon. x
 


From your post, you have a type of hypoglycaemia.
I too have a type of hypoglycaemia called, Late Reactive Hypoglycaemia.
This means if I eat carbs/sugar, I will have a reaction similar to yours, where my blood glucose levels rise very quickly and then my pancreas kicks in and drives the blood levels down into hypoglycaemia.

We have similar symptoms and the headache you describe is so similar to the one I used to get when I had blood glucose levels all over the place.

If you need find out more, we have a sub forum called Reactive Hypoglycaemia.

If you have anything similar to me, the reason you have trouble with carbs, like me, you have something called carbohydrate intolerance.

Do read the threads and come back and ask questions or if you are not sure.

You can control this, and this is a rare condition, I have been called weird by doctors, you are not stupid, an idiot or anything of the kind.
You just process foods differently.

And yes, I am non diabetic, and my last Hba1c levels were 37, my fasting levels are normal. It's only when I eat carbs that it happens.

Stay safe
 
Just to add, the reason why your insulin levels are low, is because before you eat, your background insulin is low, unusually low, it isn't until the glucose levels go high, that depends on how glucose is derived from the food, that your pancreas reacts and what is known as an overshoot of insulin happens. This keeps going until you go hypoglycaemic.
 
Paul Stan said:
Hello, everyone!

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Lamont_D may be on to something.... RH sounds likely, as a diabetic doesn't usually hypo without medication, and your response does sound like your body doesn't like carbs much. Surprised your doc put you on a carnivore diet, most never even heard of it. I did notice that when I went carnivore, it wasn't chronic hypoglycemia, but being low on electrolytes that made me feel wretched, (migraine-like headaches, sore all over etc) and for much longer (months!) rather than the week or two it took me to adjust to keto, and before that, LCHF. It was worth it though. Did you supplement for the loss of electrolytes when you started going carni? Also, keep an eye on that pancreas. Chronic pancreatitis is not good for your insulin production either, but I wouldn't know what to do about it, not having dealt with it myself.

Keep a log, maybe request an extended OGTT (oral glucose tolerance test, but not one where they kick you out after an hour or two and potentially miss the possible hypo). Don't let this go, keep searching for answers.
 

Hello,

Everything you said makes a lot of sense, you may be just right.
I never had this problem before shocking my pancreas with one kilogram of honey, that is what certainly caused my problem.
Is there any way I could make my pancreas stop overreacting with that much insulin? It’s already been one year and a half since that honey incident. Two days ago I started taking a supplement with my carb meal and my symptoms are pretty much non existent - as long as I take that supplement. I hope it is not a problem if I name it - Glucose Optimizer from Jarrow. - no more sleepiness, blurry vision, tiredness.
But I don’t want to take this forever.
 
Hello,
I supplemented with electrolytes the whole time, but my symptoms were caused by the lack of carbs. I know a lot of people going into ketosis feel like I did even if they take electrolytes. Some people just cannot adapt to running fat for fuel. I know for sure ketosis isn’t for everyone
 
Can't hurt to check, which is why I asked...
 

I'm not sure how you can get around this.
You can have carbs, but not much, it all depends how intolerant you are.
I was advised by my endocrinologist to be just above normal if not in normal levels most of the time.
I take a drug called sitagliptin (Januvia) it is a diabetic drug, but what it does is produce more background insulin, so that you don't spike too high, which lowers the symptoms but if you don't eat before going low you will still go hypo.
I took part in a trial for the drug in which an eOGTT tests were used with another with similar outcomes as me in an eOGTT test and both of us improved the spike and the effects of a hypoglycaemic episode, that I believe was my last hypo.
For example my first and second eOGTT without the drug, always went high into double figures,around mid teens from normal levels.
During the third and fourth and fifth eOGTT, my spike was in single figures, the dosage was raised from 50g to 100g and my last test, I only went up to 8mmols.
But I repeat, I still went hypo!
It didn't stop the trigger for my pancreas to overshoot.

This is why when diagnosed, most are recommended to eat every three hours, this is to stop the hypos, but doesn't prevent the symptoms because of the high spike, overshoot, and lowering of blood glucose levels. This rollercoaster ride of blood levels is not helping you because of the symptoms.

I use intermittent fasting to make sure I don't start the day with something that might start me on the hyper/ hypo rollercoaster and I am in ketosis.
This really does work.
Hopefully, you can figure it out, because the likelihood of continuing with carbs is risky. You have to think outside the box, our bodies do not work like most of the population, I have accepted that I am weird and I have had to adjust my life without so called healthy carbs, to me they are not. What is really healthy for me is not eating carbs. It's protein, good fats that will help and most vegetables. Be wary of starchy carbs, only eat above grown vegetables. Potatoes are really bad for me. It's the starch, a carbohydrate disguised as a vegetable.
Be careful with fruit as well.
Be careful with vegetable oils.
Be careful with manufactured food with lots of additives and industrial sugars.

It's a lot to get your head around, but the best thing is keeping your blood glucose levels in normal range as much as possible, because from my experience, my health improves and you don't trigger spikes. I would recommend trying to go into Keto again.

Keep safe
 
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