Skip to main content

One Reason Diabetes is Out of Control

Short answer: many health care providers don't attempt to control it.

Reading medical literature from the early 20th century, it looks like doctors of that era fought diabetes with everything they had: low carb diet, urine testing for diabetics, a hospital stay with a strict diet if there was sugar in their urine, and yearly testing of family members of diabetics. Insulin started being used in the early 1920s.

Now? Some health care providers call a low-carb (diabetic) diet "old dogma" and don't counsel patients on diet or blood glucose testing. This was the case with a friend of the family, who was recently diagnosed, and my parents. While my mother was in the hospital recently, she was allowed to order any breakfast from what was basically a dessert menu: cinnamon rolls, cereal, juice, bread, waffles, french toast, pancakes, fruit, etc. Hopefully, patients who want to control their blood sugar aren't allergic to eggs, the only LC option for breakfast.

Some doctors take a casual attitude towards medications as well. When my mother ordered waffles (we all make mistakes, especially under stress), her blood sugar went up, but the staff didn't have the proper insulin to give her because the doctor didn't order it. She normally takes two shots a day; she didn't get them at the hospital. When the doctor saw that her A1C was 5.0, he lowered her recommended dosage. A patient is maintaining normal blood sugar on a certain program, and the doctor wants to change the program in a way that may send it into the diabetic range?

Mom is back home and eager to get her blood sugar back under control under her DIY program.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
"she was allowed to order any breakfast from what was basically a dessert menu: cinnamon rolls, cereal, juice, bread, waffles, french toast, pancakes, fruit, etc"

That's criminal!
June 18, 2013
Lori Miller said…
It's like a wine list for an alcoholic.
June 18, 2013
Lowcarb team member said…
Glad your mom is back home now, she should be able to get things back in control.

A while ago a neighbour of ours, who is a Type 2 diabetic and controls his blood sugar numbers very successfully through diet alone had to go in hospital. Yes you guessed it, the food he was offered was just not suitable for him and his blood sugar numbers rose drastically. Once home he stabilised.

I wonder will hospitals ever learn, or realise quite what they are doing? Others of course may have experienced better care, have they?

All the best Jan
June 18, 2013
Lori Miller said…
Within my lifetime, I think diabetes protocols will get back to where they were 100 years ago.

This reminds me of a quote I once read: "You're seeing three doctors and you're still alive? Wonderful!"
June 18, 2013
tess said…
oh, but low-carbohydrate diets are dangerous! you're cutting out a whole food group! [pained grin]
June 18, 2013
Lori Miller said…
Funny how the most of the naysayers never trot out the old "food group" line to vegetarians or the lactose intolerant.
June 18, 2013
Lori Miller said…
Found it: "...Judge Bacon's reply to a poor woman, who pleaded inability to pay through illness, having been under treatment by four doctors: 'Four doctors, and you have survived? Wonderful!'"

Common Salt by C. Godfrey Gümpel, pp 5-6. 1898.
June 18, 2013
Galina L. said…
Somehow the idea to put anyone on a diet looks like the last resort option nowadays. The people who have to limit their diet choices could become anorexics!
June 18, 2013
Lori Miller said…
To be honest, a lot of people would rather take a pill (or have surgery) than change their diet. But hospitals can at least stop serving junk food and make it easy to eat a LC diet. As we discussed over at Fathead, recovery from an accident or illness is no time for a fast.
June 18, 2013
Galina L. said…
Many do, but when doctors have the same anty-diet attitude, it gets way too bad.
June 18, 2013
Lori Miller said…
First, they need to know what a proper diet is and what it can do. Most don't have any idea. Most who think they have an idea are just parroting the ADA or AHA; doctors like Michael Eades who consult an endocrinology textbook and paleoanthropology books to figure it out are rare.
June 19, 2013
JanKnitz said…
Registered dieticians consider this carbage a "proper diet"-- that's the really scary part!
June 19, 2013
Lori Miller said…
"Make half your grains whole!" I guess that means the other half can be refined white flour.
June 19, 2013
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cigna is Making Progress

