Diabetes Control in the Coronavirus Era

Watching a broadcast of the Laura Ingraham show, I heard some doctors who are actually treating patients with Wuhan coronavirus who said that most patients who had serious cases of the disease had T2 diabetes, prediabetes, or were clinically obese— BMI index above 30. 

I have T2 diabetes myself and at one point was on two different pills for it. But then I had a bad kidney test and one of my kidney doctors said I had to go off both pills. The only diabetes medicine she thought my body could handle was insulin injections. I do believe that she assumed I would be on insulin almost immediately, but handling that would be the job of my health-care-providing nurse. 

Well, I got strict with my Keto * Low-Carb eating plan and have not had to go on insulin. Actually I was surprised that controlling my blood sugars with just low-carb was pretty much the same as controlling it with 2 meds plus low-carb. I began to suspect it was my low-carb that was doing the heavy lifting.

If YOU have T2 diabetes, are prediabetic, or are obese, the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic should be your wake-up call to get these things under control with a low-carb eating plan. I know it can be tough. Especially now that some grocery stores are understocked and some normal low-carb eaters have resorted to emergency measures like rice or ramen noodles. And if you haven’t been on low-carb before this is sure a stressful time to start. Though I guess it’s less stressful than having a severe case of Wuhan coronavirus. Here are the steps towards getting started:

1. DOCTOR CONSULTATION

If you are on meds for diabetes and/or high blood pressure, you will have to cut the dose when you start Keto * Low-Carb because the eating plan has similar effects to the meds. And you need to have a doctor’s OK to cut your prescription meds, for good reasons. Probably you will have to consult a doctor by phone or online. If your doctor is reluctant to OK cutting your meds dose, perhaps you ask, that if your blood sugar/pressure gets below a certain level, you will be authorized to split your pills in half. In the long term, you will probably want to find a doctor or health-care-provider non-doctor that is experienced with low-carb.

2. INDUCTION

Induction is the first and strictest phase of the Atkins Keto * Low-Carb eating plan. Going on Induction or back on Induction can help you control those blood sugars. After you have done two weeks or more on Induction successfully, you can add back a bit of carbs as in the Atkins levels. Read more about doing Induction in books like Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution (1972) or Dr. Atkins New Diet Cookbook (1994.)

3. TRACK YOUR NUMBERS

If you have a blood sugar meter, take your blood sugar once or twice a day and write down the results. If you have high blood pressure, get a blood pressure meter and measure that, too. You don’t need to weigh yourself every day, but twice a week is good. I have an electronic scale which also calculates my BMI and body fat percentage, among other things. That BMI is an important number— it marks the difference between obese and merely overweight. (My BMI has been just under 30 usually, but this Sunday it was 30, so I am technically obese again. Must get stricter in my Keto!) 

It is VERY important to track your state of ketosis. Blood ketones are the best things to measure, but the test strips cost money. Breath ketones are the next best. I have an older Ketonix brand breath ketone analyzer. I test my breath ketones every morning. If it is moderate or high, that’s a good level of ketosis and so I put a big K in my  health records notebook, followed by a number— if it is the first day of being back in good ketosis after a low-or-no ketone day, that number will be a one, followed by a two and so on.

If you cannot get a blood ketone or breath ketone meter, you can fall back on ketosis urine strips. It’s not as good a measure, but better than nothing. You can probably buy either the urine strips or blood or breath ketone meters online right now, if you have internet access in your home.

4. DON’T DO LOW-CARB & LOW-FAT

Eating low-carb is restrictive enough, without a misguided attempt to do low-fat at the same time. Good fats are not only healthy for you, they help you to feel not-hungry. That’s why I can stick to a low-carb eating plan while I couldn’t do low-calorie/low-fat for one full day. 

Read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes (2007) to get an account of how wrong science led to the ‘urban legend’ that eating foods with fat in them would clog your arteries and make you die of heart disease. Valid science does not support this, but supports the LCHF (low-carb, high-fat) eating plan. The book gives loads of references to actual scientific journal articles and so is useful for medical doctors and ‘health-care-providers’ who can look up and read the actual articles and evaluate them.

My very conventional ‘health-care-provider’ ordered me to begin taking fish oil supplements, which shows that even the conventional medical industry is starting to learn that all fat is not bad fat. 

