Tweet
I was approached recently by the Mod's here to help moderate this Forum because through my posts on the ADBB most of them know I came to Atkins primarily because of my Type II Diabetes.
OK I'll give you a little of my background. About 2&1/2 years ago I was diagnosed w/Type II Diabetes. Here in Singapore the doctor put me on a med from France called Diamicron & active ingredients were Diazide & Gliclazide. At that time I bought & read The Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program : Break Your Carbo-Insulin Connection to Heart Disease by Rachael Heller (Author), Frederic Vagnini (Author), Richard Heller (Author) which has a lot of similar things to say about the relationship between Carb's & Diabetes that Atkins says. I recommend their book to all Diabetics as it contains lot of useful information.
I watched my diet somewhat, took the med's & things got a bit better. Then I let things slide & my weight continued upward & I started to get some classic Diabetes degenerative symptoms (cracking feet,etc) also the Blood Cholesterol, Blood Pressure (all the X factor syndrome items) were also not good, so much so, that in late May of this year my doctor wanted to put me on insulin. He also told me if I didn't get this under control I would probably be dead within a decade. He was trying to scare some sense into me & he did.
I told him to give me 2 monthes I had something I wanted to try 1st. He agreed. At that time I had a friend who had great results w/Atkins so I was interested. That weekend I went out & bought the book(DANDR) & read it cover to cover.
On June 1 of this year I started Induction. 2 monthes later I went in to see my doctor, I had lost around 20lbs & my Blood Glucose, HBA1C, Blood Lipid levels, Blood Pressure had all improved significantly. I told the doctor my daily BG readings were getting so low I wanted to dump the med's. He agreed w/the caveat that I monitor them closely & if they went back up to resume the med/s
They did go back up slightly for a time but then started coming back down as I increased my exercise & started taking some Vita-Nutrients known to help Diabetics (more about that later)
Now this week I did my 6 month bloodwork. It appears for all practical purposes the Diabetes is gone. My Blood Glucose levels are normal & the HBA1C (3 month average) is in the 'Nondiabetic' range. My blood pressure & cholesterol readings were all greatly improved once again.
I have a glucometer & test my BG levels sometimes several times a day. They are pretty steady within the 90-110 band now amost 100% of the time. Very few highs & lows either. At 1st glance is would appear my Diabetes is 'cured' however don't be fooled. Somone once posted a very good point although obesity & Type II Diabetes are closely linked, not all fat people are diabetic & not all diabetics are fat, some of us just have a genetic predispositon to the disease, that will not go away. However, if you follow the Atkins plan your Diabetes will go into complete remission, just don't fool yourself, if you go back to the old high carbohydrate way of eating it will come right back.
For people that want to lose weight Atkins is a great workable WOE, for us Diabetics it is a neccessity & a truly a lifesaver. My grandmother died a ugly death on diabetes losing limbs to amputation etc, if she had the info available to her that we all have now she would have had the option, like we do, of curing herself & staying alive much longer.
Another great reference is Dr Bernstein's "The Diabetes Solution" please buy a copy if you are diabetic. Amazon has it. He is a practicing doctor who has Type 1 Diabetes & also advocates a low carb diet, there are chapters on glucometers & other diabetic only issues that make this book a 'must have' for us Diabetics.
Finally I have played a lot w/Vita-Nutrients. The ones that I find really help stabilize my BG levels are Chromium Picolinate, Grape Seed Extract & Lipoic Acid. Lipoic Acid is not cheap but once I added it to my daily intake my BG levels smoothed right out.
As far as this forum I am a reluctant leader in some ways because some of the diabetic issues are very technical & deal w/life & death issues to some extent & I am no doctor. Also the med's that are prescribed in the US do not seem to have same active ingredients as what they prescribe in Asia so I dont' know much medwise. Also like the rest of us I am not independently wealthy so spend a lot of time earning $$ to support myself & my family, so there are constraints on my time too.
One final note: If you are Diabetic, practicing Atkins or not, & reading this please post your experiences here so that we may share info. We want to build this forum into a library that can help anyone who comes here to learn. Bottom line; the more info there is the more people can get helped by visiting us.
