When we discuss with others what we’re learning, we retain that new knowledge much better than when we just passively engage with the new information. Now, a diabetes organization is partnering with company that is determined to show health care professionals how to actively communicate with th...
Diabetes Conversation Maps
10/15/07 12:01am
I especially appreciated your comments that diabetes does not have to be progressive. I completed 10 hours of diabetes education and we were told that the average time from diagnosis to the need for insulin use is 7 years. We were encouraged to say that insulin is not bad so that we would not feel like failures if and when we had to use it. Although grateful that insulin is available, I was rather discouraged thinking that 6 years from now I would probably have to use it. Your article gives me new hope that maybe that won't be the case. My latest AIC was 5.9 and I am motivated to keep good control. Thank you for the encouragement.
10/15/07 8:56am
Dear Lily,
Great! If you keep your A1C in check as you are doing, you can control your diabetes, and not the other way around.
10/16/07 12:35pm
What a bunch of crap....those same educators told me to eat 30 plus carbs every am...I would go skyhi and drop to below 70...nobody would just come out and say Insulin Resistant...I heard from my endo "carb sensistive"....if we have just been dx'd how are we supposed to know what this means...he dietican actually told me to eat more carbs!! Not one person told me to watch my carbs....after 2 yrs I have it under control...with 1 500mg metformin in a.m....My A!C is in low 5's....if I would have listened to 2 endo's..and 4 dieticians....I would be headed for insulin in less then 7 yrs....Great Map to destruction!!!
10/19/07 11:45am
Yeah, I've actually met with two dieticians, and I actually got slightly different advice from both of them... and I follow neither.
The first one I saw said he knew he was supposed to recommend no more than 3 ounces of meat per day to somebody as grotesquely overweight as me, but he figured for me that would be unreasonable, so we negotiated and decided somewhere between 9-12 ounces would be fair. Also, he said I should eat 6 servings of carbs per day, some being grain, and some being vegetables.
The other dietician I saw, asked me what the first one said. I told her, and she said to not listen to him, she was his boss, and that he should have never told me that. She recommended to me no more than 3 ounces of meat per day, 1 egg PER WEEK, and 12-15 servings of carbs... focusing MORE on grains/starches and LESS on vegetables!!!
I tried that religiously for a few weeks, and thought I really was doing well, and had good "control"... meaning that while my blood sugar would spike up over 200 sometime soon after eating, it was back under 180 two hours later. Oh boy. Only once I learned that what doctors and dieticians and even the ADA considered "control" actually wasn't controlled at all, did I stop following that life-threatening advice.
10/19/07 11:38am
This kinda reminds me of an experience I had... sorta.
When I was diagnosed, my physician at the time (a resident) told me that by making the right choices (he didn't specify) it was possible that I could perhaps get off the meds. Looking back, I now realize that what he probably thought were "right choices" were perhaps not the right choices, and more of the same high-carb/low-fat garbage.
However, the big event that really threw me off was a few months later, when I was in the "diabetes clinic", which is this interdisiciplanary team of a physician, nurse, dietician, and pharmacist... when I told the physician my goal of controlling the disease so I could eventually get off the meds, he replied by saying it was impossible, I would never be able to get off the meds, as I got older and older it would just get worse and worse and I would need to keep increasing meds. I was only 28 years old at the time and a lifetime of that, however short it would have been, didn't sound that great. But hey, the doctor told me that basically no matter what, it was going to get worse, so I figured I might as well enjoy my time.
I went on the craziest, nastiest binge ever, for almost a full year. I gained more weight back, my A1c was over 10% (I'm surprised it wasn't much higher). My big turning point was reading Bernstein's book, and realizing that diabetes doesn't have to get worse; it can in fact get better!
I don't claim to follow Dr. Bernstein's diet perfectly. That is my eventual goal. But already I have seen the benefits of making the "right choices". My A1c is still really high, 7.0 at last check, but better than before, and I know next time I can get to 6.5, and then 6.0, and then maybe even hopefully somewhere in the 5% range.
Thanks for writing about this, and letting others know that diabetes doesn't have to be progressive.
10/19/07 11:49am
10/20/07 11:44pm
Christopher..I too follow Dr Berstein!!! I started to follow this WOE June 26 '07...I have lost the last 25 pounds I needed to lose and I feel "in control"..I have always battled weight...no more...I eat to my meter....I have started actually cooking...and enjoy what I eat..I changed Doctors for the third time.....this time I asked straight out "How do you treat Diabetes? His reply.."Low carbohydrates and excercise"...And it is very possible that I could stop any med...because I control my BS so tightly....so there Big Pharma...knowledge is POWER!!!!
10/28/07 7:31pm
Good for you, David!
As someone who has successfully controlled my diabetes for 10 years now with no complications in sight, I think a positive message to new diabetics is VERY important. Diabetic complications are NOT inevitable - if good control is achieved. And good control IS possible.
Can you give me his email address so I can add my input?
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