Help...i have their attention what should I say

bruciebonus said:

The only role a doctor can play with a T2 diabetic is to tell you, you have it and direct you to this website and make sure you read everything. Then it's up to YOU to manage YOUR condition, if you don't eat it, it can't get in your blood . In my experience doctors know very little about type 2 often confusing it with type 1.

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Interesting comment about doctors confusing type 2 with type 1. I have type 1 and have felt doctors don't distinguish (or even aware of) the different types.

slip said:

Can you ask them to think and consider why the growing epidemic of T2D and it's associated complications doesn't seem to be abating even though 10% of the NHS budget is used to deal with it? Would it not suggest there's a fundamental flaw in the way they are tackling the problem?

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Couldn't agree more, I have been thinking along these lines myself since being diagnosed. How did it happen in the first place? What should we be researching. Has anyone looked at the Newcastle diet?

helensaramay said:

Interesting comment about doctors confusing type 2 with type 1. I have type 1 and have felt doctors don't distinguish (or even aware of) the different types.

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I told a doc. That the metformin was causing serious problems with my bowels and she said I must keep taking it or I will end up in a hypoglycemic coma and die. At this point I thought I know more about this than you do, so told her I had not taken any for 6weeks and would she please check my pulse in case I had died. I then left feeling a little let down, but I had reduced my hb1ac results from 9.8 to 4.8 by doing the opposite to what the doc. Told me.

LivingLoud said:

good points, thank you
I will try and find out more why the NHS diabetic diet policy has not embraced low carb. I believe it is mostly to with concerns about fiber, but i'll try and pick some brains whilst i am there

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It's surely is mostly to do with the fact they have gone along with the erroneous 'low fat is healthier' message that came about with Ancel Keys and the subsequent flogging of cereals into everything to help the American grain belt. The history is there to see and read about. They cling to it because of the hold the food industry has on scientific research and because changing their advice means admitting they've been telling people the wrong thing for years - possibly opening the floodgates to law suits...The fibre issue is a side one (and was useful for flogging bread to the masses - eat those 'healthy' whole grains now & don't worry about all the carbohydrate in there) and as far as my experience goes - if you are not eating carbs then you don't have a great need for fibre - things take care of themselves.
They used to use a kitchen sink analogy in their ads as if eating fat was the same as pouring melted lard down a drain. Of course it solidifies and blocks up the drains and they extrapolated from drains to human arteries - go look up those old ads!
Humans arteries are not drains and fat in the diet does not act like fat in a drain. Now when people ask me about low carb I say that instead of thinking 'fat will clog your arteries like it does a drain' - an easy image but completely wrong, they can think of 'sugar gumming up the works' and 'fat oiling the joints and smoothing the way'. At least they'll be eating fat not sugar.

zand said:

The problem is they think they know how but they don't! I have been given diets by a GP and told 'yes, they will work if you follow it properly and don't cheat...look at me!' Well I followed the GI diet plan she gave me to the letter and put on 8 pounds in 2 weeks. Of course, I must have cheated. Except I didn't. She didn't listen to me when I said that if I ate that much food I would put on weight and that I never ate junk food anyway.

It is utterly exasperating and depressing when you do as you are told and then when you don't get the expected results they think you must have cheated. No! It's the carbs! grrrrr.

Edit: When I was diagnosed I read the DUK booklet I was given and then threw it in the bin as I realised the advice in it wasn't right for me. I had already cut the big carb items from my diet and I simply cut a few more until my BGs were in the normal range. Oh yes, I also ignored the advice not to test......

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I am so relieved to hear someone saying this! No, they do NOT know how! I can't find one health practitioner of any kind that agrees that LCHF is an option. They look at me with horror if I allude to it, and they say, NOT LCHF!!!! And then proceed to tell me how I will go to an early grave if I go that route. Meanwhile, if I follow the recommendations I've been given, I gain weight. Then, I'm told I must be doing it wrong. I also find it almost impossible to follow their diet, because once I've had something like bread, pasta, oatmeal, or rice, I'm off to the races-I can't stop eating anything and everything. If I follow LCHF, I'm hard pressed to consume 2000 calories per day, and I'm hardly ever hungry. I mean, what do I know about my own body? I can't be trusted, I guess. My experience with the health care system is that it's more important to impose the agenda than to get results.

FrancebrunNY said:

I am so relieved to hear someone saying this! No, they do NOT know how! I can't find one health practitioner of any kind that agrees that LCHF is an option. They look at me with horror if I allude to it, and they say, NOT LCHF!!!! And then proceed to tell me how I will go to an early grave if I go that route. Meanwhile, if I follow the recommendations I've been given, I gain weight. Then, I'm told I must be doing it wrong. I also find it almost impossible to follow their diet, because once I've had something like bread, pasta, oatmeal, or rice, I'm off to the races-I can't stop eating anything and everything. If I follow LCHF, I'm hard pressed to consume 2000 calories per day, and I'm hardly ever hungry. I mean, what do I know about my own body? I can't be trusted, I guess. My experience with the health care system is that it's more important to impose the agenda than to get results.

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This is why I reckon the low carb program available on this site is perfect. It isn't as strict and therefore not as controversial as LCHF, but is a good start towards it. I believe doctors would recommend this program if they knew about it and the results it has achieved. Participants can then move more towards LCHF if they need to do so after 10 weeks with help from all of us here who already follow it as our diet of choice.

bruciebonus said:

I told a doc. That the metformin was causing serious problems with my bowels and she said I must keep taking it or I will end up in a hypoglycemic coma and die. At this point I thought I know more about this than you do, so told her I had not taken any for 6weeks and would she please check my pulse in case I had died. I then left feeling a little let down, but I had reduced my hb1ac results from 9.8 to 4.8 by doing the opposite to what the doc. Told me.

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I hope it was just her that skipped just the diabetes lectures during her training! failing that we have a lot of work to do if that's the general knowledge of GPs.

slip said:

I hope it was just her that skipped just the diabetes lectures during her training! failing that we have a lot of work to do if that's the general knowledge of GPs.

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I'm going to be sadly aware that the problem is not only on NHS GP, but also on Italian SSN GPs.

LivingLoud said:

Thanks to you all for your thoughts, sorry I have not replied to everyone, I have been busy preparing my presentation.
I'll post a report up here tomorrow,

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Hope it goes well!

Good luck!!!

LivingLoud said:

Thanks to you all for your thoughts, sorry I have not replied to everyone, I have been busy preparing my presentation.
I'll post a report up here tomorrow,

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Hope it goes well. "Break a leg" as they say, or is that just for actors? LOL