OK I'll give you a little of my background. About 2&1/2 years ago I was diagnosed w/Type II Diabetes. Here in Singapore the doctor put me on a med from France called Diamicron & active ingredients were Diazide & Gliclazide. At that time I bought & read The Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program : Break Your Carbo-Insulin Connection to Heart Disease by Rachael Heller (Author), Frederic Vagnini (Author), Richard Heller (Author) which has a lot of similar things to say about the relationship between Carb's & Diabetes that Atkins says. I recommend their book to all Diabetics as it contains lot of useful information.
I watched my diet somewhat, took the med's & things got a bit better. Then I let things slide & my weight continued upward & I started to get some classic Diabetes degenerative symptoms (cracking feet,etc) also the Blood Cholesterol, Blood Pressure (all the X factor syndrome items) were also not good, so much so, that in late May of this year my doctor wanted to put me on insulin. He also told me if I didn't get this under control I would probably be dead within a decade. He was trying to scare some sense into me & he did.
I told him to give me 2 monthes I had something I wanted to try 1st. He agreed. At that time I had a friend who had great results w/Atkins so I was interested. That weekend I went out & bought the book(DANDR) & read it cover to cover.
On June 1 of this year I started Induction. 2 monthes later I went in to see my doctor, I had lost around 20lbs & my Blood Glucose, HBA1C, Blood Lipid levels, Blood Pressure had all improved significantly. I told the doctor my daily BG readings were getting so low I wanted to dump the med's. He agreed w/the caveat that I monitor them closely & if they went back up to resume the med/s
They did go back up slightly for a time but then started coming back down as I increased my exercise & started taking some Vita-Nutrients known to help Diabetics (more about that later)
Now this week I did my 6 month bloodwork. It appears for all practical purposes the Diabetes is gone. My Blood Glucose levels are normal & the HBA1C (3 month average) is in the 'Nondiabetic' range. My blood pressure & cholesterol readings were all greatly improved once again.
I have a glucometer & test my BG levels sometimes several times a day. They are pretty steady within the 90-110 band now amost 100% of the time. Very few highs & lows either. At 1st glance is would appear my Diabetes is 'cured' however don't be fooled. Somone once posted a very good point although obesity & Type II Diabetes are closely linked, not all fat people are diabetic & not all diabetics are fat, some of us just have a genetic predispositon to the disease, that will not go away. However, if you follow the Atkins plan your Diabetes will go into complete remission, just don't fool yourself, if you go back to the old high carbohydrate way of eating it will come right back.
For people that want to lose weight Atkins is a great workable WOE, for us Diabetics it is a neccessity & a truly a lifesaver. My grandmother died a ugly death on diabetes losing limbs to amputation etc, if she had the info available to her that we all have now she would have had the option, like we do, of curing herself & staying alive much longer.
Another great reference is Dr Bernstein's "The Diabetes Solution" please buy a copy if you are diabetic. Amazon has it. He is a practicing doctor who has Type 1 Diabetes & also advocates a low carb diet, there are chapters on glucometers & other diabetic only issues that make this book a 'must have' for us Diabetics.
Finally I have played a lot w/Vita-Nutrients. The ones that I find really help stabilize my BG levels are Chromium Picolinate, Grape Seed Extract & Lipoic Acid. Lipoic Acid is not cheap but once I added it to my daily intake my BG levels smoothed right out.
As far as this forum I am a reluctant leader in some ways because some of the diabetic issues are very technical & deal w/life & death issues to some extent & I am no doctor. Also the med's that are prescribed in the US do not seem to have same active ingredients as what they prescribe in Asia so I dont' know much medwise. Also like the rest of us I am not independently wealthy so spend a lot of time earning $$ to support myself & my family, so there are constraints on my time too.
One final note: If you are Diabetic, practicing Atkins or not, & reading this please post your experiences here so that we may share info. We want to build this forum into a library that can help anyone who comes here to learn. Bottom line; the more info there is the more people can get helped by visiting us.
and specifically, to the Diabetic Forum!!
Comment