I was put on preniasone for two weeks because I had shingles. I weighed myself this morning and I have gained 10 pounds. That is depressing. I tripped over a tree root and fell. That skinned both my knees and tweeked a lot of muscles. I quit walking every morning for about two weeks.
My vision has returned to foggy. My feet are getting numb and warning me that I have had too many carbs and when I check my BGs are only 120. So I am more sensitive to even what I had considered "not too bad".
OK the shock worked, I think it is time to see the doctor and maybe switch medicines yet again. That and remove all the carbs I can for a while.
This is not like a battle that you can come to the end and say "I WON". This is a continuous creaping old age with the slowing down of various healing functions and garding against the stray food item being blindly munched.
Carole Metformin, Byetta and possibly stalking Victosa.
see, this is what I think about. I can do all the right things, eat low carb, etc...and still in 15 yrs I will have problems, but guess what, some of that is simply because the body breaks down as we age, it's inevitable. there is no WINNING this war against old age and death. Death will get us all eventually. I understand that we are in the battle to stave off the inevitable and live as long as possible as healthy as possible and all that but a person does also have to live in the real world.
It can be very depressing to know that not only does one have to eat tiny portions of no carb foods, exercise every single day even though all I really want to do is sit and read a good book and still be told that "you're gonna die" anyway....before I die, I want to read many good books!
My ophthalmologist had just told me after my semiannual checkup that I have two small micro-aneurysms in my left eye that he hadn’t seen before.
===========================
needless to say, this is a most surprising development given your high level of exercise, your dietary control, and your blood glucose control -- distressing to hear, since you've been such a poster boy for doing the right thing -- do you feel this is something that could have been avoided/delayed, or is it more towards the "inevitable" end of the diabetic-experience spectrum
do you have a treatment plan in mind? or will that be the result of your research and investigation into more current protocols?
seeing our role model have problems is indeed an even more intense "shock treatment"
take care, daivd --- am counting on your for these exceptionally high quality and thoughtful e-articles 15 years from now (and beyond!)
be healthy!
best,
mike
I "lost" my right eye to TWO central-retinal occlusions in 2000. Have since had 2500+ laser-shots (yes: 2500), with the post-2000 ischemia and attendant hemmorages thus held at bay. Have also gone from 250lbs to 180lbs, which has really helped, and rigidly controlled my A1c w/a "Mendosa-skewed", carb antag-onistic diet, thereby averaging approx [ 5.4 ] over last three yrs . BUT - what you want to know about is "AVASTIN", commonly known for colon cancer treatments, etc. Used for the eyes of many diabetics, it really shuts down the wild vascular growth which results from the "ischemia/leakage tandem" occurring in the setting of an out-of-control, diabetic stricken eye. I have had 6 "AVASTIN" treatments, and the improvement in my vision is remarkable! Oh yeah: The laser shots? NO! I don't think they are the big deal people make them out to be. AND -- they help to save your vision/eye!What's not to like.
I had the same experience when I was diagnosed. A foster care kid that did not know his father and mother died of complications of diabetes, at 51 children in the 20s, no grandkids etc. After I worked so hard for my wife and kids, I decided to fight for life and to be able to see my grandkids graduate from college. From that moment on I lost 45 pounds, my fasting sugar level 98, no high blood pressure, no high cholesterol, no triglycerites and I look 10 years younger. I am full of energy and I thank God for giving me the strength and disciple and diligence to eat right.
I'm curious to know if anyone is doing any research into the possibility of going beyond just managing our diabetes and actually healing ourselves. To my mind, just magaging the disease prolongs the inevitable. I'm really interested in actually getting to the root of the problem and be healed.
My doctor has decided that I should start taking insulin now, and I'm absolutely opposed to this idea. I have been looking into information that says diabetes is indeed curable, and I am in fact seeing major improvements with the route I have been taking. My doctor (pusher) is not at all impressed by the strides I have been making and says, "you are past the point where little things can help you now; we need to treat you aggressively." Well, my question to him for which he had no answer was, "why did you wait until I was past that point?" Why wouldn't he have told me about the "little things" before? All he did was say, I want you to add these two prescriptions to your daily "therapy" I priced those two prescriptions and I thought why didn't he just write on the paper, "I need the new sunroof option for my car?"
I am managing my diabetes with the hope that not stressing my pancreas will allow it to heal and regain more of its usefulness. However, I am also resigned to the fact that it may be too late for that.
I would like to get my A1c from its latest 5.1 to under 5.0 again and would consider that to be an encouraging improvement, but since I'm already limiting myself to very few carbs, I'm not sure how to make that happen.
