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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.
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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
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