Anyone with type 2 Diabetes?

by LyinEyes 15 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  wednesday

  DeDe it has been so long. glad to see you on the board. Sorry to hear you have DM type 2. I do too. Runs in my family. My doc advised the South Beach diet. It's basically a low carb diet but not like the Atkins diet. I tired Byetta, it worked really well at first then stopped.

  The doc said some mild exercise, the south beach diet, a few supplements. I suggest reading "Screaming to be heard" by Dr. Elizabeth Vliet. she is the expert in female hormones. She also is expert in poly cystic ovaries and insulin resistance. usually diet and exercise is tried first and then most move on to the pills or many are using byetta. There are several new pills available.

  best to you.
• 

  GentlyFeral

  Hey, LyinEyes, good to hear from you again!

  I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 2002, so I've been living with it for almost 5 years. I'm on Metformin and Glyburide. My doctor started me with 2.5 mg of Glyburide once a day, and gradually cranked it up to three times a day, and 850 mg of metformin three times a day. I've been able to cut back considerably since then, mainly because I took charge of my diet and got regular exercise. Namely, I bought a bike and included it in my daily commute, so I bike about 10 miles a week.

  As far as diet is concerned, the Words of Power are: vegetables; butter (not margarine); sea salt. The vegetables are definitely a no-brainer, but as far as the others are concerned, your mileage may vary. All I know is that when I eat butter and sea salt, I have less trouble with food cravings, especially for starches and sweets. I'm something of a mutant, so that doesn't always work. Sometimes I need to supplement with brewers yeast (when I crave sweets) and live-culture fermented foods, lots of them (when I feel like pigging out). I'm about to see my doctor and have my medication increased – for a while – I really need to be making my own live-culture pickles again :-) and then I should be able to cut back again.

  You know to carry candy/sugar in your purse, right? Because you might have an occasional blood sugar crash until your doctor gets the dosage right. If you have a sweet tooth, better not carry your favorite candy :) unless you're extremely self-disciplined.

  As to vegetables, a few painless habits to cultivate:

  • Go on the Neon Diet. The more brightly colored, the better.
  • However many you usually serve at each meal, add one more.
  • Have vegetables with breakfast. Come on, doesn't a little coleslaw sound good with your bacon and eggs?
  • Go crazy with herbs and seasonings. Don't be stingy with the fat, at least not at first – flavor is everything.
  • Epicurious is your friend.
  • Pack your lunch, if you work. Base it around leftovers from your healthy, home-cooked meals. (Some samples of my own efforts are here.)

  Good luck – don't worry – if the symptoms haven't been going on for too long, it's quite likely that you still have pretty good pancreatic function and it's mainly a matter of insulin resistance. Get plenty of exercise every day, eat like a hippie, and you should be able to take it all in stride.

  Best wishes,

  gently feral
• 

  cathyk

  Hi,

  My father was diagnosed with Type II diabetes when he was in his 40s. He lived to be 75. He died on August 28 from a brain tumor, not the diabetes. The diabetes was actually well-regulated until the near the end.

  I stand a good chance of developing it myself: my family history, plus the fact that I developed gestational diabetes with each of my three pregnancies, increase my odds. I try to watch my sugar and carb intake, and am currently attempting to drop some weight. All those factors will help hold it at bay. I still get tested for it every year or so.

  It's not the end of the world. You can live a pretty long life with it, as long as something else doesn't get you first!

  Cathy

  www.oldlighthousebooks.com
• 

  bikerchic

  Hi Dede I would always advise you listen to your doctor and take your medicine. Last year my husband was told he had type 2 and he was able to get it totally under control through diet. He was very strict and did very good on it. This is the diet he followed:

  http://www.amazon.com/Schwarzbein-Principle-Healthy-Feeling-Younger/dp/1558746803/ref=pd_sim_b_shvl_title_2/002-6039759-0307245?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2IYBCNACK6GSM&colid=TVY4SIDA78C3

  Just reading the book will give you a whole new picture of what you are dealing with and how best to help yourself. I wish you well with this it's serious stuff.
• 

  LyinEyes

  Thanks so much everyone for your experiences with this illness. I am looking at all the links you all have given and find it very interesting.

  I have always loved a challenge and boy is this one.........lol.
  
  I am still working on the diet part which is so hard being that I love potatoes,,,,,,I can do without dessert, little debbies, that has never been my problem, I dont even love ice cream. But give me a spud, make it hashbrowns, FF, boiled, baked, even raw....lol, I love em.

  From tracking my sugar with the meter, Potatoes and even good cereal, like grape nuts do horrible things to my sugar. So I have to learn to let that go.

  I am hopeful that with a low carb diet , that once I lose the weight I need to that I can eat a little taters and some bread on occassion.

  I am starting soon at a health club with the kids and I am sure that will help , probably as much as diet will.

  I fee so much better about this knowing that ya'll know people who took control of their illness and have lived a long full life.........thanks so much for that.
• 

  Guest39

  I was only taking Metformin. (Didn't like what the other additional drugs threaten to do to me e.g. liver, etc.) I wasn't very good at taken meds as "religously" as I should. (Can I say that on JWD? ;) ) Anyway, my health care provider told me about Byetta (fondly called Lizard Spit) synthesized from Gila Lizard saliva. It is injected with a VERY small needle - the finger poke hurts more. My levels are now where they should be and I've cut back significantly from my Metformin. For a forum, go to http://lizardspit.blogstream.com/, and check out the comments under "We're meeting here." I haven't had any of the nausea that some people had, and I'm sticking with the lowest dose.

  -- My two cents worth