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The Doctor Phoned This Morning To Tell Me

M

midiman

Active Member
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27
That since I was diagnosed as being a Type 2 Diabetic at the beginning of this year in Jan 2020.

My HbA1c readings have come down from.
Jan 2020 -101 mmol/mol
Apr 2020 - 73 mmol/mol
Jun 2020 - 45 mmol/mol

and that my blood glucose was good.

He said also said that these reading were a bit too good.

But my Potassium level has down again, my Cholesterol has spiked and my Kidney function has dropped a bit. .

I told him that I have been using the LCHF diet and all that I have been eating is meats and eggs. So he has asked me to start making changes to my diet and adding in more carbs and protein etc...

I am still taking my daily blood readings and I am currently bordering around the 10 mark, but that is only because I have been doing a bit of indulging and taken my foot off the pedal.

If I up my exercise, fast a bit, and stop eating between meals, I can get my readings back into the 6-8 range again within a couple of days and maintain it there now that I have found what works.

Then it is a case of seeing if I can start dropping down my medication and seeing if I can manage things without.

Medication wise I am currently on 4 Metaforim and 1 Gliclazide
2 MF and 1 GC in morning.
2 MF in evening.

Thanks



.
 
Hi midiman, so are you eating any carbs at the moment? I was only diagnosed 1st May, I am using the LCHF diet too. My bg has come down, but I am finding if I have more than 10 -12 g of non-starchy carbs in any one meal my bg creeps over 8 and at the moment I have around 20g a day. Hopefully I will be able up this a bit as time goes on and also reduce the medication. It seems a bit of a balancing act to find what suits from reading on here. Keep at it and good luck.
 
He probably thinks your HbA1c is that "low" ("Beautiful", "fantastic" and "great progress" would be better words!) because you're having hypo's left and right, bringing the average down. I don't know if you are, as glic can cause hypo's especially when combined with low carb, but honestly? Adding in more carbs?! How about cutting the gliclazide!? If you don't indulge in snacks and all, you probably can do perfectly fine without it and remain in the prediabetic/non-diabetic range. Really... Sometimes you have to wonder whether they cut their degrees out of the newspaper or something. (Just don't cut it without the GP knowing and consenting. And you'd have to keep the low carb up or get back to where you started.)

As for the cholesterol, that going up is quite normal. And not exactly something to worry about. (https://carnivoreaurelius.com/cholesterol-on-carnivore-diet/ <-- this covers the carnivore diet, which is practically zero carb, but the cholesterol bit applies. Also, if you're melting fat off your liver, cholesterol goes up too, as it is on it's way out.).
 

Hi,

I am only taking 1 GC a day instead of the 2 that I was supposed to be taking and I have not had any Hypos either.

My lowest reading has been 5.1 and I have maintained 6.2 - 9.8 on most of the past 2-3 months. But there have been some where I have gone up to 15 but that is due to a bit if indulgence and timing of the readings. The most important part is that I have a pattern and know what works and doesn't.

I have even missed some med days and found that my daily readings are good and probably could stop the GC in the morning and see how I get on because it probably isn't doing much.

I've still got a long way to go and now I'm going to have to change my diet like he says and start adding some carbs and other foods back into my diet. Because I have been nothing but meat for the past 2-3 months and practically zero carbs with high fat.
 

I was on more or less zero carbs and eating nothing but meat for about 2-3 months in order to get my HbA1c as quickly as possible and I was shocked by todays result.

I have managed to get back into the pre-diabetic range from what they considered as really high when I was diagnosed at the beginning of this year.

This has been a roller coaster and I have had to take on so much in a short space of time. I have also had complications with the medication that I am using for high blood pressure and that has contributed to some of the issues that I have had too. So they have asked me to come off one of them because they think that it causing the low potassium issues and giving me heart arrhythmia.

It is a balancing act and diet plays a big part of it. I have done my phase one and now I know how to drastically get my HbA1c down. The next part is to start adding some other foods into my diet and see if I can maintain my blood glucose level and get my cholesterol down.

The cholesterol could be due to my liver burning off fat but i'm not going to make any drastic moves. I'm going to slowly add in a few carbs no more than 20-30g per day and see how I get on.

I have another FBC and Kidney test in 2 weeks time and if that is better he says that they are going to leave me alone for a couple of months and look to wean me down on the meds.

You just have to stick in there and see this as a long thing and not a quick fix.

Make it a lifestyle change.
 
Trying adding fibrous Vegetable or salad to your diet, that will so you can for example have chicken and broccoli. That will help with the cholesterol. As that is carbs but carbs with High amounts of fiber dont tend spike blood sugars. Look up the glycemic index. That will give you an idea. But I would add the veg to your diet and test 30, 60 then 90 mins after eating and if your blood dont spike. Then you know your good.
 
midiman said:
But my Potassium level has down again
Click to expand...

Then may be due to having too little normal salt, as the kidneys loses potassium when sodium is low. Hence consider increasing normal salt and using some "low salt" as "low salt" contains potassium.
 
....Why would you up the carbs? To justify the medication you obviously don't really need? You've had beautiful blood sugars. He's not going to stand beside you and make you eat a sandwich you know.

You do what you feel is best for you. If you think you can keep up the diet (no cheating), there's no reason why he shouldn't support you. Maybe gift him the Diabetes Code by Fung?

It's your call of course, whether to go with what the doc tells you or what your meter tells you. But just take a moment to consider what is best for you and go with that, whatever it may be.
Good luck!
Jo
 
bulkbiker said:
Did he give you any reason for that statement? Especially the carbs bit.. guessing it would be quite hard to add more protein to a meat and eggs diet!
Click to expand...

