Good grief is the NHS finally waking up to the benefits of a low carb regime for diabetics !

Shamelessly nicked without permission from the forum of flog.

"I have decided to post this on a general forum rather than the low carb because I am hoping everyone will get a chance to read this. As there is so much controversy over this type of diet I just felt that I had to post about this.

I am a 61 year old female type 2 diagnosed almost 9 years, been through most oral meds, Byetta, Victoza and for the past 3 years Insulin. As I have also lived with Irritable Bowel Syndrome for 40 years I have been quite sceptical of the low-carb approach mainly because I thought it would have a detrimental affect on my IBS and I already had enough trouble with it without encouraging it.

Over Christmas and New Year I became very disillusioned with coping with my diabetes and decided to stop my insulin cold turkey (I was on 40 twice a day - Humalog 25) and did my best to cut out as many carbs as I could. I did this over a weekend and my sugars were no worse than with the insulin. On the Monday I emailed my DSN to tell her what I had done and she got the Dietician to call me. The outcome of that call was that they referred me to a Very Low Carb Diet Group which is run by a Dietician and the DSNs and the Dietician involved has actually been following this diet herself for over a year. We cannot just join this group we have to be referred from our GP and this diet has to be under the supervision of the relevant professionals. I attended the first group at the end of January and we meet every 4 weeks. 

The diet is basically 20-40g carb per day. We are not counting carbs but have been given a long list of many foods with advice on how much to limit certain foods etc. I have been very encouraged both by the nurses and members who are further down the road than I am, many have lost 4-5 stone in the past 6 months, most have come off insulin and many have had other drugs reduced, eg blood pressure. 

I know I am at the start of a new learning curve and every day is a challenge but it is slowly working. I had to go back on my insulin (just for now) but am on half the dose I was on when I stopped it. I would not advocate stopping insulin cold turkey like I did but I was just so absolutely frustrated with everything and decided to just give it a go.

I am so proud to be part of this group as I feel that the professionals are basically putting their neck on the line and this group is in Coventry. I will report back now and then if people would like me to.

Jude"

Eddie