Renewing my intent to murder diabetes

(Sacha Beauregard) #1

Hey guys! Just joined the forum recently and wanted to introduce myself. I’ve been following lazy / ineffective keto for the past few months then I found and started listening to the 2ketodudes podcast. I’ve lately had a difficult week of getting lectured-to by my doctor and pharmacist, so I’ve resolved to lean hard into proper keto management to try to save myself from suffering further from diabetes and more lectures. =D

~The Background~
I’m 34, Canadian male, 5’10. I’ve been T2 diabetic for 11 years. I’ve been fighting it in fits and starts and burnouts over that time. I’ve been able to lose 130 pounds over that time, through non-keto diet and exercise, which still feels pretty nice. I’m down to 183lbs now, but I’ve been stuck here for years.

My doctor has always been aggressive with prescribing medicine for any reason at all, and I’ve been compliant with taking them (Janumet, Forxiga, Atorvastatin, Humulin-N is what I’m on now.) That’s how you handle diabetes, right? =P With this treatment, my sugar levels have been relatively well controlled but this past year has been pretty bad about revealing the damage that diabetes has caused. One such issue is foot pain, for which my doctor prescribed me Lyrica. The pharmacist saw the new prescription and chewed me out for not having a handle on my life. I was really hurt by that.

So I’m trying now to apply the anger from that towards real actual serious treatment. I think this keto stuff is the real right answer to diabetes, on the whole. I’m intent on maintaining ketosis and getting into fasting to see how much I can accomplish. I don’t want to keep decaying quite like this.

~The Plan~

  • I know, from my ketonix meter, also from mood and energy levels, etc, that I’m in high ketosis because I’ve been following it much more closely these last 3 weeks. Gonna maintain that.
  • My doctor has agreed to let me experiment with lowering medicine dosage as long as my glucose is good.
  • Caloric intake will be 20 carbs, will aim for 80 grams of protein from honest sources, then fat to satisfaction and energy. I’m using MyFitnessPal to track these. Also salt. Got that covered.
  • For this first 2 weeks (I understand that changing up the program every 2 weeks is good) I’ll do Intermittent Fasts, eating between 1pm and 7pm. Then perhaps I’ll try Alternate-Day fasts.
  • Continue binging on info about keto and fasting through these forums, the podcasts and the keto subreddit!

Is there anything I’m missing or doing wrong? Are there any sites out there that’ll let me track numbers like insulin, breath ketones, weight, blood sugar etc? (I could use the Ketonix software, I guess, but maybe there’s something better?)

Thanks for reading! KCKO!

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

Welcome to the forums! We’re glad to have you. Good luck with your new way of eating. Many people on this forum have found it possible to reverse the effects of type II diabetes, so there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to, as well.

It can take several weeks to become fully fat-adapted, so for now, just relax and concentrate on keeping carbohydrate low and eating fat to satiety. If you have a blood test done at three months in, you may not find the numbers as good as you hoped, so be warned and test again at six months. Some people find that their LDL number goes up on keto, but it usually turns out to be the large, fluffy kind and not a problem. You should see your triglycerides go down and your HDL go up, whatever happens to your total cholesterol number.

Your glucose numbers should be improving already, but it may take some time for your HbA1C to come down, depending on your degree of insulin resistance. Track both glucose and insulin, if you can, and ask the experts on these forums if you have any questions at all. @richard, who is one of the Dudes, has put a lot of study into the science of diabetes and how to treat it. He is/was type II himself. He is a great resource. Also check out the 2 Keto Dudes podcasts, because he and Carl have compiled a wealth of information in them.

(Richard Hanson) #3

Hi Sacha,

I was T2D for over 15 years and then I went to a new doctor and eight days later I injected insulin for the last time and two months after that I was off all T2D medications (six).

This was my doctor’s keto prescription:

carbs < 20g/day
protein < 50g/day
energy < 1000 kcal/day

I felt like a moron for not doing this sooner. At the core, the idea is very simple. Don’t eat things that turn into glucose in your blood. Doh!

