Posted by: Nige
on Sep 13, 2008
Tagged in: Untagged
Breakfast is always a problem for type 2s because insulin resistance is usually higher in the morning. Having cereal can push your BG up very high and then drop low quickly, potentially causing a crash. This is because your system is slow and overcompensates. It does not start producing enough insulin early enough (or dodgy insulin) and then has a habit of overdoing it so that your BG level falls well below where it started. As a result you can fall to a level which is far too low within about 4 hours. Carbs simply get "used up" far too quickly.
To combat this, you need to find some breakfasts which work. So heres what I do.
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Posted by: Nige
on Sep 11, 2008
Tagged in: Untagged
There's a magic word in the word of marketing. That word is "natural" and it seems that it can be used to sell anything to anyone. Its used frequently by food suppliers and more importantly by supplement scammers and scaremongers. Unfortunately its also largely meaningless.
You don't have to spend too long online looking at diabetes resources to realise that there are a lot of scammers around trying to sell you fake "cures" for diabetes. A lot of these include the word "natural" but what does that actually mean? How "natural" does something have to be to get that label? Well not at all since the market is not regulated at all. Because of the regulation of the pharmaceuticals industry, claims have to be backed up by medical evidence and clinical trials. Also there are strict tolerances to which any controlled drug has to maintain. If samples of a particular batch are outside the tolerences then EVERY pill is recalled (within reason). In the supplements industry you can make whatever claims you like, package anything you like and you only risk being shut down after a while when the complaints start rolling in.
But as I say, the word "Natural" is largely meaningless. Almost everything has to go through some kind of process before its put on sale, even a process as simple as drying out. How "natural" are the cellulose and gelatin capsules used to package many of these products? They don't grow on trees. They have to be extracted from plant matter in liquid form, reformed and shaped into capsules. Many "natural" supplements are "extracts" of plants which sounds fine until you consider that petrol is an extract from crude oil. What's more natural than crude oil? So by the same measure that makes petrol a "natural" product. A couple more simple processes such as high temperature (aka cooking) and increased pressure and you can end up with plastics. So by a similar measure that makes plastic natural as well. From a certain point of view, my iPod is natural. It just depends how you choose to define it.
Posted by: Nige
on Sep 07, 2008
Tagged in: Untagged
I have a tendency on forums to mention managed carb as opposed to low carb. So what do I mean by it and why the distinction?
Theres actually very little difference between the two. Whether low carb or managed carb, the intention is to limit the intake of carbs to manage BG. Although I don't think of myself as a low carber, my carb intake is relatively low compared to non-diabetics at around 80-120g of carb per day.
The problem is that low carb is a question of degree and it depends how you define "low". To some people 150g may be low wheras to others its below 40. Because its a question of degree, you do get extremists. Now this is perfectly understandable given that carbs cause BG to rise so I can understand them wanting to cut out carbs. But the problem I find with very low carbing or extremely low carbing is that its a lot to live up to.
Posted by: Nige
on Sep 03, 2008
Tagged in: Untagged
There is a myth that fingerprick testing makes your fingers sore. This myth is usually propagated by nurses, which is ironic since it only makes your finger sore when you let a nurse do it.
You can test anywhere up to the first knuckle and get the same reading, so lets look at our options. The fingernail is out obviously. Then we have the sides of the finger, the rear of the pad, the tip and the pad itself. The pad is the most sensitive part since that is the bit you "feel" with. Thats the reason it is also the part which is in contact with things more of the time. So where do nurses choose to stab you? Right. So you get a hole in your skin at the most sensitive part and keep touching things with it all day. Its not really a surprise that it can get sore. Also that gives you 10 test points to stab yourself in so you will be using the same point again pretty soon.
A better approach is to use the side of the finger. I tend to use a point about 60 degrees (2/3) of the way around the curve. If you use the actual side you are closer to the bone with less padding so it can sting a bit more at first. This part of the finger is in less direct contact with other objects all day, so there is less chance of it becoming sore. It also increases your number of test sites to 20 - 2 per finger - so there will be a longer period between tests.
