Welcome to the Diabetic Board

[shawnee]

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.

[shawnee]

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[shawnee]

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[pgreen6840]

Thanks for sharing . My grandmother suffured terribly too. Thank God we have found this program,it truely is a life saver!

Phil

[Coop2004]

Thanks for sharing . My grandmother suffured terribly too. Thank God we have found this program,it truely is a life saver!

Phil

Yes, Phil, I know what you mean. My grandfather, who passed away in 1973, suffered from diabetes (double amputee). And although it wasn't diagnosed as that at the time, he had Alzheimer's. Although, as with many people with Alzheimer's, it's not detected from the very beginning, it was first very obvious with him in 1967 (I was 13 at the time).

I've also heard that diabetics MAY be more prone to Alzheimer's than most. Don't know if you know who James Doohan is (he played the part of Scotty in the original Star Trek TV series). Well, apparently he's a diabetic and, over the summer, it was revealed that he is in the early stages of Alzheimer's.

The following is an article from WebMD

http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/82/97279.htm?printing=true

Diabetes Linked With Alzheimer's Disease

Diabetes Damages Brain Cells, but Other Factors Contribute

By Jeanie Lerche Davis
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD
on Thursday, February 19, 2004

Feb. 19, 2004 -- Abnormalities in insulin's action can also increase risk of Alzheimer's disease. In a study involving mice, researchers have found that insulin resistance can cause some of the brain cell damage typically seen in Alzheimer's disease.

The study is the first to demonstrate a biochemical link between insulin resistance and Alzheimer's disease, write the researchers.

Lead researcher Markus Schubert, PhD, with Germany's Klinik II und Poliklinik für Innere Medizin der Üniversität zu Köln and Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, and colleagues present their findings in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Understanding Insulin Resistance

In the body, insulin resistance occurs when the body fails to respond normally to insulin. As a result, blood-sugar levels increase.

When not controlled, high blood sugar leads to damage of blood vessels and nerves -- resulting in blindness, limb amputations, kidney disease, heart disease, and stroke.

Only recently have scientists come to realize that insulin receptors are present on all tissues of the body, including the brain, which means that insulin resistance can affect functioning of brain tissues.

In fact, one large European study found that people with diabetes were at least twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease as someone without diabetes. The risk was even higher among those people who were taking insulin.

In this study, Schubert and his colleagues used mice genetically altered to have missing insulin receptors in their brain cells. The receptors work to help to translate insulin actions on cells.

After behavioral, memory, and biochemical testing, researchers found that the mice had markedly less insulin signaling proteins in their brains. This led to changes in the TAU protein -- a protein known to be required for the development of Alzheimer's disease.

The changes seen in the brain were similar to what is the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

However, the mice had no changes in brain cell survival or memory -- two of the most common changes seen in early Alzheimer's disease. This indicates that other risk factors besides insulin resistance are necessary for full-blown Alzheimer's disease to develop.

This study "points to how understanding and developing new treatments for insulin resistance may have impact not only in diabetes, but in many other common chronic disorders," says co-researcher C. Ronald Kahn, MD, of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.

[CalifGal]

Dear Shawnee: I just read your story and I thank you for the words of wisdom...

I was just diagnosed type 2 diabetes 2 weeks ago. At first I felt terrified...then tearful...and now I am just confused...I have so many people telling me what I should be doing and what I should not be doing...what I should eat, and what I should not eat...according to the Amerian Diabetes Association the right way to eat is to incorporate whole grains, and fruits with the veggies; and low amounts of meats and fats. But my mind is still fixed on Low Carbs. I cannot go back to Atkins totally, because the fatty meats made me sick (I have a bad gull bladdar). I fell off the Atkins wagon because of craving for fruit and whole grain foods. While I don't think Atkins woe will be the best for me, I am still a low carber at heart....I will probably look for a plan that will be low carb, but without so much fat.

In the meantime I will be searching for menu ideas for simple, low budget meals with a diabetic, low carb benefit.