is it true type 2 diabetes shortens your life

[Anonymous]

@wizardo, your body needs carbs for fuel, if you take no carbs you will die

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Sorry to disagree, jimbob72, but this is a myth.

All the carbohydrate we eat turns into glucose (hence its blood-glucose-raising abilities!), and glucose is the easiest fuel for our bodies to use, so it grabs what it needs for fuel and then stores the rest as fat.

If we lower our carb intake to the bare minimum (there are carbs even in green leafy veggies, so we can't avoid them completely), our bodies go into ketosis, a perfectly natural state in which our bodies metabolize fat for energy instead of glucose. For those of us who need it, this has the happy side-effect of weight loss as our fat stores are reduced.

NB ketosis is natural and safe, and not to be confused with ketoacidosis, which is dangerous. Google either for more info.

In addition to the ketosis producing energy for our bodies to use, about 20% of all the protein we eat is slowly metabolized into glucose, which our bodies will also use for energy. So even on a traditional Eskimo or Maasai diet, we still get a certain amount of glucose from our food.

A carb-based diet, as recommended by the NHS, is not suitable for everybody. My metabolism can't cope with carbs, so I try to keep my intake below 50g daily. If only I had realised this earlier, I might have been nice and slim all my life instead of struggling with my weight for 50 years, and in the end having so much stored internal fat (caused by sticking faithfully to high carb/low fat as recommended by the NHS) that my pancreas malfunctioned, leading to my diagnosis with Type 2 diabetes.

If I stick to my below 50g carb diet, I can now keep my blood glucose levels in the non-diabetic range at all times. Increase my carb intake, and up go the BG readings - and my weight increases. :roll:

Viv 8)

I thought that carbs contributed to providing minerals, vitamins etc. and that it is not just about glucose. I find it hard to believe that I could reduce my carb intake by 80% and still provide my body's overall nutritional requirements.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

@wizardo, your body needs carbs for fuel, if you take no carbs you will die

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Sorry to disagree, jimbob72, but this is a myth.

Literally speaking if you ate no carbs you probably would die because almost every food stuff has carbs in it and anyone who eats a no carb diet is going to be seriously deficient in minerals and vitamins and anyone who eats no veg, no fruit etc is asking for malnutrition.

While it may be possible to life your life on a minimum of carbs very few people would or could, it is evident if you read through this and other forums that 12 to 18 months is about the longest anyone manages to stick to a very low carb diet, of course there will always be some who do just as some are vegan and some people even like Marmite but extremes apart the vast majority of people diabetic or not do not maintain or need to maintain a v low carb diet for long, and even fewer manage to lose all the weight they want to lose using a vlc diet as is evident from all the "weight loss stalled on lc diet" posts, I dont write these posts they are written by low carbers who cant lose weight.

So lets all remember that there is more than one diet that is suitable for diabetics, low carb is one way and I wouldnt talk anyone out of low carbing I would say to anyone who is stressing about sticking to any very restrictive diet, dont, you wont be the first person who has tried and failed and you wont be the last and the world wont end if you eat a normal healthy diet including a few small portions of carbs.

 

[anna29]

I bought 10 x 2 litre bottles of fizzy mineral water from Tescos today. 17p a bottle. It is really nice and refreshing.
I intend to drink a few glasses a day instead of drinking tea all day which I have a large teaspoon of sugar in. I have bought Spendour...Hated it. Stevia... Hated that too so I have plumped for fizzy water. I also bought 4 lemons and 4 limes to give it a more interesting taste.And I bought 6 kiwi fruits and a stack of veg. I eat a lot of veg anyway but not much fruit. Oh, and a Galia melon too.

I am getting my head around this and have learned a lot since I got my diagnosis last Tuesday.

My life has changed. And I going to make damned sure it is for the better.

Hi zolabud .

You could try making lemon and lime icecubes up .
With the fizzywater and small pieces of lemon/lime .
Then plonk one or two in your glass of fizzy water - make it really zesty and tasty .

I do this and it adds a bit of zing to a glass of water
Really refreshing on a warm or hot day .

Anna .

 

[Q007]

My GP ( Aka = Dr Doom ) said my life expectancy would be 10% less as a diabetic.