5. DO KETO INTERMITTENT FASTING

Keto Intermittent Fasting is not the same as white-knuckle fasting which I picture as someone curled in a ball, moaning from hunger pangs, just waiting for the moment when he can eat some food again. I tried fasting that way once or twice, and didn’t get through more than a day.

Keto Intermittent Fasting happens once you get into ketosis. You are not hungry, you have more energy than you are used to, and you end up skipping a meal or two because you are too caught up in a project to eat a meal. 

Intentional fasting on Keto is a pleasure because it is easy. And it sure brings down the blood sugars. I used to never eat breakfast on Keto * Low-Carb, but after my health problems last year it’s mostly supper I can do without. 

The down side of fasting is that it can make you experience hunger again when Keto has made you unused to feeling hunger. Also, you tend to feel virtuous because you have fasted for hours or days. This can lead to a carb-binge that can spoil all the gains you have made.

Blood sugar control and ending your obesity are more important now than ever during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. The Keto * Low-Carb eating plan is your best ally in overcoming the insulin resistance which leads both to diabetes/prediabetes and to obesity/overweight. Sticking to this plan— in spite of the stress of current events— can be essential for your health and safety.

How I learned to Control my T2 Diabetic Blood Sugars

I learned that I was diabetic because my mother is thrifty. She was and is ‘addicted’ to constant doctor visits, and she does what she is told. When she had a bad cholesterol reading, she obediently went on a statin drug— and promptly got full-blown diabetes. 

She controlled her diabetes with pills, got bad low-fat-based nutritional advice, and learned to test her blood sugar every morning with a blood sugar meter. When her ‘health-care provider’s’ corporation moved the patients on to a different brand of blood sugar meter, she gave me her old one because, as someone who grew up during the Great Depression, she wasn’t going to take a thing that was worth money and throw it away.

I tested my blood sugar one day just for kicks— it was over 300. Scary! So I went to mom’s ‘health-care provider,’ a nurse-practitioner, and she put me on Metformin— one of the few diabetes pills that doesn’t make you gain weight.

I had already learned about low-carb living, since I’d bought copies of various Atkins diet book from St. Vincent de Paul thrift shops. I KNEW that my weight problem already showed that my body had a problem handling carbohydrates. 

As a child I had read a REALLY old home medical book my mother had, that had two or three whole chapters about diabetes, which was very keen on the discovery of insulin injections which was new when the writer was younger. I learned that diabetes was a disease where you had to ‘give up sugar forever.’ As I grew older and learned about Atkins and low-carb, I knew that carbs in general were the problem, not just sugar and not just ‘added sugar.’

The Metformin did bring my blood sugars down. I tested my blood sugars about 3 times a day when I was ‘being good.’ I was mostly eating less carbs, but my father had recently died and so I felt I had to go out to eat with my mom a lot. We do not have fancy restaurants where we live; going out to eat meant eating hamburgers, fried chicken or a fish fry. Carb city!

I got a second blood sugar pill added. In time I realized that the only way to get good blood sugar readings was to be on strict keto as well as taking the pills. Which I mostly did.

I had a bad kidney test, and was sent to a series of nephrologists (kidney specialists.) After a lot of angst, my most recent and least competent kidney doctor took me off all meds— she said that the Metformin probably damaged my kidneys. She also said that no diet change would help my kidneys, and that I needed to prepare to go on dialysis. 

I was scared to go off my meds, but I found that going off, while staying on strict low-carb/keto, made no difference. My blood sugar was controlled by my diet, not the presence or absence of pills. And my kidney tests improved when I was strict with my diet. My kidney doctor didn’t believe that result, though my ‘health-care provider’ (physician assistant) did notice that. So I let that particular kidney doctor go though I kept the ‘health-care provider’ (because I’m on Medicaid, I can only change ‘health-care providers’ once a year, and they won’t tell me when.)

I read “Dr. Atkins Diabetes Revolution” when it came out, and the two books by Dr. Richard Bernstein, “Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution” and “The Diabetes Diet.” Both were very helpful in getting me to get my diabetes under control through diet. I noticed, though, as I grew older the low-carb diet I had been doing for years took longer to take effect when I restarted after going off the diet. Carb binges did more damage, and had longer lasting effects. Just a part of getting older.

