Yip. ****** soils and intensive farming. There is trace Zinc in the multi-vitamins I take so I am covered. Kimbo I think the season and the cold weather has a lot do with hair at the mo, most people have dry scalps and I wash with T/Gel but it is pricey.we used to farm and our trace element chap swore by selenium and zinc. A friend has had some success with biotin for her thinning hair post excessive dyeing so maybe worth a try as well.
Thank you Bluetit! I think the thought of no meds shocked me but then how do I know how much of an effect they have had and how much is due to lchf?! When my hba1c came back as 38 in Oct I was expecting to be told no meds needed so maybe I shouldn't see it as a negative!
I think that most doctors are mainly seeing type 2 diabetic patients who are not well controlled (and I wonder just whose fault this could be!I think what really unsettled me was his comment about the inevitably that I will be on insulin ......even though I've got it all well controlled so quickly!
Always a good idea to get thyroid tested even if they usually only do TSH and often are unable to interpret the result anyway, the same goes for vitamin B12. You want TSH below 2 at least and B12 at least mid range.
Always a good idea to get thyroid tested even if they usually only do TSH and often are unable to interpret the result anyway, the same goes for vitamin B12. You want TSH below 2 at least and B12 at least mid range.
Iron or at least ferritin should be tested too as anaemia can cause hair loss too.
Hair loss and fatigue in a middle aged woman I'd say it's probably due to low thyroid function. Without fatigue I really don't know.
This happened to me just the way you say it too. Once weight stabilised so did hair loss.Hi, weight loss may explain your hair. I am HFLC and lost 4 stone very quickly. 2 - 3 lbs a week and I started to get hair loss after about 3 stones. Could run my hand through my hair and pull it lots. Now weight has stabilised and hair back to normal.
Morning AndbreathOK. I’m going to be my usual swimming against the flow self here. J
Kimbo, it’s pretty rubbish you’ve come away from your appointment in a worse place than you went in. Sadly when multiple opinions are at play it’s all too common it would seem. If only this condition was more black and white. More cut and dried, and much easier to treat. You know; a bit like a broken leg or a cut finger? But we are where we are. Sadly with this thing there can be multiple ways to skin the cat; all of which have a certain degree of merit, even if none of them really address all our requirements.
In your shoes, I’d now be thinking it all through and exhausting Dr Google with incessant questioning, and then I would be deciding what I was going to do, and whose advice I was going to follow. I think you need to decide who is going to be your health advisor from now on, and stick with them for as much as you can. That will give you the opportunity to build a relationship with them, based on a longer term understanding and respect, and minimise the sort of deflection you have experienced today.
I’m not suggesting you are going from pillar to post trying to garner the answers you want to hear. That doesn’t strike me as your style, but it seems having more than one advisor is feeling unhelpful; perhaps due to what might feel like consultation creep? You came away from your recent appointment very happy with your next steps, and now this guy has stepped in and upset that plan.
So, it’s up to you Kim. I can’t really give you any insight on what is causing your broken sleep and sweats. I’ve never suffered with either of those things. I did think I might be shedding hair more quickly some months ago, but my hairdresser didn’t think it was anything material, so nothing helpful to add there either!
I hope you can find a way to feel settled again.
Morning andbreathe! Lots of thinking, pondering and reading on here been done. I have managed to get an appointment with the nurse who I have been seeing since this journey began and believe you are right in it may be best to stick with the one, do you know I was originally going to go talk to her but then saw the old favourite gp was available so took that! Ironic!!OK. I’m going to be my usual swimming against the flow self here. J
Kimbo, it’s pretty rubbish you’ve come away from your appointment in a worse place than you went in. Sadly when multiple opinions are at play it’s all too common it would seem. If only this condition was more black and white. More cut and dried, and much easier to treat. You know; a bit like a broken leg or a cut finger? But we are where we are. Sadly with this thing there can be multiple ways to skin the cat; all of which have a certain degree of merit, even if none of them really address all our requirements.
In your shoes, I’d now be thinking it all through and exhausting Dr Google with incessant questioning, and then I would be deciding what I was going to do, and whose advice I was going to follow. I think you need to decide who is going to be your health advisor from now on, and stick with them for as much as you can. That will give you the opportunity to build a relationship with them, based on a longer term understanding and respect, and minimise the sort of deflection you have experienced today.
I’m not suggesting you are going from pillar to post trying to garner the answers you want to hear. That doesn’t strike me as your style, but it seems having more than one advisor is feeling unhelpful; perhaps due to what might feel like consultation creep? You came away from your recent appointment very happy with your next steps, and now this guy has stepped in and upset that plan.
So, it’s up to you Kim. I can’t really give you any insight on what is causing your broken sleep and sweats. I’ve never suffered with either of those things. I did think I might be shedding hair more quickly some months ago, but my hairdresser didn’t think it was anything material, so nothing helpful to add there either!
I hope you can find a way to feel settled again.
Nails look fine Eddie! Will keep an eye out though ; )Kimbo...looked at your nails lately, they tell you a LOT about your recent health. Any horizontal or vertical white lines ? Any pitting etc ? Nails tell you all about vitamin levels and recent illnesses and stressful events your body has had to deal with. I remember when a month after my ICU stay two years ago I had l had horizontal white lines on all my nails signifying a traumatic event.
Multi vits started Dianna......and as from my comments to andbreathe, lots of thinking done! I won't repeat here to save boring you.....you are right that even though exciting and satisfying to see the amazing and rapid changes my body will be feeling it as a trauma even though reeping the improvements?! Oh what a tangled web!Oh @kimbo1962 I think there must have been an annual conference of GP's recently and they've all been brainwashed!
