There is an astonishingly bad article about how to treat type II diabetes in a publication called Diabetes Health titled Type II Diabetes: From Old Dogmas to New Realities. The author, a head-in-the-sand woman named Hope Warshaw, says that low carb diets don't help people with diabetes and that we should all follow the advice of the American Diabetes Association.
Or, as Tom Naughton of the Fathead Movie fame says, this article essentially says "Just give up and take your drugs, dangit!" Read Naughton's whole critique of this astoundingly stupid article. The ignorance of the professional medical community on type II diabetes just astounds me.
But the best part of this article are the 40+ comments, and almost all of them supports the low carb approach and offers many testimonials of the success rate of following low carb diets. Many express dismay at how utterly clueless the author is, given that she is an RD, a certified diabetes educator, and has a master's degree. Clearly, she is an example of what Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com calls "credentialed, not educated."
So why does the ADA promote a high carb diet, when high carb diets are the root problem for type II diabetics? I am not sure. But check out their corporate sponsor page: the ADA is sponsored by Coca Cola, Hershey's, Mars, Kellogs, General Mills, and Pepsi. Truly, a "Who's Who" of American high carb junk food. Page referenced on July 6, 2011; corporate sponsors may change over time.
My type II diabetes has been reigned in since beginning the low carb journey. My HbA1c level is quite good, I am off insulin, I have lost a lot of weight, and my blood pressure is normal. All without following the advice of the ADA.
Showing posts with label blood pressure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blood pressure. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Living in Diabetes Denial
I was diagnosed with type II diabetes in December, 2002, eight and a half years ago. I immediately lost some weight, but when I saw there was no immediate health problems, I slipped back into my old ways. This probably happened some time during the summer of 2003.
Beginning in 2005, for whatever reason, I lost a lot of weight on Weight Watchers and my blood sugars went down dramatically. In fact, I stopped taking medicine. (Note, however, my lipid profiles only improved somewhat; my overall score was low, but my LDL was high, my HDL was low, and my triglycerides were quite high). Then, since Weight Watchers is what Gary Taubes called a "semi-starvation" diet, when I quit starving myself, my weight came back on and my diabetes came back with a vengeance. I followed WW religiously from November, 2005 until May 2007. Then I regressed and gained back much of the weight I lost. I just pretended I didn't have type II diabetes and ate what I wanted to eat, without concern about the effects it was having on my body. I guess you could say, I was in deep denial. By May 2008, my blood sugars were terrible again.
During June, 2010, I had an episode of reactive arthritis, which was treated with Prednisone and my blood sugar readings rocketed from the already high range (180-190) to the stratospheric (350 to 450). At this point, I had to start injecting insulin to try to counter the effects of Prednisone. I visited my physician during the fall of 2010 and she put me on a regimen of slow acting and fast acting injectable insulin. This was the beginning of my exit from denial, but I was still partially in denial.
Of course, I was hanging around the 300 to 310 weight range and felt fat, tired, and awful. I was having trouble sleeping and had no energy most of the time. Doing normal tasks, like walking, was getting harder and I started to come to the realization that I would die. I started reading about the complications of type II diabetes and it is not pretty.
In desperation, I started Weight Watchers again in January, 2011. But after four weeks of strict adherence to the program, I had only lost 0.8 pounds, not my normal WW experience. At first, I thought it was the new WW program, so I tried reverting to the old WW program. That didn't work, either. Then I read a blog entry on Instapundit.com that changed my life. The author, Glenn Reynolds, linked to the book, Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. I downloaded it on a Saturday, February 12, and finished listening to it by the next day. I realized I was not losing weight on WW because of the insulin I was injecting. I now understood, thanks to Taubes' book, that if I wanted to have any hope of losing weight again, I had to get off insulin, and the low carb lifestyle Taubes described seemed like it would do the trick. So I started low carbing on February 14, 2011.
It did. That's why I have started this blog, to share with others who are struggling with weight or diabetes the method that has proven extraordinarily successful for me. I am no longer in diabetes denial; I am off injectable insulin and back on Metformin. I will be weaning myself from that as soon as I lose another 30 pounds or so. My blood pressure fell substantially, within a few days, and my blood sugars are now near normal. My new low carb lifestyle has very literally saved my life.
Now when I know about friends or acquaintances who are diagnosed with type II diabetes, but who are in deep denial, I want to reach out to them and tell them there is hope, that they can control the disease and lead a mostly normal life. A low carb diet is the key. Yes, it requires sacrifice, but it is worth it. But I also realize they must get past denial. The earlier it is treated, the better, before the pancreas is too compromised.
