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I’ve just seen your website. Very interesting.
I’m a type 1 diabetic who had a good
control over my blood sugar. I have had
this for 2 years in total. It all
started with feeling slightly dizzy and very very thirsty. I drank lots of water and was just going to
the toilet 5 minutes afterwards. I
couldn’t get rid of this thirst or dizziness.
I continued eating normally and going to work and thought that this
would just pass. The Friday of that week
I felt really bad and my friend said that I had lost a lot of weight. Being thin anyway, this was very
noticeable. My family said I looked like
a skeleton!! I felt bad feeling tired
and my family decided to take me down to the hospital A&E. The nurses saw me sitting there and could see
that I was very irritable. They
immediately checked my blood sugar and the meter didn’t even register my sugar
level meaning that it was so high that the meter couldn’t read it at all. I was non fasting in the hospital for a whole
week and they took routine blood tests and x-rays. Then the main doctor concluded his results
and said that I was type 1 diabetic. I
couldn’t believe it! They said I was
still producing insulin but not enough to overcome the sugar that I
consume. Since then I go to regular
check-ups. And one thing that I noticed
is that my diabetic nurse asked me “How long have you been diabetic?” I replied “About a year and a half.” She said to me that I have probably stopped
producing insulin altogether. But I knew
this wasn’t true because sometimes I would test this myself. Going a day without insulin and checking my
blood sugar and it seemed to be within the normal levels between 4 – 10
(mmol/L). So what does this mean? Does she not know about this, why doesn’t she
know about this? I basically run my own
tests on myself and with close monitoring of my sugar have worked out what
foods send my sugar sky high and ones which are not that bad. Other than this, I’ve never been in the
hospital, never been ill and have still never been ill apart from this
diabetes. I think that the cause of this
is due to my diet when I was younger. I
am now 23 years of age and I have completely stopped excessive chocolate and
sugary sweets. Because I used to eat a
hell of a lot of sweets up until maybe the age of 17. Including missing meals, dinner and other
stuff and compensating with chocolate bars for lunch.
Name withheld,
Possible
misdiagnosis
My son now age
17 was diagnosed 5 yrs ago, with type 1 diabetes. We too didn't question the professionals,
only asked why insulin and not pills. They simply said he needed it. On February 17th 2005, I took my son to children's hospital for his
six month check up, he spoke to the doctor and told her he didn’t believe he
was a type one diabetic because he forgot to take his insulin and had a normal
blood sugar. She told him to reduce his
insulin by two units twice a day and call if his blood sugars rise above
8.5. My son has been insulin free for
six weeks and still has normal blood sugars.
I have no idea what to do next.
Thank you for your article, it helped out a lot.
Name withheld,
Thank you very
much for sharing your story and insights. They have been very helpful to
me in working through my husband's recent diagnosis of type 1 diabetes by
a local hospital without the use of a c-peptide test at age 43. My husband's doctor ran a c-peptide
after he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and found that his
c-peptide was within the normal range. I had read that iron overload can
cause diabetes so his doctor also ran an Iron Panel test. My
husband's serum ferritin level was found to be at 505 ng/ml (reference
range of 20-380 ng/ml). This test was also run just a few days
after his diagnosis. His doctor then suggested that he have some
blood removed to reduce some of the excess stored iron from his system and see
if that helped him with blood glucose regulation. (We were having great
difficulty regulating BG at that time.) After the phlebotomy (blood
removal), my husband's need for insulin seemed to drop immediately
from about 50 units (25 lantus/ 25 humalog) to about 30 units (25 lantus/5
humalog). I also had read that phytic acid (inositol hexaphosphate or
IP-6) is an excellent natural chelator of free iron. So my husband
started on IP-6 immediately. It has been about 4 months
since my husband's "Type 1" diagnosis. His ferritin
level is now under 100 ng/ml. This is within the normal range, but there
is much debate to whether the normal range is really set too high. My
husband is now maintaining an average blood glucose level of around 100
mg/dl and he has not needed to use exogenous insulin for about 2 months
now. One specialist that he saw about 3 months ago said that his
reduction and cessation in the need for exogenous insulin is just due
to a "honeymoon period" and that it will eventually
end. I believe that the cause of such a "honeymoon period" is
the implementation of a healthy life style which changes the body's
systemic environment enough so that the body no longer displays diabetes
symptoms. If the individual were to go back to their old unhealthy
life style, the systemic environment would possibly change back to what again
would warrant the body to display diabetes symptoms (thus the end of a
"honeymoon period"). I could locate no other explanation for
the cause of a "honeymoon period". My husband eats mostly
whole foods, almonds, walnuts, fish, lots of veggies, chicken, stabilized rice
bran, and drinks mostly water. He also supplements with many extra minerals,
vitamins, herbs, and Omega-3 oils which are known to help with glucose
metabolism.
Thank you again for your help.
Name Withheld,
Huckabee’s
efforts to improve his own health have received national attention. Diagnosed
with Type II diabetes in 2003, he lost 110 pounds. Barely two years later, he
has completed four marathons: The 2005 and 2006 Little Rock Marathons, the
Marine Corps Marathon and the ING New York City Marathon. As a result of his accomplishments,
The Road Runners Club of America named him its ‘Southern Region Runner of the
Year’ and USA Track & Field has named him their ‘Athlete of the Week’ for
the country. Continuing to call for a
national emphasis on living a healthy lifestyle, Huckabee completed his fourth
book, “Quit Digging Your Grave With A Knife and Fork.” This 12-stop program is
a no-nonsense approach to managing one’s health through lifestyle change rather
than a simple diet and exercise plan.
About Mike Huckabee,