Sir Steve Redgrave and treatment decisions

[LittleGreyCat]

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Diabetes-type2/Pages/SteveRedgrave.aspx

Fascinating reading, including the treatment decisions.

An elite athlete burning sugars for energy, he concluded with his doctor that he couldn't provide his energy requirements without the sugar so took one route of the newly diagnosed T2 and decided to maintain his diet and cover his sugars with insulin.

I would guess that his issue was unlikely to be insulin resistance, but instead low insulin production.

I have met others who have chosen to maintain diet and lifestyle and use insulin to maintain BG control.

I suspect Volek and Phinney would have leaped on him with glad cries and tried to turn him to the dark side of LCHF as used by many ultra endurance athletes. Perhaps, though, fat isn't the fuel for sprinters?

Anyway, interest piqued by the rationale behind his choice of diet and treatment. I hadn't even realised that he was T2, nor that he was only diagnosed after his 4th Olympic medal.

A fine example to illustrate that not all T2s are blubbery couch potatoes!

 

[zand]

Well from a blubbery couch potato - I would just like to say we are people and we have feelings too. I'm no less human because I am fat and despite what others may think I do make a positive contribution to this world.

 

[noblehead]

Great article, Steve is one of our greatest Olympians and an all-round good guy.

 

[andcol]

umm... well a T2 with a pump; that wouldn't happen for a mere mortal... All in all not a normal story about T2 management and the NHS. Most of use can;t even get test strips!

 

[Pipp]

This is not a typical example of T 2 management.
I have much admiration for Sir Steve Redgrave, but can't help thinking his story here about using insulin could give folks the impression that those with T2 could stuff their faces with 6,000 calories, and solve the problem easily with an insulin pump.

 

[Simon84]

Just a Champagne diabetic with access to things that average Joe diabetic will probably never see.

 

[AloeSvea]

I love that @Simon84 - a champagne diabetic! Wo ho! I want to be one of those (on a sprite budget). As long as it's very dry champagne/sparkling - right?

Yes, I have wondered how rich and famous T2 diabetics have been doing with treatment choice and support and so on more than once (I can't help the glossy women's mag side of me), as in Tom Hanks and Halle Berry (although I do understand there is some confusion and so on around Halle Berry's original diagnosis). I mean - if I was rich and famous, and had easy access to other rich/famous/top of the game people - how would I be living with T2D? Those kind of fun questions for when one is slaving over a hot stove of sugar free low carb red sauce and a cauldron of bone broth, for instance. (Number one - I would have a live-in LCHF cook!) Then it would be tests, a la Michael Mosley doco type of things, to see exactly where those dangerous fat deposits on my bod are - those kinds of fascinating expensive things, like experts interpreting my results for me. Regular consults with Dr Fung and Prof Taylor gotten to by private jet. Oh, and having a personal trainer that I really got on with, like Mama June on the From Not to Hot thing. (Needless to say - no surgery for me - but I would love the after-workout coffee and chats with some out there lovely athletic type in my employ.)

But yes, back to reality, over that hot stove, and one's planning the cheapest way to get one's next round of test strips - yes. And, yes, I've gone two days without the walking or push ups or squats - groan - gotta get to it. And continue hunting for a decent GP in the new area I am living in. (Having Dr Fung on skype would be way more efficient!) My real life with T2D is way more pleb, for sure.

Oh, and in fantasy land I would get Tom Hanks on the blower, and tell him to stop saying he got T2D from partying too hard, being lazy, and being an idiot. He would listen to me because we would be such good pals.
(http://www.today.com/health/tom-hanks-what-led-type-2-diabetes-diagnosis-i-was-t93111)

And I can't even say 'T2D on a Sprite budget' because sugary carbonated drinks are one of the things that got me here in the first place! Sigh.

 

[serenity648]

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Diabetes-type2/Pages/SteveRedgrave.aspx



A fine example to illustrate that not all T2s are blubbery couch potatoes!

I beg your pardon??? where do you get off coming out with such an insulting comment? Have you learned nothing about the many causes and symptoms of t2 during your time on these boards?

I respectfully suggest you re-think your comment.

(and before someone flags this as insulting or a personal attack, I am responding to an insult to all of us who are overweight t2's)

 

[ickihun]

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Diabetes-type2/Pages/SteveRedgrave.aspx

Fascinating reading, including the treatment decisions.

An elite athlete burning sugars for energy, he concluded with his doctor that he couldn't provide his energy requirements without the sugar so took one route of the newly diagnosed T2 and decided to maintain his diet and cover his sugars with insulin.

