Still having trouble with blood glucose

Susan wrote:

165 IS a truly horrible fasting glucose number, when you consider that
beta cells permanently die off at 110, and that damage is occurring to
all organs and cells any time you're over 140.

Susan

I'm looking into ways to lower A1c. I've seen diet(low carb), exercise
both aerobic and weight lifting, weight loss if overweight (best BMI?)
supplements, some drugs (metformin), other options? My A1c runs around
the top end of the lab reference range for normal and I'd like to get it
down 1 to 1.5 points - about 4.5 to 5.0.

I recently spent 60 days on a diet that excluded all grains, starches
like potatoes, sugars, any processed foods, and any additives. The diet
included meats, veggies, some fruit, nuts and some berries. My A1c
increased .2 after 60 days, an unanticipated result.

--

Pramesh Rutaji

- remove tongue to reply

"Pramesh Rutaji" wrote in message
...
Susan wrote:

165 IS a truly horrible fasting glucose number, when you consider that
beta cells permanently die off at 110, and that damage is occurring to
all organs and cells any time you're over 140.

Susan

I'm looking into ways to lower A1c. I've seen diet(low carb), exercise
both aerobic and weight lifting, weight loss if overweight (best BMI?)
supplements, some drugs (metformin), other options? My A1c runs around
the top end of the lab reference range for normal and I'd like to get it
down 1 to 1.5 points - about 4.5 to 5.0.

I recently spent 60 days on a diet that excluded all grains, starches like
potatoes, sugars, any processed foods, and any additives. The diet
included meats, veggies, some fruit, nuts and some berries. My A1c
increased .2 after 60 days, an unanticipated result.

Besides diet, the right kind of weight lifting is great for lowing BG and
hence A1c. A "circuit training" type of workout works great, where you use
moderate weights (well below max but not so light that you can't get near
your limit at 10-15 reps). Full body workout with little rest between sets.
I try to alternate upper body with lower body, or pulling motions with
pushing motions. I think of it as trying to squeeze all the glycogen from
the muscles - like water out of a spounge. Dr. Bernstein describes a
similar workout in his books.
A good cardio program helps drain glycogen too if you're LCing.

Regarding your diet above...what was your exercise and what kind of limit
did you put on veggies, some fruts and berries? Some of that can be carby
and exercise matters a great deal.

Avatar writes:
"Cheri" wrote:
Avatar wrote:
Aaron Baugher wrote:
You have the Bernstein book, but you say BG levels of 165 aren't
"too horrible"? Might want to take another look at it.

Not too horrible compared to what it was, 350+.

That's kind of like saying one amputated leg is better than two
amputated legs. Seriously.

OK, Cheri, what do you want me to do?

Doug already had a good suggestion: Trust your thinking about how
you're probably getting too much protein, and replace some of it with
fat, not worrying about the type of fat except to avoid all trans-fats.

If your fasting BG is 165, either your body has simply stopped making
enough basal insulin (in which case I don't know why your doctors would
be against supplementing it) or there's sugar coming from somewhere.
Some could be stored glycogen flooding back out of your muscles, but
that's temporary. Other than that, it's either carbs in your diet, or
protein in your diet being converted.

Anyone know any other way to get a fasting BG of 165, that I'm missing?



--
Aaron -- 285/253/200 -- aaron.baugher.biz

On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:51:22 -0400, "Roger Zoul"
wrote:

Uh, no. I've read it. My diabetes just doesn't repond to low carb. One
possibility is to cut protein and increase fat. But the low carb way
of doing it alone doesn't work.

Well, cutting back on protein and increasing fat is still LC.

True. Am considering adding cheese to my diet and subtracting meat.
But am lactose-intolerant, and the darn lactaid pills are expnsive. Am
also thinking about adding fat via nuts.

And if at all possible, start a serious walking program combined with some
resistance training, too.

Yes, will do. Have been remiss in that--we used to walk, and my
sweetie still does.

165 FBG is something to be very concerned about.

I know. My doctors still say no insulin, though, and I'm not unhappy
about that.

In article , Avatar says...

That's interesting to know--any source on "High blood sugar causes
high triglycerides" such as an URL?

LCing is working great for me. When I started LCing in August '07, my
triglycerides were 203. Six weeks later they dropped to 153. In January '08,
they were at 96.

My BG before LCing was 126. In January it was 96.

My weight was 265 lbs in August--now it is at 225 as of this AM.

I can't tell you if high blood sugar causes high tryglycerides. But I can tell
you that LCing took care of both of them for me pretty fast.

My results are pretty typical of a lot of folks that cut back on carbs.

I also supplement with 500 mcg of Chromium Picolinate daily. This is supposed to
help control BG levels. I got the OK from my doctor to take it, and I wouldn't
recommend taking it without consulting your physician first.

Best of Luck to you.

