• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

It gets better right?

Thank you everyone for your kind words, I have taken them to heart and finally feel that I am able to move past the barrier in my mind. I feel like I have a new direction in life with my diagnosis, I was taking life for granted with how I lived before but now I'm excited for Spring to start so I can spend my days in the sun instead of my bedroom living in virtual worlds playing video games.
 
Ragmar said:
I'm excited for Spring to start so I can spend my days in the sun
Click to expand...
Ohhh skin cancer.
Every silver lining has a cloud.

Good luck with every thing, you don't need to give up the things you love just find a better balance.
 
Wishing you well Ragmar, get out there and enjoy the small things. They soon add up. I am looking forward to getting out in the garden and instead of cat videos I will be enjoying my two felines chasing butterflies in the sunshine
 
As we have the highest rate of skin cancers in the world, the message still doesn't get thru to some

UV is murder
 
Mike D said:
As we have the highest rate of skin cancers in the world, the message still doesn't get thru to some

UV is murder
Click to expand...
I work seasonal construction and am looking forward to work because it'll allow me to get out of my room and get back to making money. I guess I'm going to have to load up on sunscreen

Edit. Spoke to my brother about this and he laughed at me. He's been diabetic for the past 15 years and has worked outdoors for the past 11 years in the sun and all.
 
Last edited:
Just keep the sun away from your eyes (wide brimmed hat and good sunglasses) and don't fall for the "it's cloudy, so no issue" nonsense. Anything by way of exposed skin is always dangerous unless you apply lots of spf
 
Mike D said:
Just keep the sun away from your eyes (wide brimmed hat and good sunglasses) and don't fall for the "it's cloudy, so no issue" nonsense. Anything by way of exposed skin is always dangerous unless you apply lots of spf
Click to expand...

What is sun?
 
Ah! I remember sun! Vaguely.

Seriously though, @Ragmar, it does get better if you look after yourself. Not in an NHS Eatwell sort of way, but if you stick with us you would find it all much more manageable and, dare I say, you would begin to feel much more hopeful and healthier.
 

No amount of sun can make up for the damage that poor diet does to our metabolism...so one of the best thing to do is to get a glucose meter and check how each meal is affecting you. Then make the appropriate changes and see the improvements.
 
Thank you @kokhongw for the reply. I went to the doctors awhile back and got a prescription for one, it's covered by my insurance so I'm grateful for that because they cover strips as well so I test frequently.

Generally in the mornings I wake up with a 4.3-4.7 and between meals sit around 5.5ish, the highest its ever spiked to was 7.3 and that was an hour after eating rice, so I've cut out rice and etc. Thanks again everyone for the well wishes.
 
Hi @Ragmar - love your handle/name! I went online and looked it up and saw a really beautiful horse .

One way that I dealt with the stress and anxiety straight after diagnosis was to get out and walk. I walked everywhere. It helped HUGELY. Had very real health benefits too - all that excess glucose (and I had a lot of excess glucose being diagnosed with an HBA1c of 93) getting into my muscle and being burned up by the exercise. Big bonus of offsetting the chances of having a stroke.

But the biggest immediate benefit was allowing me to cope better by lifting my mood. For me it was walking, but you as a young man - it might be lifting weights in the great outdoors? (Do you have any of those great outdoor fitness parks somewhere near you? I love those things.) Rowing? (I live back in NZ now, so rowing is a big thing... all that water, never freezes over, lots of boats.) Running?

Or, just plain old walking! Parks, forests, coastside for beaches (I'm going for the blue and green theme here) - it's all good!

But if getting out into nature, as the Swedes swear by (and Swedes REALLY know about the sun and lack of it y'all!) is not practical - walking to your best mates house, to your favourite pubs for socialising, to the shops and back - it really is all good.
 
Thank you @AloeSvea
When I was younger my uncle owned horses and I would ride them as a child, one was called Root Beer and he had horrible gas but anyway I walk a lot now. At the moment, because I live in Canada, the snow is melting and the cold air causes the side walks to ice up so it's a bit slippery but I enjoy walking.

Unfortunately I don't live near any parks with the open weights, but I am a member of a gym and I go daily now to get myself in shape and sweat. The staff have begun to notice me and compliment my weight loss and etc, it's given me confidence to continue. I'm Native American, so when I was a child I would live outside of the city in the summer and we had canoes and etc to go on the lakes. It's one of the things that kept me active as a child.

I feel like this diagnosis has given me a new lease on life and I plan to make the best out of it, I'm looking forward to the Spring, I live near the cities Zoo like 5 blocks away from the zoo and one of my cities forests so it's crazy to think that they've always been their but I was just so caught up in my video games that I never noticed. But I fixed up my bike, bought a new seat and changed the tires and am looking forward to warm sunny days. Thank you for taking the time to write!
 
@Ragmar - that was some beautiful horse I saw for sure! I hear you on the walking in snow and ice - I have lived in Sweden, as a 'new Swede', and there is a knack to it for sure . And I sure remember about looking forward to the (way too short) summer. I live in Aotearoa/New Zealand, so there is a kind of 'eternal spring' going on when it isn't summer as a sub-tropical very rain-ey climate where I am in the south pacific.

