Some new discoveries after my type-2 diabetes diagnosis per "dietary change"

[BonzaiDuck]

This has all been unsettling to me. It seems that for about four months before the doc warned me about my high A1C blood-sugar level, I was hydrating almost exclusively on Martinelli's sparkling cider, non-diet soft drinks and coffee. More beer would've been better.

I anticipate an appointment with my medical clinic's dietician. Thinking too far ahead, perhaps over-reacting to the news of one's "condition", I began worrying about my kidneys and my eyes. I had eye surgery last year for cataracts, and it wouldn't have been related to blood-sugar, high-blood-pressure, etc. But my eyesight is important to me. I'm studying the CA DMV guide so I can renew my driver license, and do not want to risk losing the privilege. Kidney disease is something I never thought I'd have. I had known people who required periodic dialysis. The thought of any serious kidney disease would severely depress me.

So the first thing I did -- probably as advised -- was to eliminate unnecessary intake of sugar in my food. That is, I made the effort a priority. But I love my food; I love pasta; I love Mexican rice; I love Mandarin Orange Chicken with sticky white rice. Bread, crackers, bagels? I use and love them all. I can eliminate some habitual candy intake. I can eliminate soft drinks and bottled fruit juice. But ever so often, you want a little Rainbow Sherbet, maybe a piece of chocolate fudge, or the fresh-from-the-oven glazed donut.

A friend in Albuquerque is keen on productive web-searches. It is almost humbling, the kind of stuff he turns up for which my efforts fall short. This time, he sent links to articles touting two dietary aids to lower blood sugar and assist keeping it in control -- no less for working against the effects of too much sugar or carbohydrate consumption.

First -- Kombucha. I would've thought that unsweetened, bottled Kombucha would not be a tasty addition to my diet. But! I know conclude thus: If you liked Martinelli's Sparkling Cider, you may equally enjoy something like a Pineapple Kombucha in a sealed, chilled bottle. You can investigate the benefits of Kombucha on your own through your browser. Like Yogurt, it contains micro-organisms and other substances that make positive improvements in blood sugar. To that end, avoid Kombucha that has "added sugar"; it will be evident from the nutritional ingredients label.

Second -- Pecans. Perhaps 30 pecan-halves per day. Ordinarily, one might shrink from a regimen of gobbling a bunch of nuts every day regardless of momentary inclinations.

I tried chopping and crushing the Pecans, and then adding them to my cereal bowl in the morning for my unsweetened Cheerios and milk.

These may be "dietary changes" or supplements, but they are not gastronomic adjustments to any degree. It is almost as though I am continuing to drink sparkling cider -- but I'm not. And Cheerios with nuts is at least as good as any Cheerios and milk.

Perhaps this is all imagination. I started with this regimen only yesterday. I woke up today feeling tip-top -- even with no COPD expectorations. I feel profoundly good -- and healthy today.

You can get the Kombucha in a half-gallon bottle, or a pint bottle at some groceries and health-food stores. I wanted to see how to obtain it online, with some word-of-mouth intel about COSTCO. This led to the discovery of little packets of dried powder to which you add to water. Almost like your Country Time Lemonade mix, they apparently create carbonation as well.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I hope it works out for you. But in order to confirm that these changes do work, you need to abstain from your other indulgences like the carb heavy meals plus anything that is fried. Impaired carb metabolism is just a symptom of the disease. The real problem is that the pancreas and liver have become fatty. For that, you need to restrict dietary fat OR reduce carb intake OR switch to plant based diet (again, no cheating by frying stuff). Best of luck and be responsible!

 

[Tech Junky]

You need to move 30 minutes a day and forget about the diet stuff.

I did the diet cuts when they were pushing a T2 diagnosis and dropped some weight but, number didn't go down. Started routine exercise and proved them wrong on T2 and wrote it off to being a sloth for a bit.

 

[Stiff Clamp]

TAURINE couldn't hurt, IMO.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266656622200034X

FYI: I take taurine for brain health, not diabetes.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Started routine exercise and proved them wrong on T2 and wrote it off to being a sloth for a bit.

Curious about your build, height, weight before and after starting the routine exercise.

I have an average height (163cm), average build, low muscle mass and I'm very prone to weight gain, even if I exercise. The exercise thing works better for people who have good muscle mass and height of or above 6 feet. For me to get rid of T2D, I had to do a 1200 calorie diet consisting of fruits or fruit juices, white rice and boiled chickpeas (no oil, no meat, no dairy products, nothing else) for 15 days straight. It was pretty hard and by the end of it, my insulin sensitivity went straight up and I developed a ravenous appetite where I would eat to my fill and not gain weight. I think I spent a year like that, just enjoying food.

