Diabetes

[Laura]

If you've been following the health threads on the forum, you'll be aware that there are other diabetics posting here who have had very good results from the paleo diet which means TOTAL elimination of grains, most veggies, fruit, dairy, alcohol, etc. and eating mainly meats and fats and some softly cooked veggies. All the research you need has been assembled right here, you only have to use the search function.

 

[shellycheval]

Hello NewOrleans, Laura beat me to it, but I will post my thoughts anyways as backup to her wise advice.

From the many varied and reliable research materials made available through this forum, it appears the fastest, safest, and cheapest way to deal with diabetes is a radical reduction in carbs, with a major increase in animal fat and meat protein.

Read the diet and health threads on diet and food choices carefully and follow the suggested protocols for changing from a carb based diet to a high fat/protein diet, and be impeccable about not cheating or making unintentional mistakes in your food choices.

Essentially you should be eating only fatty meat, and modest amounts of low carb vegetables, and drinking water or herbal tea. Begin by eliminating ALL grain products, ALL diary, and gradually reducing the amount of complex carb vegetables like sweet potatoes. Avoid all fruit for awhile. This ultra low carb diet appears to stabilize insulin production and relieve symptoms of diabetes for many people, but even a bite of the wrong food can delay positive results and keep you body chemistry unbalanced. For the most part, control of your good health is literally in your own hands.

It is challenging and difficult but the results of these radical diet changes are nothing short of astounding.
I wish you good luck with your good choices ;)
shellycheval

 

[Laura]

I want to add some emphasis to something shellycheval has written:

Essentially you should be eating only fatty meat, and modest amounts of low carb vegetables, and drinking water or herbal tea. Begin by eliminating ALL grain products, ALL diary, and gradually reducing the amount of complex carb vegetables like sweet potatoes. Avoid all fruit for awhile. This ultra low carb diet appears to stabilize insulin production and relieve symptoms of diabetes for many people, but even a bite of the wrong food can delay positive results and keep you body chemistry unbalanced.

Let me give it the right emphasis here:

even a bite of the wrong food can delay positive results and keep your body chemistry unbalanced

 

[NewOrleans]

Thanks, Elisa, Laura and Shellycheval. I've found that the search function has been invaluable for so many other questions I should have looked it up immediately, but I've been feeling sorry for myself once again. This has been a shock to my sense of strength and independence. I don't like this daily blood testing ritual.

Even a teeny, tiny, little bite. Laura? Wow, that's going to take some mindful vigilance. Well, on to reading up. I was ready to spill my heart out in the Swamp on a whole different thing, but this just eclipsed it all.

 

[Nienna]

Thanks, Elisa, Laura and Shellycheval. I've found that the search function has been invaluable for so many other questions I should have looked it up immediately, but I've been feeling sorry for myself once again. This has been a shock to my sense of strength and independence. I don't like this daily blood testing ritual.

Even a teeny, tiny, little bite. Laura? Wow, that's going to take some mindful vigilance. Well, on to reading up. I was ready to spill my heart out in the Swamp on a whole different thing, but this just eclipsed it all.

Not to answer for Laura, but yes, even a teeny, tiny, little bite.

I guess it all comes down to how serious are you about defeating diabetes?

Also, following this diet would help your wife and her problems also.

It's amazing the lies we have been told by the food industry of what is healthy for us and what isn't.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I went to the doctor recently and found out that I have Diabetes. Then denial, anger and depression. As if my life wasn't complicated enough with asthma, sleep apnea and allergies among other things. I thought obese people got Diabetes? But I'm not fat. I know diet has a lot to do with this - but I never ate an American style diet - and ironically enough I'd already had months of dietary changes that I thought were healthy changes... Completely gave up all sugar. Whole milk in coffee. No white pasta, white potato or white rice or white breads. No High Fructose. Not much of a drinker. Wine with dinner but never that much anyway. Just no sugars or glutens at all hardly. ( maybe a wheat cracker or nuts if I got hungry.) Never did like soda or fried foods or fast foods. We eat mostly a Mediterranean diet rather than American. And now this??
I declined the statin drugs just on intuition after a first bout of bad reactions (hands and feet got swollen drastically) and now I see research saying that these statin drugs do the opposite of helping anyway.

