I've taken all the supplements mentioned herein and then some. The only one which lowered my morning fasting readings (and substantially - I've been eating Atkins bars at night in order to get the morning readings UP) is ALA and EPO.

I've also been taking calcium and magnesium, along with fish oil. If my next blood test shows elevated LDL as some here have suggested it will, I'll stop the fish oil.

I would never have even considered ALA if Dr. Bernstein hadn't stated that he has been taking it himself for more than four years.

Fish Oil raises LDL? How about fish? I eat Salmon 3-4 times a week! Eeeks!

salmon is fine, and we eat it 3 time a week as well. i think it much tastier (yum) and better than refined fish oil.

Hi,

Yep, the stuff works for me also - all of my postprandial bg levels less than 95 now (I do not test my preprandial levels anymore). I take 300mg ALA (sustained) + 500mg EPO in the morning and evening. At lunch I take 200mg ALA (normal) + 500mg EPO.... I haven't noticed any side effects at all

Thanks,

Adam

hi CarolynC:
i've been taking glucobetic too for about two weeks now but my fasting bg didn't change a bit. i also take ALA, EPO, L-CARNITINE, BIOTINE, MULTIVITAMINS, and CLA. I've read about HCA in Diabetic Cure, and thinking to try it to boost my stalled weight loss. how many pills of glucobetic you take daily, and how long it was before you saw the difference.
thank you,
dina

Glad the ALA is working well for some of you - I have stopped it, due to #1, face flushing, hot feeling, might be either the ALA or the EPO. and #2, more important, I think it was not only sensitizing me to my own insulin, it was making me produce more, just like Gyburide, whatever. I say this because Christine pointed out that if one puts on weight around the middle, it means you have more insulin circulating, when she said that I looked at my belt, realized I was using one less notch! Also was insanely hungry, which had not been a problem on bernstein. I think another evidence of excess insulin. I wish we could test for that the way we can our bg. Cheers, Bill

I just can't believe that Dr. Bernstein would promote a supplement which he knew to have a stimulating effect upon insulin production. He's used it to treat an awful lot of Type IIs, many of them obese, and if it were a factor he'd tell us. It's got to be something else.

When I first lost substantial weight and my insulin resistance went down, there was a period where I gained back about 15% of the weight I'd lost because the pancreas was still pumping out the same amount of insulin it had been used to pumping out. It took a while for it to adjust to the lowered insulin requirement. It's not the amount of insulin which stimulates adipose tissue production, it the amount of excess insulin, over and above that which is necessary to facilitate glucose transport.

Well, c6h603, that makes a lot of sense, and like you I have trouble believeing that dr b, who is nothing but evidence/based, empirical, would suggest that. The face thing, might be the EPO, saw that somewhere. The Other, I don't know, it is difficult to be scientific, isolate only one factor. For me, anyhow!! When bg's rise, I tend to walk more, be stricter about the carbs, pop an ALA, I know that's not the way to find out what works. Need to get some of his glucograph sheets, anyone here use them? bill

I wish I could explain scientifically why i thought the ALA increased insulin production for me but I can,t.the only thing I know is that when I started to l-c,I didn,t drop my insulin injections down to compensate quick enough.This had the effect of giving me a burning feeling all over,stomach burned,I couldn,t eat although I was hungry,anxiety feelings and I started to develop a bit of a pot belly.It took me 8 months to get rid of these feelings and that was when I had stopped the injections.The ALA,after 3 days of feeling great started to have the same effect although not quite as severe,all those feelings came back including some I,d forgot about.
When I started to lower my insulin injections,I did so by dropping a couple of units every 3 days.the first time I did this, on the third day, I woke up with a "spinning "sensation,the whole room was turning,it was gastly and this happened every time I lowered the dose to varying degrees.this has never happened to me since I stopped the insulin until 3 days after I stopped the ALA.Although It wasn,t as bad as before,I could see the room turning.I am not IR,only ID (the only time i became IR was when i was taking too much insulin) and I only know how this worked for me.Dr. B.could lower his insulin injections to compensate,we can,t,It just didn,t suit me at all.It did lower my bgs very fast,maybe it worked too well,as far as I,m concerned,it had the same result as an unneeded insulin injection for me.Its taken me a full week to get my tight control back,hope you guys have better luck.I,m sorry that I can,t be more technical.

Bill:
you have hot feelings and face flushing, i too have some weird things going on. it's like my skin has million of tiny pins and needls, and it fells like itching and tingling all over my body. also, i've developed sort of redness on my chin. my BG didn't change a bit since i've started ALA+EPO+L-carnitine+CLA. i also take glucobetic and 15mg of biotine a day to prevent ala side effects. i'm feeling hungrier, and my belt is getting tighter too. not good. i've been taking all this stuff except ala and biotin before, and never felt this itchy. i'm afraid i have to stop ALA, can't afford to put more weight around my middle. besides, did nothing to my BGs,what a pitty. the only positive effects is i have lots of energy and no more depression, may be it's EPO working.
god luck,
dina

Well, I still have way more hair loss than normal. Plus flushing when I drink red wine. BG's are elevated from some recent events are here. Don't know what to make of all this myself. I hate to be a gunea pig. To be honest, I am considering dropping the supps and just taking the FREE metformin. Met a lady who says I won't get hypos, if I take the pill with food. I was taking it 2 hrs prior, as Dr B suggested. I will finally have an Endo, on Oct 8th....can't wait!~

Sherrielee...hair loss can be a sign of thyroid problems. Have you had this checked out ?? Eve

Getting a 100,000 mile check up in early October. I reckon they will be checking everything!

Thanks for the concern!

I take 2 daily and my morning blood glucose reading dropped by about 15 points a week or so after starting to take them. But with diabetes its definitely YMMV.

Diabetes is really a very broad disease. We know of the difference between type I and type II, but I suspect that even type II with insulin resistance is not the same for everyone (not to mention insulin production being different). There's currently no totally accepted theory for what causes insulin resistance. Some research groups think that it relates to the transport mechanism for chromium, which is what activates the insulin receptor to accept insulin; thus, taking chromium supplements may be of benefit. Some groups say that fatty acid release affects the insulin uptake mechanism. Some say that it's the body's lower of production of the insulin receptor (due to a genetic defect affecting muscle cells handling of RNA) that causes insulin resistance. I suspect that there is no one reason for insulin resistance. Different factors may play a role in different individuals and this may be why we react in such different ways to various supplements.

I take loads of supplements too and feel like cutting back on many of them. I take coral calcium because I don't have much dairy produce and a multivitamin in case I miss something in my diet but I also take loads of other bits and pieces that I think i could well do without.

However the ALA and EPO have proved to be a big disappointment for me. I got up to 1000mg of each daily but then started to have gastric side effects. First it was just the rumbling stomach all the time then it was pains in the stomach with cramping and frequent visits to the toilet. I cut down the dose by half to 500mg daily and it was alright for a day or two but was back with a vengeance today. Within about five minutes of taking the ALA the awful griping pains started and "the runs" so I have decided to stop taking them altogether. That is £50 down the drain but if I never get those pains again I will be happy.

One of the reasons that I have never asked my doctor to prescribe glucophage is because I had heard of the side effects (and my sister has dreadful side effects with it). Just how bad are the effects? Has anyone had any?