I’ve now got bags of questions.
So, what does Met do to affect an outcome. I ask ‘cos my GP has doubled my Met. She must have a reason? Also she hadn’t even spoke about going low-carb. Why?
Ah! I read your “No Meds” and thought wow, she’s done all this by only de-carbing!
Gotcha! Thanks for the clarity.
Well, Mr Pedantic here, a Marathon is also a race
. Maybe you meant “It’s not a
Sprint, it’s a Marathon”. And as I’m hoping the Hb1ac are presently be nibbled away at by taking your De-Carbing approach, assisted by the Met.
And being here amongst Survivors (.
..is that too strong a term?) gives me direction, support and confidence. And, just like the Marathon runners who grab water bottles from the Refreshment Stations along their way, Diabetes UK is my own, personal Refreshment Station, of course a No-Carb station.
Great feedback JoKalsbeek, thanks for taking the time.
E
Oooh, you had to point that out, didn't you? I'm Dutch, and I wrote it while on painkillers (migraine), so I was glad just to be coherent. Yes, sprint, sorry. (I'm going to be kicking myself the rest of the week now.)
As for going being med-free all the way, I wish I had gone. I was diagnosed while my GP was on holiday, so I got the perscription for the met from a doc whom I'd never even met. He just phoned it in (or rather, mailed the pharmacy), and I started on the pills the same day, sight unseen. It was horrible. After three, four weeks or something like that, dehydrated and bleeding, I was finally seen by the nurse, who told me to stop immediately because I was probably a T1. (Uh, no... The violent reaction to metformin is a common side effect, not an indication of a wrong type diagnosis. But whatever. She was nice, but clueless). So the same doc who never met me switched me to gliclazide. In the meantime I had been so miserable on metformin I'd started rading up about alternatives... Only to find out metformin doesn't do anything about what you eat (it supresses appitite, and that's basically it, foodwise), but it keeps your liver from dumping glucose, up to about 75% less. So while it tackled the liverdump in the morning some (Dawn Phenomenon), it wasn't doing anything elsewhere anyway! I also read a whole lot about low carb... Some of it was bull, like having to avoid red meat and fat and whatever, and some of it was gold. So I just tried all sorts of things and checked with my meter what rang true and what didn't. If I'd logged on here sooner, I would've read Dr. Jason Fung a lot earlier in my journey. But all in all it was a few weeks before I properly started low carbing. And after 3 months my GP took me off the gliclazide, because I didn't need it. (And according to my results, and hypo's, hadn't needed it for about a month and a half).
As for docs not bringing it up, I'm the only person in my GP's practice who went low carb. And has remained in the normal range ever since. no-one else ever tried it. I got rid of my non alcoholic fatty liver disease -impossible according to the endo- and my cholesterol is down. But why am I the only one in the practice? Because all newly diagnosed people are sent to the same dieticians I saw. But, again, everyone was on holiday when I was diagnosed, so by the time I was finally seen after about a month and a half, I'd figured things out by myself. And what I was told, was basically the same thing when I first saw them because I was obese. Eat more carbs, cut the fats. Exactly the opposite of what the books AND my meter were telling me. (That, and I took their advice 8 years or so earlier... I went from obese to morbidly obese and diabetic following their "healthy" diet!) So since I wasn't following their advice and having stellar results because of it, I didn't have to return. Such an obstinate patient.
My GP nixed the nurse, so we just do it together now. I'm her guinea pig, basically... I ask for whatever test I want, and we check how I'm doing... but I've been in the normal range fir over 3 years now. For a while she thought I might have developed an eating disorder, but when I started telling her about a 3-egg, bacon and cheese breakfast she believed me, that I was eating proper, nutricious meals, just non-carby ones.
Most of us don't hit the ground running.
We don't know, because I dunno about you, but in school I got the dutch equivalent of the EatWell plate hammered into me. The same ones doctors learn about, still. The low carb movement is quite present here, but it's only catching on slowly in the medical establishment. Still.... Can't exactly blame them, a GP has to know about every condition, it's a lot to keep up with. Still miffed at the endo, the diabetes nurse and the "diabetes-specialised" dieticians though.... But there you go.
If the lack of medical endorsement troubles you, you don't have to listen to a forum comprised of non-medial personell and basically, strangers. Just listen to your meter. If low carb works for you, you'll find out with just a finger prick. It'll also tell you if it's a bust.