You're a First Nations man? How wonderful!

I'm a Kiwi with indigenous ancestry - Maori - in my own post-colonial country. And Maori, and the large Polynesian (immigrant and ex-immigrant) population are hugely stricken by T2D. Without a load of carbs, Maori and Polynesians are lean and muscular, as a rule, and many (me included) not tolerant to either dairy or wheat/grains, or both. (For me it's wheat/grains, for my favourite brother it is dairy, for instance.) On my Maori side of the family we are over-run by health problems and issues to do with excess carbs and intolerances to the dairy and grains not to mention sugar of the western diet (and sadly - keeping on eating them - even when they have me going on and on about it, lol.) A lot of arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, strokes and cvd's etc etc.

Anyway, that's me. Back to you!

Being Canadian and Native American you can tune in to one of my T2D heros! And he is a really a positive role model and story. Dr Jay Wortman. Great link below, as it has links to the work online that he is contributing to the cause of getting better with T2D. (When you see him you realise he has very mixed ancestry, which is what happens here in NZ too of course.) (Me! For instance .)

When I stand in front of the fridge wondering what to eat that won't spike my blood glucose, and currently trying to learn to make low-carb ice cream - I think of Jay Wortman and what he has said in interviews. HIs story is a good one, and absolutely - very positive. He is one of the ones who has been able to get normal blood glucose levels, and lives healthily on low carb high fat (LCHF) fare. (I alas, have very stubborn insulin resistance, which happens, sadly, and it is very difficult for me to get out of the prediabetes/intermediate-hyperglycemia range where I have been for over three years, and not for want of trying.) (But my kind of severely resistant insulin resistance is a very small percentage of total type two diabetics apparently.) (And have no doubt - I have come a long way even so! I was diagnosed at the north american h ba1c 10.5% and I am now 6.2%.)

His doco 'My Big Fat Diet' is just wonderful. I hope you can get it and watch it?

I'll get out of this post so you can get on to Dr Jay Wortman (if you haven't discovered him already)!

http://soadi.ca/dr-jay-wortman-diabetes-story-work-first-nations/
 
@AloeSvea Thank you for bringing him to my attention, I didn't know about him but I'm twelve minutes into the link you posted and I'll watch his documentary for sure. I watched a documentary last year called Obesity in paradise about the Samoan population and it was troubling but it's the same with northern communities that don't have access to a lot of healthy foods so they eat frozen pre-packaged meals.

By chance do you speak your language? I only know a handful of phrases because not many people around me speak the language but I would like to learn Ojibwe.

That is a nice drop from 10.5 to 6.2, I'm eagerly waiting for my next testing in May to see what my number is now.

Forgive me if I get to personal but how has your experience been? I see that you've been diagnosed in 2014.
 
@Ragmar - I am very pleased to have been the one to introduce Jay Wortman to you! Very pleased indeed. .

As I say, he is one of my diabetes-heroes. I particularly like the doctors and professors who have actually had or have blood glucose dysregulation themselves! (Like Dr Michael Mosley, and Prof/Dr Tim Noakes, and Dr Bernstein.)

Yes, diabetes is a huge health issue for Maori and Polynesians. I see obesity as a symptom, not a cause of T2D, according to the insulin resistance theory.

My personal experience? What a honey you are to ask! Are you sitting down with a cup of coffee? . I am no longer obese and am normal weight - I lost the bulk of my fat a few months after diagnosis by going paleo (moderate carbing) and walking a lot. (When I say a lot, I mean a lot! I have quite a muscular build. And it helped me with stress management, so it was a win win situation.) I am good with high levels of protein. The idea that I could be the physical person I am, or just the person I am, eating only a palm-ful portion of protein a day makes me want to laugh. Hysterically! Which is why Paleo suited me so well, and I am very grateful to my partner for pointing this way of eating out to me. I then graduated to LCHF, after experimenting with dairy. I believe I am very dairy tolerant, so I am extremely happy to have it in my diet. (Experimentation evidence is by blood lipid tests, which are covered by my country's socialised medicine, and blood glucose testing with my meters, partially covered by socialised medicine.)

I have never regained that initial loss in weight, but for me, with what I believe to be severe insulin resistance in my liver and probably therefore pancreas, with significant fasting blood glucose spikes (I've had periods of insulin resistance since my 20s, and I am now in my 50s), I believe I am, very sadly, one of those that needs to be very lean indeed to be diabetes-free. According to the new five different types of diabetes definitions that are being flung around recently, that would make me the SIRD, or the 15% who are severely insulin resistant.