Mark
265/225/200

Roger Zoul wrote:
"Pramesh Rutaji" wrote in message
...
Susan wrote:

165 IS a truly horrible fasting glucose number, when you consider that
beta cells permanently die off at 110, and that damage is occurring to
all organs and cells any time you're over 140.

Susan
I'm looking into ways to lower A1c. I've seen diet(low carb), exercise
both aerobic and weight lifting, weight loss if overweight (best BMI?)
supplements, some drugs (metformin), other options? My A1c runs around
the top end of the lab reference range for normal and I'd like to get it
down 1 to 1.5 points - about 4.5 to 5.0.

I recently spent 60 days on a diet that excluded all grains, starches like
potatoes, sugars, any processed foods, and any additives. The diet
included meats, veggies, some fruit, nuts and some berries. My A1c
increased .2 after 60 days, an unanticipated result.

Besides diet, the right kind of weight lifting is great for lowing BG and
hence A1c. A "circuit training" type of workout works great, where you use
moderate weights (well below max but not so light that you can't get near
your limit at 10-15 reps). Full body workout with little rest between sets.
I try to alternate upper body with lower body, or pulling motions with
pushing motions. I think of it as trying to squeeze all the glycogen from
the muscles - like water out of a spounge. Dr. Bernstein describes a
similar workout in his books.
A good cardio program helps drain glycogen too if you're LCing.

Regarding your diet above...what was your exercise and what kind of limit
did you put on veggies, some fruts and berries? Some of that can be carby
and exercise matters a great deal.



I might have had some berries or one piece of fruit a day. Veggies were
never more than 1.5 lbs and closer to about 0.5 lb. About every 3-4
days I usually had a grapefruit.

--

Pramesh Rutaji

- remove tongue to reply

Aaron Baugher wrote:
Avatar writes:

OK, Cheri, what do you want me to do?

Doug already had a good suggestion: *Trust your thinking about how
you're probably getting too much protein, and replace some of it with
fat, not worrying about the type of fat except to avoid all trans-fats.

That's a dietary approach aimed at both controlling Avatar's
diabetes and at getting low carb to work by going to the rails
on glucagon output. That problem is - Sometimes diabetic
damage is low enough that it it can be controlled by diet and
sometimes diabetic damage is high enough that it can not
be controlled by diet.

Since Avatar can't control his diabetes with diet alone no
matter what low carb action he takes, his damage is high
enough he needs meds. He's tried and failed with metaformin
and other meds. That means it's time for other tests and to
move on to insulin injections or other approaches.

If your fasting BG is 165, either your body has simply stopped making
enough basal insulin (in which case I don't know why your doctors would
be against supplementing it) or there's sugar coming from somewhere.
Some could be stored glycogen flooding back out of your muscles, but
that's temporary. *Other than that, it's either carbs in your diet, or
protein in your diet being converted.

Anyone know any other way to get a fasting BG of 165, that I'm missing?

If the other meds are not working the most likely reason is he's
not making enough insulin any more. As Susan points out his
current BG levels ensure that will be true in time if it's not
controlled. Susan knows this topic better than any general
practice doctor I've encountered so I would sign up for what
tests she suggests and I would try another endocrinologist. One
who understands what it means that low carbing failed to work.

Losing fat can only help but there's got to be a better way than
being hungry every other week to brute force it down. And if
insufficient insulin is being produced dropping fat stores don't
have much effect on insulin so it's unlikely to actually work.
There are times when losing down to near goal just isn't the
big deal we want it to be.

Low carbing should reduce insulin resistance and thus make
any released insulin work better, but if the pancreas is now
releasing insufficient insulin injections are going to be needed.
With low carbing and dropping insulin resistance the dosage
is likely to be low but it is clear to me at this point that resisting
insulin isn't the way to go. And it is also clear to me that
following Susan's suggestions is the way to go.

"Doug Freyburger" wrote in message
...
Aaron Baugher wrote:
Avatar writes:

OK, Cheri, what do you want me to do?

Doug already had a good suggestion: Trust your thinking about how
you're probably getting too much protein, and replace some of it with
fat, not worrying about the type of fat except to avoid all trans-fats.

That's a dietary approach aimed at both controlling Avatar's
diabetes and at getting low carb to work by going to the rails
on glucagon output. That problem is - Sometimes diabetic
damage is low enough that it it can be controlled by diet and
sometimes diabetic damage is high enough that it can not
be controlled by diet.

Since Avatar can't control his diabetes with diet alone no
matter what low carb action he takes, his damage is high
enough he needs meds.

Serious exercise can help alleviate the situation, and it's doubtful that
course of action has been tried. Medicine is great as a last resort, but it
should be just that. People run out and get elective surgery and/or start
taking medicines with various side-effects when really a little hard work
and self-discipline would get the job done.