- Messages
- 29
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
- Dislikes
- Ignorance, apathy and Cretinopathy (a term coined by lowcarbdibetic.co.uk) which is a common diabetes related condition where people who should know better (Healthcare professionals and Diabetes charities) advise diabetics to consume high carbohydrate/sugar food.
Hi All
I've just posted this on another thread but I thought i'd put it up as its own thread as this is something I feel passionately about. I've had type 1 diabetes for 28 years and unfortunately, for 27 of them I fell for the 'eat whatever you like but cover it with carbs' mantra. It took me that long to work out that following standard dietary guidelines wasn't working for me. You'd think I would've seen it sooner, (I know, right) but the penny never dropped. With Hba1c's consistently in the low to mid teens, I was constantly juggling and tweaking and trying to gain good glycaemic control, but instead, feeling like a failure because I never could. The diabetic specialist team would throw the questions at me: Do you want to go blind? Do you want your kidneys to pack up? Do you want to lose your legs or die from a heart attack? Of course I bloody didn't! That's like asking a child, 'do you want something to cry for?'
But they didn't see the endless hours of weighing and measuring food, trying to balance doses of insulin to carbohydrates, the endless frustration of the numbers never being where I wanted them to be, waking up in debilitating hypo or feeling the adverse effects of uncontrolled high blood glucose levels. They just looked at the numbers and made up their own minds - bad, bad diabetic! The doctors would tut, my friends and family would sigh and I'd be riddled with feelings of guilt, rage, frustration and despair and sometimes, but only very occasionally, elation, as I hit the magic number!
So, in desperation, I turned to the internet and began seeking answers, to try and finally gain some modicum over control over this condition and I came across Berstein, et al and started to seriously consider the possibility of trying a low carb approach. It meant a huge dietary overhaul and i'd have to change the eating habits of a lifetime, giving up all those carbs I loved and losing my fear of fat, but at this point, what did I really have to lose?
The positive benefits for type 2's are pretty self evident but I know many type 1's who would hesitate to use a low carb dietary approach. I must admit, when I first started considering this change, my biggest fear was ketosis. As a type 1 who's experienced 3 hospital stays over the years due to diabetic ketoacidosis, I was somewhat concerned about deliberately putting myself into ketosis. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't actively seeking a state of ketosis, as so many do who are looking for weight loss, etc, but I knew with a very limited carbohydrate intake that this would be a natural by-product of that.
But now, I understand that there's a big difference between nutritional ketosis (NK) and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). NK happens to all of us at times, whether we're following a keto diet or not. For example, when we fast overnight, our body's will burn fat for fuel. These ketones levels are quite low in comparison to DKA. DKA generally (but not always) occurs in type 1 diabetics and is accompanied by very elevated blood glucose levels.
According to Dr Peter Attia circulating insulin prevents the ketone level from getting high enough to cause the change in pH that leads to the cascade of bad problems. A person who is said to be “keto-adapted,” or in a state of nutritional ketosis, generally has beta-hydroxybutyrate levels between about 0.5 and 3.0 mM. This is far less than the levels required to cause harm through acid-base abnormalities (DKA).
The diabetic who doesn't produce any insulin or take any injected insulin (usually a type 1 but also type 2's who inject insulin), has no feedback loop and they continue to produce more and more ketones without stopping. By the time ketone levels (specifically, beta-hydroxybutyrate) approach 15 to 25 mM, the resulting pH imbalance leads to profound metabolic derangement and the person can become critically ill. So, ketones are only dangerous in the presence of elevated blood glucose levels and dehydration and if they are left unchecked to the point of over-production.
Now, my last A1c in February was 7.7, down from 11.6 in October and hopefully, will be down even further at the next one. My insulin requirements have reduced by nearly 70%, the range of swing between highs and lows is much less and I hypo less frequently. Ask me if I'm angry that I wasn't given this dietary advice nearly 30 years ago!
(Julie)
I've just posted this on another thread but I thought i'd put it up as its own thread as this is something I feel passionately about. I've had type 1 diabetes for 28 years and unfortunately, for 27 of them I fell for the 'eat whatever you like but cover it with carbs' mantra. It took me that long to work out that following standard dietary guidelines wasn't working for me. You'd think I would've seen it sooner, (I know, right) but the penny never dropped. With Hba1c's consistently in the low to mid teens, I was constantly juggling and tweaking and trying to gain good glycaemic control, but instead, feeling like a failure because I never could. The diabetic specialist team would throw the questions at me: Do you want to go blind? Do you want your kidneys to pack up? Do you want to lose your legs or die from a heart attack? Of course I bloody didn't! That's like asking a child, 'do you want something to cry for?'
But they didn't see the endless hours of weighing and measuring food, trying to balance doses of insulin to carbohydrates, the endless frustration of the numbers never being where I wanted them to be, waking up in debilitating hypo or feeling the adverse effects of uncontrolled high blood glucose levels. They just looked at the numbers and made up their own minds - bad, bad diabetic! The doctors would tut, my friends and family would sigh and I'd be riddled with feelings of guilt, rage, frustration and despair and sometimes, but only very occasionally, elation, as I hit the magic number!
So, in desperation, I turned to the internet and began seeking answers, to try and finally gain some modicum over control over this condition and I came across Berstein, et al and started to seriously consider the possibility of trying a low carb approach. It meant a huge dietary overhaul and i'd have to change the eating habits of a lifetime, giving up all those carbs I loved and losing my fear of fat, but at this point, what did I really have to lose?
The positive benefits for type 2's are pretty self evident but I know many type 1's who would hesitate to use a low carb dietary approach. I must admit, when I first started considering this change, my biggest fear was ketosis. As a type 1 who's experienced 3 hospital stays over the years due to diabetic ketoacidosis, I was somewhat concerned about deliberately putting myself into ketosis. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't actively seeking a state of ketosis, as so many do who are looking for weight loss, etc, but I knew with a very limited carbohydrate intake that this would be a natural by-product of that.
But now, I understand that there's a big difference between nutritional ketosis (NK) and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). NK happens to all of us at times, whether we're following a keto diet or not. For example, when we fast overnight, our body's will burn fat for fuel. These ketones levels are quite low in comparison to DKA. DKA generally (but not always) occurs in type 1 diabetics and is accompanied by very elevated blood glucose levels.
According to Dr Peter Attia circulating insulin prevents the ketone level from getting high enough to cause the change in pH that leads to the cascade of bad problems. A person who is said to be “keto-adapted,” or in a state of nutritional ketosis, generally has beta-hydroxybutyrate levels between about 0.5 and 3.0 mM. This is far less than the levels required to cause harm through acid-base abnormalities (DKA).
The diabetic who doesn't produce any insulin or take any injected insulin (usually a type 1 but also type 2's who inject insulin), has no feedback loop and they continue to produce more and more ketones without stopping. By the time ketone levels (specifically, beta-hydroxybutyrate) approach 15 to 25 mM, the resulting pH imbalance leads to profound metabolic derangement and the person can become critically ill. So, ketones are only dangerous in the presence of elevated blood glucose levels and dehydration and if they are left unchecked to the point of over-production.
Now, my last A1c in February was 7.7, down from 11.6 in October and hopefully, will be down even further at the next one. My insulin requirements have reduced by nearly 70%, the range of swing between highs and lows is much less and I hypo less frequently. Ask me if I'm angry that I wasn't given this dietary advice nearly 30 years ago!
(Julie)