I would guess that his issue was unlikely to be insulin resistance, but instead low insulin production.

I have met others who have chosen to maintain diet and lifestyle and use insulin to maintain BG control.

I suspect Volek and Phinney would have leaped on him with glad cries and tried to turn him to the dark side of LCHF as used by many ultra endurance athletes. Perhaps, though, fat isn't the fuel for sprinters?

Anyway, interest piqued by the rationale behind his choice of diet and treatment. I hadn't even realised that he was T2, nor that he was only diagnosed after his 4th Olympic medal.

A fine example to illustrate that not all T2s are blubbery couch potatoes!

When he retires from all his sports activity. That's when IR hits you hard. I'm speaking from experience. Ok I wasn't a world athlete but I was extremely fit and muscular.

I have severe IR I cannot exercise except walk in pain.
Ex bodybuilders become very fat if not training. The body cannot get rid of the unused energy.
I hope he has great support when he retires. I'll coach him, if he needs it to lower insulin and less IR. Its not something which can be put in a book. Its tailored need.

Once I reduce more IR I will feel very successful. Most importantly proud that this forum helped me through the maze of IR. People's experiences, not books.

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

When he was a top sportsman he ate loads of carbs for energy and injected insulin. I presume that now that he is a cornflakes model, he wont have the same calorie requirements, so I wonder why he doesn't low carb now and maybe not need the pump

 

[ickihun]

I beg your pardon??? where do you get off coming out with such an insulting comment? Have you learned nothing about the many causes and symptoms of t2 during your time on these boards?

I respectfully suggest you re-think your comment.

(and before someone flags this as insulting or a personal attack, I am responding to an insult to all of us who are overweight t2's)

@serenity648 . I think you've misunderstood. Poster was saying the same as you.
Steve R is type2 and definitely not a couch potato the ignorant people suggest.
Read posters last sentence again hun. ♡♥♡

 

[ickihun]

When he was a top sportsman he ate loads of carbs or energy and injected insulin. I presume that now that he is a cornflakes model, he wont have the same calorie requirements, so I wonder why he doesn't low carb now and maybe not need the pump

Consultant may be a private one. Maybe he can afford to cut out the middle man (gp and their dns).
Not all insulin taking type2s make their IR worse?

 

[zand]

Steve R is type2 and definitely not a couch potato the ignorant people suggest

The inference though is that those of us who are fat and can't exercise for whatever reason are couch potatoes!

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

A fine example to illustrate that not all T2s are blubbery couch potatoes!

Who said they were! He is privileged to have had an excellent team of advisors who were able to help him eat 7,000 calories a day and train as hard as he had to.

I bumped into him (literally, both of us should have looked where we were going LOL) when he came into the Marlow Sports Centre to show everyone his first Gold Medal. Only seems like yesterday.

 

[noblehead]

The inference though is that those of us who are fat and can't exercise for whatever reason are couch potatoes!

I think LGC was referring to some of the Media interpretation of the cause of type 2, their ignorance about the condition is shocking as you will admit @zand

 

[ickihun]

The inference though is that those of us who are fat and can't exercise for whatever reason are couch potatoes!

Yes. That's what ignorant people think. So.....they say "?"

 

[Daibell]

I wonder what his c-peptide test result would be? He may even be a Late onset T1 and not T2, although I would hope his consultant has carried out the test and not just guessed T2.

 

[ickihun]

Who said they were! He is privileged to have had an excellent team of advisors who were able to help him eat 7,000 calories a day and train as hard as he had to.

I bumped into him (literally, both of us should have looked where we were going LOL) when he came into the Marlow Sports Centre to show everyone his first Gold Medal. Only seems like yesterday.

Yes. I know a few people who eat 7,000 cals but don't even walk anywhere, never mind train. They aren't diabetic either.

 

[ickihun]

I wonder what his c-peptide test result would be? He may even be a Late onset T1 and not T2, although I would hope his consultant has carried out the test and not just guessed T2.

That's the thing about type2. It never makes logic. It's lack good quality insulin sometimes rather than defective insulin their body makes too.
I believe my insulin I make is defective and injected is more compatible. I'm losing weight on injected insulin. Enough for my weight and carb/protein needs.
Once I lose more weight I will need far less or maybe none if I can withstand metformin and my new digestive system.

 

[zand]

I think LGC was referring to some of the Media interpretation of the cause of type 2, their ignorance about the condition is shocking as you will admit @zand

Yes I agree. The ignorance displayed by some on this site is equally shocking.