As many of you know, I was diagnosed with adult onset diabetes. Like my father before me. And his father before him. When we hit our 40's, things get wonky. As my doctor put it.. "You Pancreas just gets lazy".

Well for the last week I've been feeling hypoglycemic, and increased my blood sugar monitoring. Reviewed the results (thanks, iPhone logging app... !). Looked at my diet (way better), exercise (increasing), and the measurements.

I'll have to reduce my dosage of 'glucophage' (an old 1950's drug that is cheap and works great for me). Started off at 2,000 mg a day three years ago. I was on 1,000 mg a day for the last year and a half. I'll need to drop it to 500mg a day, titrate, and see what happens.

Booyah !

No 'cute diets', no 'weird exercise programs'. Just reducing carbs, increasing protein, reducing fats, increasing exercise... walking, isometrics while I walk, fiddling around with those big bungie cord things (I keep thinking they'd make awesome slingshots). I've dropped 50lbs so far in 3 years. A1C enzyme dropped from a peak of 7.3 down to 6.4 a month ago.

If I keep pushing, I'm hoping I can be off all medication until the Pancreas really wears out, hopefully in my 80's. Then it will be insulin an all that, but that's OK.

Woohoo! Congrats on your success, cbelt3! I wouldn't generalize your results to be applicable to everyone in the world, but they certainly are impressive and inspiring. Great job!

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rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

congrats!

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There was an interesting study I read about a few months ago... it was a SMALL study, so it would need repeating to be really valid...
But a number of type II diabetes patients were given a 30 day carefully balanced 800 calorie a day diet (that's essentially starvation)... and a startling percentage of them, when returned to a sensible balanced diet, had normal blood sugar levels.
It wasn't 100%, and of course, I don't know the follow-up (if any of the "cured" returned to diabetic...) but it's still interesting!

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--
Eureka, CA

Weight loss is a good thing...

thumbs up!

my mom is similar
she exercises everyday and is fit for her age (mid-60s)
gardens and her checkups for A1C was down even without her taking
medications. The thing is you have to be religious about your eating and exercise habits and not stray off the beaten path too much.

think about some other insulin regulating-related foods.. i think
she takes cinnamon pills for the agent in that, there are other unproven
but perhaps helpful foods for keeping on track. She watches Dr. Oz
regularly and he has stuff on his show everyonce in a while that talks about certain foods and stuff for diabetes...

Great job, keep up the good work. Your A1C is great.

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That's great news.

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RIP, Greg the DogSitter. You are missed.

great work, cbelt!

fight that

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[www.giyf.com]

Quote
Paul F.
There was an interesting study I read about a few months ago... it was a SMALL study, so it would need repeating to be really valid...
But a number of type II diabetes patients were given a 30 day carefully balanced 800 calorie a day diet (that's essentially starvation)... and a startling percentage of them, when returned to a sensible balanced diet, had normal blood sugar levels.
It wasn't 100%, and of course, I don't know the follow-up (if any of the "cured" returned to diabetic...) but it's still interesting!

Starvation diets were the only treatment for diabetes until insulin was discovered and harvested from cows.

Tenders;
Maybe so, but in this study, they STAYED non-diabedic after the conclusion of the diet. Again, how LONG it lasted, I didn't read...

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Paul F.
-----
A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--
Eureka, CA

A large number of contestants on the Biggest Loser who are type 2 can go off their meds and maintain themselves with just their lifestyle changes. Fantastic cbelt3. Mom and my step-dad both have type 2, and they manage through diet and exercise. My step-dad lost 100 pounds and started bike riding to work. Huge change for him.

A1C started at 7.3 ? You call that high? I can top it and raise you 4 points! Thanks to the power of chemicals I lowered it to 7.2 and my doctor was amazed. My daily numbers are all over the street from 70 to 155.

I have found a very easy way to track my numbers. I found a program called Glooko in the appstore. It do require a special cable and does not work with all brands of meters. It works well with Bayers meters.
It downloads from the meter to the iPhone and will allow you to look at your data in different ways. It saves having to manually enter numbers into a diary or program. I can send a fax with all the numbers to my doctor or to myself and take it in with me to my appointment.