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Friday 5 April 2013

Kate and her lowcarb story.


My name is Kate, a lively 63 years young, living in Cornwall with my husband and dogs, lots of family and grandchildren close by. My Mother, who sadly died in June this year, aged 92 had Diabetes Type 2, was not overweight and until Alzheimer's changed her life, was fit and healthy. I have always been aware that because my Mothers Mum, my maternal grandmother also had Diabetes, it was not unlikely that I would also develop it at some stage. I have always prepared healthy food but admit to maybe enjoying my food too much!

I have also suffered from high BP throughout my adult life, another legacy from Mother, plus Hyper Cholesterolemia, same source, which means that without help, my body does not deal with cholesterol efficiently and so it lays stored, I have been taking statins for some years now and generally have no ill effects, I also take Atenolol and Ace Inhibitors for an erratic BP.

Three years ago, a routine blood test showed elevated levels of sugar and so I took a Glucose Intolerance test, the results showing Pre Diabetes. I was given very little advice, just handed a booklet to read, no tea and sympathy ! Because at that time, I didn't know any better, I followed the advice in the booklet, eat plenty of starchy carbs, which I did and soon noticed the weight gain! 

I spoke to my Doctor who said not to worry, carry on doing what I was doing, so carry on I did !  We then moved house and had to change Doctors and shortly afterwards, my new Doctor ordered blood tests to check on my liver function due to the statins, the results showed a high blood sugar and so the test was repeated two weeks later, the BG was even higher this time and an HbA1c showed 8.8, definitely Diabetes !

I was devastated, I felt betrayed and angry and from that moment on, I decided to take charge of my own disease and destiny, embarking on a read, read and more read programe, it soon made perfect sense that the carbs were the culprit ! My newly appointed Diabetes nurse was aghast at my new regime of low carbing, "On your own head be it" were her words !  Pretty soon, she had to eat her words as the BG began to fall without the help of medication and although I wasn't grossly overweight, my body became toned and healthy at a near perfect 9 stones. The HbA1c result after 8 months was 5.7 and at this juncture, the nurse no longer had an argument, indeed she began to ask me about my regime, taking notes whilst I sang the praises of low carbing, what sweet irony !! Its no use being bitter, I try to be resolute and embrace my new way of life even though there are the odd times I come close to falling off the wagon, but so far I am clinging on for dear life !

Sent in to us some time ago Eddie

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reading stories like these is so much more useful than reading a blog where every post is a tedious drone through some nonsensical and pointless rat paper!

Anonymous said...

Personal stories and experience are far more helpful to people. We can see the advantages and pitfalls, the ups and downs. It does show more than ever the need for all of us to become responsible. Of course some are more able and committed to do this than others.Another great story and I hope that Kate continues to do well.
Jean

Galina L. said...

It is amazing how hard modern society fights thous who dare to go the LC road, and most just don't dare ti try.

Anonymous said...

Hi Galina, yes we do have to dare to be different and to go against main stream advice. Thank goodness we now have good access to the inter-net and with the help of others we may never meet can take our life and illness as diabetes and turn it around.

LB

Lowcarb team member said...

Unfortunately among us are fellow diabetics who choose to ignore the many successful lowcarbers and continue in their attempts to discredit them.

An example is the aptly named Sid Bonkers, he will be well aware of those who have lost weight and maintained good A1c's over the long term, yet he and I quote says ", as diabetes is for life and very low carb diets stall on weight loss after 6 to 12 months on average" you can read more on this here .

Now Sid who's breakfast consists of 17g of cornflakes and a splash of semi skimmed milk reckons we are "twisting" the the NHS dietary advice which refers diabetics to the eatwell plate. This includes 33% from starchy carb if you add in the other carbs from non starchy sources you will be talking at the very least 50% carbs.

Sid survives on 1200 cals daily see his post here trouble is he thinks we can all live on a starvation diet.

Graham

Anonymous said...

Carole Sampson said - "Reading stories like these is so much more useful than reading a blog where every post is a tedious drone through some nonsensical and pointless rat paper!"

Couldn't agree more, Carole. I love reading stories like this.

Graham - re Sid - I can't help but kind of feel sorry for the guy. His world view tells him that doctors are modern day gods and to admit that they can be (and often are) wrong, is just too much for his cognitive dissonance to accept. He'll probably go to his grave believing that whatever his doctors tell him is gospel. It's a shame he never gave low carb Paleo a go - if he did a Whole 30 who knows what changes the anti-inflammatory aspects of the diet might have made to his chronic pain issues? But it will never happen because he can't let go of his belief that doctors are gods.

Great work with these LCHF success stories :-)