Poll: Which diabetes course(s) have you attended?

MisterMints said:

I know, but my doctor is a bit funny about prescribing new kit when I have a perfectly functional and fairly new NovoPen 5. Plus, it was only £20 so not breaking the bank and saves the NHS a bit of cash.

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You could have discussed it with your DSN who would probably have given you at least a disposable pen. Your GP probably wouldn't like to prescribe something without the hospital's say so.

I did half a DESMOND, but they booked me on it nine months after diagnosis, by which time I had come here, identified low carb and exercise as crucial, and had lowered my readings to the point where I was able to come off medication. I felt they focussed too much on “Why you are here” and not enough on “what to do next”. I kind of feel like I’m not going to be able to understand the complexities of biochemistry, but I can follow simple instructions about what actions I should take!

Just completed my 2nd part of desmond.

Couple taking course most helpful & pleasant.

my most obvious blind spot was understanding carbs...so the course was helpful to me.
Glad i went on it.

other People on the course, nice ..and i learned a lot from just how we were all finding life with Type 2

(hopefully, a few of them, might be along to join us.. )

Never attended one

Which of these courses would you recommend the most?

I've done Dafne and also the pump course.

I did a diabetes education course for 1day at my local hospital and I did not find it particularly helpful as it concentrated on the Eatwell plate rather than carb counting. Since I started carb counting my blood sugars have been very stable and the diabetic nurse is very impressed. I was diagnosed Type 2 5years ago and put on insulin nearly 4years-ago.

None

Administrator said:

This month we're taking a look at structured diabetes education courses in the UK and how well they work.

Have you taken one since you were diagnosed? If so, how helpful did you find it, if at all?

If you haven't taken any courses - is that because you've never been offered a place, or because you just felt like you didn't need it?

Would you recommend the course(s) to any of your friends if they were to get diagnosed with diabetes?

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I have never been offered one and, being completely honest, I didn't even know such things existed.

Completed the X-Pert course before Christmas, started 2 months after diagnosis. Took my partner along and both of us found it useful. I'd done a lot more reading before attending, so it confirmed a lot of what I knew, but did explain in simple terms for those who hadn't yet found this forum. The course provided a community over 6 weeks and lots of support between us, sharing successes and stories.the diet advice could have been better, and although LCHF was mentioned they didn't focus on it. I did challenge them at the end of that session privately as to why my DN said go low carb but they weren't as focused, they admitted they believe it is the way forward, but the majority of people are less likely to embrace this lifestyle (at the minute), they did though refer to me and LCHF and how it was working for me in the other sessions. Def worth attending, and my surgery happy that I have done it, so keeps them on side too.

None for personal care education. Attended a mentors course but left as the eat well plate was the only game in town.

Attending an "Empower" course next Wednesday, taking my wife with me who has recently found to be pre-diabetic so that kinda makes sense her coming for that reason alone. Unfortunately I am totally expecting it to be a "you need to eat more carbs" thing. While I have NOT chosen to go for a LCHF diet (it seems I don't need to as I can tolerate more cabs than some, and I know I would find it a problem so no point trying something you don't need to and will likely fail at as it just makes you disillusioned), I DO think it is the way forward for a lot of people and really wish they would stop the poison pushing of carbs and more carbs. However, I should give it a try. At least this course is a single 4 hour course over one evening (5pm - 9pm - but when am I going to get my regular evening meal time slotted in??).

I will report back on it though - I cant see anyone else mention this one (although I didn't read all 23 pages!).

none and never will , I don't want to be told I have years off my lifespan and will eventually lose my limbs and such . I joined this forum because it is the most helpful place and encouraging place .

timgil said:

However, I should give it a try. At least this course is a single 4 hour course over one evening (5pm - 9pm - but when am I going to get my regular evening meal time slotted in??).

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Don't worry. They will provide you with tea, cakes and biscuits.

Bluetit1802 said:

Don't worry. They will provide you with tea, cakes and biscuits.

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Now, if I had been actually drinking tea/coffee when I read that - it would probably be all over my keyboard right about now! I suspect however you are dead right!

timgil said:

Attending an "Empower" course next Wednesday,............
I will report back on it though - I cant see anyone else mention this one (although I didn't read all 23 pages!).

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Just got back from this "Empower" course, nothing surprising at all, but as suspected slightly worrying especially for those that do not know any better and haven't done any research.

Theme of the course was: "Carbs good, Fat bad!"

I did point out that these so called "Fad diets" have been around for a good 50 years or so backed up by scientific research that even the NHS occasionally accepts (but then still goes on saying the opposite), and that the low carb high fat diet promoted here has been given a seal of approval.

Of course we had the "game" of putting the food on the "Eatbad (sorry I mean well) Guide". Not a total waste of time as it is good to recognise what food groups are in which items of food etc - you cant make an informed choice without that knowledge. I did however challenge the notion that everyone should be eating 30% as carbs. I said it may be a good - or at least not terrible - "guide" for general use. However as everyone is different it needs to be individually tailored to people's needs. Diabetics should generally not eat as much of their intake as carbs.