The final piece of the puzzle was when I read Dr. Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore’s “The Complete Guide to Fasting.” Fasting brought down bad blood sugar numbers quicker than keto alone. And when I started fasting, already being in ketosis, the fasting was easy. In fact, on a keto diet I often skipped mealtime without thinking about it, if I was already busy with something. 

If you have been diagnosed with T2 diabetes, I hope you will learn to control your blood sugar with your (low-carb, ketogenic) diet instead of with pills that only work for a few years for most people. (My mom, in spite of her carb-filled diet, still gets fairly good blood sugars because of her two diabetes drugs— and since she is 91, I’m hoping the drugs will continue to work for the rest of her life.)

If you are lucky enough, you can find a doctor or a nutritionist who regularly encourages patients to eat low-carb. Ask your current ‘health-care provider’ if they know of someone like this. If no luck, ask your friends if they know of anyone. There are even online lists of keto-oriented doctors and medical people. Look it up, there may be someone good you can get to.

I didn’t have such luck. All the doctors and medical people in my area are part of the same big medical corporation and they don’t seem to have or allow keto-oriented dissenters. So I had to work on learning all about keto for myself through books and podcasts. I did notice that once I lost weight and got better blood sugar numbers on a diet that doctors discouraged me from following, they encouraged me to stick with it.

90 days on Keto and Fasting: Results--- 35 pounds and controlled blood sugar

Today I celebrate day 90 of being on a strict low-carb ketogenic diet. I've had some good results both over the 90 days, and in my previous low-carb diet.

I have lost 35 pounds in the 90 days, which brings my total weight lost by low-carb keto to 89 pounds. I was mostly on lowcarb before, but less strict, and didn't do fasting other than skipping breakfast most days.

My BMI has gone down from 32.0 on day 10 of keto, to 27.0 this morning, which means I am no longer obese, just 'overweight.'

As a Type 2 diabetic, it was bad blood sugars that drove me to strict keto and fasting. I had a 336 blood sugar on day 1 of the current keto regime. I had a 84 yesterday, and was up to 99 this morning.

I am currently on a No-Breakfast Plan experiment, where I don't start eating until lunchtime. I'm also currently on the third day of a three-day fast. Or maybe a four-day fast. We'll see where I am tomorrow morning.

My blood pressure has been high, and while previously a low-carb diet lowered it without help, it hasn't helped much. I decided to try taking some good kind of garlic capsules. I found one kind which was allicin powder, the active ingredient in garlic, Buy Naturally bioactive Mega Allicin. My blood pressure has gone down slightly since I started to take it. I may add a cinnamon capsule--- I have used Cinnulin in the past--- and see if that helps even more.

No-Breakfast Plan experiment
The problem with this experiment as an experiment is that I was already mostly not a morning eater. And then I decided I had to do a 3 day fast, so any results will be a part of that. I think if I experiment again I might experiment on eating breakfasts, and see what that does. Anyway, I will report on the results at the official end of the experiment on Monday.

Controlling Type 2 Diabetes with Low-Carb, Keto Diet

I found out I had T2 diabetes when my mother gave me her old blood sugar meter. Her doctor had ordered up a new one in a different brand for her, and she didn’t like to waste stuff that was worth money. My mother had acquired T2 diabetes shortly after her doctor put her on a statin drug, which raises blood sugar.

I got some scary-high readings when I first tried the meter, so I made a doctor’s appointment. Since I have been low-income most of my life— I have an autism spectrum disorder— I hadn’t been to a doctor in years. The doc confirmed what my blood sugar meter told me, and I was put on Metformin.

Metformin helped at first, but then it didn’t and we added Actos to the mix. I had read one of the Dr. Bernstein diabetes diet books and he recommended Actos and Metformin for those who needed to take diabetes drugs. 

Before long, I discovered that I needed to stick to a low carb diet in order to have decent blood sugar readings. I regarded any blood sugar below 200 as a step in the right direction, and when my diet was right I was getting readings like 140 or 127. Not normal, but not as bad as a reading of 250 or 300.

