Question about medications, insulin and blood glucose numbers

(John) #1

Hello All,

First time poster. I have been doing Keto for about 6 weeks now. I am type 2, high cholesterol, high bp, you know, all the usual. So far I have dropped about 15 pounds. When I started I was also taking 90 units (30 units with each meal) of rapid acting insulin and 90 units of long lasting insulin at night. Also prescribed Glipizide 5 mg once per day and 3 bp meds. I have stopped insulin injections and all meds except bp meds and Metformin. My blood sugar number have decreased from 250-300 plus to an average of 150-170. For those of you who weened yourselves off of insulin, at what numbers did you stop? I am trying to wrap my head around being insulin resistant, having too much insulin in my system and injecting huge amounts of insulin into myself on top of that.

Thanks,

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

Give yourself some time to become thoroughly fat-adapted, and then some more time for your blood work to improve. You might want to get tested at three months, but only if you can trust yourself not to freak out. Better to wait until you’ve been eating keto for six months to a year, to give your metabolism some time to normalize.

Be careful with your blood pressure medication. If you feel lightheaded or dizzy at all, it probably means you need to cut back. Are you working with your doctor to lower your prescriptions? If not, you probably should be.

Your doctor may not agree, but if I were taking insulin, I’d want to be off it completely. If you are doing this well without any injected insulin, then I suspect you can count on a further lowering of serum glucose as you continue eating keto. You will likely be able to dispense with the Glipizide too. Metformin is supposed to be safe to continue, but even there, you might want to have your doctor either reduce the dose or take you off it completely as your numbers improve.

If you are on a statin, consider getting your doctor to take you off it, since one of the known side effects is diabetes. You might even wish to consider refusing to take it, regardless of what your doctor says. What I have learned about statins so far makes me believe that they do very little good and can often be harmful. I should probably mention that I am not a doctor, so take my advice with caution and do your own research.

As you mention, it makes very little sense to treat an insulin-resistant patient with even more insulin. Good luck with your doctor, and I hope your wonderful progress on a keto diet continues. You are certainly doing great so far! :+1:

(John) #3

Thanks PaulL. I have a follow up appointment with my doctor in April, so I am sure they will recheck my numbers. I have made up my mind that I can better get control of my health by doing my own research. I do believe that my doctor is doing what they think is best but I have heard that I need insulin to live, more insulin is what I need to control my blood sugar, etc. The only problem is none of that works. I have been chasing my insulin injection amounts for years and they are always ahead of me! LOL I have stopped the Glipizide at this point because apparently it controls blood glucose by making the pancreas create more insulin. Just what I need. I stopped taking the statin as well based on my research as well. I think that is just chasing a meaningless cholesterol number as well.

Thanks again!

#4

T2 here. Two years ago, my A1c was 7.3 while I was using both insulin and metformin. Today, my A1c is 5.4 without any diabetes medication.

I used to test my blood sugar just before a meal and use insulin on a sliding scale. If it was over 200, I would take two syringes full of insulin. Between 160 and 200, just one. Between 140 and 160, half a syringe. Otherwise, none.

I paid for insulin out-of-pocket (Walmart), so I’m saving a lot of money now.

I stopped needing insulin within a week of doing restricted calorie keto. And stopped metformin after about 8 months. I gave away a number of vials of insulin after not using any for about 6 months.

I now only test my blood sugars once a day, at night, at least 4 hours after my last food intake. It’s typically between 85 and 110. I test at night rather than in the morning because “Dawn Phenomenon” gives me huge swings in the morning, usually up 10 to 20 points higher than they were the night before.