My plea: get out of denial and start dealing with your type II diabetes.
Beginning in 2005, for whatever reason, I lost a lot of weight on Weight Watchers and my blood sugars went down dramatically. In fact, I stopped taking medicine. (Note, however, my lipid profiles only improved somewhat; my overall score was low, but my LDL was high, my HDL was low, and my triglycerides were quite high). Then, since Weight Watchers is what Gary Taubes called a "semi-starvation" diet, when I quit starving myself, my weight came back on and my diabetes came back with a vengeance. I followed WW religiously from November, 2005 until May 2007. Then I regressed and gained back much of the weight I lost. I just pretended I didn't have type II diabetes and ate what I wanted to eat, without concern about the effects it was having on my body. I guess you could say, I was in deep denial. By May 2008, my blood sugars were terrible again.
During June, 2010, I had an episode of reactive arthritis, which was treated with Prednisone and my blood sugar readings rocketed from the already high range (180-190) to the stratospheric (350 to 450). At this point, I had to start injecting insulin to try to counter the effects of Prednisone. I visited my physician during the fall of 2010 and she put me on a regimen of slow acting and fast acting injectable insulin. This was the beginning of my exit from denial, but I was still partially in denial.
Of course, I was hanging around the 300 to 310 weight range and felt fat, tired, and awful. I was having trouble sleeping and had no energy most of the time. Doing normal tasks, like walking, was getting harder and I started to come to the realization that I would die. I started reading about the complications of type II diabetes and it is not pretty.
In desperation, I started Weight Watchers again in January, 2011. But after four weeks of strict adherence to the program, I had only lost 0.8 pounds, not my normal WW experience. At first, I thought it was the new WW program, so I tried reverting to the old WW program. That didn't work, either. Then I read a blog entry on Instapundit.com that changed my life. The author, Glenn Reynolds, linked to the book, Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. I downloaded it on a Saturday, February 12, and finished listening to it by the next day. I realized I was not losing weight on WW because of the insulin I was injecting. I now understood, thanks to Taubes' book, that if I wanted to have any hope of losing weight again, I had to get off insulin, and the low carb lifestyle Taubes described seemed like it would do the trick. So I started low carbing on February 14, 2011.
It did. That's why I have started this blog, to share with others who are struggling with weight or diabetes the method that has proven extraordinarily successful for me. I am no longer in diabetes denial; I am off injectable insulin and back on Metformin. I will be weaning myself from that as soon as I lose another 30 pounds or so. My blood pressure fell substantially, within a few days, and my blood sugars are now near normal. My new low carb lifestyle has very literally saved my life.
Now when I know about friends or acquaintances who are diagnosed with type II diabetes, but who are in deep denial, I want to reach out to them and tell them there is hope, that they can control the disease and lead a mostly normal life. A low carb diet is the key. Yes, it requires sacrifice, but it is worth it. But I also realize they must get past denial. The earlier it is treated, the better, before the pancreas is too compromised.
My plea: get out of denial and start dealing with your type II diabetes.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Low Carb Diets and High Blood Pressure
Apparently, one in five adults between the ages of 24 and 32 have high blood pressure, due to expanding waist lines. This is a problem, because most young adults don't see a physician regularly and are probably not aware they have high blood pressure.The article suggests cutting salt as a way to reduce blood pressure, but we also know that the fear of salt is almost as overblown as the fear of fat so that is a pretty useless suggestion.
If you want to lower your blood pressure, why not try a low carb diet? My high blood pressure normalized within two weeks of starting my low carb lifestyle, and empirical research shows low carb diets are very effective at lowering blood pressure (here is the actual journal article). You will have dramatically lower blood pressure results a lot more quickly than cutting your salt intake.
If you want to lower your blood pressure, why not try a low carb diet? My high blood pressure normalized within two weeks of starting my low carb lifestyle, and empirical research shows low carb diets are very effective at lowering blood pressure (here is the actual journal article). You will have dramatically lower blood pressure results a lot more quickly than cutting your salt intake.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Health Benefits of Following a Low Carb Lifestyle
After honestly following the low carb lifestyle for three months, you should expect the following to occur when you have blood work analyzed on your next visit to the physician, especially if you are a type II diabetic. I have seen this information in a wide variety of sources, including Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes, an article by Michael R. Eades, M.D., and many other sources.
Weight loss. If you are consuming 30 or so grams of carbs or less, you should show a substantial weight loss.
HgbA1c. Your blood glucose profile should show substantial improvement over your previous reading, since carbohydrates drive blood glucose levels. Eliminate the carbs, improve your blood glucose profile.