This includes protein and your protein macro goal might be a bit high.

T2D is a disease of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia and the target of the cure should not be blood glucose control, which is only a symptom of the underlying metabolic dysfunction, but rather correcting for your issues with insulin. That said, when someone is currently being aggressively medicated to control glucose, an abrupt change to a ketogenic diet can actually be a bit dangerous with the primary risk being episodes of hypoglycemia as your medications can drive your glucose levels dangerously low when you are no longer ingesting foods that result in elevated levels of glucose in your blood.

The core strategy for mitigating the risks of hypoglycemia is to test your blood sugars frequently, I was testing 6 times a day, and then to be quite aggressive about reducing your medications. If anything, you might want your blood sugars to be a bit on the high side, certainly not on the low side, and back off on those medications that have the most powerful impact on blood sugar levels first. Reducing insulin injections might be the first place to start as it is just crazy to give people who are suffering from hyperinsulinemia even more insulin and insulin blocks the mobility of your fat deposits.

With a goal of getting into a state of ketosis and becoming keto adapted, I would not want to be faced with the prospect of consuming sugars to correct for an episode of hypoglycemia resulting from over medication.

With all that said, let me add … Congratulations! It is very likely that your life is going to be transformed in a few short weeks. There might be some moments of misery and some moments of emotional loss over the things you can no longer eat, but these negatives are easy eclipsed by the benefits you are going to experience.

Keto for life!

Most Respectfully,
Richard

(Bacon for the Win) #4

when you do get things under control I want you to go back and thank this man. Pretty ballsy of him to tell you what you needed to hear, even if you weren’t ready to hear it.

Spend some time in these parts, there is a lot of great inofrmation and support.

(Sacha Beauregard) #5

Hey! Thanks for your inputs! It sure seems obvious and straightforward that “stop eating carbs” is the answer to a disease of carb management. =D Faith in doctors is what’s really the hangup.

Richard, I believe you’re right about my protein goal being high. After you mentioned that, I went back through the logic I had and I didn’t realize that I’m missing 3/4 the math! I math’d up 1g protein per kg in bodyweight to get my number, and I had mistakenly used my current bodyweight. Also, I had heard this very morning on ep3 of the Obesity Code podcast, that .8g / kg lean bodyweight is the ideal amount to go with, so I basically had nothing right about my protein intake haha. Will adjust down to 60g (rounding up from 57.)

May I ask about your insulin injections? You say that you had been injecting and that, with keto, you were able to stop taking injections entirely? Is that to say that your pancreas is still generating whatever is necessary? I had the (hopefully wrong) impression that taking injections was a sort of “no way back” point because the pancreas wasn’t generating at all anymore and that, having started the injections, they wouldn’t begin to again. Further, because insulin is still a pretty important hormone, that I HAD to inject in order to function. (I hope I’m wrong.)

I’ll definitely do as you say and check my sugars more often. If I can afford to remove insulin injections entirely and let my body burn the fuels I’ve been giving it then I’ll be in great shape!

(Sacha Beauregard) #6

True enough, the guy did mean well. His delivery was rotten though haha.

#7

Not a doctor or scientist but based on what I have read that is not true unless you are T1, The theory that Dr. Fung and others hypothosize is that the pancreas is stuffed with fat and cannot function, like a clog. Once you remove the clog they function again. You should read the blog IntensiveDietaryManagement.com. Start from the first entry in 2013. There were all sorts of hoopla in the media last February about the beta cells of the pancreas regenerating on a fast mimicing diet.

As for mixing it up, I would mix it up in the same week so your body does not get too used to eating a certain amount or at a certain time

Wanted to add, if money is not a major issue you may want to look into a continuous glucose monitor while you are reducing your sugar. Is the Freestyle Libre available in Canada? It attaches to your upper arm and is changed once a week or so. You can do it yourself, no doctor needed. It is not available in the US until next year but can be bought in Europe over the counter. In the US it will need a prescription

(Sacha Beauregard) #8

Hey Saphire, thanks for the input!