I was at the hairdresser's today and I had the salon director who hasn't seen me for a few months as I've been with another stylist. I've had thinning hair for the past couple of years which I blamed on the nasty Methatrexate drug but I've not been taking that for almost a year now, but it is still thinning. The hairdresser today said he thought it had got even more thin but he also noticed a massive amount of new hair growth which he thinks when it has grown longer, will make my hair thicker than before.
I've been taking Vitamin D for the past year, so its about time I saw some positive effect.
I do think diabetes is a trauma to the body and your rapid weight loss while exciting and rewarding, maybe has played a part, together with the age thing and perhaps given your body a bit of a hammering. It may take a little time to repair and in the meantime, I would recommend a good quality Vitamin D.
I'm sorry you have come away feeling confused, but @AndBreathe is right. Our GP's are just that - general practitioners, they are not specialists nor are they nutritionists. I hope things look clearer in the morning
Diana x
Sound opinion and advice there bluetit as so often, thank you! I won't risk repeating my comments in reply to andbreathe as above, you will see I have been thinking a lot and have got a nurse appointment on the 30th so trying to just remain open until then and carrying on as I have been this far.Dear Kimbo, We all know on this forum that diet is the key. How many times have we said that to newbies. Medication is there to help when we need it, for weight loss or high BS, but you have lost all your weight and your BS are low and non-diabetic. Ask yourself, do you need these meds? What good are they doing you now? If you have any more weight to lose, your diet will see to that. Please don't think you need them to keep your BS low, diet will hopefully do that. If you aren't eating many carbs and your insulin resistance has improved through weight loss, you probably don't need them anymore. Maybe the disadvantages are now outweighing the advantages and they are just a psychological crutch. So look on it as a positive but in the knowledge you can always go back on them.
Lots of thinking done Eddie, as per my comments in reply to andbreathe, thank you .Just wondered what Kimbo has made of the replies so far and any conclusions if any.
Thank you Pavlos! Lots of thinking.....as per my latest comments to andbreathe! Won't repeat them whole lot here to spare you ; )@Kimbo 1962
I purposefully held back from contributing to this thread as I wanted to think about what you wrote a bit more first.
You were obviously unsettled and upset by your doctor's visit and I am sorry this was the case but, in all honesty, when first reading your original post I could not find too much fault with your doctor. So I did not want to post something for the risk of upsetting you further and preferred to wait until both of us had the time to consider the issue more coolly.
As I understand it there were a number of things about the visit that upset you, probably perfectly understandably from your point of view.
Firstly, you appear to have been shocked by the view that diabetes is a degenerative disease, that the gradual deterioration over time is inevitable and that eventually you will need to go on insulin.
This though is probably the widely accepted view of our disease based on the doctors experience and statistics. It may not be a wrong view. As far as I know there is no evidence that if we can maintain good glycemic control we will not deteriorate over time or that we do not still face increased risk of complications compared to non diabetics.
But it is important to realize that both the doctors' empirical experience and the statistics are influenced by the majority of diabetics ( two thirds in the UK according to recent data) that are not well controlled.
Also, there is a lot of evidence that by maintaining good glycemic control we can slow down the progression of our disease and improve our odds of avoiding complications, hopefully beyond the point of our natural lifespans.
So whether they are right or not about the degenerative nature of our disease, the way forward for us remains the same and that is to do everything we can to maintain good sugar levels.
Which brings me to the second thing I think has upset you, which is the reference your doctor has made on your levels, at high 4s low 5s, possibly being too low. I do not share this view, as to me these levels are perfectly normal non- diabetic levels, but it is not the first time I have heard doctors wanting diabetic patients to maintain their levels a bit higher. I believe that some studies have shown that too low an hba1c may involve health risk as well as too high. Discussing the merit of these studies is probably beyond the scope of the present discussion and to be honest beyond my own level of knowledge.
Finally you were upset by your doctor's criticism of the medication you are now on, with which you are happy and his suggestion that you give a try to a period of diet and exercise only.
His point that Forxiga brings about a higher risk of urinary truck infections appears to be a valid one, if the online information on the medication is to be believed; probably a consequence of higher concentration of glucose in the urine, as it is through preventing reabsorption of glucose at the kidneys and elimination via urine that Forxiga works.
As others have stated, you can try for a while without medication and assess whether you need to go back on it, according to how you get on. This seems a good thing to me and is a sign of the wonderful progress you have made in terms of both your Hba1c and your weight loss.
Perhaps you should count yourself lucky he did not seem to object to your lchf diet, as this is another issue on which the NHS view goes against what is frequently advised on this site.
I wish things were a bit more clear cut and that the medical profession and the advice you received from your fellow diabetics was more aligned but things are unfortunately not so.
Regrettably, we are all at some point forced to make our own difficult choices regarding how best to treat our disease by selecting between options the relative merit of which is not universally accepted.
The important thing is to then have the courage to move forward with our choices, while maintaining an open enough mind to any alternative ideas that may prove more beneficial.
I hope that you are feeling more settled now and a bit clearer about what lies ahead
All the best
Pavlos
It's virtually 4 jeans sizes now Eddie- and I love it!! That's the thing, I feel much more alive and better than in years! Certainly much more energyKimbo, how do you feel in general though, I mean mood wise ? Any of my sisters that have gone down 2 jean sizes would be throwing a party lol. Do you feel more positive and have more energy as well ? Just curious to know.
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