I've been frustrated lately that no matter how low I get my carbs (between 5-10), my BG readings are often still higher than I'd like. According the the ACE (American College of Endocrinology), BG should be 110 or less before eating. I rarely get that low. Yesterday I did some extra testing to see what my BG was after 1, 2, & 3 hours. It was pretty discouraging. Woke up with a FBG of 125. After eating a breakfast of 2 eggs cooked in butter and a tablespoon of coconut oil, my BG was 126 an hour later, and 122 after another hour and a half. The only way to get my BG below 110 before eating supper was eating less than normal at lunch (chicken, salad, cheese) and waiting an extra hour before eating again. Still, it took almost 5 hours to get my BG down to 107 – and I was starving! After eating a supper with only 1g of carb, my BG dropped to 104, then rose to 116, and after 3 1/2 hours it was 132!

I gave up and went to bed.

This morning I talked with a doctor friend and asked him about this. He suggested that since I've had T2 for about 10 years (possibly longer) my pancreas is too damaged to respond well.

Is he right? (He's a good doctor and a very nice person, but I'm hoping he's wrong!) If he's right, is there any chance of the pancreas healing? (He doesn't think that is possible.) Is there any way – short of more meds which I do NOT want - to get my BG down lower?

If this information is in one of Dr. Bs books, you can just give me the page numbers.

are you exercising? Walk daily will help. Uphill is better.

Generally avoiding long times over 140 is thought to greatly reduce any chance of serious complications, although this is a YMMV sort of thing.

Are you using insulin?

Bernstein says in his book that while it is *possible* for a T2 to get off all meds on his diet, it will depend on the individual. Also, while it might be *possible* that your pancreas is worn out after 10 years as a T2, that's not necessarily true either. More likely, you're insulin resistant so your body isn't effectively using the insulin you're producing.

How long have you been following Bernstein? If only for a short time, be patient as he says it may take 6 months or so for a person to reverse their insulin resistance which, ultimately, is what will let your body use your own insulin more effectively.

You could take some sort of oral medication like metformin to force your pancreas to produce more (which is a fairly common way of handling this at your lower levels) or you can just be patient and continue on for a few months and see if it doesn't drop normally over time.

Do you know what your A1c is? I find that is far more important than the day to day numbers.

How much protein are you eating? I'm not T2, or at least not diagnosed as such, and I find that keeping my protein below 80g a day drops my fasting BG by 20 or more points (depending on how low I go). Usually 60-70g gives me great FBG.

I'm taking 1000 mg metformin, been following Dr. B's program since the beginning of September - so almost 5 months. I'm getting an A1C this week - I'm excited about it. Apprehensive too. It will be even more discouraging if it hasn't gone down much. I tend to worry about things.

I know I was eating too much protein - getting it down now to a more reasonable number. More fat really does help.

Until it got too icy to be safe, I was walking a mile - briskly - almost every day. So I've been a couch potato until last week. Daughter gave me an exercise video that has lots of stretching exercises - which I need. It's much easier for me to exercise with someone - even an annoyingly cheerful guy on a video - than by myself.

OK - I'll stop obsessing about my daily numbers - or at least I'll try - and give myself more time. Thanks for all the replies!

I am not sure exactly what effect on the BGs Metformin has. Like when I took Byetta. My BGs would be lower in 2 hours. Then if I looked at a 3 hour reading they went up. All it did was delay the inevitable with me. Metformin never had an impact on me.

My questions:
1) same as Nancy, how much protein?
2) Agree with newloc
3) Hours between meals? are you following the 4 hour guideline?
4) Morning BGs how long are you waiting? I wait 2 hours before eating in the morning to give my BGs time to come down 10 points. I typically wake to 100-110(been a while since i tested) and by the time 2 hours goes by I can get it between 90-100 before I eat.
4) are you drinking diet sodas? Or using artificial sweeteners? recent study suggest that these still cause the pancreas to secrete insulin regardless if there is actual sugar. Thus overworking the pancreas.

So far since I have lost my weight and getting my BGs semi under control. I have not been able to get them to be normal... They basically hover in the 90s sometimes low 100s.

I am not on any meds.

I do feel there is long term damage done to the pancreas. LC if done in time probably can catch it and get someone to recover.

But if not done in time (like with me) it just slows the progression of the disease down and puts it in remission. Until one day the pancrease fails.

The sad thing is for people like me, insulin resistant. All we can do is measure BGs. and what we really need to be able to do is measure insulin to find out if our pancreas is indeed wearing out and how it is responding to certain nutrition/exercise.

One thing I read, in my search for understanding Vitamin D effects on the body. Was Vitamin D effects your use of hormones. And one of those Hormones is insulin. So if you are defficient, might want to try upping your dosage.

I have been taking it with meals and on dosage at night. So 4 times a day. And it helps alot with my energy levels. And I am crossing my fingers but this combined with cultured coconut milk(at the same time) actually might have solved my hunger problems. But it is too early to tell in that experiment.

More than just a cephalic phase insulin release? Do you have a link? I have found lots of studies that find no significant release of insulin.

I will have to find it and dig it out... I found a link about 6 months ago... I almost want to say NIH... But could be mistaken... When I get the time I will search for it again...

Like Lovinita, I don't eat for an hour or more after getting up. But I hadn't thought to check BG to see if it went down before eating breakfast. I'll do that (oh my poor fingertips!).

I do wait 4 hours or more before eating, except on rare occasions. And I do have some artificial sweeteners. I've learned that too much affects me, but perhaps even the small amount I'm still having is too much. But diet soda is my crutch of choice! I drink just one on most days, and lately I've been alternating the diet Pepsi with stevia-sweetened ginger ale. Not quite as tasty, but OK.

I seem to remember Dr. B writing that anything put in the stomach, even sawdust, will make the pancreas secrete insulin. So I never have soft drinks between meals. Just water, and on occasion herb tea or broth.

Kind of funny - I checked BG before eating supper yesterday & was down to 110. No suffering, just normal hunger. So maybe part of it is just getting the body (as well as the mind) used to the new regimen.

I am weaning myself onto fizzy water these days. I have a Sodastream, so I just make my own. I've had a loooong term diet cola addiction.

Hey Nancy, this wasn't the article... But here is one that I found briefly while trying to find the one I read...I don't have the link to the one I found a while agao.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/..._n_3362122.html

I read through this one along time ago. That talked about the correlation of child hood obesity and artificial sweetners...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951976/

I will try and keep on searching to see if I can find it... But this is the best I can do so far.

I remembered this morning to check both FBG & BG before eating (but after my morning coffee & coconut oil). My FBG was 116 - pretty normal for me. But just before breakfast - about 1 1/2 hours later - my BG was 99!

I'm going to keep checking for a while to see if this was a fluke or normal.