Insulin not a get out of jail free card !

Over the years I have seen many posts made by what I call lowcarb antis. These tend to be made by type one diabetics using injected insulin, very often on a pump. Comments from ‘I fill my face with carbs’ to ‘a balanced diet is a cake in each hand’ Ok they are comments made by an idiot and not typical of an intelligent diabetic. Most intelligent insulin using diabetics have learned what Dr. Richard Bernstein calls the power of small numbers. Roughly that equates to the less carbs the less insulin, the less insulin used the more predictable the results. Makes sense to me, if you make a miscalculation of say 25% with 10 units of insulin that could make a big difference. A 25% miscalculation with 4 units will probably not be anywhere near as important. But what about the insulin user that does not make miscalculations ?

Well that seems to be a possibility, that you could eat whatever carbs you wanted and hold good HbA1c numbers. OK I know over 90% of type ones never get close to a safe HbA1c number but bear with me. If that could be achieved, what are the down sides ? Well, insulin is known as the weight gain hormone, and some insulin using type ones go onto what is known as double diabetes. They have the problems of a type one to deal with plus the metabolic grief of type two diabetics. There is also the fact that Insulin is also known as the aging hormone. This has been proved.

So, as I say, insulin is not a get out of jail free card. It takes great skill to achieve safe HbA1c numbers when you are an insulin user, but it can be done. I know type one diabetics holding long term HbA1c in the mid fours. They are using very small amounts of insulin. They are also using a lowcarb diet.

http://www.chiroeco.com/article/2006/Issue10/PR1.php

Eddie