Total Cholesterol. This will probably drop, but not by a great deal. But this doesn’t tell the whole story. Read on.
HDL Cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol”). This reading should go way up. This is a major benefit from eating all of those foods laden with saturated fats.
Triglycerides. This number should go way down. This is good for two reasons. First, lower triglycerides correlate with greater insulin sensitivity, meaning your pancreas doesn’t have to work as hard. Second, it correlates with larger LDL-cholesterol size (see below).
LDL Cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol). This reading may go up, into the worse range, and may cause your physician, if she or he is not up on the latest information, to express some concerns. They might even want to put you on drugs to bring this number in line. Don’t let her/him do this to you! Small, dense LDL cholesterol particles are associated with increased risk for heart disease, but the larger, fluffy LDL cholesterol particles may actually protect you from heart disease. LDL particle size is typically not measured in a lipid profile, but as triglyceride levels go down, LDL particle size goes up. So if you have dramatically better triglyceride levels, you probably have the larger, fluffy, protective LDL particles in your blood. On the other hand, if you have high triglyceride levels and low HDL levels, you are at much greater risk of heart disease from small, dense LDL cholesterol particles.
Triglyceride/HDL Ratio. The lower this ratio is the better. The low carb diet works dramatically better than the low fat, high carb diet at reducing this ratio.
Blood Pressure. You should see a significant lowering in your blood pressure. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings should go down.
Overall, you should experience a much lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Weekly Update
I am reporting in on Tuesday, instead of Monday, since I was traveling home from Europe yesterday. This past week, I lost 3.2 pounds. Part of that loss might be due to fluctuations due to jet lag; it's happened before on Weight Watchers. However, since my experience on the LCD is different from Weight Watchers, I cannot say for sure that jet lag is affecting things. On WW, the day after I got home, I would show a large loss, then a gain the next day, recuperating some of the lost weight. We will see if that happens tomorrow.
On the blood pressure side of things, I was 110/78 last night when my nurse wife took my blood pressure. Perfectly normal. And my blood sugars continue to do very well. With one exception (last night, which might be due to jet lag messing things up), my readings have always been less than 140 one hour after a meal and less than 120, two hours after a meal. The only abnormal reading continues to be my fasting blood sugars in the morning, which are a bit high (120-135). However, I have recently learned that if you are heavy and losing weight, the burning of fat during the night will contribute to a higher reading in the morning.
So by and large, I am pleased. I am down 19.2 pounds in six weeks, for an average of 3.2 pounds per week. Follow my weekly progress on this chart. More importantly, my blood sugar readings and blood pressure are almost in the normal range and I am cutting back on my oral medicine (after discontinuing the insulin injections).
On the blood pressure side of things, I was 110/78 last night when my nurse wife took my blood pressure. Perfectly normal. And my blood sugars continue to do very well. With one exception (last night, which might be due to jet lag messing things up), my readings have always been less than 140 one hour after a meal and less than 120, two hours after a meal. The only abnormal reading continues to be my fasting blood sugars in the morning, which are a bit high (120-135). However, I have recently learned that if you are heavy and losing weight, the burning of fat during the night will contribute to a higher reading in the morning.
So by and large, I am pleased. I am down 19.2 pounds in six weeks, for an average of 3.2 pounds per week. Follow my weekly progress on this chart. More importantly, my blood sugar readings and blood pressure are almost in the normal range and I am cutting back on my oral medicine (after discontinuing the insulin injections).
Monday, March 7, 2011
Vital Statistics, Monday, March 7, 2011
Weight: 288.0 (weekly loss of 2.4 pounds) Follow my weekly weight loss progress.
Blood pressure: 116/80
Average Fasting Blood Glucose: 114
Great progress all the way around. My blood pressure has fallen from an alarming 140/98 the first time my wife checked it to the reading yesterday of 116/80 and I have dropped 13.6 pounds, all in three weeks. For a "normal" person, a fasting blood glucose level should be somewhere between 75 and 90, so I still have a ways to go. But not too bad, given that I have reduced, then stopped altogether, my insulin injections.
Blood pressure: 116/80
Average Fasting Blood Glucose: 114
Great progress all the way around. My blood pressure has fallen from an alarming 140/98 the first time my wife checked it to the reading yesterday of 116/80 and I have dropped 13.6 pounds, all in three weeks. For a "normal" person, a fasting blood glucose level should be somewhere between 75 and 90, so I still have a ways to go. But not too bad, given that I have reduced, then stopped altogether, my insulin injections.
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