Interesting discussion with my Diabetic Nurse today

[vintageutopia]

I was walking through the hallway today and ran into the Diabetic Nurse for my physician's office. After some discussion, we discovered that we are following a similar diet with similar blood results.

She said "I feel terrible about teaching patients the ADA standards when eating the amount of carbs they suggest is counter-productive". One physician she works with is now supporting the LCHF lifestyle for his patients and she mentioned passing along some of the resources I mentioned to her patients.

There is hope! Sometimes, I think it helps to live it to believe it. She is meeting with our Diabetes Education department in the near future to discuss teaching materials and alternative means of BS control that fall outside the ADA guidelines.

Pretty neat, eh?

 

[Enclave]

Result there is hope ...

 

[Winnie53]

Yay vintageutopia!

I had a similar experience last week. I was on my early evening walk, reading a book - (I know that's unusual but I've done this for years!) - and a woman stopped and asked me if I was on the Atkins diet because of the book I was reading. We talked for more than 30 minutes and this is the story that she related to me...

Her 85 year old mother had a bad bout of the stomach flu and was drinking Gatorade, a sports drink, to replenish her electrolytes. Not long after that, she found herself in the hospital with a high, life threatening blood glucose level. That's how she learned she has type 2 diabetes, and perhaps how her daughter learned she has it too.

After she was released from the hospital, her doctor put her on insulin. Thankfully, the doctor also referred her to our hospital's nutrition and diabetes clinic.

The nutritionist who saw her did two things that really give me hope: 1) they started her on the LCHF diet and 2) they encouraged her to work with her doctor to stop the insulin. The woman's mother is doing well now.

 

[Celeriac]

I'm wondering whether you are both in USA/Canada ? My battle against diabetes is also a battle against the NHS which insists plenty of starchy carbs are the only way to go Really pleased for you that you're starting to get some good support !

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

I'm in Canada and my diabetes nurse feels that there is too much carbs in the official government healthy diet guidelines, which is what diabetics are told to follow. She is not yet onboard with LCHF yet, though.

 

[Winnie53]

@Celeriac vintageutopia and I both live in the US.

If it makes you feel any better, I so far have done the opposite of all medical advise given me so far regarding my diabetes and cholesterol, so you're not alone. I'm in there fighting with you.

Well actually, that's not entirely true. During office visits I nod a lot and say things like "I need to learn more about that", all the while thinking, "You have a lot of valuable medical training, but you don't have a lot of training in nutrition, nor do you have the time that I have read books written by healthcare providers who have training in both medicine and nutrition and who have been successfully treating patients with metabolic syndrome and heart disease for years." (I took 4 months off from work to do just that).

That said, our local nutrition and diabetes clinic appears to be knowledgeable about and supportive of LCHF diet. I believe this is due to the nutritionist who manages the clinic. She keeps up on the research and has two son's who have type 1 diabetes.

 

[Ian DP]

A few months ago I had an appointment with a specialist diabetic dietician. Cautiously I started telling her about my very low carb high fat diet. She listened tentatively and said that my diet went against all her university and NHS training guidelines, but that it was clearly working and that I should carry on with it.... My wife said she felt the dietician had learned more from me than I from her!!!... Things are slowly changing

 

[Tansolo]

I had a good experience with both my nhs doctor and practice diabetic nurse.

Both were very pro my Low carb approach.