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Why Not Insulin

Remember most people with Type2 at least in the first few years have bodies that ignore the insulin our pancrese makes and our pancrese makes more insulin then is normal. A few people will Type2 (more often in later stages) have pancrese that make less insulin then is normal. Yet as insulin levels are not tested for, both sets get the same drugs!
 

I agree do what's best for you. If I had my chance over again I would've preferred to be put on insulin sooner than I was. Those oral drugs I believe are what destroyed my insulin production. They also waiting until I couldn't control with diet as well so I was probably already in trouble with insulin levels when I was put on oral medications. The thing with T2 is that they do not do diagnostic tests first before they make a decision about medications. You have to request the tests to be done yourself... that was my experience anyhow. In 2010 I literally said look I don't think all these drugs and different dosages are making any difference and I've been having a good couple of years with not getting much result and I need for you to find out why. So rather than having a stressed out pancreas I personally wonder about my health if I'd been put on insulin sooner. As you can see by my signature I'm not in good health at all. Most of my health problems started in 2008 which is about the time I wasn't getting results with my diabetes either despite being on oral meds for 3 years at the time.
 
One wonders what the relative survival rates of diet controlled and insulin controlled diabetics are? How many men on average reach 79 and women 82...The said life expectancy in the uk now that has stopped increasing! That non diabetics usually have less cardiovascular disease has been claimed as established fact by some medics. However, Dr. Kraft who made a long study of insulin production in humans, (see youtube) claimed due to excessive insulin in non diabetic/prediabetic/diabetics arterial inflammation was a major cause of CVD. So one wonders what the long term effects of additional insulin is in T2D? Of course for diabetics gumming up the system with high blood glucose is another issue and insulin, though not ideal, has to be weighed in medics/patients balance. D.
 
One wonders what the relative survival rates of diet controlled and insulin controlled diabetics are?

Remember that if we control well with diet we are removed from the diabetes register or not added to it in the first place. There are now large scale fasting and low carb programs in the USA that are being track over the long term, so we may start to get good data on this.
 
There is a blog by Jason Fung on insulin and heart disease. ... https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/not-treat-diabetes-t2d-38/

With type 2 diabetes there are twin risks of excess glucose and excess insulin in the system. It appears that Metformin reduces the risk of CVD, but taking insulin has no benefits of reduced CVD, despite lowering blood sugars more. This is probably because too much insulin is toxic causes inflammation and increases the risk of heart disease and cancer. Insulin also causes weight gain, which is a problem with 80% of type 2 diabetics who are already overweight or obese.

Lowering blood sugars is good provided you don't increase insulin in the body to toxic levels.
 
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Lowering blood sugars is good provided you don't increase insulin in the body to toxic levels.

It is very likely that most people with Type2 are already producing so much insulin themselves that it is at toxic levels without increasing it even more with drugs etc.
 

That really depends on whether or not the T2 person has sufficient insulin themselves. Diagnostic tests should really be done before changing treatment. Those of us that don't produce insulin we need have no choice. I'm sure my insulin to carb ratio is higher than most type 1's would be because of insulin resistance I already have. I've worked out I need an average of 5 units of bolus per 10g of carb.
 
There is a follow-up blog by Jason Fung from the one quoted earlier ... https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/medications-actually-work-type-2-diabetes-t2d-40/

Basically, what he is saying is that Type 2 diabetes is a problem where there is too much sugar in the body (not just the blood), Drugs like sulphonylureas and insulin lower blood sugars, but don't remove these sugars from the body. Hence they tend to increase weight as the excess glucose is stored as fat by insulin. This then causes long-term health problems such as heart, liver and kidney disease. Drugs which help eliminate this excess sugar have significant benefits to life expectancy.

However, the simplest way to get rid of this excess sugar is to reduce the amount of carbs we eat and to burn off the excess sugar (fat) by intermittent fasting. Lowering blood sugars will lessen the likelihood of diabetic complications such as blindness and neuropathy. However, most type 2 diabetics die of heart disease and the just lowering blood sugars does not reduce the likelihood of heart disease, but reducing the amount of accumulated stored sugar in the body (e.g. liver fat) does significantly increase life expectancy.
 
A daft question, I expect but here goes. How can they diagnose T2 on the basis of HbA1c if this test is just an indication ?
Shouldn't there be a definitive test given after the HbA1c for everyone with higher readings than normal as per course?
 
A daft question, I expect but here goes. How can they diagnose T2 on the basis of HbA1c if this test is just an indication ?
Shouldn't there be a definitive test given after the HbA1c for everyone with higher readings than normal as per course?

Didn't you realise .... one size fits all ..... as per usual.
 
See this is what I project is a concern is it possible for a Cell to become 100% resistant to Insulin? What is more concerning is that Type 2 people diagnosed young could have a worse time than their Fellow T1 as like some have mentioned here that they take more Bolus than their T1 counterparts.

We need then to cure how the cell works and not necessarily all these medications and treatments. People say T2 is the lesser of the two evils but I would say given that a T2 has the potential to become 100% resistant this could lead to very bad outcomes.

Though I would rather take a little insulin than hammer my pancreas. Heck when my Metformin / Diet stop working I will be telling the doctor to make my liver work harder and also consider me for insulin. If he doesn't I will buy it online.

I know many here dont condone taking healthcare into their own hands but seriously Doctors really dont care. They learn over years of so many people dying that you cannot build that relationship any more than a farmer builds it with his cattle.
 
I know many here dont condone taking healthcare into their own hands
Seriously?.. from my reading of the site I would say that is exactly what most of us do.. I do for sure..

But in answer to your main point .. if you can get rid of insulin resistance by changing what you eat so your pancreas can repair itself you won't need exogenous insulin. By taking exogenous insulin you won't do this so from my reading it would be counterproductive.
 

I agree completely - Its about finding the balance as some have said they wished the Acted Earlier and I really feel for them but it also means I should pull my finger out and head these peoples warnings!
 


Yes, although not all type 2's have weight issues. My own family is proof of that. I'm the only one that has been both slim and fat in my life... the others are super slim and have never had weight issues. Go figure. So the theory of excess sugar and insulin causing weight gain isn't necessarily correct in all cases. All diabetics in my family have type 2 also.
 
There has been various studies that shows early short term insulin therapy does give the pancreas its much needed rest...
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/36/Supplement_2/S190


This study had some interesting results...may be even better to have followup comparing it with ketogenic diet as intensive dietary intervention...but even as a keto supporter, I doubt a 2 weeks keto diet would have the same success rate. Many may need a longer time for keto adaptation.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18502299?access_num=18502299&link_type=MED&dopt=Abstract
 
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All I did was eat low carb to get excellent bgs with the correct amount of injected insulin.
I reduced my insulin need by half. No extra exercise or smaller portions.
 
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