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Too early to declare success but...

G

George1951

Member
Messages
10
Location
Chelsea, Quebec
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Greetings from Quebec,

I just signed on, so a warm hello to everyone. I'm a 62 year old Canadian male who thought himself in good health. On the first of this year, I asked my brother if I could take a turn on his glucose meter. The result was alarming, 10.8 mmol/L, but that was a random reading after breakfast including orange juice and a muffin. Within a few days I obtained a meter of my own along with a bucket of test strips and began a personal experiment to try to lower my fasting blood glucose level (fBGL). Eating carefully at first -- meaning choosing better carbs over the bad ones -- I was still hitting 7's after waking. I then got tough confronting my self-diagnosed prediabetes. That meant periodically fasting and almost no consumption of carbohydrates, not even the better ones. I've been methodically measuring and charting fBGL on a web page:

http://web.ncf.ca/fx536

I started the page thinking that the risk of having strangers see it would keep me accountable, and help me to stick to the program. (Besides, I like graphs.) But here's the kicker: The results in lowering fBGL were surprisingly rapid and large, just too good to keep to myself. I know I'm going to take some internet flak for this -- I do understand, for example, that a fasting-induced supression of fBGL is not an end in itself, and that fasting is potentially lethal in the case of Type I Diabetes -- but I think the data I'm collecting should be shared with others with prediabetes and maybe with people having moderate degrees of Type II Diabetes as well. I'm going to continue with this, adding two data points per week, and in time figure out how to evaluate whether my health has fundamentally improved.

You're welcome to visit the site, and to have your physician take a look too. Feel free to repost this message if you think it belongs in another forum topic.

I'm not selling or advertising anything.

Nothing but best wishes to all,
George
 
Well done George 1951 although there may be an element of teaching your Granny to suck eggs here. You are discovering what many others before you have discovered. Keep up the good work though,.
 
George1951 said:
Greetings from Quebec,

I just signed on, so a warm hello to everyone. I'm a 62 year old Canadian male who thought himself in good health. On the first of this year, I asked my brother if I could take a turn on his glucose meter. The result was alarming, 10.8 mmol/L, but that was a random reading after breakfast including orange juice and a muffin. Within a few days I obtained a meter of my own along with a bucket of test strips and began a personal experiment to try to lower my fasting blood glucose level (fBGL). Eating carefully at first -- meaning choosing better carbs over the bad ones -- I was still hitting 7's after waking. I then got tough confronting my self-diagnosed prediabetes. That meant periodically fasting and almost no consumption of carbohydrates, not even the better ones. I've been methodically measuring and charting fBGL on a web page:

http://web.ncf.ca/fx536

I started the page thinking that the risk of having strangers see it would keep me accountable, and help me to stick to the program. (Besides, I like graphs.) But here's the kicker: The results in lowering fBGL were surprisingly rapid and large, just too good to keep to myself. I know I'm going to take some internet flak for this -- I do understand, for example, that a fasting-induced supression of fBGL is not an end in itself, and that fasting is potentially lethal in the case of Type I Diabetes -- but I think the data I'm collecting should be shared with others with prediabetes and maybe with people having moderate degrees of Type II Diabetes as well. I'm going to continue with this, adding two data points per week, and in time figure out how to evaluate whether my health has fundamentally improved.

You're welcome to visit the site, and to have your physician take a look too. Feel free to repost this message if you think it belongs in another forum topic.

I'm not selling or advertising anything.

Nothing but best wishes to all,
George
Click to expand...
I've never been very good at fasting . I tend to get very weak and wobbly. I eat little and often. But well done on getting to grips with your BG levels. I did the same in that I decided to controll my BG before getting a prediabetic diagnosis. I have seen noticable results in my health.
It's all good :cool:
 
Hi Squire Fulwood: I'm sorry if my post sounded like a claim to have invented fasting or CHO restriction as a treatment for prediabetes. If it did, it was due to a spillover of exuberance from how well and how quickly my numbers were changing. My ultimate aim in graphing my BGL's at http://web.ncf.ca/fx536 and drawing attention to it is to flush out similarly documented personal histories on the web, not only for fasting or limited CHO intake, but also for other methods of treating prediabetes or T2. If you know of any, I would be delighted to hear about them.

Hello DiamondAsh: Fasting is tougher for some people than others. I'm fortunate in being able to tolerate it without ill effects (that are detectible). Good luck and continued success with your own evasion tactics.

Thank you, all three of you, for your good wishes. I wish you back all the success possible.

Stay well,
George1951
 
Excellent progress, George. This stuff might not be new to some of the regulars here, but it's always great to see people grabbing prediabetes by the horns and wrestling it away. I'm sure many will watch your progress with interest, and as I always say: if it's working for you, keep it up :D

Best of luck.
 
I just re-read my post and I now think it sounds condescending and for that I apologise. I shall look at your results to see how you are getting on. I carried out a few tests of a fairly similar nature last year. Although it is not my habit to eat in the later evening anyway I tried to cut out carbs completely when I did. Given a few days for my body to notice and I had significant lowering of my fasting levels too.

Daytime eating did contain some carbs if my meter allowed.
 
Thank you Giverny for your encouragement. So far the trend is reassuring -- OK, that was understated. Things have moved along far more quickly than anticipated. But it sounds like you experienced a rather quick turn-around too, Squire. (Should I imagine first name or title?) I wish there were more plots along the lines of mine (http://web.ncf.ca/fx536) to consult, especially ones employing different treatments.

Thanks again, and keep well,
George1951
 
My signature under this post chronicles my Hba1c results beginning with when I was on Glimipiride to when I stopped taking it and improved my diet including no carbs in the evening but mostly no food in the evening or overnight.
 
Hi Squire,

So, to see if I'm reading this correctly: The HbA1c at the end of September 2011 was taken while still using Glimipiride. You then stopped taking Glimipiride at around that time? The next three readings followed about a year, a year and a half, and two years later, all the while without medication, but instead not eating carbs and not eating late or overnight? Certainly the change between September 2011 and the following year is spectacular. Well done!

Bye for a bit,
George F.
http://web.ncf.ca/fx536
 
I have been back to my records to see what happened and it is as follows.

The 27/9/11 (Hba1c 68) was when I was not properly in control of my diet etc.

I was put on Glimipiride on 23/1/12.

I took control of my diet and exercise and brought my Hba1c down to 42 on 3/9/12 and it was still under control at 46 on 9/4/13.

Glimipiride was stopped on 28/4/13. My nurse and I decided to see what pills I could do without so on or shortly after 28/4/13 I stopped the rest of the pills and carried on with just diet and exercise.

My Hba1c was 43 on 21/10/13 having had no pills for six months.

My conclusion is that I get significantly more control with diet and exercise than I do with pills.
 
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