I've just been dealing with a health issue (see my journal) and wound up (as it my wont) researching the BE-HIND off a subject as a way of coping. In this case, Medical ID. One thing led to another, and I've been wandering around a lot of Diabetes Blogs this weekend.

I'm very sympathetic to the struggles of people with diabetes; my own father died of complications a year ago this summer. I started eating low carb partly to deal with my own fears of coming down with it.

But low carb eating has changed my whole outlook on the disease. Now it's not some mysterious bolt from the blue (at least, not Type II.) Now I see it as an illness both brought on, and essentially curable, based entirely on what we choose to eat.

So it's heartbreaking to see these people struggling with hypos, erratic blood sugars, and fears about their health when it can be so much healthier and easier.

It drives me nuts!

Am I right?

I'm a believer in low carb for diabetes. Before my MIL came to live with us and she was always struggling with her blood sugar being way too high, her Dr. confirmed at it's one of the reasons she is blind today. Once she was at our house eating LC they were able to cut down on her meds and the arthritis in her hands got a lot better (but that could also be due to our drier climate). Now that she is in a full term nursing home (she's 94) they are back to giving her all her meds plus insulin injections. Its so sad and she is always hungry.

Don't be silly - of course you're right!

I'm scared to death of needles - eating LCHF pretty much guarantees I won't ever need to take insulin. And hopefully it will keep me out of a wheelchair. My foot problems aren't getting any worse, but they aren't getting better - yet.

I wish there was a stat for blood sugar control like there is for weight loss. I'm off the oral med (Metformin) and my BG is almost normal. It's even closer to normal when my compulsive food desires don't trip me up.

But I'm learning and getting stronger. "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."

Common sense dictates that a low carb diet is best for diabetics. I cannot fathom how anybody can listen to the "eat 130 grams of carbs per meal, plus snacks, and avoid fat" advice without looking at the disease itself and saying "huh"?? It flies in the face of logic, completely ridiculous. I started on low carb in 2002 when I was diagnosed "pre"diabetic (all the dame thing IMHO) and put on Metformin. It made me deathly ill, and in researching it the basics I ran across were that it helps you deal with digesting carbs. "OK" I thought to myself, "How about I just don't eat the carbs in the first place? Then I avoid the problems they cause AND the need for this disgusting medication." Hardly brilliant or cutting edge, just logic. But damn, people look at me like I have a third eye when I explain that 1 + 1 = 2. Because a guy in a white coat said 1 + 1 = 3.629, and they believe him.

Yes, you are. But, and this is a big but, I have to relate my own experience with diabetes type 2. My own experience tells me it's entirely possible to show symptoms that could lead a doc to believe it's diabetes when in fact it's not. I mean that one doc I consulted suggested I be tested for diabetes type 2, all based on my symptoms. Actually, all based on this doc's interpretation of my symptoms. I'd have to ignore a whole bunch of symptoms to come up with a suggestion of diabetes. So, that doc must have ignored a whole bunch of symptoms to come up with it on his own. Needless to say, I'm not being treated by that doc.

Nevertheless, diet must be the single most significant cause of diabetes type 2 for most sufferers, so yes, you're right. But you would be driven just as nuts if you thought docs just don't understand the disease that well, so much so that they could very do the same thing they did to me to many other people every day. I mean, it drives me nuts when I think about that. I just can't believe the profession could be so wrong about it, yet my experience shows otherwise. I believe it's highly likely that we've got tons of people who are treated for diabetes type 2 needlessly, right up to the point of losing limbs, when we could instead treat them for the correct medical condition(s) they are in fact suffering from, without losing their limbs and eyesight, in conjunction with appropriate dietary advice.

Consider obesity. We already know there's several possible causes for it besides diet. So, even if we address diet to the best of our ability, we could very well be stuck with a secondary factor that leaves us still fat, and probably also still sick. Since obesity and diabetes go hand in hand, it follows that these potential secondary factors for obesity also act for diabetes type 2. Still, it's no excuse not to try the obvious dietary therapy, i.e. LC, for something that has at its core a known problem with dietary carbohydrates. Now this drives me nuts, too.

Bonnie...you can create a "signature" with whatever information you want, some put the blood sugar control/meds info there.

WearBear, frustrating for us to see, imagine how the LC doctors must feel. Dr Westman is not on main Duke campus, but in a community clinic, various doctors treating many sent there by social services. The obesity and serious health conditions seen in the wait room shock me. Clients will be given all the diet information and help needed, yet the number that continue to eat LC is sadly low, especially when just about everywhere else within the hospital system the advice is low fat, high grains.

Gosh yes. And this is not the first time I've felt this frustration, of course!

It's just I spent Sunday in bed, resting (endo appt in 2 weeks) and I just read so many accounts of people who can't get their blood sugars under control, along with the frustrations and fears that causes. Many of them are on an insulin pump but they are crying that they are eating "normally" and there's the problem.

And they can lead a normal life!

They just aren't being told HOW.

YES.

It drives me nuts to the point that I can't even read about it.

All of the DEAD HUMAN BEINGS who might have kicked around another 10-15 years and might not have had amputations or renal dialysis and may have lived to see their grandchildren...

this is what I find so interesting. Why do you think that is, that you have such trust in this profession, that you have "the will not to believe" they could be so wrong? I see this everywhere in real life.

I know you know the history of medicine, and Semelweiss and all that.

Three years ago my newly-diagnosed type II boss was told by his expensive, Park Avenue nutritionist that he could consume anything he wanted in moderation. She repeated the same 'prescription' to me on his behalf. I wanted to scream. So, he continued his usual diet, just making the portions smaller. Pasta, red wine, bran muffins, the occasional hamburger, Italian rum wedding cake, and for fruit....bananas. He feels quite self-righteous that he is following doctor's orders. Meanwhile his diabetes continues unabated, if not worsening. No, you are not nuts. Just helpless and frustrated as we all are in the face of criminally bad professional advice.

Yesterday I received an exciting announcement from our large area YMCA that they will be offering a Diabetes Prevention program, and to contact them if I qualify. Well gosh, here we have a world respected diabetes researcher at a world class university, but let's see who sponsors the program and their goals. Oh, it's the ADA and Novo. And of course, smaller portions and reducing fat...now that will help me lose 7% of my weight. I shot off an email suggesting an alternative, just to make me feel better, I don't expect a response.

http://www.ymca.net/diabetes-prevention/about.html

You are the greatest Janet!!

I agree completely. My twin and i hav type 2 and i managed to stop my insulin injections last yr after startong lchf but her docs keep telling her to eat carbs and she landed up in hosp with sugar over 22 and is now taking two types of insulin before meals and at bedtime. I am so mad abt it all and even tho i keep telling her to cut carbs, her doc said tht ketones are so bad!!!

Actually, I didn't know the name Semelweiss before you told me. So I looked it up. He's the guy that discovered washing our hands had an effect on mortality from medical interventions, especially surgery. We could say that was the beginning of modern medicine. Now that I think about it, we went on with retarded ideas anyway, like believing smoking was good for us just 50 years ago. Yeah, we believe sugar is good for diabetics, today. Alright, I take it back. I can believe the profession can be so wrong.

I've often wondered if they are deliberately withholding this info and directing people to other lifestyles. There is a lot of money to be made in keeping people sick. I find it so hard to believe that professionals in the medical field could be against this way of life when there is so much evidence for it.

Out of curiosity are there any studies that TRUTHFULLY show that this WOE could be detrimental?