I've been following the LC for a little while now and my blood sugars have been dropping too low. I reduced the amount of medication I'm taking and they're still droping too low!

For the past two days I've had to add a carb here and there just too bring my levels up to normal. Won't this defeat the purpose of the LC WOL? Last night I had to drink 1/2 a cup of regular pop because my sugars were so low, and then this morning I added a slice of whole wheat toast with 2 poached eggs.

I'm taking Metformin 3 a day (one in the morning, one after lunch, one after supper) I'm also taking 4 Glyburinde (Diabeta) tablets a day 2 in the morning and 2 before my evening meal. I've dropped it down to one in the morning and one before my evening meal. I'm considering taking the evening ones out all together so I can at least sleep without checking my sugar every two hours - so I don't go into a diabetic coma or something!

Have other people had these results? My doctor doesn't want me on the LC thing so I haven't told her or I'll be in deep crap! LOL! Has anyone here gone completely off their meds eating this way?

Fishinmom

Fishinmom, I you need to see your doctor before you start playing around with your medication. Yes this WOE does help you manage your blood sugar, and many people with type II diabetes can stop taking meds altogether, however this should only be done under a doctor's supervision. If your doctor is not willing to listen to you, perhaps you need to find another one? Perhaps he / she will listen now, as you can show her the LCing is working for you?

Nat

Don't worry about the medication - I'm only reducing them with my doctors orders. She has already told me that if I am dropping too low to start subtracting my Glyburide(Diabeta) one at a time until I get the desired results.

Unfortunately I have already discussed LC with her and with my diabetes nurse and dietician. They said "absolutely NO". Even though the results are amazing for me. The area I'm living has a very short supply of doctors and most of them aren't even taking patients anymore, and I've pretty well been to all of them, none of them agree with LC what so ever.

But as I said - this works for me! Before LC my sugars were so out of control and I was already suffering from several diabetes related complications. My whole problem is that even a little bit of carbs sends my sugars up. One slice of bread can ruin it for the whole day. Of course none of them listen and keep switching me from med to med trying to find something that works. I was told if these medications didn't work that I would have to take injections. I really don't want to start that when I know it can be controlled by diet - it just makes no sense.

I don't understand their thinking!!! I"m so frustrated - if it works for me why can't they just accept that for some people this WOE may be beneficial and the benefits just might outweigh whatever risks they think there might be!

Fishinmom

Perhaps a living breathing thin and healthy new you will change their minds? Sometimes we have to lead by example

N

That's so true - Wait til they see how well my blood sugars have come down - there's no denying that! LOL!

Fishinmom

Hi Fishinmom,

I'm so glad your Dr said you can reduce your Glyberide. That's what you need to do. You probably know that glyberide causes the pancreas to produce more insulin, thus reducing blood sugars.

I think you are on the right track with the idea to drop your evening glyberide pill. (BTW what dosage is this pill? 2.5 mg or 5mg?) If it is 5mg, you can split the pill and take half at breakfast and dinner.

My dosage of glyberide was 5mg daily, split between breakfast and dinner, until I started LCing. Because I had a severe hypoglycemic incident 5 days b4 beginning LC, I made an 'executive' decision and stopped the glyberide the day I began Atkins. That low BG incident was so awful, I didn't want to go there again!!! I kept careful & constant track of my blood sugars and saw my Dr 2 weeks later to report what I was doing. (2 wks was long enough to have sufficient data to support my new LC WOL). My blood glucose #'s were similar while LCing w/o glyberide as they were while on glyberide, so she was happy.

My Dr wasn't crazy about LC, but since I was gung-ho to lose weight & my BG was favourable, she wasn't about to dissuade me. *I'm lucky to have a great woman doctor* Since then, she has admitted that I'm doing great on LC WOL, lost weight, better control of BG. Yay!!!

All of the above rambling is to encourage you to 'manage' your diabetes by reducing meds gradually and with frequent testing (4xday). You already have your Dr's permission to reduce glyberide. Of course, it is critical to see your Dr as soon as possible after tweaking the meds, so you can 'fess up and agree on the program going forward.

My thoughts on the Dr & the diabetes nurse & dietician saying NO to LC? They are WRONG and with continued success on LC, you will prove them wrong. And what if you never convince them? Does it matter? You will be slimmer & healthier with better control of your BG than you ever had before. *LOL* Brainstorm: if all diabetics lived LC WOL, would we need diabetes dieticians and nurses, or would they be out of work, except for the few teaching LC WOL as treatment for diabetes? LOL at myself now: you touched a nerve when you shared about them ragging on you about LC.

You've read CAD, now go borrow Atkins and Protein Power from the library (or buy paperback copies for $10 + taxes) and educate yourself further about insulin, carbs etc. I learned more about insulin from Atkins & PP than I ever did at the local Diabetes Clinic classes! Weight loss, better HgA1c test results, blood pressure & cholesterols will be your proof that you are eating the best way for you. You go girl!

Please report back often on how you are doing.

