HAS anyone here tried Alpha Lipoic acid? Does it reduce BG?

Are baked beans (Haricot, kidney etc) low GI? I have seen this advertised but had assumed these kind of beans were the same as (as bad as) grains? Does anyone eat them or similar kinds of beans and if so, what do they do to your BG?

From my personal experience, Alpha Lipoic Acid was great to help me with diabetic neuropathy, but never noticed it doing anything to reduce blood sugar.

Beans are the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot!

I am not a great fan of beans and would never sit down and eat a bowl or cup of them, but I do eat a few beans here and there in my diet, mixed with other foods. I see no impact on my BG numbers, but my portions in a meal are probably no more than about 3 tablespoons.....

KisKaha
I have been taking Alpha Lipoic Acid(600 mg daily) for years.
Like Cajun,I take it to avoid diabetic neuropathy and have not
noticed it dropping my BG levels.
About baked beans:
Baked beans themselves are low GI but watch out for the
sugar content of the baked beans.Pinto beans might be better..
Cheers
Eddie

All diabetics should eat to their meter to determine if any particular food causes too much of a BG rise. Grains aren't necessarily "bad" as many diabetics can eat them to no ill effects. It is highly individual. I used to eat a lot of beans and had great control, but I also worked out every day. Complex carbs are very helpful in fueling a good workout. I can eat oatmeal and workout and have better BGs all day than I would eating stricly low carb and not working out. YMMV.

I take ALA to prevent neuropathy and thankfully I've never had it. I plan to keep it that way.

I forgot to mention that Alpha Lipoic Acid depletes Biotin.
Probably advisable to take supplemental Biotin if you
are using ALA.1000 mcg Biotin would probably be appropriate.
Cheers
Eddie

My brand of ALA has Biotin and Chromax so I can kill 3 pills in one gulp.

I think we take pills for so long sometimes, we forget a lot of particulars. As mentioned in the two previous posts, biotin is important if taking large doses of ALA. I used to take large doses of ALA and did supplement with Super B Complex and Biotin, but now I only take 100mg of ALA daily, just as a preventative measure and only supplement with a multi-vitamin. I had horrible neuropathy in hands and feet and even though I'm ok now, I still take ALA just out of hopes it will keep the neuropathy from returning. So far, so good...

Thanks for that - I just read that ALA and Cinnamon Bark were essential for Diabetics. Assumed it was for BG control as that is what I think cinnamon is supposed to do.

Can anybody get diabetic retinopathy or is it only something that you get if you dont have good BG control? Just out of interest, if you do have it, what are the early signs?

I have been avoiding the whole single food testing thing (because of the cost of strips - we have subsidised healthcare and I can get strips for Africa if I am on Insulin, otherwise it is barely enough for me to test my blood, twice a day - talk about send all the wrong signals!).

However I am finding that I cant face another green vege and that my dawn effect is less with more carbs. 2 months ago I stalled for 4 weeks, then got fed up with the 20C/day and loosened things up to around 35 ish and lo and behold my worsening dawn effect, improved from around 7.0 mmol to 6.2 or thereabouts. Only problem now is I am not losing weight but am feeling healthier and less sick of the food now that I have a more variety.

I was thinking my next step might be BG testing of all low GI foods and then build a purpose built calorie controlled diet based on calories and BG response. Do any of you think this might work? Otherwise I am a bit stumped - I have 10 more stone to lose and 20 - 24c/day isnt working currently.

Are you exercising, KiaKaha? That is so important for health and can also help the weight loss. I'm sorry to read that you can only check your BG twice per day. That seems criminal to me. At one point, I had to buy all my testing supplies and it does get expensive. It's something we simply must do.

We're all different so the smart thing to do is test foods with your meter. What works for one of us may not work for another. The vast majority of diabetics are on calorie controlled diets and it works for many of them. The ADA recommendations are extreme in carbohydrates at a higher calorie level. The very basic ADA recommendations say to fill half your plate with green veggies, divide the other half in two parts and fill those with your protein and your starch selection. I don't see how you are going to be able to get around green veggies.

I would suggest that if you are going to eat low-GI fruit that you have it with your meals which would include protein and fat. You must include some fats in order to stave off hunger.

How many calories were you thinking of?

You need a yearly eye exam for retinopathy. Here's a good article on the symptoms:

http://www.stlukeseye.com/Condition...Retinopathy.asp

Basically, for me anyway, my diabetic retinopathy in my feet and hands were from out of control blood sugars. I would think the odds would be slim to develop it with blood sugars in control. It might depend on how the average BG is controlled. Large spikes with hypos later and averaging in a normal range certainly might lead to neuropathy problems. Staying within normal ranges at all times can probably help avoid complications of neuropathy.

Diabetic Neuropathy to hands and feet is reversible. Eye and Kidney damage is another story.

With neuropathy in my feet, I experienced burning sensation in legs, pain when walking or standing, numbness in feet, especially toes... With neuropathy in my hands, I had no burning sensation, but experienced a lot of numbness and some pain. I had a nerve conduction study and it was determined I had carpal tunnel syndrome which is diabetic related. I never had any surgery for the carpal tunnel problems.

