I agree with you wholeheartedly, Gretchen. I have been extraordinarily lucky with supplements. By accident I had an A1C that was 5.9 six years ago and immediately read everything you and other diabetes docs wrote and began a low carb diet. The best thing that worked for me was taking berberine; in the last 5 months it brought my A1C from 5.7/5.8 down to an unbelievable 5.3. I also take 1000 chromium and 600 mg of R Lipoic acid; perhaps the combination did it. I think supplements have taken a far too bad a rap because the media has no research design skills, doesn't have the time to really look at a study, and so they run with the headlines when recent studies on supplements have turned out of be deeply flawed.
JustGeo, I agree with you about the insulin.
Lee, I also agree with you about analytic skills. This applies to both supplements and prescription drugs. Face it. Media reporters aren't given enough time to analyze studies, and mostly they just broadcast press releases designed to promote their own institutions.
This is nothing new. It's always been so, alas.
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I also started out on Metformin and later added other meds... I was always reading people also mentioning they didn't want to start insulin, and I think that also falls into the same bucket... I feel that if it helps us, then we need to do it until something new comes out!