I did get to normal blood glucose levels for a few months post the Newcastle diet with food (or a very low calorie diet), by looking like, as my daughter says, a lollipop. (Big head, skinny body.) I was not able to maintain that lean physique, and with increased weight so my blood glucose raises. (It did get me into the prediabetes zone though, where I have been since.) I will continue to experiment to see if I can get there, and stay there - lean and with normal blood glucose levels, or, if longer time eating LCHF helps me in that regard (I doubt this though. I believe LCHF is very good for weight maintenance only, for me). But, I have a very strong suspicion I am one of the ones that has to be skinny, and that just may be too hard to do. (Not for want of trying!). I am currently experimenting with the carnivore diet, which is very very very very low carb indeed (5 grams of carbs and under). It is very challenging for me. There are many sighs coming from me when discussing this whole issue. If I hear anyone say that carbs can be addictive, I nod my head - vigorously!

I made a decision very early on to be medications free, so I can monitor how my body is working, or not working, without interference of pharmaceuticals, with lots of experimentation. I think this is a deeply personal and important decision, and no one can really make it for you. Not even doctors! If I took metformin I am quite sure I would be in what Jenny Ruhls calls the 5% club, as it would turn off the on switch in my liver, for wrongly making heaps of its own glucose and spitting it out into my bloodstream,due to bung insulin and other hormone signalling. If I cannot see more improvement I will probably do this (take metformin) as I want to be living considerably longer, and according to Ruhl's rather convincing writings on T2D, it is better for longterm organ health to get your blood glucose down to normal by whatever means.

I will add though, that Dr Fung - the wonderful Canadian diabetes expert and kidney specialist, does talk about getting your blood glucose levels down by medication, if I have understood him correctly (which I am very open to the idea that I have not!), does not save you from the big bogey of T2D - strokes and cardio vascular disease (and therefore the possibility of a too early death). (Evidence for this is in all those studies with big word acronyms like ACCORD and so on.) And that seems to be because it is the high levels of insulin that cause those big bogeys, not the glucose levels per se. There is a bunch of other diabetes researchers/Profs who say this also. If you pay attention to this then, getting your insulin levels down to normal, or as close to normal as you can, is really good for staying alive as long as you can. (A cheap way, and therefore covered by socialised medicine via blood lipid tests, is to keep a tabs on your insulin production is by getting your c-peptides tested. The levels of c-peptide and insulin in your body go hand in hand, apparently, so high, or normal - c-peptide, equates to the amount of insulin your body is producing.)

I basically devoted two years of my life post diagnosis to researching T2D and doing some serious experimentation. And I am a teacher and a writer. Since then Michael Mosley and Dr Fung, and the Newcastle university folks, and all the LCHFers have come a really long way online, and had books published so it is much easier to get that info now, without having to devote yourself to reading up on it so widely .

And I came to forums, like this wonderful forum, about six months later than I ought to have! It would have made a huge difference to me if I had discovered low carbing earlier, and if health authorities in the countries I was living in (Sweden and New Zealand) talked about low carbing as being the first port of call for those with blood glucose dysregulation.

I hope this changes in the years ahead.

Re the language/te reo topic - I will private message you!

 
Honestly I think your amazing. And I was/am sitting at my desk with a cup of coffee, I am fortunate enough to live across a cafe. I was initially looking into paleo at the beginning but settled on Low carb high fat, when I initially started I did low carb and was hungry right away after eating but since I added fat I've been feeling full longer. I'm looking forward to the snow finally melting away so I can begin walking and etc.

I find that working out helps me deal with stress as well, and after a work out I feel like my mind's been cleared. My brother like me was a big boy but he's lost a considerable amount of weight and its now easier for him to manage his condition which is what I'm hoping for. I hope to stay off mediciation for as long as possible, and I have read about the positive effects of metformin. I'll have to ask my doctor if I fit into any of those new categories, and I'll inquire about a c-peptide test to see where my insulin's at.

Because I'm First Nations, all of my health stuff is covered by the government like all my supplies (lancets, monitors, strips) and tests. LCHF has helped me tremendously so far, I've been losing weight since diagnosis like crazy, friends and etc have been commenting on how slim I'm getting so it's encouraging to keep at it.

5gs of carbs and under, that is amazing. Right now I am doing liberal low carb like 130-150g's of carbs but I know that I can do better. Thank you for introducing me to Jenny Ruhl, I'll look into her writings about type 2. I am very much new to all this and will soak this up like a sponge, thank you so much for writing back to me and in great detail. My A1C was 6.5 and with my recent diet and exercise I hope to join the 5% club.

I've been reading and watching a lot of videos about Dr Fung. Whenever I start to think about the big bogey of T2D, I think about my brother who's had this terrible disease for 15 years and how he's going strong. I've found comfort in other members on the forums who have been going at it for years, it gives me motivation to stay positive. I will definetly ask my doctor for a c-peptide test because this is something I'm truly interested in now. To see how insulin resistant that I am, but I've read that losing weight will increase or help insulin sensitivity? every time I try and research this I always come across some guys blog about reversing insulin resistance and how he's trying to sell me a product.

But thank you once again to introducing me to Dr Jay Wortman and Jenny Ruhl, I'm going to read up on them during the intermission of this hockey game.

Thank you for taking the time to write me once again @AloeSvea
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…