“Long is the way. And hard. That out of hell leads up to light.” Part 1

I have used that quote from Milton before on this blog. To some it may seem a bit heavy, or over the top, but trust me, diabetes can be a living hell for some. Two weeks after my diagnosis of type two diabetes, I buried my Father. He was a type two diabetic, and his last fifteen years were blighted with diabetic complications. Two heart attacks, a diabetic foot, and a once very strong man reduced to a physical wreck. This did not need to be. He came from a generation who believed Doctors and medical people were above reproach and followed their instructions to the letter. The standard NHS diet for diabetics and took his medication religiously. When he finally checked out, he was using insulin and ten different medications, he was a credit to big pharma.

I was given the standard NHS diabetic dietary information, a prescription for two metformin a day, and told to come back in three months time. This is pretty routine in the UK as can be seen on forums and blogs. Well, that was easy, sorted eh ? no way. Following the NHS diet and taking my metformin, my BG numbers never got better than twelve. Very basic research had informed me these sort of numbers lead to diabetic complications. I joined the diabetes.co.uk forum and it was one of the best and luckiest decisions of my life. I say lucky, because just as I joined, a man called Fergus Craig had just joined. Fergus was a long term type one diabetic. He had gone from obesity, poor control and the onset of complications, to safe weight, and HbA1c in the fours. From crashing his car into a lamp post, due to a hypo, to riding in 100 mile bike races and running marathons. He achieved this remarkable turn around by way of a strict Bernstein level lowcarb high fat diet. His teachings made perfect sense to me, and I gave lowcarb a try, I was I believe his first lowcarb disciple, and I reported my success on the forum.(My success stories and over 2000 of my posts were deleted by Cugila the forum mod) *  By lowcarbing, my HbA1c had gone from almost twelve (BG 26) to in the fives within three months, fasting  BG from12-14 to 4-6, trigs from over three to less than 1, and around 50lbs in weight lost. Other newly diagnosed forum diabetics achieved the same great results as me. People like Wiflib, Ian D, John Wilson, Ray Davies, Graham and many more.

So many posting great success stories, many on nil or minimal meds. So many reporting non diabetic BG numbers and easy weight loss, it was brilliant, Fergus had shown us the Holy Grail, who could argue with the lowcarb way of life, what could possibly go wrong ? I consider myself a street wise sort of guy, not easily taken in or fooled, but Jeez, how naive was I, when it came to the crazy world of diabetes. Almost immediately, Fergus and his new recruits came under attack. Forum mods to fellow diabetics and even a Dietician, put the boot in at every opportunity. Lowcarb antis, trolls and allsorts came out of the woodwork. To cut a long story short. Fergus walked, some of us lowcarbers got banned, and the lunatics took over the asylum. History has repeated itself on what I now call the forum of flog. Other staunch lowcarb promoters have been banned and the lunacy continues at the flog to this present day.

Eddie

Read Fergus’ stunning and uplifting story here.

* Cugila’s reign came to an end when he banned Dr.Jay Wortman a type two diabetic and lowcarb expert. With some help from Jimmy Moore, Graham and yours truly we saw Cugila off, arguably our finest hour.