"My pancreas has carked it - I'm a diabetic for life"

#2

Is she Typ1 1 or 2 then? Presumably she’s pretty far advanced to be having to take insulin? (injections I presume?)

If it’s the ‘worst’ case perhaps the best you can do is use her as motivation never to reach the same stage through diet choices?

I’m not being horrible here; my dad is T2, he won’t really listen to any serious advice from me; sometimes there is nothing you can do but hold them up as real life examples you can refer to in order to learn from their mistakes. (that’s not me being horrible my Dad is one of the best people I know, but he would not listen to my advice if I tried to discuss Keto/LC with him. I hope he remains well for his later years, but if he does not the best I can do is not end up in the same situation).

(ANNE ) #3

She may well have a non productive pancreas. Which is type 1 diabetes. But if she has been T2 for a while then maybe there is a chance for her. Give her some books, or links to you tube.
Not everyone fights for a cure for a disease diagnosis, They are tired of feeling crap, and just want something magic to help them feel well again. Doctors are tired of seeing the relentless creep of diabetes into our societies, and it takes a confident doctor to say go keto, the food pyramid is the wrong way up etc.
Just keep calm, keto on.

#4

I see. Hopefully you can introduce her to Keto indirectly by inviting her around to eat and producing Keto food, or as you say just asking if she wishes to borrow a book on a ‘new diet that has helped you out’.

I’m sure you’ll find the right moment and right time to catch her interest; surely in her position she will be on the look out for anything that might help.

(Karen) #5

Give it a listen.

K

(Nicola Hensler) #6

Thanks so far you guys. Yes she’s a Type 2 and effectively had a health breakdown about five years ago: her thyroid said bye bye and is completely shot, her blood pressure was through the roof as was her cholesterol and of course then there was the T2 Diabetes diagnosis with the usual “control it by diet” bullshit which failed miserably. She’s now injecting three times per day.

Honestly she WILL NOT hear anything of keto. She’s my third friend to watch slide into diabetic nightmare and none of them can be told. I figured each of them is effectively in “crisis” and likely feels completely overwhelmed (even after years of living with it) and can only “hear” their doctors. Meanwhile I watch them get fatter and sicker and constantly hear the refrain “I can’t do that” in response to keto.

But I’m still curious about her pancreas argument! What’s that about?

(Bunny) #7

Introduce her to:

  1. Ketogenic Diet & Heart Health–New Research Updates 2018 by Sarah Hallberg, MD
  1. Reversing Diabetes 101 with Dr. Sarah Hallberg: The Truth About Carbs, Blood Sugar and Reversing Type 2 Diabetes - Dr. Sarah Hallberg, DO, MS
  1. Eric Westman, M.D.: Update on Ketogenic Diet for Obesity, Diabetes, and Metabolic Syndrome

imageimageimage

(Bunny) #8

Just in-case, thought I would make you aware of this:

Pancreatitis issues? If so that is a BIG NO for a high fat diet (life-threatening) until the pancreatitis issue is resolved FIRST?

Notes:

  1. Pancreatitis Symptoms: 11 Natural Ways to Prevent & Manage
  1. Pancreatitis Diet + 5 Tips for Prevention & Management
  1. 7 Strategies to Heal Pancreatitis Naturally
(Randy) #9

Type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance. In short, the the ability for the insulin to put the glucose in the muscles for energy is hampered. The only answer for the body is to make more insulin. So a type 2 diabetic has chronic high insulin levels. And it gets worse over time as insulin levels rise. The solution that keto provides for type 2 is that severe carb restriction lowers insulin levels over a long period of time, allowing the return of normal blood sugars.

Type 1 diabetes is where the pancreas can no longer make insulin. These people must take insulin to live. Many people are finding that a low carb diet makes it easier to control type 1 because their blood sugars don’t spike nearly as much and they need less insulin to keep normal blood sugars.

