Hi, my stepson has type 1, is 24 and is as skinny as a rake. However, his diet is high sugar, high Lucozade and Ribena (he glugs the stuff), high carbohydrate. If I ate like him I would have been 24 stone at 24 yrs old. Yesterday evening he ate two dinners at a friends house (curry and rice, hunters chicken and roast potato), followed by two puddings (sticky toffee), followed by figs with marscapone cheese. Then he came home and during the night (he doesn't sleep well) he ate the remaining 75mm slab of home baked white bread and goodness knows what else. He became type 1 at 12 yrs of age and has always had a fine instinct of knowing when he needs to dribble insulin and how much. I think he goes through a lot of insulin. When I say he is thin, his thighs almost match my biceps and he has NO bum. He is continually anxious and whizzing, doesn't sleep well, is on medication for depression and anxiety. The medical community articles I have looked at tend to talk about control of blood sugar, its all about control of blood sugar (understandably), but looking elsewhere I catch the odd reference to body-builders abusing insulin to lose weight and there is a thread here that talks about anxiety, hormones and brain triggering a hunger for carbs. Surely it is better to control your sugar/carb intake and have a low dose of insulin, without going hypo, rather than always being on a high burn with commensurate high levels of insulin (even if they are the perfect levels for that intake of carbs)? Any ideas? can you point me to any research articles ?
@MarkUniqueUserName I agree with the post above. Although most people with Type 1 tend to keep carbs below 200g a day, many eat more carbs than that. Carbs aren't forbidden. The important thing is to control blood sugar. Carbs aren't forbidden.
Some people do abuse insulin by, for example, missing meal time injections on purpose. This will cause high blood sugars and can cause weight loss.
You talk about him "dribbling insulin". It's not clear what you mean by that, but injecting frequently when eating lots wouldn't be abnormal, especially if the eating took place over a few hours.
You also mentioned Lucozade. That's a very popular hypo treatment. Perhaps you
How is his blood sugar control @MarkUniqueUserName ?
Someone who is very thin but eating a lot, and is insatiably hungry, raises the question as to whether there might be high blood sugar causing that.
But no. A type 1 diabetic who takes insulin to cover the food they eat, no matter how much or what food, and control their blood sugar cannot be said to be "abusin" insulin. All they are doing is using the same amount of insulin anyone else would be producing naturally, they just have the inconvenience of having to inject it.
r stepson was low and needed to raise his blood sugar a bit?
I eat lots and I'm very slim. The important thing is my blood sugar is controlled. Do you know if his is?
You also mention he's "whizzing" and anxious. That can cause weight loss too.
If he was matching his insulin to the food he is eating, it would be seriously unlikely that he is as skinny as you say. It sounds like his BG is running high judging by the amount of food he is eating and his weight. Google diabulimia to see if anything else written sounds familiar.
Even if he was matching insulin to the carbs he is eating, there is no way he can be having stable BG with a diet like that. The insulin diabetics inject is not like the insulin a healthy body produces. It can't deal with the swings and peaks that high carb drinks/foods create. This means it will bring his BG within range eventually, but only after hours of ups and possibly downs.
It sounds like he needs to speak with a dietician to get a better understanding of how to look after himself.
@MarkUniqueUserName it sounds as if you're very concerned for your stepson, and you've come to an excellent place for support and information.
Given that it sounds as if he's not thriving, I would strongly recommend that he be encouraged to go to the doctor sooner rather than later for a chat and some blood tests - both the diabetes ones, and thyroid function.
Two different things are coming to mind to me, and I have experience of both of these so am writing from the point of view of my own experience rather than as the result of any medical training (which I don't have). In my opinion it could be the case that either:
1. He is not taking the amount of insulin he needs for the amount of carbohydrate he is consuming, leading to frequent hyperglycaemia. Hyperglycaemia causes dramatic weight loss. Too little insulin could be a cause of this, not too much.
or:
2. He is so hungry and not putting on weight because of a thyroid condition. Graves' disease (hyperthyroidism) can cause, amongst other things, extreme hunger and weight loss.
Sending strength.
Hello @MarkUniqueUserName - It's difficult to make assumptions as you can see from the responses already. You show genuine concern for him so have you ever had a chat with him about how he manages his insulin ? He may appreciate the opportunity to off-load and talk about it, or he may clam up as we are all different but it will show him that you are interested in him and want to show your support. If he is struggling then this is the chance to get him to seek help
@MarkUniqueUserName The thing that stands out to me there is that he's not testing his blood sugar. If he doesn't test his blood sugar, then that makes things harder.
Yes, he might think he knows when he's high, but confirmation on a meter allows much better control.
I'm not sure what you mean by "running lean on insulin" but he should be testing before he eats, counting the carbs in what he's about to eat, injecting the correct amount of insulin, then eating.
Does he count carbs? That's crucial to good control.
The book Think Like A Pancreas is fantastic - and a friendly read. There are also online courses like BERTIE that can help with good control.
Edited to add that there's also something called Diabetes Burnout, where the person just gets mentally exhausted by the effort of controlling diabetes day in, day out.
Do you know his HbA1C, by the way?
@MarkUniqueUserName The thing that stands out to me there is that he's not testing his blood sugar. If he doesn't test his blood sugar, then that makes things harder.
Yes, he might think he knows when he's high, but confirmation on a meter allows much better control.
I'm not sure what you mean by "running lean on insulin" but he should be testing before he eats, counting the carbs in what he's about to eat, injecting the correct amount of insulin, then eating.
Does he count carbs? That's crucial to good control.
The book Think Like A Pancreas is fantastic - and a friendly read. There are also online courses like BERTIE that can help with good control.
Edited to add that there's also something called Diabetes Burnout, where the person just gets mentally exhausted by the effort of controlling diabetes day in, day out.
Do you know his HbA1C, by the way?
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