That was brilliant for your mum, @Blueszoo. Cancer treatment was very basic in those days. Nowadays most women don't even have mastectomies because the tumours are being caught early enough for them to be removed successfully by very clever breast saving surgery. I wish your mum well. Incredible that she is approaching 99!
Thanks for your reply. I have researched it a bit more now. The dawn phenonmenon apparently. I have heard it is to do with hormones and your liver doing a glucose dump. Mine are really high though and I am still feeling tired.Hi JSale,
Don't worry about this morning fasting result. I used to wonder why my pre-breakfast results had shown a rise from the previous night's level, but is is apparantly a paradoxical finding. I don't bother with it now, and just monitor my post food status to check that my meds are doing what they should!
Don't be too disheartened, the morning fasting reading took several months to react after I started checking, it is still higher than any other pre meal reading during the day.
I also notice that you mention Oatcakes, you might want to use your meter to check how your react to oats, they seem to be an odd one, some can eat them and hardly notice, for me they send my blood sugar higher than normal white flour does.
Keep checking and keep off the carbs and you will get there.
My doctor told me to eat carbs. When I started to say what I had read online, he interrupted me with, "Don't believe what you read online! They don't know what they are talking about!" I calmly said, "None of them?" He replied, "The only website you should be reading is *diabetes.co.uk*. AHEM.......
He probably meant diabetes.org.uk - where the diet advice is this http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Managing-your-diabetes/Healthy-eating/
I was diagnosed with type 2 12 years ago and then a few years later I was diagnosed with type 1 and through all this time I have been encouraged to eat a high carb diet, which definitely did not suit. I tried a medium carb diet, which worked a lot better for me. At present my diabetes is not well controlled, but I will work on it. For the first few years I was fine. I have now been given a meter where I can adjust my Insulin to the food I eat, which is trial and error. I will learn what suits me. It does make my blood boil that the Health profession still encourage us to eat a high carb diet, when this raises blood sugar.Finally got to a diabetic clinic meeting. I never said much about what I had been learning from books and the internet, I explained that I had been testing my BG on a regular basis and they asked me why? I explained that I like to know what was going on, and that some days even though it would seem that the metformin is working as it was below 10, there are some days when it spikes into the teens, this is when I will go a walk and try to get this down. I was basically given a telling off and felt like a naughty child, I was told to stop testing my BG alltogether and that I should just trust that the meds are working. They went on to chat about food and asked the group what we were eating, I explained I was cutting down on carbs to reduce my BG and that was working, I was shot down again and I was told this is nonscence and I must eat carbs every time I eat anything. I was even told to take a high carb snack with me where ever I go because "Carbs regulate my blood sugar" I just kind of zoned out after that, I felt like I couldn't do right for doing wrong... You know? That feeling?
I feel like ****, really deflated, I thought I was doing good and this has hit me hard.
My doctor told me to eat carbs. When I started to say what I had read online, he interrupted me with, "Don't believe what you read online! They don't know what they are talking about!" I calmly said, "None of them?" He replied, "The only website you should be reading is *diabetes.co.uk*. AHEM.......
"The NHS is promoting a 'typical' healthy lifestyle rather than . . " All this is fine for the "typical" person, it is NOT FINE for a diabetic - THAT is the disease that they should be confronting, and specifically!I'm in my second week since being diagnosed with type 2, and like a lot of people on this forum I've soaked up an enormous amount of information from here, from the NHS and other sites where the dietary recommendations are somewhat different. Here is what I think is going on:
The LCHF methodology espoused here along with frequent self testing is clearly, to me, more optimal. My body's production of, or ability to use, insulin is deficient, and I need to reduce my carb intake to match my body's ability to deal with it. I will do this by careful analysis of what carbs are in which food, by frequent testing pre-and post meals, by learning what my body copes with well, and what it doesn't. I will lose weight, and I will exercise effectively, and I will understand the way my condition adapts to these changes over time.
The motivation, the discipline, the knowledge and, let's be frank, the ability to do all these things is not universal within the population.
Let's imagine that there is a population of a million type 2 diabetes patients and the NHS changed its tack and put them all through the education and support needed to follow the course we espouse here. A significant proportion of this million people, maybe 50%, maybe more, maybe less, simply couldn't do this. They's mess up the carb counting. They'd screw up the testing. They'd cross-contaminate with other family members. Many of them will have other health complications, heart trouble for example, and would make them worse through eating the wrong fats etc. The self-discipline needed to follow this path would falter quickly. Understanding test readings and responding and learning appropriately would be lacking. In short, and not to be patronising, to a significant proportion of our million patients, we'd be doing them a great disservice.
