scoop
Sun, Dec-08-02, 07:50
Greetings.
I am the reporter writing a 1,000-word piece on the Bernstein diet for my local weekly--(Isthmus, Madison, Wis.'s version of the Village Voice). I am also a Type 1 diabetic (last 10 years) who discovered Bernstein by accident and for whom it has been very successful. I have wanted to write about this for a while, but it wasn't considered to have broad enough appeal. I finally have the okay, however.
My reason to post today is to inquire a few things of listmembers.
My endocrinologist is supportive of my program, as it works for me,
obviously. But she has never actually read B's book, nor have any educators
I have met. These days, they find that some diabetic patients come to them
perhaps interested in Atkins, and that they try Atkins and lose weight, and
then they gain it all back again. (Or they choose to ignore high BSs and
the doc is happy to get them to cut five daily sodas from their diets.)
The point that I am making is that we clearly have not gotten even close to
the idea that this is a serious method that docs should be aware of (and I
mean Bernstein, not Atkins, including the benefits of the laws of small #s, the mathematical calculations for Regular insulin dosage, etc.) The docs/educators should offer these as alternatives that work to
their patients, not simply respond to patients who ask THEM. The patient
should be made aware of the successes that diabetics are having on the
Bernstein diet, and the pt. should choose for him/herself.
The alternative continues to be our status quo, where most diabetics are
advised to eat what is essentially poison, take meds, and hope for the
best. I am meanwhile told that I am unusual, a "compulsive" diabetic, and
that other patients they see will not be willing to change their lifestyles
this radically. But I end up educating diabetics informally all the time,
and they are usually happy to at least know about it.
Only this week ,after a work colleague failed to return from T-day, and is
now on a hospital cardiac floor with a leg infection and diabetes
diagnosis, did another one of my diabetic T2 colleagues buy the Bernstein
book. He'd known of it for two years (through me) and has finally decided
to seriously investigate it, because his sugars are not too good.
How many converts to Bernstein are there in this country? Bernstein
certainly lists a number in DSolution. What did it take for them to finally
change? Was it the complications they were suffering or which they feared?
Or was it simple education, seriously put, instead of the current "of
that's just Atkins for
diabetics" stuff that I hear all the time?
How many of the diabetics on this are pissed at their (former?) docs and CDEs, who either didn't know of this method, or resisted it?
Kathy
I am the reporter writing a 1,000-word piece on the Bernstein diet for my local weekly--(Isthmus, Madison, Wis.'s version of the Village Voice). I am also a Type 1 diabetic (last 10 years) who discovered Bernstein by accident and for whom it has been very successful. I have wanted to write about this for a while, but it wasn't considered to have broad enough appeal. I finally have the okay, however.
My reason to post today is to inquire a few things of listmembers.
My endocrinologist is supportive of my program, as it works for me,
obviously. But she has never actually read B's book, nor have any educators
I have met. These days, they find that some diabetic patients come to them
perhaps interested in Atkins, and that they try Atkins and lose weight, and
then they gain it all back again. (Or they choose to ignore high BSs and
the doc is happy to get them to cut five daily sodas from their diets.)
The point that I am making is that we clearly have not gotten even close to
the idea that this is a serious method that docs should be aware of (and I
mean Bernstein, not Atkins, including the benefits of the laws of small #s, the mathematical calculations for Regular insulin dosage, etc.) The docs/educators should offer these as alternatives that work to
their patients, not simply respond to patients who ask THEM. The patient
should be made aware of the successes that diabetics are having on the
Bernstein diet, and the pt. should choose for him/herself.
The alternative continues to be our status quo, where most diabetics are
advised to eat what is essentially poison, take meds, and hope for the
best. I am meanwhile told that I am unusual, a "compulsive" diabetic, and
that other patients they see will not be willing to change their lifestyles
this radically. But I end up educating diabetics informally all the time,
and they are usually happy to at least know about it.
Only this week ,after a work colleague failed to return from T-day, and is
now on a hospital cardiac floor with a leg infection and diabetes
diagnosis, did another one of my diabetic T2 colleagues buy the Bernstein
book. He'd known of it for two years (through me) and has finally decided
to seriously investigate it, because his sugars are not too good.
How many converts to Bernstein are there in this country? Bernstein
certainly lists a number in DSolution. What did it take for them to finally
change? Was it the complications they were suffering or which they feared?
Or was it simple education, seriously put, instead of the current "of
that's just Atkins for
diabetics" stuff that I hear all the time?
How many of the diabetics on this are pissed at their (former?) docs and CDEs, who either didn't know of this method, or resisted it?
Kathy