Posted in wrong Universe

Gee - golly - whiz - not stepping on my toes. I think I will give up my insulin and start taking about 50 supplements per day so I can control my BG from 150 - 250. Fighting those damn meds, who would have thought it - thanks for sounding like you know what you are talking about Cajun...

/smile

P.S. I'll upload my BG's against any normal persons anyday... give up one bad pharmacy produced for 50 good "natural" ones - what a deal
P.P.S. Sufonylureas are probably one of the worst things a T2 can take for normalization...

You know, Cajun, some people can put diabetes in remission without any "herbals" by simply losing weight. You've lost a lot and I would suspect that it had more to do with your control than your herbals.

But some type 2s have beta cell damage and will never be able to achieve normal BG control without meds, no matter what they do. I don't consider insulin a drug, it is a hormone. If you don't have the cells to make the right amount of insulin at the right time then you have to think like a pancreas and provide your body the right amount at the right time.

Insulin preserves beta cells in type 2s. It isn't a bad thing. *uses Martha Stewart voice* It's a good thing.

My basal changes over time. I began on 45u Lantus (determined empirically while I was hospitalized), then a few weeks later I went hypo and adjusted to 25 units. Currently I'm back up to 35 units. I've only been on insulin a year and don't know if my needs will change seasonally or what.

My bolus runs around 25-35 units per day, depending on exactly what I eat.

I'm not at maintenance NOR am I losing weight. I am maintaining my current weight on what is supposedly a huge calorie deficit. I am recovering from surgery and other health problems and presume weight loss will resume as my ability to exercise increases. My thyroid tests fine, but my temperature never runs around 94-96, so I assume my metabolism is a bit depressed due to the other health issues I'm dealing with.



There's no doubt that more carb and more insulin will result in less fat loss and at some point even in fat gain.

As to whether that is worth it to you or not, that's up to you. Personally, if a particular occasion is worth it, I'd say go for it, assuming those occasions don't happen too often.

The thing is... controlling bg is important *whether* you are losing weight or not. Don't "punish" yourself by letting your bg go high just cause you "cheat" on your diet.

As to how 8-10u effects a T2... we're all *very* different. I've been a T2 for two decades and have what seems to be pretty severe insulin resistance.

I know T2s who control eating significantly more carb and taking no insulin at all. I know T2s who eat much more strictly than I do and take LOTS more insulin.

I listed my insulin rules in my previous post. Those are *my* rules, determined empirically in *my* body. It took a LOT of testing to figure them out.

You can know the parameters that generally effect diabetics, but you have to test to know which affect you. The literature says T2s don't have to account for protein when dosing insulin, but I do. I have a wicked Dawn Phenomenon. I have *never* observed the "Chinese Restaraunt" effect. I also don't seem to have a "pizza effect" either. I know all this by just HUGE amounts of testing.

I'm an absolute *expert* on *my* diabetes - better than any of my doctors or anyone else. You have to become that for yourself also.



Nope. IMO, no one else does either. There's just too many variables and we're all very different in terms of how we react.

You find out by trying it for a few weeks and see how it goes.

It *really* depends on the person and how bad their diabetes is.

After my pancreasitis attack, I couldn't get my bg down even *fasting* for several days at a time. I couldn't get my bg below 300 on NO food at all!

There was no doubt that I needed to be on insulin.

I'm still a T2 though. I have a normal c-peptide and no GAB antibodies. I just don't make enough insulin to overcome my insulin resistance.

jpatti,

Thank you for your helpful reply. I hope that you make a speedy recovery from your surgery.

I think I will stay for now on my regular regimen. My BG numbers have always come first since drinking Bernstein's Kool-Aid. It took me a lot of months to gain this weight, I am in no real hurry to lose it so will stay with the minimal carb intake and insulin. I really enjoy the way of eating anyway, cheese, eggs, meat, more eggs... I usually keep the calories down and it is working for me so I think I will wait for a few months before I change anything.

Be well, live long and prosper (and don't be seduced by the dark side of the Force, unless you really want to have some fun)

/smile

Posted in wrong Universe

I am glad your treatment methodology works for you, I really am and always appreciate people sharing their experience rather than their opinions. Opinions don't do much for me. Sometimes their experience doesn't do much for me either but I always consider it.

I take the meds I need (Lantus), not the ones that I want (morphine)... I don't take multiple supplements that seem to work for you. I only need the Lantus for my diabetes.

As to a way out - I am not sure that I need a way out of anything. I certainly don't want to get into the habit of taking and experimenting with a multiplicity of questionable supplements especially considering all the combinations and permutations thereof. I think you have about 15 posts recently on changing this one and dropping that one and adding this one... I don't think I really want to go there. Lantus and LC works for me and there is a pretty good clinical basis for its efficacy. That seems to work for me. I am seriously glad your method works for you. I hope you find a way out of your confusion with respect to other people's methods.

Kindest Regards,
/smile

Just Lantus, Korban? I'm impressed. And I know you are savvy enough about insulin to know that if you accidentally ingest some sugar (as in being served the wrong Coke), you can bring it down fast with a bolus.

i don't think I would like to be on oral meds either because you can't adjust quickly. I can see where cajunboy is coming from in that regard.

jpatti, you are doing exactly the right thing for you. Only you can manage your diabetes. That's true for all of us.

But I did drink the Kool-Aid, and I don't think I'll ever go back. What Bernstein did for type 1 diabetes is simply phenomenal. If he had been among the research cognoscenti, I have no doubt he would have won a Nobel prize.

The major flaw is 30 carbs for life. That's forever and that's hard for a lot of people. But, I have every intention to go about my tweaking while still maintaining the Bernstein philosophy. I think jpatti is right in that there is a point where the law of small numbers will break, but that point is probably going to different for different people, and the only way to ascertain that point of good control plus a good quality life is to experiment.

Cajun
You are on medication even though it's nonprescription.
Call it "nutritional supplement" if you want to but please
don't call it "natural".
Cajun,Korban
Glipizide ER is a great improvement to the sulfonylureas.
Glyburide made me hypo,Glimepiride made me hypo,
Glipizide instaneous release made me hypo.Glipizide ER
works well in conjunction with Metformin-very good
control and not one hypo episode.
Bye for now
Eddie

jpattie and Korban - liked your recent posts. We really all have to become an expert in 'our' diabetes, and others experience can give us ideas when what we are doing isn't working.

Just Lantus - I dropped the metformin for no apparent reason as I didn't really see much difference... forgot to change it in my sig. I have bolused a unit on occasion with Novolog but at my present diet, it is pretty rare... on my last visit to my CDE on uploading my data - she didn't have much to say except "Don't you ever want a grilled cheese sandwich every now and then?" She is a T1 pumper and really quite knowledgeable about diabetes for the most part. I think most of her patients are not real compliant.

/smile

I agree Eddie - as ER wasn't specified I assumed the older non-sustained release. I never was scribed the ER. I used to get hypos all the time with regular glip before I started knowing a bit about what I was doing... couldn't get the timing down... dropping it was a big move forward for my numbers.

/smile

Yes, yes! And I think I know a way to do it too. I have flax meal, yeast, carbquik..... *runs to the kitchen to mix some bread dough*

A grilled cheese wrap isn't bad using LaTortilla Factory
low carb wrap.This wrap is huge-only 6 net carbs and 14 grams
of fiber.Also makes a good wrap for breakfast burrito.
I need to get some of the carbquik and try a few things .
Eddie