What are Doctors Thinking?

[da Walnut]

Mom is a Type II diabetic with complications out wazoo. She tried to tell her doctor how great I was doing on Atkins and was told that if she didn't eat enough carbs that her blood sugar would go up!?!?!

When I went up for Thanksgiving, she ate what I ate for lunch and dinner, for breakfast she had toast, and not one day she ate that way did she need a second shot, in fact, she dropped low every night.

She told her doctor and the doctor jumped all over her for trying the lower carb WOL.

I swear the doc is trying to kill my mother rather than fix the problems.

[canuck]

Goodonya, if she drops her carbs she must drop her insulin as will go too low and that can be dangerous. You need cabrs to take insulin but if have 0 gr of carbs you will need to test test test to know how much insulin to take. I had to quit my insulin in 32 hrs.
Doctors don’t practice the art of medicine with the science of medicine, it can take yrs for the two to catch up but her doc is wrong in my opinion.
Would she read Atkins Diabetic revolution or Dr Bernstein’s Diabetic Sol'n???Coop can point you to a place on net where there is lots of info, I cant recall where it is, she’ll be along soon.
Welcome
:wave

[da Walnut]

The problem is that the diabetic complications have now taken hold in her eyes, and she has a horrible time reading. I'm getting her Dr Bernstein's book, and I hope she reads it.

I've given Dad the info from Duke, and I'm dearly hoping that she'll at least try to find a new doctor. In the meantime, its going to be a long road to convince her otherwise.

I'm just thankful that I found this WOL before I started having blood sugar problems.

[2big4mysize]

Docs are strange and hold fast to their info cause it was right when they learned it.

which diabetic eye problem is she having the retina blood vessel damage or the too high sugar lense swelling? She can reverse the lense swelling by keeping her bklood sugars stable in the normal range.

[Coop2004]

Hi da Walnut and Welcome, :wave

Here is the site that canuck was referring to (about Dr. Bernstein's book).

http://www.diabetes-normalsugars.com/readit.shtml

I agree, that many of the Doctors need alot of catching up to do as far as realizing the way to go for a diabetic is a low carb way of eating (WOE) and way of life (WOL), particularly Atkins!!

Linda (Coop)

[tish]

Your mum has my sympathies Da walnut.... I know exactly how she feels....

My doctor is very negative about this way of life... so I just told him I was eating low G.I... pfft he is so happy I am on a low G.I diet that he near turned himself inside out.

Now if this diet isn't low G.I... I don't know what is... he has no trouble with me eating olive oil etc... just no butter... in that fact I am happy to comply because my physcological inards can't get my head around the whole butter and fat thing anyway ...so I stick to the generically deemed 'healthier' versions of the fat's to get my quota.... I eat flax ..which is good for the heart... I eat fish... good for the cholesterol... and I eat low G.I carbs... which good ole doc atkins advocates.... there all in this diet, in fact it is this diet... but I just called it low G.I instead of Atkins!

Go figure huh.... I bet if you told your mums doc that she was doing a low G.I diet incorperating flax and olive oil... he would slap her on the back and moniter her progresses....

I guess it is all in the presentation... just walk quietly and talk slowly... just like horse whispering...eventually he will get with the program.

[canuck]

its so true, my doc said do south beach, I kinda said well I am except for the grains.She says oh good as you need some carbs....duh....

I just blew a hissy at my insurance company-they called today and told me very important for me to call back asap. I called them back, they wanted to offer me free diabetes education classes. I told them in no uncertain terms that I have taken and paid my co-pays for diabetes education and nutrition classes for 8 yrs and the only thing they did for me was spiral my diabetes out of control, make me take more meds and insulin because I followed their protocol and when the Dr finally told me I was going to have an insulin pump put in this month, I decided to do some checking into alternative treatment myself. I have since lost 29 lbs, decreased my insulin use to 1/8th of what I was taking and gotten my A1C and cholesterol to normal ranges in 3 mos time. I told her to invest the $ they would spend on my "education" to educate themselves and the Drs on REAL corrective treatment & EFFECTIVE diet and that I feel like I have saved them the cost of an insulin pump, loads of meds for the rest of my life, AND treatment for limb, eye and heart damage for the future. She listened well and asked what kind of diet I was on and what exactly my labs have decreased from and to in 3 mos time. I told her and she was impressed. Asked me how many carbs I was consuming and what my goal was and did I mind if she followed up with me in 3 mos. that I was her 4th pt in 2.5 weeks since she started offering these classes that have told her the same type of thing and she is collecting the info to talk to her superiors and was thinking of trying to get them to offer alternative treatments/diet class on low carb for pts. I told her yes and offered to sign an authorization to get my labs from the Dr. for the last year and the next year. MAYBE, just maybe someone is willing to finally listen. Now, we'll just wait and see if I hear anymore about it!

[Coop2004]

Good for you Julia!!!!! That is absolutely fantastic. The tide may be ever so slowly turning in our favor and we have people like yourself and the person with whom you spoke, to thank for that!!

:icondance

Linda (Coop)

[canuck]

Hey goodonyagirl