I even went so far as to say that the government's insistence of promoting this guide has caused many people who may not have otherwise developed diabetes. People have long believed that being overweight can cause diabetes, but I challenge that notion. I believe it can be a trigger that can cause someone who is already predisposed to it, to develop it. They have to have that predisposition there already. The problem is that those people are also the same people whose bodies do not process carbs efficiently. They eat more carbs, but are still hungry and eat more carbs because their body doesn't process them correctly so they stay hungry. They just put the weight on instead. For people who do not process carbs correctly, it is not possible (in my view) to loose weight without reducing carbs by a significant amount. The government instead insists that we eat more carbs. Because of this, those predisposed eat more carbs, and put more weight on. "Eatwell" causes those predisposed for diabetes to become overweight, and that can then trigger them to develop it. If they had not followed the "Eatwell" they may not have become overweight, and may not have developed diabetes. Of course this is supposition - but I strongly believe it.

I got one thing out of this course this evening (well two if you consider anger something I got from it?). I got out of it - that the NHS doesn't have anything more useful to teach me about diabetes so I know I am not missing something they may have told me. I will now go elsewhere for things like "lifestyle" choices as I have no confidence in the NHS for that. I would not personally recommend this course to anyone - apart from MAYBE someone who knows nothing about diabetes and is NOT going to read up about it themselves. Even then though I would feel responsible for the bad advice they would get that could make their condition worse.

Quality of the course was as expected, but disappointed to find out that my initial guess about it was correct. I would have loved to have been wrong.

I have recently attended my first one to one Diabetes awareness programme. The follow up sessions are once a week for eight weeks in a group and then possibly monthly. I believe it’s for a year.
I’m fairly sure they will not be promoting LFHC. It will be interesting to see what is promoted.
I was invited by my GP (who I know is a great believer in Low Carb) as in October 2018 my HBA1c was 46 and rising. I was desperate not to become T2.
I immediately started the diet. Over Christmas it was really difficult with all the mince pies sweets, chocolates which I have always consumed in the past. However I got through it.
I have lost a stone over a three month period and do not get heart burn anymore thankfully.
At my one to one session I was weighed, measured and HBA1c taken via a finger prick test. It had gone down to 41.
I am thrilled at this news but am wondering if the finger prick test is as reliable as the full blood test that my GP would conduct.

I fought to go on one, and it was definitely worthwhile and made the insulin adjustments a bit easier. It did feel somewhat rushed and to some degree, I think they need to refine it a bit more but I'm very glad I went and would recommend it. The one I went to was DAFNE.

I was advised to go on the Healthier You course, which I think may be aimed at prediabetics but the material is relevant to Type 2 issues. We’ve had 3 different course leaders so far due to logistics and they all have slightly different outlooks and interests. The general approach seems to be to present a whole host of information and encourage us to choose what suits us as individuals. For example one course leader, who’s a fitness trainer, finds that fewer, larger meals suit him and he doesn’t eat until the afternoon. He explained how the body has to present insulin every time you eat something, so grazing may tax some people - although it could depend on whether your body makes insufficient insulin, or stores an excess as to how this is or isn’t a problem for the individual person.

There was inclusion of the eat well plate but also new information on how saturated is no longer an issue re insulin - only in regard to cardio vascular concerns (no mention of literature like the great cholesterol con/myth books, though!)

They also got us thinking about proteins to up for and versions of carbs that were more problematic - with visual, plastic mock ups of foods. Quite helpful actually, as I think I know about those things (studied on the OU nutrition course and a local college course when I worked in the food and weight loss industries). But even I can forget sometimes that, eg, a small baked potato might be a better bet than a stack of mash! Although, these days, I tend to just avoid potatoes if possible (a little trickier with eating out and trying to keep away from carb foods).

We had 4 x weekly sessions and now I’m in the maintenance stage where you go about once a month. The monthly sessions do not have to be attended in order and I’ve rebooked some and missed a few months due to other commitments. But plan to cover them all, overall.

To be honest, in the 3 months I had to wait to get onto an available course locally, I had already devised a plan that I thought would suit me (and which worked to lose weight safely). And reading information on this forum helped me consider alternatives more closely. But I found it helpful to have something to focus on regularly when the course began and it was interesting to meet other people with varying problems - for example, several of us had had a frozen shoulder (not unusual for those with diabetes issues, I gather) and could not easily leap into typical exercise regimes. Some people had over eating issues and were very overweight. Others were naturally skinny but still had blood sugar problems - some of those were eating a lot of fruit and hadn’t known it was detrimental. Some were regular alcohol drinkers; some didn’t touch alcohol. It was interesting to see so many different issues represented.

They don’t encourage blood sugar testing at home; they seem to think it creates obsession. Nor do they recommend a low carb diet per se. They believe some carbs are needed or beneficial, but emphasise whole foods and smaller portions.

I think it’s worth gathering all the information in a course like that and then making up your own mind. But it can also be confusing having lots of different views etc. I had the impression that some of the older and more infirm people attending would have preferred to be given a straightforward set of guidelines to follow and be done with it. I think it was all a bit overwhelming for them, at least at first. And in some cases there aren’t really any immediate answers then and there - like for people who can’t exercise due to injury or an ongoing other health issue. That was a bit hard going, especially if that session was all about being active and getting fit. And done aspects of the course could have been better organised and cross referenced, in my opinion. But, in the grand scheme, I thought it was useful to have some information to consider, than be left in the dark to manage alone.