Only drawback was low diastolic blood pressure that I fixed with roughly two eggs per day for ten days straight. Blood pressure fixed but I also got my weight gain peculiarity back. These days, trying to stay fit through squats.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Curious about your build, height, weight before and after starting the routine exercise.

I have an average height (163cm), average build, low muscle mass and I'm very prone to weight gain, even if I exercise. The exercise thing works better for people who have good muscle mass and height of or above 6 feet. For me to get rid of T2D, I had to do a 1200 calorie diet consisting of fruits or fruit juices, white rice and boiled chickpeas (no oil, no meat, no dairy products, nothing else) for 15 days straight. It was pretty hard and by the end of it, my insulin sensitivity went straight up and I developed a ravenous appetite where I would eat to my fill and not gain weight. I think I spent a year like that, just enjoying food.

Only drawback was low diastolic blood pressure that I fixed with roughly two eggs per day for ten days straight. Blood pressure fixed but I also got my weight gain peculiarity back. These days, trying to stay fit through squats.

There was a time in my life when I ran 5 miles per week on the George Washington Bike Trail. For years.

I've been a vedged-out couch potato for too many years since I retired. Maybe I did some wilderness hikes between 2001 and 2005, but I have camped out on my La-Z-Boy couch too much since then. Exercise -- walking up and down my street on this steep hill -- is discomforting. I find myself stopping about two or three times to catch my breath. This is a result of my COPD and damage to my lung capacity. It may be getting better, but I only expect partial reversal at most. You could feel comfortable as a runner with the almost-winded feeling at the end of your mile, but with the COPD damage -- at least now -- the extra work of walking up a steep heel makes the "walk" an unpleasant one..

Then, of course, add the So-Cal August heat. See -- we fared better than the rest of the country of all that were under severe heat alert. These temperatures and durations were common many, many decades ago. I believe this is due to proximity to the ocean, even if the mountains separate us from Capistrano.

But the heat? For an old septuagenarian fart? Out of shape with mild COPD? Maybe I should work on gaining willpower, and then we may see . . . . I should really try to do it every day or every other day without fail.

I DO have this little pedal-machine exerciser I'd bought for Moms. You can sit on the couch and work it with your feet.

 

[Tech Junky]

5'10" not that it really matters when it comes to the physiology of the equations. I had been doing office work and not much exercise but, the weight crept up over time but, nothing really noticeable as to clothing changes in size or any noticeable physical ailments.

I started aggressively monitoring things and noticed processed foods spiked things and more natural options remained steady. Swapping Doritos for fried tortilla chips / salsa made a difference for snacks. I did the the high fruits / veggies thing as well but all that did was drop some weight. I swapped around a bunch of food stuff for a couple of weeks at a time to monitor for changes. Went back in and A1C actually went up IIRC and that's when the whole exercise discussion came up and I stated biking daily for 30 mins and put on more muscle mass / cardio improved. Weight is just a number, the more muscle you have the easier it is to convert food into energy and burn it off.

When you stat putting on the muscle you'll naturally gravitate towards more protein than carbs but, there's nothing wrong with carbs as long as they're more complex than simple sugars. Muscle does weigh more than fat though so, that's the whole idea of weight being just a number. The whole BMI thing bugs me as well because it says I'm over weight when I'm in conditioned shape vs an actual clamp measurement. The calculations in BMI are based on some assumptions rather than actual measurements.

At my peak for biking though I was pushing ~25mi a day in 30-45 mins depending on foot traffic. When I started out though I really felt the burn in the lungs and didn't get quite that far even though I had been quite athletic before. Cardio though is key to keeping the body systems running correctly. Everything from eye sight to breathing to general well being tie into it. Increased physical activity naturally leads to more fluids due to sweating and needing to replace water. Thus the kidneys get flushed routinely. My target while training was at least a gallon of water per day. That was easy w/ a 32oz water bottle while biking and then topping off through the day.

It worked for me but, everyone is different but, in general exercise works better than diet alone. The proof is in the numbers.

 

[Tech Junky]

I should really try to do it every day or every other day without fail.

It will make a difference. Just find a flat area and widen your circles or times around as much as you can stand it. Take breaks if you have to for a couple of minutes if you feel funny. Bring water or gatorade or something just in case. A bit of sugar will help if you're feeling funny. When I was biking a lot I would use those gatorade single server 20oz packets in the water bottle for a little flavor w/o all of the sugar. A daily vitamin will help as well if you're choices of food are lacking things. I just picked up a#250 bottle of Centrum Men for under $10 on Amazon $8.06 w/ tax.