(Nicola Hensler) #10

Hhhmm ok so if she’s saying that her pancreas is “shot” and isn’t making insulin then perhaps she is closer to a T1 than a T2! Maybe that’s the response I need! It’s starting to make sense.

(icky) #11

I don’t know, but I assume it might be possible to “progress” from T2 to T1 eventually ?

#12

Type 2 here. At one point, I was using nearly a vial of insulin per day.

I went on a restricted calorie version of Keto at the start of 2017 and now no longer need insulin or metformin. No diabetes medications at all.

Pre-keto, my blood sugar was often over 160, with insulin. Now, it’s typically under 100, without insulin.

(Consensus is Politics) #13

If I understand this correctly, insulin resistance can be overcome by adding more insulin. Not ideal at all, but will keep the patient alive long enough to pay more medical bills, or for more insurance payments to come in to the hospital. Yes, paint me with a tin foil hat, I do believe it’s intentional by the industry, not so much the individual doctors. But the doctors are complacent. Instead of doing diagnostic medicine, and figuring out the problem… but I digress…

A type 2 diabetic is insulin resistant. Which means the body is resistant to normal amounts of insulin, so more needs to be produced by the beta cells in The pancreas. Now, I’m not sure what’s causing the beta cells to die off prematurely. Over working them, or high BG or high amounts of insulin in the body. But dying off they are doing. They are dying off faster than they can be replaced. All cells die off off over time, but they are replaced with new ones. It’s a battle of attrition, and the pancreas is losing.

Getting ones HBA1C below a certain level reverses this attrition rate so the beta cells regenerate faster than dying off. But that takes getting back to normal, non diabetic, non prediabetic levels. If I recall, 5.6 or 5.7 is the turning point. I’d wager The pancreas would respond well to this.

Even for type 1 diabetics, the keto way of eating will help tremendously. Simply by lowering carb intake a type 1 can reduce their insulin injections dramatically. They will always need to take insulin, but they could get the amount used back down to healthy levels.

But this defies and confounds medical practice. Just keep shooting up with more insulin, then you can eat a high carb diet. But then ignore all the evidence that’s piling up around hyperinsulinemia (sp?).

Definitely listen to the 2ketoDudes pod casts. It’s a deep well of info. They bring the science. Not just “we know this” but “here is why”.

(Doug) #14

That’s rough, Nicola. And even though it’s quite cynical and disparaging of me, some doctors mostly just function as drug company representatives. A friend and former co-worker of mine has gone down that path. Type 2 diabetic, stronger and stronger oral medications, then insulin injections, then higher insulin dosages and trying different formulations…

He got a crack in the skin of one heel, which got infected, and the common occurrence for diabetics to have slower wound healing definitely was present. Things got worse, the infection spread, the doctor dithered around and in the end my buddy had his lower leg amputated, an inch or two below the knee.

Last time I saw him, I asked about how his blood sugar control was going, and what his A1C was. “Oh, it’s still a little high, 13 or 14…” Good grief… I told him about ketogenic eating and the benefits of lower insulin, etc., but I think it was mostly like water off a duck’s back.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #15

Interestingly, the advice for Type I diabetics to eat carbohydrate is that doctors fear overmedicating patients to the point that they will have hypoglycemic episodes, which are scary and can be life-threatening. But as you mention, serum glucose is so stable on a ketogenic diet, that the risk of hypos is extremely low, and it also removes the need to try and guess how much insulin to inject before a meal.

As I recall @richard has reveresed his Type II diabetes, and @carl has just about reversed his. And I remember a post where @Brenda was gloating about no longer being diabetic, too.

Also, in regard to another comment, the end stage of Type II diabetes is complete death of the beta cells of the pancreas, which means a complete inability to produce insulin. I’m too lazy to look up Type I, so I’m not clear whether a Type I pancreas has lost all its beta cells, or whether they are living but simply not functioning. (I suppose it could depend on the patient, as well.)

