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NHS Course Surprise.

C

Caterham

Well-Known Member
Messages
85
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
For the last two weeks I have been attending a course in Bucks designed for new type 2 diabetics. There are four 2 hour sessions.

The first one was a basic introduction, which was fine, although the woman was very hard to understand, and kept referring to 'god' and the the 'man upstairs who made us', when discussing what has gone wrong with you when you have diabetes!

The second was with a nutritionist. I was fully expecting a 'starchy carbs are good' lecture, but I was quite surprised. She stressed the role of carbs in raising blood sugar, and that controlling carbs was important in maintaining blood sugar levels. She asked us all what we have changed on diet, and was understanding of a low carb approach.

However, I was the only one on the course using this website, and the only one out of the 15+ people there who was counting carbs as a way of controlling blood sugar. I personally was quite worried by the passivity of most of the people there. Their attitude seemed to be 'I have got a disease, it is up to the NHS to give me medicine to make it better, and I will not be changing my lifestyle'

However, the control your carbs message does appear to be gaining some influence in the NHS.
 
One small step for a diabetic, one giant leap for the NHS !

We live in hopes that they will finally see the light (low carb one ! )

Superchip..
 
Its interesting you say that Caterham, my neighbour was diagnosed with type 2 around about the same time as me and he is definitely expecting the Drs to sort it out with pills. He has not really changed his diet, when I last visited he was still taking sugar in his tea! I have tried to talk to him about changing his diet but its not really being received.

Thank goodness I have found this forum, it at least gives me and all of us the power to make changes and control our diabetes symptoms.
 
As the old saying goes "you can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink" Same with some diabetics who like to bury their heads in the sand and will be saying poor me when their foot has to be amputated.
 
I think many people, diabetic and non-diabetic don't understand the condition. They think its all about eating too much sugar and getting fat etc. I remember when I was young it was referred to as 'sugar diabetes' and I had an uncle who had a toe amputated yet everyone insisted he 'needed' the three teaspons of sugar in his tea on a regular basis - and we believed it because we weren't taught anything different. Even today, the medical profession aren't very good at explaining it to the patient, we get a diagnosis and a handbook.

I've spent hours with a friend, who looked after his diabetic father and regularly bought him Simple Linctus for his cough.
He had no idea Simple Linctus is practically pure sugar and no idea his diabetic father shouldn't drink it. He has no concept of how the body works, or what any organs do. Some people just have no interest in how the body works and so they don't understand and probably never will, how to manage their condition better.
 
chris lowe said:
As the old saying goes "you can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink" Same with some diabetics who like to bury their heads in the sand and will be saying poor me when their foot has to be amputated.
Click to expand...

They'll be blaming the NHS more likely... never themselves...
 
I had a very similar experience on my DESMOND course last year. One couple became quite aggressive with the course presenters and insisted that they would continue as before with lots of home baking and stodgy food. Their minds were completely closed and the course was a waste of time and money in their case. I expect that they are on fairly high levels of medication by now or will be in the near future.
 
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