Dr Bernstein

[kerrygold59]

Has anyone seen this Dr on YouTube and FB?

 

[kitedoc]

Hi @kerrygold59.
Yes, Dr Bernstein is the real deal. Medically qualified, has personal experience of TID, published.
He speaks out against some of the policies of the American Diabetes Association with conviction and commonsense.
So is that what you wish to know?
He is not some quack!!

 

[ert]

Bernstein is a type 1 diabetic, who was an engineer who then studied medicine so as a GP, he has an engineer's practical approach to normalising blood sugars. I haven't watched his videos, or FB group but have his book, Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution which I recommend highly.
I'm a bit of an all-or-nothing-approach girl. So I follow his guidance to the letter.

 

[Tophat1900]

Bernstein is a type 1 diabetic, who was an engineer who then studied medicine so as a GP, he has an engineer's practical approach to normalising blood sugars. I haven't watched his videos, or FB group but have his book, Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution which I recommend highly.
I'm a bit of an all-or-nothing-approach girl. So I follow his guidance to the letter.

It's a great book

 

[NicoleC1971]

I've seen him and bought the book/t shirt etc.
He has a curmudgeonly personality on YT in my opinion but the advice is great and he is a pioneer who has engineered his way out of type 1 complications using low carb and the use of blood testing early on. Fyi the book is on Audible too for those of us that struggle with print.

 

[Doriscrisp]

I discovered him over a year ago. I watched his video's until the early hours of the morning and I remember telling my T1 daughter (who is in her 20's and had become very ill through following the NHS diet of eat anything you want and just inject for it) that I felt that we had to try something totally new and I persuaded her to go low carb. It made perfect sense to me that the law of numbers was playing a part in the roller coaster blood sugars. If you eat lots of carbs (bread, some fruit, fruit juice, pastry, rice chips, etc). it means you need to put more insulin into your body and the more you put in the more you have onboard and then the likelihood of rollercoaster numbers and chasing corrections and highs and then hyps can occur. Also, insulin resistance is more likely. I figured she had gastroparesis after reading his book and got her tested and she was. He is very extreme low carb and we couldn't totally keep to that but are low carb. As a consequence of this diet, she has become an amazing cook, I highly recommend Viki DeBeer's low carb cookbook, which taught us how to do it and she is basically Bernstein but so much easier to read and understand and with lovely photos. You can reverse T2 with this diet but not T1 obviously but it helps to be educated about how you can get energy from protein (something the clinic doesn't go into) I wish I had known about it when she was diagnosed at 7 years old and probably she would have fewer problems now. Give it a go - happy to give out any tips if you need them- basically start with celeriac chips with chorizo on them and some eggs and there is no going back

 

[Doriscrisp]

He also does a late-night phone in America radio program

 

[Scott-C]

It's probably fair to point out that a study of the Type1Grit folks, conducted by, erm, proponents of Bernstein and Type1Grit methods, including Bernstein himself, which makes it ever so slightly so cognitively biased, had some serious caveats attached to it, some pretty basic stuff, like, 'we don't actually know if this is is safe":

'Our study has several important limitations. We don’t know the long-term safety and effectiveness of very-low-carbohydrate diets among the broader population with T1DM"​

https://www.drdavidludwig.com/type1-diabetes/

 

[Rosetech]

I've seen him and bought the book/t shirt etc.
He has a curmudgeonly personality on YT in my opinion but the advice is great and he is a pioneer who has engineered his way out of type 1 complications using low carb and the use of blood testing early on. Fyi the book is on Audible too for those of us that struggle with print.

I understand the appeal of Audible (spoken word books) but I have made a ton of notes in my copy of Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, so it's a treasure to have in print. His cookbook is good too. I'm a prediabetic T2D who has lost 30 pounds on LCHF diet -- but not the speed of loss of many on this discussion group. Dr. Bernstein's books and curmudgeonly advice are very sound.

 

[kitedoc]

In reply to @Scott-C, The study he mentions was a survey but includes hard data like HBAIC measures, growth measures, bsl variability all of which are objective thus very difficult to fudge and more open to being scrutinised and evaluated.
I think we all accept that qualitative measures of well being will be likely biased in any such study whatever the treatment and management strategy under investigation..
Of course like any similar study the long term consequences are unknown. Such reservations are part of any responsible scientific report.
The growth rates of children included in the study are suggestive of good results for children within the scope and limited time scale of the study. The call for further studies on the diabetes management style seem warranted given the results of the study one would think.
Who would fund a further study? Certainly not the food or pharmaceutical companies or any institution in their pockets.
It is interesting that at least one low carb conference has been sponsored by the life insurance industry. What do they know from their experience, actuarial tables etc that would prompt such support?

But .. there are studies such as the DCCT which have shown that a lower HBAIC maintained over time ( e.g 6 1/2 years or so) in comparison to another group of patients does have long lasting benefits, even though the intensive treatment group itself with HBAIC less than 7% still had some showing up diabetes complications within that 6 1/2 years plus time, the results show complications (eyes, kidneys) were significantly less.