I do believe that Troy Stapleton said he was told, when he developed Type I diabetes at age 40, that his immune system had started attacking and killing his beta cells, but I can’t lay my hands on the link to the video to re-watch it.

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #16

My boyfriend @NativeKetoMan was on a full round of insulin, and Type 2 diabetic.

Now? He is no longer on insulin and no longer diabetic.

Your friend (and unfortunately also the doctor) do not have enough information.

In this case the insulin resistance is so bad, your friend is resistant to their OWN insulin, and so is given ADDITIONAL insulin exogenously to compensate.
Unlikely your friend produces no insulin. It does happen at times to type two diabetics, but I’d bet my money this is NOT the case here.
Diabetes does not need to be a progressive disease. That is not true. If you eat low carb you can get off all glucose lowering medications and lower your blood glucose and other metabolic markers to a point where you are no longer diabetic. There is a lot of searchable information about this on my employers website (IDM, Intensive Dietary Management) as well as we teach therapeutic fasting to heal diabetes along with low carb.
Dr. Jason Fung and @meganjramos have a lot of great videos blog posts and information out there to help you understand and help show you how.
www.IDMprogram.com

(Aimee Moisa) #17

Someone probably already said this but I’m on a ten minute break and don’t have time to read all the comments.

The number one answer to any ANY diabetic taking insulin who doesn’t want to go low-carb:

The more carbs you eat the more insulin you have to take. BOOM mic drop

I think it would actually be harder to convince someone who isn’t already taking insulin shots every day because there’s no physical pain to convince you that what you’re doing is a bad idea. “It’s ok, I can manage my diabetes with this easy-to-swallow pill!” vs. “Ow! Ow! Make it stop! Make it stop!”

You don’t have to go as far as convincing her that she’ll reverse her diabetes and restart her pancreas. You just need to make her understand that there is a direct correlation between quantity of carbs to quantity of insulin.

(Jane) #18

I had a stepson over 20 years ago whose pancreas shut town and he was Type 1 juvenile diabetes. He had to have insulin injections to live.

When he came over for the weekend we all ate low-carb meals because that was what was recommended by his doctor to reduce the amount of insulin he would need. Not a problem for me. I never kept sugar sodas or sweets around and just modified my other foods. Not as low carb as now, but much less than SAD.

Unfortunately his own family was not as kind and thoughtful. They refused to give up sweets and always had cake or other desserts sitting around and they all ate it in front of the 10-yo boy, which I thought was cruel. He lived with 3 generations of women - Mom, grandma and great-grandma.

Just surprised the American Diabetes Society does not recommend limiting carbs anymore for Type 1’s.

(Consensus is Politics) #19

As myself as well. On 29 August 2017, I was dx T2DM. With an HBa1c of 11.8% and a BG reading of 594. This was only caught because I was having a blood test done for kidney stone issues.

I followed the suggest high carb diet. Big surprise, after six weeks there was no improvement. My BG readings were constantly between 200 and 300. So I abandoned it and went strictly zero carb keto. Next day my BG readings were the in the 80’s, and with rare exception have remained low. I ate way too much protein one day, and my BG went to 160ish. I think that was so soon after keto that not much damage had been repaired by then. I recently ate the same thing, and my BG went as high as 106 :sunglasses:.

Four months later, on my follow up, all of my blood tests came back pretty good. All normal ranges. And my HBa1c was at 5.8%. :cowboy_hat_face:

So feel free to share this info with whomever you like. I figure if my story helps save a single person from diabetes, it makes it worth me being so long winded on these forums :roll_eyes: :cowboy_hat_face:

(icky) #20

True - that seems weird. Maybe you can find some “officially approved” info on keto for your friend and her doctor @Nicky so that it’s not just “hearsay”…

There’s bound to be some “official” info out there, that low-carb is great for diabetes!

(icky) #21

Here you go…

“In 2015, Diabetes.co.uk launched the Low Carb Program which has helped thousands of people with type 2 diabetes to improve their diabetes control and reduce their dependency on diabetes medication.”