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Roller coaster (of sugar and energy).
Living and working around diabetics and folks with weight issues for over twenty years lends a little perspective:
1. Adkins, like any other person who publishes self-help books, makes his money by selling books, not by making you healthy. If I recall, this isn't his first diet. Go with your real, live, interactive doctor's advice, but make sure you have your input heard. (Every diet has someone whom it benefits, Adkins might work for you, just don't "get religion" and block out reason. 'Adkins says it, I believe it, that's that'.......nope).
2. If everyone's metabolisms were identical, we would only need one doctor and one medical school, because everyone would be healthy except for trauma. If your M.D. and his associates can't help you, find another one, or ask for a referral, and treat any mass advice as hypotheses to be proven or ruled-out in your case.
3. This is not a criticism, but your history here does not include your energy output, be it work, exercise, recuperation from disease or trauma, washing dogs, thinking, taking care of rug rats, whatever. Blood sugar is largely based on the tetrapod of insulin, calories in (and their place onn the food pyramid), and calories out; there is another part which is often neglected, which is basal metabolism, more on that. You might look to your energy use pattern and try to correlate it to your swings in real life. They interact both ways.
4. You sound like you are concerned about diabetes. More and more, diabetes is being recognized as a condition which can result from one or more causes (much as "CANCER" became "breast" or "pancreatic" or "squamous cell" cancer, and then the different contributing factors for each of those was identified). Some folks develop diabetes as they get older for no apparent reason (probably reflects state of the art in diagnostics); some develop it seemingly related to weight gain (it gets better when they lose the weight, but the diabetes tends to favor gaining weight); some develop it early in life; some have problems with diabetes secondary to insult to their pancreas and it's Islets of Langerhans by chemicals, disease, trauma, and auto-immune processes. One thing not seen in the uncomplicated diabetic spectrum, however, is hypoglycemia, without something else causing it; for instance, if your blood sugar swings up and you take measures to keep it down and it swings back towards normal on its own, the "corrective measures" will cause the blood sugar to drop too far.Your fasting glucose seemed not to be of a "diabetic" character, although it does not rule out that you might develop it later especially if you gain weight. (Hey, this over the internet. DO NOT print this out and wave it at your M.D.!
).
5. Metabolic rate is not all related to the pancreas and the insulin it produces. Has your M.D. entertained the idea that you might have thyroid or other problems? Has he done a full fasting chem panel, plus/ including TSH, T4, amylase, liver enzymes and a "haemoglobin A1C" or "glycohaemoglobin" test? What kind of manufactured and organic drugs are you taking? Caffeine? Ephedra? Decongestants? Eye drops? Herbal teas? Diet "shakes"? Dietetic candies with sorbitol, mannitol, aspartame? How about your urine ketone levels?
6. Never forget the non-organic component. Hormones and serum glucose will affect your state of mind, but the state of mind can make bad things better, and good things worse (and really bad things horrible). You have some sense of humor or you wouldn't read or write blogs, keep it up, but also make sure you have healthy social, or at least working, contact with real live adult humans once in a while. (I suppose a spouse counts, don't ask my wife about that though, after thirty years). And if you go on to make your body's monitoring and maintenance your sole hobby, whilw endlessly fascinating, it's a lot like concentrating too much on the bike while you're riding it; you're more likely to crash by over-corrections, and you miss the scenery.
Watch yourself, work with your M.D., and if that doesn't work, get yourself another opinion.
OK, ten minute stretch, pop quiz when you get back
!
majroj
posted by
majroj
on March 25, 2003 at 9:58 PM
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Right on
I'd always wanted to eat like that, several small meals or snacks a day, but everyone thought I was crazy. As a "grown up" now, eating whenever I'd like to, it seems to make perfect sense, especially if you're eating healthy foods. It keeps my energy up (and my crankiness down) all day long instead of crashing when I get too hungry waiting for a meal.
posted by
Girl_in_Bleue
on March 25, 2003 at 8:27 AM
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Whim's right
In fact, her suggestion is actually standard medical advice for hypoglycemia. My husband - also a diabetic - was given the exact same advice by a dietitian: Don't go longer than 4-5 hours (in your case, 3-4 hours) without eating at least a small snack. And make sure they're nutritious ones too - concentrated protein, fruit with maybe a bit of cream cheese or other form of fat (but just a tiny bit, though, so you don't
get fat), maybe carbs with peanut butter or some similar concoction (additive-free nut butters exist but you have to go to health food stores to get them). Small amounts - and I do mean
small amounts - of fat work wonders, as do soluble fibers and other forms of roughage, to even out that blood sugar. We each have our own individual tolerances for carbs (I have to eat a very high-carb and very low-protein diet or else my kidney-related blood chemistries rebel, so Atkins isn't for me).
posted by
kidnykid
on March 25, 2003 at 8:06 AM
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Listen to your body
If your body is telling you to eat more often, consider having several small meals a day rather than three large ones.
There is research available that actually states it is better for you to eat that way anyway. (And it helps you lose weight because you never really get hungry and overeat.)
posted by
Whim
on March 25, 2003 at 1:12 AM
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I'm No Doctor
But I do know of something that can help you. My Dad is a diabetic and I put him on Reliv's nutritional supplement, and it stabilized his blood sugar. Even if you are eating a healthy diet, you still aren't getting all of the vitamins, minerals and proteins that your body needs to function properly. Reliv helped me with my migraines too. I've been taking it for close to 2 years now, and have only had about 3 or 4 migraines since I began taking it.
posted by
Freedom
on March 24, 2003 at 9:28 PM
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