Great news from the eye doctor!

[Gandalf]

What a lovely news for both of you. 

Thanks for sharing.

[WhiteBear]

That is fantastic WhiteBear. Congratulations to you both. Curious as to what the doctors reaction was and if you shared your Paleo ways with him or her?

That is wonderful news, White Bear! I am so happy for you both   Bet the doctor was quite surprised!  Am also interested to know if he/she asked about what you did and the reaction to your answer.

I'm also really glad to hear this news and interested in the doctor's reaction.

Unfortunately, there was no reaction available, he was a new doctor and hadn't seen her condition previously.  The reaction of her endocrinologist, however, was interesting.  He saw how much both of us had lost, and that Jenn's insulin intake had changed from 12-15 units at each meal to 3 units, and asked us if we'd give a presentation of what we were doing to a support group for diabetics that he had organized. 

We told him we had changed our lifestyle to Paleo (he hadn't heard of it) and after a few sentences by me about what it entailed, he nodded sagely and said "Oh, Atkins...that's good, but you know you're going to have to re-introduce carbohydrates eventually, yes?"  Jenn and I just looked at each other, smiled, and said "Yes, sir".  LOL.  (not gonna happen)

I'm pondering whether I should take him up on his request to present to the support group.  On one hand, there may be some people in the group that hearing the information could help.  On the other hand, I'm mindful of strategic enclosure and the possibility of alienating my wife's endocrinologist by promoting changes that he will most likely deem "unhealthy".

[SeekinTruth]

That's the problem isn't it, WhiteBear? Maybe play it by ear and see what happens. If the opportunity presents itself in the right context you can have lots of sources of scientific studies that support you and your wife's experiences of what the high fat, low carb diet can do, incorporating it all in your presentation.

[Brenda86]

That is really wonderful news and an inspiration, really!

[Alana]

I'm pondering whether I should take him up on his request to present to the support group.  On one hand, there may be some people in the group that hearing the information could help.  On the other hand, I'm mindful of strategic enclosure and the possibility of alienating my wife's endocrinologist by promoting changes that he will most likely deem "unhealthy".

Perhaps if you present it in this manner:

-my wife and I were suffering from ....
- we studied this and that book/link/information
- due to the info we gathered, we tried out eliminating all grains from our diets/added more animal fat....
- our results now are....

it's just you and your wife experimenting with information that you found, that others tried before you, and it worked! Thinking out loud here, but I am also thinking how much this group of people will benefit from hearing your story.

[Palinurus]

Hi WhiteBear,

Congratulations to you and your wife with the betterment of late. Surely you would want to share some of your successes and the reasons for them with the support group. As the endocrinologist already mentioned his thought that what you are doing resembles the Atkins approach, it would maybe not be such a wild idea to start your presentation from there and leave the paleo thing for later on, as a follow up of sorts.

Also, I was reminded of a diet plan Laura wrote about in the Life without Bread thread here:
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,22916.msg308827.html#msg308827

[...]
here is a simple plan that I came up with for a friend of mine.

Step one, Day 1: remove all gluten from your diet.  All grains contain some amounts of gluten.  The worst is wheat and the least bad is rice.  So you can keep rice for a period of transition, say 10 days.  After 10 days, ALL grains should be eliminated totally.  Not even so-called “gluten free” breads are safe.  This is hard, of course, but you can fill the gap by eating more vegetables and meats. Eat your vegetables with plenty of real butter on them (no additives).  Eat meats with fat on them and eat the fat.  This is an essential part of the cure.  Start your day with bacon and eggs or ham and eggs and eat all you want.

Do this for TEN DAYS and then move to step two.

Step two, day 11: After 10 days, cut out rice and all beans (except haricot vert) completely.  You should now be having no grains at all, in any form, in your diet.  Read labels on everything.  If there is a single word pertaining to a grain product, do NOT eat it.  Continue to eat plenty of vegetables and meats with all the fat and added butter.  Do not use cooking sprays, cook with duck fat.

Do this additional step for the next TEN DAYS.  Then move to step three.

Step three, day 21: Remove all sugars from the diet.  This includes all fruits.  Do not replace this with any foods containing artificial sweeteners because they are excitotoxins and cause great harm.  The only sweeteners allowed are xylitol, sorbitol, stevia.  No honey, no corn syrup, NO forms of sugar at all. You can drink tea or coffee with xylitol and that will help with cravings.  Increase your fat intake.  The fat on beef, pork, duck, is good.  You can continue to eat most vegetables. (Make sure that you use only olive oil and vinegar on salads; no commercial dressings.

Do this additional step for TEN DAYS.

Step four, day 31: Remove all dairy products except butter from the diet.  All nuts, too. At this point, you will be eating only meat and vegetables.  You should eat more cooked vegetables than raw (salad), and eat them with plenty of butter.

I've left dairy to this point because it can sometimes ease the issues that removing gluten creates.

Step five, day 41: Stop coffee; you can have green or black or mint teas. Gradually reduce the quantity of vegetables that you eat and fill the gap with meat and meat fats.  This means that if you eat a piece of meat, it should have almost as much fat on it as lean.  You can eat as much meat as you want, but be sparing with vegetables, giving preference to cooked ones over raw.

It might be a good idea to print this (with possible additions to your liking) as a leaflet to hand out after your presentation, for those who really would want to try this out for themselves. The leaflet could give some reading suggestions and/or links added to this as well.
I do concur with Alana's take on this. That would make it all the more personal for your audience.

Just some thoughts. fwiw.