Goodbye

bulkbiker said:

No-one is trying to frighten anyone.. however I think its a good idea to inform people of the possible side effects of medication so they can make an informed decision about whether they want to take them or not. This is especially true in the case of statins that seem to be given out almost like sweets by most GP's when the benefits to most are dubious to say the least.

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You are absolutely correct, It was information I gleaned, here on this site, that enabled me research the possible side effects of Statin drugs and thus was able to make an informed choice.

Mep said:

The benefit for me is I can now control my cholesterol with the restricted diet I'm on. I had to eliminate a lot of healthy foods from my diet because of my bladder condition. My GI conditions also are problematic as vegetables cause me a lot of pain and so does red meat. I can't eat processed meats like bacon either. As a result the 'safe' foods are mostly carbs and fats but they both aren't good for me either as raises sugar and raises cholesterol. If I'm being honest, pretty much all food is not good for me.... but I have to eat. I also have problems with choking on food due to my throat not moving properly. With this restricted diet my cholesterol sky rocketed again simply because I wasn't eating what I used to eat. My doc put me on a low dose statin and it's worked taking my level down from 6.8 to 4.4. High cholesterol and heart disease is prevalent in my family so I can't take the risk of not trying to control my cholesterol. I wish I could eat whatever I wanted to as then yes I could control my cholesterol... but I can't. I eat the wrong thing and I'm in even more pain which puts my sugar level up as well.

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Has anyone ever suggested you have a Coronary Artery Calcium scan, a far better indicator of possible heart disease than cholesterol?

lucylocket61 said:

I have been thinking about this. The problem is that the boundary between medical and non-medical advice is not clear.

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Yup.
That is why we have a moderation team that can discuss these things and reach a team decision - and is one of the reasons why there may be a delay between a Report and subsequent moderation.

Of course this also means that not every Report is actioned. If a poster asks for an explanation of why the decision went one way and not the other, they will get one.

No forum that I have ever read, posted on or moderated, has had a set of rules that covers every eventuality and every perspective. Simply impractical - imagine how long it would take to write, let alone read!

Anyone who wants to have a say in these moderation team decisions is welcome to stand when the next moderator election is held.

Brunneria said:

No forum that I have ever read, posted on or moderated, has had a set of rules that covers every eventuality and every perspective. Simply impractical - imagine how long it would take to write, let alone read!

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As someone who is a long-term member of several other fora, I know what you mean.

Concerning the "medical advice" issue I have found, after several possible missteps, that the safest thing is to "speak from my own experience of the disease" (and risk the obvious impression of narcissism).

One of the overwhelming feelings at diagnosis, and continuing afterwards, is loneliness as well as frustration in finding information that is relevant to oneself.

I know this because I didn't find this forum until seven months after diagnosis, at which point I'd already had to figure out this "low-carb" stuff pretty much on my own -- I had very strong medical and moral support from my doctor, but virtually zero practical guidance. I honestly didn't think it was going to "work" because my doctor's advice to adopt a low-carb diet was "way out" compared to the standard advice from the American Diabetes Association here in the States. (They are not "against" low-carb, and acknowledge it as a possible treatment option. But they still present it as something fairly "fringe.")

When I finally found this forum, I realized that not only was I not alone, but that many people (do we have a total number??) had done exactly the same as me and achieved extremely similar results.

It's the power of numbers. That sheer avalanche of stories. It is a strong confirmatory influence for low-carb adoptees, and clearly an enormous source of motivation for newcomers to this Type 2 diabetes thing.

Brunneria said:

Yup.
That is why we have a moderation team that can discuss these things and reach a team decision - and is one of the reasons why there may be a delay between a Report and subsequent moderation.

Of course this also means that not every Report is actioned. If a poster asks for an explanation of why the decision went one way and not the other, they will get one.

No forum that I have ever read, posted on or moderated, has had a set of rules that covers every eventuality and every perspective. Simply impractical - imagine how long it would take to write, let alone read!

Anyone who wants to have a say in these moderation team decisions is welcome to stand when the next moderator election is held.

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Thanks. So is it best to adopt the approach of "if in doubt, report and ask for clarification?" or will that add too much to your workload (a general you)

lucylocket61 said:

Thanks. So is it best to adopt the approach of "if in doubt, report and ask for clarification?" or will that add too much to your workload (a general you)

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Well, we are a team, so the workload hopefully gets spread out
But yes, the Report button is for bringing posts to our attention, not just for huge rule breakages.

Sometimes people click Report and say things like
'not sure about this one, but I thought it best to draw it to your attention..'
or
'I know this isn't actually a rule break, but it bothers me because...'

sometimes people even report themselves, if they feel they might have gone a little too far, to ask mods to take an impartial view the situation.

And thank you to everyone who does this!
Very helpful to us, and it means that we get to work together with posters rather than just being called in when things have already gone pearshaped and feelings are running high.

bulkbiker said:

Has anyone ever suggested you have a Coronary Artery Calcium scan, a far better indicator of possible heart disease than cholesterol?

