Nightmare diabetes appointment

douglas99 said:

One of my work colleagues, was a T1, diagnosed in his teens. He retired at 60, many years ago.
He had his lunch box, with a very carefully prepared amount of sandwiches and cake.
Carbs, set amount, fixed amount of insulin, very old school. No deviations at all from routine.
He's still fine.
Probably in his late 70's now.

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Your friend was more than likely on twice daily injections whereby you needed to eat a fixed amount of carbs, with MDI (multiple daily injections) there's more flexibility around meal times and the foods you eat.

I don't rate Dr. Bernstein at all. I think he is unrealistic and is setting most diabetics up for strife and failure. Quantity of life is nothing without the quality.
Personal opinion.

There is also I believe, one *very* important point to make about *normal* BG levels in us LADA's (this is the LADA forum).... Unique to us LADA's (I believe) are a few remaining insulin producing beta cells. We still produce insulin, at varying amounts, which lowers our injected insulin amount, and often in the early stages eliminates it.

This was my primary reason for deciding to follow Dr Bernstein's solution. He (and not he alone - there are some clinical trials supporting this) believe that beta cell destruction is stopped (and sometimes regenerated) by normal BG levels.

Since following his solution my experience is showing signs that confirm this, simply because I can not detect any further degeneration of my beta cells over the 5 months I have been following his recommendations.

12 months ago I started reading, on this forum, about the link between carbs and high blood sugars and thus gradually started to eat to my meter. Looking back, my beta cells were obviously deteriorating, because over the next few months I gradually lowered my carb intake to keep my BG levels at constant'ish levels (around 6.0 pre breakfast). I had a month (feb) of lower BG levels, but lost a stone in weight. By May I was fully LCHF, a stone back on, still with good BG levels around 6.0 pre breakfast. Looking back, I was managing to keep good BG levels through ever decreasing carb intake.

Then I read Dr Bernstein's book. Maybe, just maybe, he and some of the clinical trials were right. With my beta cells definitely gradually (very slowly) deteriorating I felt that I needed to try his solution. So in July I decided to give it a go. Within days my BG levels had dropped 20% to around 5.0 pre breakfast and my BG levels 2 hrs after eating were now much lower and hardly ever increased by more than 0.5mmol.... All in accordance to that forecast by Dr B. In his book.

Over the last 5 months, nothing has changed. My weight has been constant, my carb intake constant and my BG levels are no different now to what they were 5 months ago. Without any doubt at all I believe my beta cells have not deteriorated at all over the last 5 months, and that , I am 100% sure is down to *normal* blood sugar levels.

For info, I am going to try to upload two sets of my BG meter recordings. One for all time recordings, the other for pre breakfast recordings. You should be able to see quite clearly the last 5 months.

Ps. I actually found the transition from LCHF to his dietary recommendations very easy. Basically all I had to do was cut out all fruit (I was having a few berries at breakfast) and cut back on the tomatoes (only one small cherry plumb per meal) and be a little more careful with some root veg and salad eg. Carots and onions.

I found going LCHF a much bigger step than going from LCHF to dr Bernstein's dietary recommendations.... This step is minuscule compared to the switch to LCHF.

elaine77 said:

I don't rate Dr. Bernstein at all. I think he is unrealistic and is setting most diabetics up for strife and failure. Quantity of life is nothing without the quality.
Personal opinion.

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Its surprising how one can get used to something previously thought impossible. 12 months ago I too would have thought it to be unrealistic. Now, no big deal.

Yes, to you Ian. I agree with Phoenix and such a restricted diet would not work for most and would make a lot of people pretty frustrated and sad. It would with me anyway as I am only in my 20s and life is (hopefully) a long time yet for me....

Also, going so low carb is all smoke and mirrors.... Not giving your body something it cannot tolerate is not the same as preventing the body's inability to tolerate it in the first place. Therefore any severely restricted diet would need to be permanent for life and that's not something I would be willing to sacrifice for the sake of a couple of injections a day....

Everyone is different though, such is diabetes.

Ian DP said:

Its surprising how one can get used to something previously thought impossible. 12 months ago I too would have thought it to be unrealistic. Now, no big deal.

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I agree.

Im not LADA, (I'm type 2) and I'm not Bersteining, but I'm close, most days.
And I feel so much better eating like this that the pros FAR outweigh the cons.
For me, it really is worth it.
Will I keep it up?
No idea.
But I'm gonna try.

Besides, even if I drift off target, I've still delayed/controlled as best I can for years? Months? However long. And that improves the quality of my old age.

Brunneria said:

I agree.

Im not LADA, (I'm type 2) and I'm not Bersteining, but I'm close, most days.
And I feel so much better eating like this that the pros FAR outweigh the cons.
For me, it really is worth it.
Will I keep it up?
No idea.
But I'm gonna try.

Besides, even if I drift off target, I've still delayed/controlled as best I can for years? Months? However long. And that improves the quality of my old age.

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That's where the definition of 'quality' is important.
If chasing BG is what is important, then that's good.
I'm not LADA, (I'm type 2) as well, and for me, my overall balance is what's important in my life.
BG is only part of my overall quality of life.
So I'm agreeing with @elaine77

I'm not T1.5/LADA, but T2.
As the story goes: WE'RE ALL DIFFERENT!, so, we all have decisions to make in the quality of life stakes!
For some of us, we make "sacrifices" in the diet stakes, others "suffer" more insulin or tablets!
I hope that we all find the balance that suits us and finds peace with the "way of dealing" that we choose!

FergusCrawford said:

I'm not T1.5/LADA, but T2.
As the story goes: WE'RE ALL DIFFERENT!, so, we all have decisions to make in the quality of life stakes!
For some of us, we make "sacrifices" in the diet stakes, others "suffer" more insulin or tablets!
I hope that we all find the balance that suits us and finds peace with the "way of dealing" that we choose!

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You gave the collie your PC password again, didn't you

Mike D said:

You gave the collie your PC password again, didn't you

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I have to type in a password, SHE logs in using her ID chip Little claws don't work well on a keyboard

FergusCrawford said:

I have to type in a password, SHE logs in using her ID chip Little claws don't work well on a keyboard

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Don't put anything beyond these wonderful companions ..... by your other thread, your best friend fits the mould.

I swear sometimes when I meet dogs (and I love almost all breeds) and I go up and greet them (after looking at their name tags) it's eerie.

As if they know me or they KNOW I'm their friend. Almost a feeling of reincarnation. Strange, but that is what hits me. First move when I get to the US ... get a dog. DO NOT tell my wife ... please

P.S. I still think you collie's got your access

Mike

Mike D said:

P.S. I still think you collie's got your access

Mike

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Bearded Collie perhaps!
Me

Dog

Tough choice mate

I just LOVE that avatar and of course, the human with the gene simmons tongue !!

Mike

Back on track please.
.

sorry

The Libre does tend to read low at night Smidge. I think you'd find that's true for many users - so then you'd have to use finger pricks to establish how much. I don't take its night-time readings as literally true.

Great news. I know just how you feel on waking to a decent number!

smidge said:

Another 5.5 this morning! I think I might have dropped a tad low overnight as there is a little red area on the Libre graph, just hovering under the 4 mark - but I'll not really know until I download the data this evening. So it looks like this might improve the main ovenight issue with high & climbing BG and just need some tweaking of the doses of both the Insuman and Levemir basals. Once that's sorted I can see if I can match the Apidra doses to the new basal regime. We'll see how things go today - my first normal work day since swapping the Insuman to 10pm.

Smidge

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That's great news Smidge, perseverance nearly always pays off