Diabetes meds. What can you tolerate?

Just saw this on Twitter and thought of your thread.
https://twitter.com/user/status/1043078482304147458

 

So in desperation I decided to give metformin another go which was an epic fail.

I’m now exploring Low Carb High Fat in an attempt to stay off drugs.

I recently went to a new GP who specialises in patients with complex health issues. She ordered a number of tests for various things including insulin levels. The results show I am producing insulin at normal levels and I’m not insulin resistant. But I still have high BGLs.

I’m now looking into the possibility that I am what’s called “skinny fat”. Weight and BMI in a healthy range but high visceral fat and low muscle mass. My waist to hip ratio suggests this as do my clever scales which measure body fat and muscle mass among other things.

Being “skinny fat” is bad for diabetes and heart disease. It means I’m likely metabolically unhealthy.

Increasing my muscle mass might be tough with ME but I can lose a bit of weight at least on the Low Carb High Fat diet.

I’m seeing a nutritionist in the New Year. She has diabetes herself and apparently adopts a scientific approach which is more advanced than the usual approach of food pyramid and higher carb which I think is outdated.

I’ll update this thread when I know more.

 

Thanks @Joh

I only just saw your post.

 

May be of interest and the bird posting is for Jo Edwards!
David Healy
Yesterday at 11:30 AM ·
Aberystwyth on the West Coast of Wales is one of the best places in the world to see starlings murmurate.
Clive King from the Computer Science Department there also organises TedX talks and on November 24 convened a panel of speakers to talk about murmurating swallows, ambivalent motherhood and making medicines safer among other things.
https://davidhealy.org/making-medicines-safer-for-all-of-us/

 

I get on fine with metformin, have taken it for about 8 years now. I have been taking low dose glycaziade for a year or so now as well. My problem with diabetes and ME is that my blood sugars are dependant on how bad my ME is and diet has very little effect. Using UK measurements where 3 - 5 is normal, I can read 6 after eating cake and chocolates on my birthday then 14, 3 hours after eating a bowl of porage made with water, a few tablespoons of milk and some salt.

 

Yeah, we might be diabetic, but its highly atypical. I tried to tell one aspiring doc that sometimes I am like 3.7, and he would not believe it. My range is now from 5 to 16, but 16 ( I think, I was not really able to focus) was fasting when I was in prolonged pain after my leg ulcers got infected. Stress can do that. Its situational, and has nothing to do with eating.

I do suspect ME can lead to one of the very different diabetes subgroups.

 

I think so too, but who would believe us, eh. I am overweight so seem typical type 2 but it is because of no exercise, my diet has always been healthy and I have not got much of a sweet tooth as sweet stuff can make me feel ill (though I like the odd bit of chocolate a bar can last me a fortnight and it is not unusual to have to throw the last bit out as it has been left so long it has gone off)

Workwell have looked at sugar control as part of our homeostasis problems. I can't control my temperature and I think my sugar control is damaged in the same way. Whenever I felt a bit better and did something I would get hypoglycaemia (which was not reactive hypoglycaemia) but I couldn't get doctors to believe they weren't panic attacks. Now I have a blood sugar machine I know my levels drop though the attacks are rare now, probably because i have excess sugar in my blood due to the diabetes!

I wonder if all the ups and downs over the years have just caused a burn out of my pancreas.