Hello From The Diabetic 'Doctor'

'Hi there,

Well it finally happened. After 11 long years of fighting off the pre-diabetes, I finally succumbed to type II. The good news is that I'm used to the diet, seeing as I've been on it for the last 10 years (I spent a year in denial during which my condition progressed).

However, I'm a 26 year old trauma surgeon registrar from the UK. I'm a keen sportsman and it's a fact that endocrinologists are the third most boring people on the planet (after dermatologists and Jehovah's Witnesses).

I'm mainly on here to help other people get through the shock of being diagnosed, especially at a young age (I was 16 when I was diagnosed and it was devastating). Hope I can help.

Chat to you soon.

Re: Hello From The Diabetic Doctor

Well, when I was first diagnosed as being pre-diabetic the doctor put me on a low-fat diet to help me lose weight. It worked because I lost the stone and a half of fat that I had and was pleased that I was getting better. From there, he switched me onto a low carb diet, which sort of kept my blood sugar in control, but led to me being very lethargic.

So when I went to university, I consulted some of the nutritionists and we decided that the best course of action was to just eat a low sugar diet, and exercise regularly (which I do anyway) to burn off any excess carbs I have.

So I'm proud to say that it's been over a decade before I've eaten a Mars bar.

Also, totsy it says that you're from West Yorkshire. I went to Leeds Medical School and lived there for a couple of years afterwards.

Re: Hello From The Diabetic Doctor

I can't really give advice from a medical perspective (I am an over-glorified butcher) however, the advice is simple.

A diet shouldn't be too drastic, low carb diets may be great for keeping your BS in check, but they come at a price. I've found that what works best for me (and maybe not for everybody else) is just a normal diet minus the obviously sugary things. So I still eat pasta and rice, but I don't eat doughnuts or muffins.

There's a debate raging whether low-carb diets are a good thing, and I don't think they are. If you're on a low-carb diet, you're not eating less, you're just eating more protein and fat. Which isn't good either.

So, the simple message is: Strike a balance. Eat your fruit and veg. And you'll be fine.

I hope that helps. But like I said, I'm a surgeon so I know as much about nutrition as most schoolchildren.

Re: Hello From The Diabetic Doctor

I think there's a lot of benefit in a low carbs approach, but for me, the side effects aren't worth it. It can make you lethargic, and when you do come off it, your metabolism may be irreparably slow so you'll gain weight (which can increase the pressure on the feet and leave you with ulcers... Not good).

However, I think if your T2 diabetes was caused by having constantly high blood sugar (like mine was), then if you look at the diet, you can see whether you eat too many carbohydrates. In that case, perhaps it's worth lowering the intake of carbohydrates in line with the GDAs. But I disagree with only eating a tiny amount of carbohydrates.

I didn't really look into low-carb diets, because I was young when I was put on the diet. I was so lethargic during that point that I fell asleep during my first exam at med school, but I felt that it was normal for diabetics to feel this way. However, the university helped me get a more appropriate diet plan written out, which consisted of 2 regular meals (breakfast and lunch) and 2 smaller meals (at 3 and 5). This was to eliminate snacking.

On the other hand, many diabetics will swear by low-carb diets, and I guess that's up to them. They may not suffer from lethargy, or maybe don't work the same amount of hours that I do (it would be impossible for me to be on a low-carb diet now). Or perhaps, low-carb diets are easier for T2s to manage, because you're getting rid of anything and everything that might result in high blood glucose levels. I don't really know.

NHS advice in general is poor but I don't know what the current NHS advice is for diabetes management (I've been following the same plan for the last 8 years and it's been working fine for me).

@totsy: I don't live in Leeds anymore though. I moved to Coventry (biggest A&E in the UK) to complete my registrar training, but I'm planning on moving back up to Leeds when I'm done.

Re: Hello From The Diabetic Doctor

I was just speaking from personal experiences. I went from having a very active lifestyle, and as a result eating a lot of carbs, to having almost no carbs and trying to do all the things that I had been doing. And it left me very lethargic.

Re: Hello From The Diabetic Doctor

Yeah, but the problem for me was that I was really active. I captained both codes of rugby, played football, cricket, I did karate and I took up tennis at university. My body needed the copious amounts of carbohydrates. A low carb diet wasn't feasible for me, because I still did all these things, but I was just getting more and more tired.

In the end, I only cut down on the sugar and I only ever had a handful of readings over the norm, and even they were just 0.1 over.

It's each to their own, and for me, the low-carb route didn't work. It might work for other people, but I found that keeping carbs and cutting down on 'bad' food (fat, salt and sugar) worked.