The ALA, plus other supplements and a continued and improved control of blood sugars eventually reversed all my neuropathy symptoms.

I wouldn't say there are early signs. It starts and gets worse with time if BG is not controlled. It can lead to amputations. My neuropathy was at a point I could only walk with diabetic shoes and a cane. I couldn't hold an ink pen long enough to sign my name. I couldn't hardly drive my car as holding the steering wheel was extremely difficult. That was about 4 or 5 years ago. Knowing what I've been through and knowing how much recovery I've had is more than enough to keep me on the straight and narrow path to continued health improvements......

Cajun Boy - that is terrible. I am so glad the neuropathy has improved! Hard to imagine - my uncle had a leg amputated - I had forgotten. Not that he is around these days as he didnt live much after that.

I dont test all the time due to cost but I do random tests during the day from time to time (apart from morning and evening) and during the day, it is always between 5.5 and 6.1 mmol. So I have had no problems with BG since following an extremely lo carb diet with the odd caveat that dawn effect has clearly worsened under this regime. (Wierd that it would improve with a few more carbs).

Susan - I probably should have said 'Leafy green vege' as at 20c I wasnt getting any zuccini (sp?), brussels, green beans etc and was even limiting broccoli. Now I am eating all those things as well as the occassional carrot, tomato and some other veg.

I was thinking 1500 calories, I think the calorie/weight charts still put me at around 2400 maintenance calories/day so that sounds like a reasonable level ie: I think I would be able to get a balance of food (fat, protein, carbs) and have enough to eat. Hopefully I would lose weight on it.

I think exercise is significant too and I am still really inactive. When I stalled with losing weight, I did start walking slowly for 30 minutes, 4 days a week. In fact, being 2 stone lighter it wasnt anywhere near as hard as it used to be but by the end of the second week, one of my knees started going out from under me. So I pulled back on that - I hurt my knee a while back and the Dr said it would get better on its own. Anyway long story short - I need to go and get it xrayed and maybe physio'd if its not too late for it.

However none of that excuses me and I need to get serious about exercising.

Would you eat a high carb food if it fit within your calorie profile and didnt effect your BG? EG: About 2 weeks ago - due to circumstances, I had a day full of crises and didnt get to do the shopping. So we all came home and had cheese on toast - I dont tend to go off the rails at all and feeling totally guilt ridden I tested my blood at 1/2 hour and 1 hour and 1.5 hours (Dont know if that was how you are supposed to do it). But I was really surprised to find the peak was 6.1 mmol at 30 minutes (do you think it peaked before then and I missed it) and then 5.8 at 1 hr etc.

Does this mean I can eat bread sometimes? Or should I avoid it regardless? Would the effect have been less because of the fat and protein in the cheese?

KiaKaHa,

I am posting a good website below: It can let you know your Base number of calories needed daily and can help you determine about how much you should eat to produce weight loss without starving yourself. I'd suggest though, like anything else, modify and tweak it to fit you... This is just a small part of the whole picture when it comes to controlling diabetes. I've learned to never depend on one thing but on a combination of many things to achieve better health.

There's a website for which I posted a link a while back and it talks about how we're all somewhat different, but we can all start at a common point and start from there and modify our diets to what works best for us.

When I was at my peak weight, my carb tolerance was about 10g per day. As my health improved, it gradually increased. I'm able to tolerate 100g-150g per day now and stay in control, but it was a long road getting here, with lots of trials and experimentations.

You asked; "Does it mean I can eat bread sometimes?" I think the answer is maybe, but considering your current stats, you're probably at a point of very low carb tolerance and should probably avoid breads for now.

When you're not sure how a food will affect you, eat it, test yourself at one and two hours afterward and if you get negative results, you will then know what not to do again, right?

I've become a strong believer in eating when my energy feels low and not wait to eat when I am hungry. I also believe that restricting calories below your base rate needed each day is countrer-productive.

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder and everything we do should include trying to increase our metabolism. That is just my opinion based on my experience, not derived from science.....

Here's the link:

http://www.phord.com/cc/?m=US&goal=...8.74-100.965-38

I am sick to death of salad too! Keep eating the high fiber veggies because the fiber helps control BG.



Sure. It's all a matter of food combining to control BG. Don't eat a starch without eating protein and fat with it. I eat only natural, high-fiber starches though. The more fiber the slower you will digest your food and the less impact it will have on your BG. With things like bread (especially combined with fat), the peak may be 3 or 4 hours later. It probably did not make much of an impact because you ate it with cheese.

A glass of red wine at night may significantly reduce your dawn phenomenon. It works better than anything besides NPH insulin.

Read someplace that soluble fiber was very beneficial to
diabetics.Most of us probably don't get enough fiber-
soluble or insoluble.I started doing a couple of tablespoons
of benefiber each day-havn't noticed any remarkable effects
yet.
Waiting...
Eddie

Were it not that the phrase has taken on another meaning Master Tweaker would be an accolade on this site. Most of us find that our bodies don't remain static, and what worked last month is not quite doing the job now. And while we all have fond hopes that our current regimen will last forever we really do not expect it to. So we test at random times and come up with an altered strategy to vary diet, exercise, and medications. And dang, do they ever vary! Tweak Tweak