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[Anonymous]

I bought 10 x 2 litre bottles of fizzy mineral water from Tescos today. 17p a bottle. It is really nice and refreshing.
I intend to drink a few glasses a day instead of drinking tea all day which I have a large teaspoon of sugar in. I have bought Spendour...Hated it. Stevia... Hated that too so I have plumped for fizzy water. I also bought 4 lemons and 4 limes to give it a more interesting taste.And I bought 6 kiwi fruits and a stack of veg. I eat a lot of veg anyway but not much fruit. Oh, and a Galia melon too.

I am getting my head around this and have learned a lot since I got my diagnosis last Tuesday.

My life has changed. And I going to make damned sure it is for the better.

Hi zolabud .

You could try making lemon and lime icecubes up .
With the fizzywater and small pieces of lemon/lime .
Then plonk one or two in your glass of fizzy water - make it really zesty and tasty .

I do this and it adds a bit of zing to a glass of water
Really refreshing on a warm or hot day .

Anna .

I juice ginger (it's amazing how much juice it produces), keep it in the fridge, or ice-cube it, then add to fizzy water. Very refreshing if you like ginger. I've also trained the local pub to keep limes and oranges so my soda water looks quite exotic. I tend to eat the orange! You can still use the leftover ginger pith for cooking so nothing is wasted. And, I wouldn't waste time peeling it first...no point.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

My GP ( Aka = Dr Doom ) said my life expectancy would be 10% less as a diabetic.

Ah, but 10% of what? I dont think anyone can put any real time line on how much one thing can lengthen or for that matter shorten our lives, will I live longer now I have given up smoking for 6 years? If so how much time have I put back on the clock? Similarly I have lost over 5 stone in weight now that must have given me a bit more time wont it?

The only certainty is that diabetes doesnt extend life :thumbdown: So all we can do is try to live as long as possible and to live it as best we can.

I'm hoping that stopping smoking and losing weight will give me back the years that diabetes will take off :wink:

I have been lucky enough to have lived in an age that has seen high speed travel on land, sea and air, a man walk on the moon, computers, the silicon chip, the internet and I hope to be around to see the changes that Graphene* will bring, I'm hoarding pencils, its the future :thumbup:

* Graphene, so new its not in my spell check yet :lol:

 

[Robinredbreast]

I gave up the horrible cigarettes too, but not Type 2. As for giving up smoking, when my elderly dad was in hospital last year, COPD kept coming up, I kept saying he hasn't got COPD, he has Asthma. So,I asked to speak to a Doctor about it, she sat on my dad's bed and said that because my dad was a smoker ( a pipe and a few cigars at Christmas ) all smokers who do give up will probably be diagnosed with COPD I was shocked by this statement, but she did say Asthma and COPD can go hand in hand.

I'm still pleased I gave up and I hope I don't get COPD and live, at least, till my daughter grows up and is an adult, healthy and happy.

No one knows what is around the corner for any of us, but trying to stay fit and healthy is a big plus :thumbup:

RRB

 

[Yorksman]

My GP ( Aka = Dr Doom ) said my life expectancy would be 10% less as a diabetic.

Did the GP say how much life expectancy was reduced through the stress of dealing with people who don't really know what they are talking about?

It has always been my experience, as a mathematician, that the medical professional are not very good at understanding statistics. Some of the questions that spring to mind are:

How well is the diabetes controlled?
Is it controlled by diet and exercise or by drugs or a combination of both?
What kind of diet is being followed or what drugs are prescribed?
What was the age at diagnosis?
How quickly did the patients respond to interventions?

Now your GP will say something like, 'on average' although none of the questions above have an average answer and yet each one has a major effect on life expectancy. If the average is ten years, what is the shortened life expectancy of someone who was diagnosed very late and in whom severe complications had already set in and yet despite everything, they took no action? Such people do exist. To balance it out, some people are diganosed early, do all the right things, have no complications and respond well to things like diet and exercise. Are they to be treated the same? Answers to the questions above are not even recorded. It make that 10 year figure meaningless. It is a common mistake of associating a statistic with causality. Storks tend to nest on roofs. Babies tend to be born under roofs. There must be a relationship between stork nests and births. Over time, bread prices in the UK have increased. Over time, the water level in Venice has risen. There must be an association between the bread prices in the UK and the water levels in Venice.