I've been doing online reading about this Diabetes thing and the information is overwhelming and sometimes seemingly contradictory.. For a year now a vegan friend has been pushing his "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman books and CDs on me like some religious zealot but it's not sounding appealing to me either. I may be from New Orleans, but never a big foodie there. That Creole diet was way too rich. But Veganism is like Puritanism by comparison.

So I'm sitting here at 5 AM with this new glucose meter, kit and lancets, figuring out how to jab my hand and draw blood and knowing I can't afford this expensive stuff twice a day. (I was just about to drop my health insurance because they raised the rates.) I'm just too poor to afford this and yet the horror stories of blindness and amputation just scare the bejesus out of me. It's not a thing to ignore.

I'm in a funk and could use some sane advice if anyone wishes to offer it.

Hi NewOrleans,

I don't have anything to add to help you with your diet, but I want to tell you of my experiences. I was seeing an endocrinologist for hypothyroidism a year ago and he told me I had diabetes too. Immediately I freaked out, bought everything, started keeping a little book to record all the food I ate and my glucose levels.

Then, after a month of testing myself in front of my students (I had to with the timing of lunch at work) he told me I didn't have it after all. I didn't go back to see him again. But I had already talked with a lot of people about it and discovered that people I knew were living with it, but never told me! Talking with other people and discovering I was not alone really helped me.

And I still have no idea how my diabetic grandmother got to 90 while injecting herself with insulin daily AND drinking a glass of wine every night. I do not recommend drinking alcohol, it's just funny to me that her system was able to handle that! Well, I hope you find some peace with this.

Are your levels out of the normal range?

 

[NewOrleans]

Yes, it all comes down to how serious I am in defeating this. My levels are higher than they should be, Scarlet. Thanks Laura for the advice. Thanks all.

 

[RedFox]

Completely gave up all sugar. Whole milk in coffee. No white pasta, white potato or white rice or white breads. No High Fructose. Not much of a drinker. Wine with dinner but never that much anyway.

My understanding is that coffee/caffeine will mess with the pancreas/insulin levels, and I think alcohol will do the same too. So it may be best to eliminate both of those.
The Life without bread thread is probably a good place to start.

 

[Gawan]

I'm sorry to hear that NewOrleans.

I went to the doctor recently and found out that I have Diabetes.

With which type are diagnosed?

Type I or II? That means do you need insulin injections or taking tablets? But taking in consideration that you are older, I guess you are diagnosed with type II diabetes.

Then denial, anger and depression. As if my life wasn't complicated enough with asthma, sleep apnea and allergies among other things.

In my own experience as diabetic emotion play a hug role too. Diabetes mellitus (latin) has the meaning: "honey sweet flow", not enjoying life: anger, sorrow, pain (most often against oneself)... Where ÉE did help me a lot, to deal with emotions and long forgotten issues.

So, how is EE going in your life?

So I'm sitting here at 5 AM with this new glucose meter, kit and lancets, figuring out how to jab my hand and draw blood and knowing I can't afford this expensive stuff twice a day. (I was just about to drop my health insurance because they raised the rates.) I'm just too poor to afford this and yet the horror stories of blindness and amputation just scare the bejesus out of me. It's not a thing to ignore.

Calm down :), it doesn't happen just in one day, that you suffer from neuropathy. Also here plays the diet again a HUGE role. Especially type II diabetics, have to be overly careful in that matter.

I would suggest, following the life without bread topic and not eating: gluten and milk could solve many things. At least this is my experience in the last months following the diet suggestions that are posted in the forum here. See it that way, take responsibility for you and your body. This attitude did change many things in my life regarding for example diabetes.

I don't like this daily blood testing ritual.