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No, I'm not aware of that test. Although as mentioned I'm keeping my cholesterol in check. I've read the posts about people claiming cholesterol isn't the culprit although I beg to differ as my family is proof it is the culprit. The ones that don't have a cholesterol problem also don't have a heart problem. For me personally I'd rather not have a heart problem... especially after getting cardiac contusion and pericardial effusion this year from a car accident.

Mep said:

No, I'm not aware of that test. Although as mentioned I'm keeping my cholesterol in check. I've read the posts about people claiming cholesterol isn't the culprit although I beg to differ as my family is proof it is the culprit. The ones that don't have a cholesterol problem also don't have a heart problem. For me personally I'd rather not have a heart problem... especially after getting cardiac contusion and pericardial effusion this year from a car accident.

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If you are interested...
http://www.cardiovascularbusiness.c...-effective-way-screen-coronary-artery-disease
Also of course it depend on your cholesterol ratios rather than total cholesterol but I presume you are aware of that.

Taking up a subject from earlier in this thread, there is an article in today's New York Times going into the butter shortage in France in some depth ("The Great Butter Meltdown"): https://nyti.ms/2jHKmgj. (There's a paywall, but the first five articles per month are free.)

Grateful said:

I only just saw this (must have scrolled past it too fast yesterday). That sounds awful, and I know just what you mean about never wanting to go through that again! (For me, was bad enough without the laser stuff.)

Just as a matter of interest, did your doctors specifically indicate that nuts might have been a factor? My specialist doctor had nothing to say about diet, which was frustrating.

To me, never having had a kidney stone in my life, it was very suggestive:

• Switch to low-carb diet. Among other things, nut consumption goes from virtually zero to several nut-snacks per day. (Pecans, macadamias, Brazils, a small dessert-plateful each time!).
• Exactly three months later, kidney stone passes. Only change I made to diet afterwards was (a) drink a lot more water daily, and (b) after Internet research, drink the juice of half a lemon daily.
• Nearly six months after start of LC diet, another kidney stone (and about twice as large as the first one). This time, I am dropping nuts (altogether) in hopes that they were the culprit (they do appear on several lists of known stone-causing foods).

Of course it could have been a total coincidence that I became a kidney-stone factory just after making a huge change in my diet, but I have my suspicions!!!

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I can’t remember what the urologist said now other than the stone was made of oxalates, but I’m sure he mentioned it because it prompted me to Look up foods containing high levels of oxalates and I reduced these for a while, but do eat more of them now but I have to say I don’t eat almonds. I think it was because I didn’t drink enough fluids, the urologist did states to drink 2.5-3 litres of fluid per day and I try to keep my fluid intake fairly high, although this means more frequent trips to the loo. Lol

I,have also heard that a change in diet can cause stones, my daughter went on a strict diet a few years back and ended up in A&E and shortly after being admitted to the ward passed two stones. When I was first x rayed, the woman doing the x ray asked me if I had recently changed my diet.
(Which I hadn’t)
I’ve been on the Lchf diet for 11 months and so far so good, however a recent bladder infection (something I rarely get)saw me at the GP with stomach and groin pain and blood in my urine. I had a sinking feeling as this was how it started last time,
(2 years ago) however after 5/6 days the symptoms went. I’m slightly suspicious it might have been another stone, particularly as I felt quite unwell, more than I would expect with just a mild bladder infection and the fact there was blood found in my urine, although a test sent to the lab was normal.
I do try to keep my intake of foods high in oxalates lower and I don’t eat almonds.

I'm new to this, so sorry if this has been covered. I understand the point of a low carbohydrate/GI diet if one has diabetes, but why "high fat". I'd be worried about cholesterol, and whilst I understand some HDL cholesterol is necessary, since being diagnosed, I've switched to a low carb, bit also low fat diet. Is that an actively bad thing to do?

Bertyboy said:

I'm new to this, so sorry if this has been covered. I understand the point of a low carbohydrate/GI diet if one has diabetes, but why "high fat". I'd be worried about cholesterol, and whilst I understand some HDL cholesterol is necessary, since being diagnosed, I've switched to a low carb, bit also low fat diet. Is that an actively bad thing to do?

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It doesn’t have to be HIGH fat but it’s meant to replace the carb calories. Once we reduce carbs we need to get calories from somewhere and protein can be converted to bg in the absense of carbs. Protein also spikes insulin where as fat has little effect on bg as well as insulin.

Bertyboy said:

I'm new to this, so sorry if this has been covered. I understand the point of a low carbohydrate/GI diet if one has diabetes, but why "high fat". I'd be worried about cholesterol, and whilst I understand some HDL cholesterol is necessary, since being diagnosed, I've switched to a low carb, bit also low fat diet. Is that an actively bad thing to do?

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Very basically we swop the carbs (which give us energy) for fats (which give us energy).
We have to eat more carbs to get the same amount of energy and less fat because fat is energy rich.
Low fat foods swop fat for carbs so low fat food is higher in carbs.
+Natural fats are good for us.
I was wondering what being on a low carb eat as much fat as I like diet would do to my cholesterol numbers. They went down despite my losing lots of weight.