Even if my diabetes was somehow cured, I wouldn't return to a life full of carbage. Besides the possibility of it landing me right back where I am now (or worse!), I believe limiting my carb intake is the healthiest way to take care of my body for other reasons, too.
Though it would be nice to take a vacation from being so vigilant all the time, I know myself well enough to know that vacation could rapidly slide into an unhealthy lifestyle.
A true cure would still be nice, though!
Yes a cure would be nice, and there are some out there that advocate a cure. There are some books you might want to read about this and other programmes you can look at. I've started with The Bible Cure for Diabetes and I joined the Ultrawellness website where Dr Mark Hyman discusses a syndrome he calls diabesity and how to overcome it.
Dr Neal Barnard is someone I've only just heard about today, but I'd like to look further into his programme. I've also had a consultation with a naturopath, and she believes we can reverse my diabetes. I believe she'll be a big help in following these programmes. Try to find one where you live
http://lnk.co/diabesitypt1
http://lnk.co/diabesitypt2
http://lnk.co/diabesitypt3
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1599797593?ie=UTF8&tag=hubpag03ac-20&linkCode=am2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1599797593">The New Bible Cure For Diabetes (Bible Cure (Siloam))</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=hubpag03ac-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1599797593" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
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Whenever I hear someone has "cured" diabetes, I wonder what they are using for their criteria. Unless I could take a 3-hour OGTT and my BGL stayed under about 140 the entire time, I wouldn't consider myself to be cured.
Many people only test fasting levels for diagnosing diabetes and if I went by my fasting level, I wouldn't be considered to be diabetic at all; it has almost always been under 100. But give me a bunch of carbs and I'd be pushing 300. A cure would also mean not developing diabetes again if I stopped restricting my carbs.
Reversing, on the other hand, to me means stopping the progression and maybe even healing from existing diabetic complications. I don't think of it as a cure, but as controlling my diabetes so I don't suffer devastating consequences from having it. I believe I have already done that, but I'm not cured.
Dar
I noticed you compare between fasting numbers and your numbers after eating a lot of carbs to be able to know if you're cured. What about the difference between fasting numbers and and the numbers after just eating normal healthy meals? I think there's more to it than just avoiding carbs and keeping your sugar under control. I believe that the reason we're sick in the first place is because of hormonal and chemical imbalances that bring on chronic illnesses, and once that is corrected, indeed I believe I would call that cured. Now that's not to say we should go back to the lifestyle choices that brought us here in the first place, (Type 1 diabetics not withstanding) for loading up on carbs and everything else that we diabetics should avoid are things that should be avoided by all who want to remain healthy.
P.S. I don't understand your numbering system. For me the healthy range is between 4 - 6 fasting and 5 - 10 after meals
I'm in the US, so my BGLs are in mg/dl. 100 mg/dl would be 5.5 mmol/l. In your numbers, a truly normal (nondiabetic) number is about 4.7 (mid-80s), even after meals, so I'm allowing myself a little leeway by aiming for under 100 (5.5).
What some people might consider a "normal healthy meal" would spike my BGL. I can only eat a few carbs per meal and still keep my BGL in a truly normal range. A nondiabetic would be able to eat a lot of carbs and still stay under about 140 (7.7). Unless my BGL reacted like a true nondiabetic no matter what I ate, I wouldn't be cured.
Have you read Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution? He explains what a truly normal BGL is and why we should maintain it a lot better than I can. That goes for all types of diabetes; Dr. Bernstein is a type 1 himself.
I agree diabetes is about more than just our BGLs, but I believe high BGLs are what cause the most damage to people with diabetes. Controlling BGLs can stop or even reverse the progression of diabetes complications.
Hormonal and chemical imbalances can contribute to developing diabetes (as can other things), but since both of my parents have it and my grandmother died before she turned 60 from it, I'm sure my genetics played a huge part in my developing diabetes despite my best efforts to avoid it by following the "healthy" advice to control my weight; eat low fat, low calorie, whole grain, lots of fruits and veggies; and exercise every day.
I firmly believe by eating low carb, I could have avoided developing diabetes in the first place. Then I wouldn't have to decide what constitutes a cure for me.
Thank you so much, David! I was hoping I was making it clear.
Hey! Did you know you're one of my low carb heroes? Check it out:
http://www.squidoo.com/top-20-low-carb-heroes
Thank you for all you do to inform and inspire us!
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Of course, you are aware that many experts would tell you a [ 4.5 - low5s ]
A1c goal is too aggressive and does not improve all-cause end points. Don't mis-understand, my last [ 5.6 ] I considered a failing grade, but BOTH my endocrin and PCP were happy. Flash! Just got told Fri by cardio I have "had" a (small?)
MI recently. So much for "all things green", huh. My local quarry lookin' good again -- Onward + upward all 4.9ers!!