That;s what I was thinking about the protein part but I kind of understood what he was saying.

The diet that I was using was practically no carbs, too many eggs and bad high fat etc...

Now I need to start adding some things back into it and see how I get on with my next blood test.
 
Hi there
Us Diabetics have to watch our Carb intake I think we all aware of that.To keep healthy we need to consume a small amount of carbs,a few grams per day at least.We shouldn’t cut them out all together.eggs are great but the down side is they are high in Cholesterol although low or non existent carbs height protein,Thats what my Diabetes nurse tells.
Glenn
 

and I would say she is well out of date Glenn. Any cholesterol we get from food is negligible according to my own Consultant (and other sources), he says the modern thinking is that yes, some foods may add to your cholesterol level but if you cut them out then your body will make what is needed including any amount it may have got from an 'egg'. The egg theory was disbanded years ago. As for 'needing' an amount of carbs, again not true. I do eat carbs (around 100g) and I would miss them in the form of veg or slice of toast BUT I can survive without them as long as I adjust my insulin accordingly of course. The poster takes a glucose lowering drug so presumably is being told to eat more carbs to balance that out, to me that makes NO sense, 'You can't process carbs, so eat them and take this pill to counterbalance them'?, even for a type 1 on insulin we are told we adjust the insulin to the carbs we wish to eat (or not), not the other way round.
 
midiman said:
The diet that I was using was practically no carbs, too many eggs and bad high fat etc...
Click to expand...
Personally I'd say that diet is fine. I eat almost zero carbs and have no fear of animal fats. Not sure there's such a thing as "too many eggs".

Plus your HbA1c has done pretty well on it.
 
Hi there
Yes I agree about carbs you should only eat them very sparingly only a few Grams per day.yes eggs are good for Diabetics yet you can have to many.They can block you up.i guess things react differently to different people.Metformin in can cause stomach pains for some folk.Would say that you guys are almost on what was know as the Atkinson diet ?
Glenn
 

Yes it was more of less the Atkins and I was practically on zeros carbs. It has allowed me to get my HbA1c down from around 101 to 45 in under 6 months and, I have only been doing the diet for around 3 months of that.

But it is not healthy and I have to put some good fats into my body because of the high cholesterol that has spiked in my bloods.

To make matters worse the thiazide-like diuretic that they put me on for my BP has been causing my Kidneys to expel lots of Potassium and now I have very low Potassium and high salt levels that I am having to correct very quickly.

I have to have another blood test in two weeks time to check that all of my levels have normalised again or else it will need further investigation.

Then if all goes well. they will look to start weaning me off the Metaformin and Glic. But I have to keep my Cholesterol under control and balance my diet with it.

I check my blood glucose level every day, so if things start to go awe I can always add and remove things.

I'm only talking about adding in things like Broccoli, carrots, cabbage, bean shoots, strir fty. bit of bananas etc...
 
midiman said:
But it is not healthy and I have to put some good fats into my body because of the high cholesterol that has spiked in my bloods.
Click to expand...
What have you been told are the "good fats"?
Do you have a complete lipid breakdown of your cholesterol levels?
 
midiman said:
I've still got a long way to go and now I'm going to have to change my diet like he says and start adding some carbs and other foods back into my diet.
Click to expand...
Why? Did he explain how adding carbs will benefit you? He probably has had a few hours nutrition training. He might have opinions but it is your body. Many drs simply don’t know or understand it and listen to old assumed truths not current science. Many do a LCHF diet for years with only good effects not ill.
midiman said:
The diet that I was using was practically no carbs, too many eggs and bad high fat etc...
Click to expand...
no such thing as too many eggs. Which fats do you think are bad? Processed seed oils and margarine would be my answer. Natural saturated animal fats are exactly what our bodies know how to deal with and DO NOT result in heart disease according to all the science that is not designed to sell a product.
midiman said:
But it is not healthy and I have to put some good fats into my body because of the high cholesterol that has spiked in my bloods.
Click to expand...
Just what is not healthy? Are you losing weight? Any weight loss by any method can cause lipids to rise as they leave your body. Is the dr looking at breakdowns and ratios or just totals? Have they looked at particle size of ldl? Usually large and protective on low carb not small and dense and dangerous as on carb high diets. Are you convinced low cholesterol is actually beneficial or is this a tick box exercise with little real benefit?
midiman said:
I'm only talking about adding in things like Broccoli, carrots, cabbage, bean shoots, strir fty. bit of bananas etc...
Click to expand...
The veg are fine and I’d say try it. The banana is high carb and in my opinion a mistake.

If you eat too many carbs (and I don’t mean 20-30 as that would still be keto level) then your hb1ac will most likely go up as will the need for gliclazide. It seems crazy to eat carbs to justify medications. Keep a close eye on your meter.
 
Hi Midiman

I do feel for you, you are obviously worried about your cholesterol and kidney function and you have your doc saying one thing and everyone on here saying the opposite.

All I would say is that medical practitioners do not routinely stay abreast of current thinking in all areas - they may perhaps for one or two topics of particular interest. You, however, very much have an invested interest in your own health. Do your own research and make up your own mind based upon what you read, the quality of the research cited and your own, real-time experiences as you try some things out and see what works for you.

You are responsible for your health, not the GP. He is there to provide you with the benefits of his expertise, but he probably gained that knowledge 10 or more years ago. And you have access to all the most up to date thinking. So you may know more than the doctor on your specialist subject!

Take everyone’s advice with an open mind and a pinch of salt, and run it all past your personal filters. Have confidence and do what is best for you.

Full disclosure: I’m LCHF keto all the way, and have found it a revelation!

Good luck!
 
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