Ruth

Thanks for your comments Ruth - I'm hoping I'll be able to reduce my meds to nil as well. As it looks I'm headed in that direction. I have a doctors appointment next week and I will tell her then. Hopefully she'll agree to at least a month trial. I'm sure by then I'll have solid proof that it's better for me to be LCing than not to be!

I have a woman doctor as well and otherwise she is fantastic! She's done more for me in the 6 months I've been seeing her than any doctor has done in the past 5 years! I really don't want to have to find another

I am frustrated though that none of them will take off their blinders and quit using their text-book mentality. I can almost bet in the future this will be the WOE they will use to treat diabetes - with everyone showing such good results, how can they not!

Oh well I'm back to eating LC until one of them can give me absolute proof that it's harming me in some way - I go for my 3 month blood tests again next month and I'm hoping all my counts will be down! How can they argue with that!

I noticed that Dr Bernstein was not mentioned in this thread, just in case you have not visited his site here is the location. His book is a "must" read for all diabetics.

http://www.diabetes-normalsugars.com/

I am a type II myself (or was according to who you asked). My doctor was LC friendly, even recommended it. You can see to the left my weight lose, and my last hba1c was 5.8 ~ 114 (yes I like saying that over and over again). I stopped taking meds (Glucaphage, 2 per day) about 6 months ago.

Ruth is right on. Anything that makes more insulin will make it more difficult to lose weight, if not impossible. This was advice my diabetic doctor gave me. In his words "keep insulin down, lose weight. insulin high, gain wieght".

Glucaphage is a really good drug, don't be hestitate to take it. It's the only one that will help you lose weight, and it is not a likely to cause low blood sugars.

Here is some insights on diabetes that my first doctor instilled in me. Diabetes is YOUR problem, not the doctors. No amount of medication will ever take the place of you taking control of your eating habits, neither will exercise although it helps. It's not like cancer or something that you can't do anything about. You can control it or in my case cure it (yes I said cure it).

So, given the advice I was given, let me give you some advice. Drop the dietitian, waste of your money and time. Go in and tell the doctor what you are doing, and that you hope that she will still help you with your medication. Remember that this is your problem, not hers. Doctors save lives and improve the quality of life everyday with many health problems, but this one just so happens to be totally up to you. If she it a good doctor, she will give you a kidney function test, do a blood workup and send you on your way with the standard "I can't imagine what you are doing to yourself inside".

Good luck, and do let us know,
wsgts

Well said.

Oldsalty: I never mentioned Bernstein (I love his book & recommend it to every diabetic in my life) because in fishinmom's profile (click on icon on lower left of post) she indicates she has read Bernstein. But I am glad you mentioned it because others will be reading this thread.

Your comment has reminded me of something I was thinking about as I was going to sleep last night. (!!) CAD is not a good program for diabetics, IMHO. Too many carbs in one meal, insulin will go up. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the goal with diabetes is to keep blood sugars stable & constant. CAD has 2 no/low carb meals & 1 high in carbs, this could result in diabetes complications in the long run. In CADLP, they now recommend the carb meal to be in the morning, rather than the evening. Something to think about.

Thank you everyone for your great advice. I dug Dr. Bernsteins book out again - it's been awhile since I read it. I was thinking of loaning it to my Dr.

I didn't realize glyburide made it difficult to lose weight - yikes! What about Meformin?

Thanks for the info on Glucophag - I'll ask the doctor about that.

Hopefully I can just drop it all except the Metformin soon and then eventually drop that too!

I'm looking forward to no meds some day. Well I guess it's back to the books.

P.S. I'm not really following the CAD plan either - I'm just kind of following my own plan right now. I'm keeping my carbs at around 20 - 25 g. per day and just incorporating things from different books I've read. So far it's working well -

Metformin is a brand name of Glucophage ... same thing

It would be a terrific idea to show some of the Dr. Bernstein book to your dr. Maybe you could photocopy, or print some scanned pages for her .. that way you don't have to be without the book. I loaned some of my books to my doc. before .. I was weeks getting them back, mostly because she read them thoroughly!

Doreen

Okay shows you how much I know - LOL! I guess if I'm already taking the Meformin - I don't need to talk to the doctor about taking "Glucophag" - LMBO!!!!



Fishinmom

I've read all of your advice, and while I don't have diabetes, I do have low blood sugar (drops to below 50, I use to pass out and end up in the hospital, dehydrated, until they figured it out).

All I know for certain, is that this is the first diet I've done that makes me feel good all day. I'm pretty careful about my portions and maybe that is why, but so far, my body doesn't seem to be missing those carbs at all, and I haven't had any drops in my blood sugar either.

Hi Kyfaithly,

I'm glad to hear that your hypoglycemia is under better control. Eating low carb means no spikes in blood glucose (BG) and no corresponding plummet when the insulin kicks in. In 3 yrs of diabetes, while eating a regular diabetes diet I experienced about 4 incidents of hypoglycemia. Yikes, no fun at all.

Happy LCing