You will get used to it and don't sting in the middle of the finger tip, use more the sides (and all fingers should be usable, only the thumbs are a little bit more sensitive in my experience), there are less sensitive nerves and play around with the lancing device and the depth range of the lancet.

 

[NewOrleans]

Thank you......Depression passes, it was a temporary reaction. It's Type II, by the way. Made a list off of some searched pages and comments above and I need to post this on my refrigerator door next. Plus a sign that says "no means no".

 

[mcb]

Yes, it all comes down to how serious I am in defeating this. My levels are higher than they should be, Scarlet. Thanks Laura for the advice. Thanks all.

I have very little time to post today, but I wanted to mention that when a doctor tells you that you "have" a "disease," one of the first things you may want to do is research what that actually means. My own experience is that when I have been told those words, it triggers programs that lead me to act irrationally. The last time this happened was about a year and a half ago and to this day I am divided as to whether I should have proceeded with treatment or simply ignored them and gone on with my own dietary adjustment. (They told me I was likely to die, possibly at any time, if I didn't choose treatment. That certainly messes with one's decision making process.)

In the intervening months I have learned of case after case where doctors simply don't know what they are doing, and that is on top of my personal experiences over the years. I am particularly concerned about diabetes treatment because I am involved at work with mainstream research on it that does not appear to be effective to me, and because my own dietary experimentation working with others here on this forum has allowed me to stop gaining weight and to steer a course away from developing diabetes, but only after I parted ways with "professional advice." One of my bigger problems now is to recover from the medical treatment I received last year and in 2007.

I have to go now, but do think about that meeting with your doctor and how you responded and how it might be influencing your decisions now. It's OK to follow sound medical advice, but doctors aren't God (even if some of us were brought up to think they are) and they should not simply be taken at their word. Diabetes treatment is hopelessly compromised by conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical industry, and by dogma traceable to pathological medical and scientific "authority figures." Do your own research. This forum is a great place to start.

 

[NewOrleans]

Megan, thanks. I always reflect on things afterward. You're right some well meant medical consultation triggers negativity. I put that "aside" and instead, I have been reading links here. I appreciate the advice. Reading and learning - helps sort this out.

 

[The rabbit]

Even a teeny, tiny, little bite. Laura? Wow, that's going to take some mindful vigilance. Well, on to reading up. I was ready to spill my heart out in the Swamp on a whole different thing, but this just eclipsed it all.

Well I was diagnosed with diabetes type 2 many years back .Did it change my diet...no. I carried on drinking and eating rubbish . I have spent a number of years in excruciating pain and I mean pain.I had operations due to complications that arose from my stupidity and so on.

Last October i cut out EVERYTHING that is known to be no good for the body , and I mean everything. I dont miss or have cravings for anything that had to go. Beer , bread , dairy and so on.

It really is how much you really want to be as well as you can be. I really want that so ive been eating only that which is known to be ok.

Result. I am in a period where I have never felt so well. No more pain!!!!!!

Really the pain i was going through had me wanting it all over , i wanted out.Truly!

Crap food and intake into the body is an addiction that has to go if you are serious about your health.

 

[Gawan]

Thank you......Depression passes, it was a temporary reaction. It's Type II, by the way. Made a list off of some searched pages and comments above and I need to post this on my refrigerator door next. Plus a sign that says "no means no".

Maybe this example, could give you some hope, also when the diet we are using is much more bulletproof :):

Low-calorie diet offers hope of cure for type 2 diabetes


FWIW.

Result. I am in a period where I have never felt so well. No more pain!!!!!!

Really the pain i was going through had me wanting it all over , i wanted out.Truly!

This is really good to hear, AWTF!!

 

[bronz]

I have diabetes type I i need insulin injection for 10 years now :(

type II is nothing, lower your weight first and you should be fine.

Your pancreas can't produce so much insulin so you only need to put your weight on normal. Sport helps and lot of walking for first go to the gym.

Laura do you know what is the cure for diabetes type I?

Nobody in my family haven't it,

Is my life here on redemption for past living? I didn't do anything wrong in this life...