Now, I was not strict enough when I was doing my low-carb. Since Atkins allows you 4 teaspoons of cream, I was allowing myself 2 or 3 or even 4 Tablespoons. I was not measuring portions when I should have been. And during 2003, I was eating a lot of sugar-free, low-carb candy, which was enough of a fad at the time that Walmart carried a good selection of the candy bars. But I was largely giving up real sugar, bread and pasta, and the kinds of chips I used to love.

I had some social issues for a while. My father died in November of 2004, and I had to spend a lot of time with my mother. My mother wanted to go out to eat, and the restaurants we used didn’t exactly have anything low-carb on the menu. And when I could get low-carb things— like eggs and bacon for breakfast— the waitress was always pushing bread or hash browns on me, and I could resist anything but temptation.

Later on, I had some complications of the diabetes, and as a result a specialist I was sent to insisted I stop my current meds. She said the only thing that was safe for me to take was insulin, but neither she nor my ‘health care provider’ (a physician’s assistant) made any move to get me started on insulin.

Stopping my diabetes drugs led to one shocking result. I continue to take my blood sugar every morning, and it did not go up as a result of stopping the drugs! I didn’t know it, but I had been controlling my blood sugar with my diet, and the pills had not been helping, really. 

After that I sometimes stuck to my low-carb very well and had better numbers, and sometimes I didn’t, or I cheated, and my numbers were worse. I found that if I ate my cheat foods at one time of day only, sometimes I had decent numbers the next day. That is, a cheat limited to one meal or snacktime wasn’t as harmful as if I had 2 cheat meals-or-snacks in one day. 

I still didn’t have the good numbers I wanted. Dr. Bernstein said you should go for normal blood sugar numbers, and mine weren’t that. I know, I had to stop the cheats, for one thing. But it took me a few more years to discover ways to improve my blood sugar numbers even more. In a future blog post, I will share what I did to help my blood sugar even more.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical person and do not give medical advise. If you have diabetes, consult your doctor about any changes. If you go on keto/lowcarb, your medications will have to be lowered. You need your doctor to help with that. 

Some Helpful Books:

Dr Atkins Diabetes Revolution

Dr Atkins Diet Revolution (the original Atkins,  YOU NEED THIS!)

The Diabetes Diet 

Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution

The above are affiliate links. I put them up because I am on disability with an autism spectrum disorder, and I want to get off it. Or at least have a little more money to fix things in my home like my broken stove and my antique electrical wiring and my malfunctioning plumbing.  If you buy through my links, bless you! And if you don't, well, that's OK too. Just reading my blog's a kindness.

My July results on Keto

It's the beginning of a new month, and time to consider what keto has done for me the past July. And I think it's pretty good!

July was days 10 to 40 of my renewed keto lifestyle. And it had some great results. My blood glucose was 170 and 156 on the first two days of July. It was 101 and 93 on the last two days, and today it is 88. Compare those results to when I was on 2 diabetes meds, and still had readings in the mid 200s unless I was on strict low-carb--- a diet at least 1 of my doctors actively discouraged. She wanted me on the dreadful DASH diet, and thought that telling me it was a government-approved diet would encourage me to like it. There was no way to make me like the constant hunger, non-weight-loss, and higher blood sugars on that diet, though.

Fasting: I had 8 fasting days during July, mostly individual days with one 5 day fast. Each time I fasted, my blood glucose became more normal, and since I was on keto the other days, it stayed more normal.

Weight: I weighed 196.8 pounds at the beginning of July, and 185.2 by the end. I had not weighed under 190 since college, maybe since high school! My BMI (body mass index) went from 32.0 to 30.1. My Ketonix says I was in high level ketosis for almost all the days of July.

Clothing size: I bought two pairs of jeans and a pair of shorts in a new, smaller size: XL. And they fit really loose on me. I really want to buy a new pair of jeans in 'L' just to see if it would fit!

There are bad sides to my new keto life, though. I've been feeling so much more energetic, I got a lot of things done, including starting on a major house cleaning. But with all that energy, I spent too much money. Since government disability doesn't PAY much, I have to be very, very careful in August. Which is too bad since I want to buy some new clothes. And I can't even afford a trip to the grocery store this week.

Also, my blood pressure has not improved any. I'm hoping another month will see some changes in that. Keto is supposed to be good for your blood pressure. If I don't see improvement, I will probably have to resort to blood pressure pills. If my 'health care provider' (not a doctor) is willing to prescribe a kind I am willing to take.