Yesterday as I put my lunch in the refrigerator at work, I noticed a bunch of unfamiliar people in the break room. One of them, Pepe, started in: they were there for the health fair, they would check your cholesterol, the sugar in your blood, your height, your weight, and it would just take six minutes. A coworker asked him if he'd ever considered a career in sales. Just for blog fodder, I participated. They really were fast, and one even found me at my desk (in an office nearly half the size of a city block) after the tests were finished. My HDL cholesterol was 65--up from 42 from a year and a half ago, and up from 57, where it was last year when I'd been three months a low-carb diet . A level over 60 is considered good. I haven't taken any medication to make this happen. I went on a low-carb diet and eliminated wheat. I also take vitamin and mineral supplements in addition to a high-nutrient diet. What impressed me more, though, was that the nurse (and Cigna) said that bl...
Post a Comment
Read more

HHS Doctor on Hidden Camera: "The Vaccine is Full of Sh!t"

Jodi O'Malley, a registered nurse at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center (part of the Department of Health and Human Services), teamed up with Project Veritas to expose severe COVID vaccine reactions occurring but not being reported to VAERS, the vaccine adverse event reporting system, even though medical professionals are legally required to report such injuries. During the filming, a man in his thirties with congestive heart failure was being treated; the doctor believed the cause was his COVID vaccination. O'Malley says she's seen dozens of adverse reactions. "The vaccine is full of shit" and the government wants to "sweep it under the mat," the doctor says on hidden camera. We finally know what's in the vaccine. Screen grab from Project Veritas video . The video also shows a pharmacist stating that off-label medications such as ivermectin were forbidden to be prescribed on pain of termination.  Project Veritas is a nonprofit organization that does ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thanksgiving recipes for Pumpkin Pie & Cranberries--printable!

If you'd rather read a printed recipe than watch a video, here are my recent recipes for Better than Grandma's Pumpkin Pie and Probiotic Cranberry-Apple Relish.  Hat tip to Dana Carpender, whose pumpkin pie recipe inspired this one. The cranberry-apple ferment is entirely my own creation.  Pumpkin Pie--no grains, sugar or emulsifiers Crust 2 cups shelled raw pecans 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon monk fruit powder* (or 3 tablespoons sugar substitute) 4 tablespoons butter, melted 2 tablespoons water Pumpkin Pie Filling 1 pie pumpkin 1-1/2 cups half and half (with no thickeners) 3 eggs 3-4 teaspoons monk fruit powder* (or 3/4 cup sugar substitute) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice Preheat the oven to 350F. Stab the top of the pumpkin all the way through the flesh in a few places at the top. Place the pumpkin on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour. Let cool. While the pumpkin is baking, put the pecans in a food processor with the S blade and run until they are finely...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fly with Reuteri

If you're planning to travel by plane and you want to keep enjoying the benefits of l. reuteri yogurt, you might have gotten sticker shock from the price of l. reuteri probiotics. MyReuteri * costs $46 to $83 for 30 capsules, depending on the CFUs (colony-forming units, or the number of viable microorganisms). If you're thinking about economizing by putting some yogurt in a sturdy container and taking it with you, you can do that. I'll break down the pros and cons and look at some alternatives.  Photo from Unsplash . Cost Yogurt might be less expensive than probiotics, but it isn't free. A half-cup serving costs about 70¢ to make if you start with a previous batch. It contains about 90 billion CFUs if fermented for 36 hours.  This is a lot less than $5.56 for two capsules of 50 billion CFU MyReuteri, but for a one-week vacation, you'd only save $34 by eating yogurt instead. (You can freeze any unused capsules for later.)  Furthermore, the yogurt would have to go in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

COVID Test Result is In

I don't have COVID.  On the one hand, it would have been a relief to have finally caught COVID and gotten natural antibodies, especially from having a mild case of it. On the other hand, I was concerned about my dog catching it from me (he's healthy, but nine years old) and it might have interfered with Thanksgiving plans.  Until I'm well, I'll stay home.
2 comments
Read more