I’ll add IntensiveDietaryManagement blog to my mental diet! There’s already so much to learn!

Hopefully, you’re correct about the possibility of unclogging the pancreas. If I proceed correctly, perhaps this could happen for me as well.

Regarding mixing things up within the same week, is there any science behind that? I’m totally for trying it, it’ll make the pursuit more interesting, but it would be nice to know more about it.

#9

Your enthusiasm is great!

If you enjoy changing up your routine, go ahead. But it isn’t necessary to be effective. The most important thing is compliance, being able to stick with it for the rest of your life.

You want to decrease the load on your pancreas and liver. If you eat HFLC that will happen. If you adopt intermittent fasting that will happen. If you regularly incorporate extended fasting that will happen.

Dr Fung in particular, has a significant portion of his patient base that does not necessarily follow a HFLC diet. He is still able to succeed at reversing their diabetes via fasting.

Pick a plan that fits into your life and stick with it. Over time your body will heal, even if you never change things up.

(Richard Hanson) #10

Hi again Sacha,

I don’t mind answer all of your questions from my personal experiences, but please remember that everyone is a bit different and you are going to need to test, test some more, and make rational adjustments based on those test results.

I had been going to the same endocrinologist for over 10 years and 15+ years as a T2D. With changes in insurance, it was getting very expensive but my wife has a friends who’s husband had started a practice and he just charges $55 an office visit. I needed to renew my prescriptions so I made an appointed and packed a gallon bag full of all my medications and diabetic supplies.

I was taking:
Glimeperide 2mg/day
Metformin - 2000mg/day
Farxiga - 5mg/day
Victoza - injecting 1.8 mg/day
Levemir - injecting 40 units/day
Novolog - injecting an average 35 units/day with meals, sliding scale.

When I started my ketogenic cure my fasting glucose was 170 mg/dl and my a1c was 9.4%. At one month my fasting glucose was 78 mg/dl and at three months my numbers where 72 mg/dl with an a1c of 6.5%. That was about 5 weeks ago.

The first medication I stopped taking was Glimeperide as I had previously had issues with it driving my blood sugar low, hypoglycemia. This is the big risk. Over the next eight days, just eight days, I cut back insulin injections, almost every day, and my last insulin was 10 units of Levemir on the eighth day. Over the next two months I reduced and then eliminated first Victoza, then Farxiga and finally the Metformin. I had actually stopped taking everything before my one month doctors visit, but I added the Metformin back in at 1000mg/day as my glucose had elevated a bit (about 120mg/dl fasting). It took another month to exclude the Metformin permanently.

All of the reductions in medications where responsive to the decreased demand. I stuck my fingers a great many times, but this was necessary and I never had a dangerously low level of serum glucose, I never needed to eat carbs to raise my blood sugar.

Despite having T2D for over fifteen year, my pancreas is producing enough insulin for my body. This can very tremendously from one person with T2D to the next. It depends on if your diabetes arises primarily from insulin resistance / hyperinsulinemia or from the pancreas not producing enough insulin. I have no way of knowing what is your situation, but eating low carb is going to help either condition.

Even if your pancreas is not producing sufficient insulin in your current state, the demand for insulin is much less on a ketogenic diet and you can greatly improve your insulin sensitivity by intermittent and extended fasting. Even if you can not exclude insulin as I did, in a remarkable short period of time, there are solid, rational reason, to hope that in the long run this might be possible.

On my three month visit, I stopped taking Simvastatin and I am now prescription free.

If you have any more questions, I will be glad to provide answers from my own experience. After being totally ignorant of the keto option for so many years, after wishing someone, anyone, had told be about this years ago, I feel a moral obligation to help. No BS either.

Keto for life!

Most Respectfully,
Richard