What the Linnerz et al study quoted ( ...drdavidludwig..) showed compared to the DCCT was that hypos could be greatly limited in occurrence (something that no other comparative data study has achieved).

Meanwhile in the US at least obesity in Type One diabetics is increasing at same or increased levels compared to the general population and average HBAIC is worse despite increasing use of cgm and less so for uptake of use of insulin pumps.
https://doi.org/10.1089/dia.2018.0384.

 

[kokhongw]

Has anyone seen this Dr on YouTube and FB?

I am T2D, but I follow Dr B and RD Dikeman of Typeonegrit (his son David is T1D) of FB because I am interested in the long term safety of low carb. Both Dr B and David seems to be doing great over the years.

https://www.facebook.com/Type1Grit/https://www.facebook.com/Type1Grit/

Here is their story...
https://myglu.org/articles/our-journey-with-the-low-carb-diet-and-the-manual-artificial-pancreas

 

[agwagw]

I discovered him over a year ago. I watched his video's until the early hours of the morning and I remember telling my T1 daughter (who is in her 20's and had become very ill through following the NHS diet of eat anything you want and just inject for it) that I felt that we had to try something totally new and I persuaded her to go low carb. It made perfect sense to me that the law of numbers was playing a part in the roller coaster blood sugars. If you eat lots of carbs (bread, some fruit, fruit juice, pastry, rice chips, etc). it means you need to put more insulin into your body and the more you put in the more you have onboard and then the likelihood of rollercoaster numbers and chasing corrections and highs and then hyps can occur. Also, insulin resistance is more likely. I figured she had gastroparesis after reading his book and got her tested and she was. He is very extreme low carb and we couldn't totally keep to that but are low carb. As a consequence of this diet, she has become an amazing cook, I highly recommend Viki DeBeer's low carb cookbook, which taught us how to do it and she is basically Bernstein but so much easier to read and understand and with lovely photos. You can reverse T2 with this diet but not T1 obviously but it helps to be educated about how you can get energy from protein (something the clinic doesn't go into) I wish I had known about it when she was diagnosed at 7 years old and probably she would have fewer problems now. Give it a go - happy to give out any tips if you need them- basically start with celeriac chips with chorizo on them and some eggs and there is no going back

Hi Doriscrisp, very good post - I couldn't agree more with your comment re the NHS diet of "eat what you want just inject more" Curiously, when my brother was diagnosed with T1 in 1960 the advice then was effectively low carb: eat lots of eggs, cream, gold top milk etc. Sommat has changed in the NHS nutrition section since.

Can I ask what the title of the book is? I've done a search for Viki DeBeer but can't find it so far. Many thanks!

 

[Benny G]

For the last 18 months I have been LCHF, and have brought my hba1c down to an almost normal level. I like Bernstein, but he is so hardcore. I asked my diabetes consultant if I could inject regular insulin for high protein and my consultant said "No, absolutely not."
Does any of our Bernstein gang inject regular insulin with high protein, low carb for the full 'Bernstein solution' effect?

 

[kokhongw]

I asked my diabetes consultant if I could inject regular insulin for high protein and my consultant said "No, absolutely not."

I wonder what is the reason for the strong objection...

Coincidentally RD just posted this a couple of days ago...
https://www.facebook.com/Type1Grit/photos/a.436519936506770/1334929256665829/?type=3&theater

 

[kokhongw]

I wonder what is the reason for the strong objection...

Coincidentally RD just posted this a couple of days ago...
https://www.facebook.com/Type1Grit/photos/a.436519936506770/1334929256665829/?type=3&theater

 

[Plumbdot68]

I've seen him and bought the book/t shirt etc.
He has a curmudgeonly personality on YT in my opinion but the advice is great and he is a pioneer who has engineered his way out of type 1 complications using low carb and the use of blood testing early on. Fyi the book is on Audible too for those of us that struggle with print.

Ahhh.. did he offend?

 

[Geordie_P]

I am T2D, but I follow Dr B and RD Dikeman of Typeonegrit (his son David is T1D) of FB because I am interested in the long term safety of low carb. Both Dr B and David seems to be doing great over the years.

https://www.facebook.com/Type1Grit/https://www.facebook.com/Type1Grit/

Here is their story...
https://myglu.org/articles/our-journey-with-the-low-carb-diet-and-the-manual-artificial-pancreas

Yes, Dr. Bernstein's list of 'foods to avoid' is my go-to reference for low-carb. I also think his prescription of vigorous exercise for T2 is correct (although I don't follow it)

 

[ert]

For the last 18 months I have been LCHF, and have brought my hba1c down to an almost normal level. I like Bernstein, but he is so hardcore. I asked my diabetes consultant if I could inject regular insulin for high protein and my consultant said "No, absolutely not."
Does any of our Bernstein gang inject regular insulin with high protein, low carb for the full 'Bernstein solution' effect?

It's the law of large numbers that your GP is following. If you're dosing for high carbohydrates following DAFNE, then you ignore protein in your calculation as an Engineer would. If you're dosing for 30 grams of carbohydrates a day or less, then the carbohydrates the protein breaks down into becomes significant so you need to dose for it.