However, since your GP likes statistics, copy this report on the NHS website entitled 'Claims of 24,000 'excess' deaths from diabetes'. In the section entitled, 'How is diabetes usually managed?' it states;

"Self-management of this condition is also crucial. People with diabetes need to be aware of and monitor blood glucose levels, maintain a healthy weight, eat a balanced diet, avoid smoking and have regular health checks."

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/12December/ ... betes.aspx

You now have good reason to claim that, that, 10 year average is due to GPs not handing out BG monitors. Two people can play chess with statistics. 96.7% of them are made up on the spot anyway.

 

[Yorksman]

The only certainty is that diabetes doesnt extend life :thumbdown:

On the otherhand, if I hadn't got diabetes but continued to smoke, eat badly and take no exercise, I may have died prematurely from a non diabetes related stroke.

 

[Yorksman]

I'm sure I got diabetes when I gave up smoking. I'd been very much overweight for a long time but my regular blood tests and weight remained stable. When I gave up smoking, I ate too many sweets. My weight didn't go up, but my blood sugars did and I got diabetes. I must have been near the tipping point and, after the cigs, mint imperials did me in. Still, at least I can afford the test strips with the money I save on the cigs.

 

[Yorksman]

You could try making lemon and lime icecubes up .
With the fizzywater and small pieces of lemon/lime .
Then plonk one or two in your glass of fizzy water - make it really zesty and tasty .

I've just come in from working in the garden and this looks like an ideal way to quench my thirst. Do you freeze the freshly squeezed juice or do you dilute it somewhat?

 

[donnellysdogs]

Everything nice tasting shortens your life.. Either food or drink in one way or another... I firmly believe that longer life expectancy is going up now because the people that are dying now (from where statistics are being gained) are:
1) Living longer because they were born in the war years where food was less;
2) people are now dying younger due to the modified foods that humans are now being brought up on since birth... Yes.. All the artificial breast milk etc.. Straight from birth...

So it is my belief that as a whole.. all variations of diabetics.... Will start to die younger...unless we all stop eating modified foods and go back to more basic diets.... (however we then have the farmers chemicals to deal with!!)

Unless we are all going to expect to have medications to cure all.. To make us live longer.. Then all of us humans.. Not just type 2's.. ALL of us have to cut the ****....

On an additional note to this... I know of neighbours of ours... M38 F35.. 2 kids.. 10&7 yrs old.... All they eat is takeaways... Take away pizza's, mcdonalds, fish n chips, indians, chinese and ....you wont beluve this... Junk food days... Of any **** they want at weekends... And they are bringing up their kids like this.....so that is just going to be passed on to the next generation. The only real food they eat is Christmas...

I see no reason beyond medications to keeping the next generations living longer... It certainly wont be through lifestyle's!!!!

 

[kazzyrf]

I was diagnosed a year ago as Type 2. Change of diet and am now 3st lighter and diabetes well and truly under control I have to say though I haven't given up rice or pasta, I just control the portion sizes and my BG hasn't gone above 6 for a while now. I think that portion control and knowing how foods affect you is better than denying yourself things you like ..... will only make you crave them more.
Thats how I do things and i am sure some won't agree but its about finding what works best for you
Lots of helpful advice snd great people on this forum

 

[Yorksman]

Change of diet and am now 3st lighter and diabetes well and truly under control I have to say though I haven't given up rice or pasta, I just control the portion sizes and my BG hasn't gone above 6 for a while now. I think that portion control and knowing how foods affect you is better than denying yourself things you like ..... will only make you crave them more.

That has been my experience too but I was surprised at the variation between brands, say between two types of wholewheat pasta or two types of brown rice. Quality of ingredients is one thing but also how the foodstuffs are processed. Proper stoneground wholemeal wheat for example, where the grains are slowly milled is completely different from high speed steel rollered flour. Even though the latter may contain the whole grain, the high speed steel rollers run at temperatures so high that they kill much in the endosperm. Stoneground runs much more slowly and at cooler temperatures, but, time is money, so most is milled with steel. People won't pay for the good stuff.