So, the NHS tells our million patients to stop eating junk, to eat balanced meals consisting of "good" carbs, fibre, proteins and low fat. To take more exercise. To take their meds as prescribed. To visit the health care team when advised and to let the professionals take the test and to interpret the results for them. This isn't bad advice per se. The overwhelming majority of our million patients will be in better health and have better blood glucose control if they followed this advice than they would have had if they had continued in their old ways. The NHS is promoting a typical "healthy" lifestyle rather than one especially focused for type 2 patients, in the belief that this will, in general, be to their advantage. The advice is simple, consistent and practicable.
So, the advice perpetuated through the NHS is a compromise designed to provide some benefit to the majority. Those of us here, who probably DO have the discipline, the motivation, the knowledge and the ability to take control of our own illness the way we espouse herein, this advice is far from optimal, and we therefore discard it in an informed and confident manner. Good for us.
But, to be fair to the health care professions, dealing with a million of us, the majority of whom are NOT like us here, they are dealing with a population of type 2 patients who are in general, different from us. A truly great practitioner will recognise patients like us, and deal with us differently, but they would be exceptional, I fear.
I'm in my second week since being diagnosed with type 2, and like a lot of people on this forum I've soaked up an enormous amount of information from here, from the NHS and other sites where the dietary recommendations are somewhat different. Here is what I think is going on:
The LCHF methodology espoused here along with frequent self testing is clearly, to me, more optimal. My body's production of, or ability to use, insulin is deficient, and I need to reduce my carb intake to match my body's ability to deal with it. I will do this by careful analysis of what carbs are in which food, by frequent testing pre-and post meals, by learning what my body copes with well, and what it doesn't. I will lose weight, and I will exercise effectively, and I will understand the way my condition adapts to these changes over time.
The motivation, the discipline, the knowledge and, let's be frank, the ability to do all these things is not universal within the population.
Let's imagine that there is a population of a million type 2 diabetes patients and the NHS changed its tack and put them all through the education and support needed to follow the course we espouse here. A significant proportion of this million people, maybe 50%, maybe more, maybe less, simply couldn't do this. They's mess up the carb counting. They'd screw up the testing. They'd cross-contaminate with other family members. Many of them will have other health complications, heart trouble for example, and would make them worse through eating the wrong fats etc. The self-discipline needed to follow this path would falter quickly. Understanding test readings and responding and learning appropriately would be lacking. In short, and not to be patronising, to a significant proportion of our million patients, we'd be doing them a great disservice.
So, the NHS tells our million patients to stop eating junk, to eat balanced meals consisting of "good" carbs, fibre, proteins and low fat. To take more exercise. To take their meds as prescribed. To visit the health care team when advised and to let the professionals take the test and to interpret the results for them. This isn't bad advice per se. The overwhelming majority of our million patients will be in better health and have better blood glucose control if they followed this advice than they would have had if they had continued in their old ways. The NHS is promoting a typical "healthy" lifestyle rather than one especially focused for type 2 patients, in the belief that this will, in general, be to their advantage. The advice is simple, consistent and practicable.
So, the advice perpetuated through the NHS is a compromise designed to provide some benefit to the majority. Those of us here, who probably DO have the discipline, the motivation, the knowledge and the ability to take control of our own illness the way we espouse herein, this advice is far from optimal, and we therefore discard it in an informed and confident manner. Good for us.
But, to be fair to the health care professions, dealing with a million of us, the majority of whom are NOT like us here, they are dealing with a population of type 2 patients who are in general, different from us. A truly great practitioner will recognise patients like us, and deal with us differently, but they would be exceptional, I fear.
My father in law is exactly the same, even though he has seen what low carbs have done for me. Mind you he blames everything but the alcohol for his trials and tribulations and all his illnesses and problems. He insists the doc is right!
T2 is prevalent on the wife's family, that is how she got it, the FiL has alcohol problems (bad) so has her uncles who also has diabetes. There must be a correalation as her siblings have dependency problems as well.There's a strong history of alcoholism on one side of my family.
And I am absolutely convinced that 3 generations of functional alcoholism was a way of self medicating mild reactive hypoglycaemia. Drip feeding sherry or red wine kept them feeling much better than proper food (including carbs) followed by a hypo.
I was the first to get RH bad enough to mainline chocolate, not booze.
Obviously, this is just a theory, but I have a unique perspective from inside my family, so you'll have to take it on trust.
T2 is prevalent on the wife's family, that is how she got it, the FiL has alcohol problems (bad) so has her uncles who also has diabetes. There must be a correalation as her siblings have dependency problems as well.
I do worry about the kids, one has a tendency to binge at weekends now and again but the others are ok so far.
This is interesting stuff!
Have we derailed the thread?
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