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Treating DM in Low-Resource Country

L

Lizardhouse

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
HCP
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Hello All,
I need a bit of advice. I am a nurse from US working in Africa. I am trying to teach nurses how to deal with DM T1&2 and am running into some challenges. We have 2 types of insulin here-Actrapid (Regular) and NPH. Control is difficult because they do not always have food and what they do have is primarily carbs with very little protein.
So when we have a patient that has normal fasting blood sugar, say 80, the nurses do not want to give any insulin even if they have some food available. My understanding is that the insulin should be given in this circumstance. Am I missing something?
 
If your unsure on the insulin protocol then you should seek professional advice, we are not health care professionals on the forum and can't give advice on this matter I'm afraid.
 
As @noblehead has said, you need specialist advice on your query.
You cannot teach other staff by relying on advice from a forum. Nobody here is qualified and I would suggest that it is unethical.
 
Another avenue perhaps better qualified to assist would be the InDependent Diabetes trust. They have strong links with health care organisations in developing countires and send insulin (and other supplies) no longer required here in the Uk to such nations.

http://iddt.org/
 
catherinecherub said:
As @noblehead has said, you need specialist advice on your query.
You cannot teach other staff by relying on advice from a forum. Nobody here is qualified and I would suggest that it is unethical.
Click to expand...

My deepest apologies. I was certainly not trying to be "unethical"! I thought there might be some professionals on the forum and was really just looking for ideas. Was certainly not planning on teaching based on forum instructions.
Thank you so kindly for taking the time to respond to my post.
 
With limited medical resources, you need to go to the most powerful drug on earth - food. All you need is a book or app on the glycemic loads of foods. Teach them this and move mountains.
 
@robertconroy,
The OP said that food availability was one of the problems. Having a theoretical solution will hardly help if the food choices are so restricted!
 
FergusCrawford said:
@robertconroy,
The OP said that food availability was one of the problems. Having a theoretical solution will hardly help if the food choices are so restricted!
Click to expand...
That sounds ridiculous to me. Say there are only two food choices, a snickers bar or 2 pieces of whole wheat bread. If the whole wheat bread sends your blood sugar twice as high as the snickers bar (which it could) then just eat the snickers bar rather than the bread. Any lowering of glycemic load of the foods will help with the blood sugars. Say they have peanuts available, adding peanuts to any food lowers glycemic load. Dairy does the same thing, citric acid in fruit, vinegar, alcohol, cinnamon, all lower blood sugars. First study the glycemic loads of foods. A good book on this is The Easy GL Diet Handbook by Fedon Alexander Lindberg. Drugs are not an answer to a nutritional problem.
 
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