Diabetes anyone?

[jeaucamom]

Quote:
There are a LOT of people on various low carb forums that follow his diet. Some find it a bit too restrictive, but others are doing great. A lot of the type 2's are off all meds by following it or a modified version of it. It is all about normalizing blood sugars.

Since I was pre-diabetic and had not tipped in to the full blown diabetic range, keeping my carb intake below 50g per day works for me. Some need to go lower.

Dang.. 50 gm per day..... How do you do it???? I am in the 120 to 140 range and I feel like there is nothing left to eat

With my cinnamon pills I pretty much keeps my bs normal, but would still be way to high without them. The thing that sticks in my mind is I did Atkins many years ago and lost a ton of weight very quickly, and felt great, but once I started adding carbs back in on the lower levels like 20 to 50, I felt like crud because it stopped the process of breaking down my fat to form the glucose my body needed but it wasn't enough to maintain muscle use and brain and necessary stuff. How do you feel at 50 carbs per day? How long have you been at 50g per day?

I went to that website last night and read some of the chapters that were posted but I need to get the book to really figure out what it is all about.

 

[jeaucamom]

So yesterday I had that weird high meter reading on my Onetouch of 203.. which I know is inaccurate because I immediately redid it on three meter and they were all close and much lower.

Today, right after Curves, I got a "LO" on my Relion meter.... I ran out to my car and grabbed a fruit and grain bar, took one bite and thought.. OH I better retest.. that may not be right.. cuz LO means <20 and I just don't feel that bad.. sure enough.. it was 104.

So my questions are:

How often do you all calibrate your machines?
Why, after 6 weeks of doing this, would I have two weird reading within 12 hours on two different machines?
Just how quickly, when you have a low, does your liver produce enough glucose for there to be a difference in your fsbs?
Just how quickly after you take a bite of fruit bar does it translate into higher fsbs?

Still trying to figure all this out and more than a little ashamed that as a nurse I don't know the answer to these questions and can't find them in any of the multitude of books I own, both nursing and diabetes...

 

[Imp]

I've been diagnosed for about 5 years now. 1st doctor had me on Januvia, brought my A1C down to 5.9-6.0 in about 4 months. Was 10.4.
He moved away and the next doctor didn't trust Januvia so had me swith over to metformin, now my BG runs over 250 all the time. I'm tired of talking to him, so I start with another doctor in a couple weeks.
You have to be your own advocate in the healthcare system.

Imp

 

[Wifezilla]

Dang.. 50 gm per day..... How do you do it????

I've been doing this for almost 4 years. It is easy to do once you understand what a carb is, what foods are loaded with them, and what foods aren't

You want to eat the most nutrient dense food with the least amount of garbage in it (sugars, starches, additives, fillers, etc...).

As for Atkins, yes, my plan is similar. If you added backin carbs and got sick, you were obviously either allergic or had an intolerance to the stuff you were adding back in! Low carb isn't something you just do until you lose weight and then go back to what you did that made you fat and sick in the first place. Your body is BROKEN. Specific foods BROKE IT. You can't eat them and expect your body to heal. It is impossible.

If you have diabetes, obesity, heart disease, gout, etc... all of these have the same root cause. Your body HAS A PROBLEM with glucose and fructose metabolism. You can't eat like the skinny person who lives on pasta. You will not burn it off. You will get fatter and sicker.

If you were allergic to Orange Juice and it made you sick, and you felt so much better when you stopped drinking it, wouldn't it be crazy to ask how you can drink it again?

I think the smartest thing for you to do at this point is to get the book "Why we get fat and what to do about it" by Gary Taubes. If you are a really science nerd type read his previous book "Good Calories Bad Calories". It traces the entire history of diet recommendations and where they went so wrong.​

 

[Momagain1]

My 20 yr old was diagnosed last yr when she was 18 with Type 1 diabetes...her sugars were over 320..was in hospital in less than an hr after that reading...

she is on shots and is considering the pump..
but honestly; she's not taking charge of it like she needs to be...
I can't do it for her..she doesnt live with me..and the family she does live with..
REFUSES to cook for a diabetic and get this..its a nurse!

I can only cook for her when she visits home..she just needs prayers!

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Quote:
I'll try to answer this as best I can!

I almost never calibrate and I don't typically have a problem. I use a onetouch ultra. You can get testing fluid to test though and I used to use it when I changed strip packages, but it wasn't really all that necessary. I would probably just find one meter that is usually pretty acurate and stick with that. I think using more than one meter causes extra stress!

Sometimes you can get weird readings if your machine gets hot, cold, or you don't put enough blood on it. Make sure when you add blood to the strip, you are covering the entire area. Sometimes, more blood is better!

Your liver takes a while to make enough glucagon to significantly raise your blood sugar. The reaction to the low BG is fairly quick, but the effect of producing glucagon is slow. So you wouldn't see a change quite that quickly. The problem with producing glucagon is it works slowly and keeps your blood sugar raised for a long time. So sometimes having lows can do the opposite and make your blood sugars higher overall.

Normal BG readings are typically between 80-120, but there is some natural variation. You can go into the 70s and still be fine. I consider low BG to be 60 and below. I also consider 130's to be fine and 140 is getting a little high, but still not terrible. For a NORMAL person, these numbers would not be ideal. But for diabetics, we have a bit of flex in the numbers.

Fast acting sugars (like fruit or juice) affects your blood sugar about 15 minutes after consuming them. About 15 carbs are necessary to raise your BG about 20 or so and that's all you usually need to bring yourself up. I've always been taught to take 15 grams of carbs during a low, wait 15 minutes, retest, then consume another 15 if I'm still not high enough. Over the years I've found it takes closer to 30 carbs to bring myself up out of a low, so I just skip the whole 15 minutes thing and go straight for the 30 carbs. You'll have to find what works best for you!

Hopefully that is helpful for you!

 

[ams3651]

Ive always used One Touch meters and have never known to have a problem Of course i sometimes rely a lot on how I feel. I get shaky at about 99, headaches over 250, etc. i will up my cinnamon as I wasnt sure how much to take in the first place and look for the other one you mentioned. Thanks, this thread reminded me I forgot to take my insulin tonight.

 

[jeaucamom]

Wow, today was like Christmas around here. I had signed up for a free Contour meter... but what they sent was THREE Contour USB meters... weird, but totally good. I tested it against my Onetouch and they were both 107 on the dot. I couldn't believe it. And this one lets you put in all kinds of notes and has reminders etc. AND it has a usb that hooks up to your computers. So no more entering into the cell phone and then downloading etc...I am very excited..

BUT to share the wealth.. because I really don't need THREE.. I would like to give one of my BYC friends one of these meters free... if you are local please pick up, otherwise I would like the shipping covered and that's it.. Way cool!!

 

[artsyrobin]

Quote:
are you talking about diabetesdaily? i am there, and have been reading on his diet- another i am considering, going vegetarian, since i can't eat store bought chicken since getting my own chicks...

i am t2, and diabetes runs in the family- am on byeta, which has helped alot- i have found some research that says it is both heredity and lifestyle- irish in particular as their ancestors learned to survive many famines- now with plenty of food the survival gene backfires...

 

[artsyrobin]

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i just signed up for a free one, so how do you like it? something that surprised me was there is no standardization on meters, so one brand will read different from another- so yes stick to just one