Amazon.com

 

[BonzaiDuck]

It will make a difference. Just find a flat area and widen your circles or times around as much as you can stand it. Take breaks if you have to for a couple of minutes if you feel funny. Bring water or gatorade or something just in case. A bit of sugar will help if you're feeling funny. When I was biking a lot I would use those gatorade single server 20oz packets in the water bottle for a little flavor w/o all of the sugar. A daily vitamin will help as well if you're choices of food are lacking things. I just picked up a#250 bottle of Centrum Men for under $10 on Amazon $8.06 w/ tax.

Amazon.com

A most timely reminder! I was running out of Centrum Men-- what is it? -- 50+? I was taking gram-sized capsules of Omega-3 fish oil every day, but my doctor cites the journal articles inclining toward "little appreciable effect". I figure the vitamins are probably worth it, even if the pill-size is a choker.

 

[igor_kavinski]

https://www.centrum.com/content/dam/cf-consumer-healthcare/bp-wellness-centrum/en_US/pdf/men-tablet.pdf

That's a well devised formula, better than most multivitamins I come across.

However, I see two things in there that I would be wary of.

First is Chromium. It's essential but supplement makers often use the Chromium Picolinate variant. That one may get accumulated in the tiny tubules of the nephrons (kidney cells) and lead to their necrosis (death). Not sure which type of Chromium Centrum is using.

Second is Selenium. It shouldn't be more than 50% RDA in a single tablet per day. Excess Selenium may harm the pancreatic cells that produce insulin.

Due to these two minerals, I would not take this supplement daily. Multivitamins are not required daily anyway, unless you drink so much water and sweat so hard that you need to replenish the lost minerals. Personally, I would take one tablet every third day, to be on the safe side. There's usually enough vitamins/minerals in the foods we eat for this not to be a big problem.

 

[igor_kavinski]

https://www.centrum.com/content/dam/cf-consumer-healthcare/bp-wellness-centrum/en_US/pdf/lbl-00000769-web-ready-centrum-silver-men-tablets-(version-2.pdf

That's Centrum 50+. It is better with regard to Selenium coz it's got only 38% of RDA.

Chromium is still high if it's Chromium Picolinate.

 

[igor_kavinski]

This may help: https://lysulin.com/

 

[BonzaiDuck]

This may help: https://lysulin.com/

I tried to find it at Amazon, and the search resulted in a long list of products called "Lysine" as a health supplement. But no "Lysulin".

I don't take the multivitamin every day. During the years when I lived and worked in DC, I seldom took any vitamins. When I came back here, my good old Moms cajoled me to stay vaccinated, see the doctor once or twice a year, get a colonoscopy, and stop smoking. But I didn't stop smoking until last year. She was also pushing Centrum Silver 50+. But I don't take it every day. Maybe every other day.

When Moms was still mentally sound, she was pushing vitamin pills at me every day in a tupperware cup. More vitamins than you could imagine. The whole alphabet. I couldn't keep up with all that on my own, so the Centrum is some comfort that I'm achieving "coverage."

A day or two is too soon to conclude if effects of Kombucha and Pecans (in Cheerios) are significant or noticeable. But so far, I feel really good. I don't have to pee every five minutes. My lungs are clear. My toes feel warm.

I will swear on the Book that some brands of bottled Kombucha taste very much like Martinellis. I DID finish off a strange bottle this morning -- lemme get the bottle from the trash . . . . hold on a minute . . . Nope . . . it's not on Amazon. "GT's ALIVE Ancient Mushroom Elixir -- Lemon Lime" It still seems like a Kombucha with a unique flavor.

Maybe I said somewhere before or somewhere else: Kombucha comes in a powdered form that can be mixed with water. I ordered a pile of it from Amazon and COSTCO. The promotional pictures looked promising: a fruity, colorful drink. It's not too much a burden to the wallet if I buy the large bottles of Kombucha from the local Clark's Nutrition Center.

All of this stuff, if any "extra expense", should be easily funded with the money I stopped spending on cigarettes.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I tried to find it at Amazon, and the search resulted in a long list of products called "Lysine" as a health supplement. But no "Lysulin".

You can buy it directly from their website, if you want to give it a try at some point.

 

[PowerEngineer]

One of the fun things about aging is that you start collecting new (to you) medical issues, and then get to deal with the challenges of sorting through everything the internet has to say about them. There are few medical issues garnering more debate and/or divergent advice than insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Good luck OP! 😁

FWIW my limited experience suggests that individuals respond quite differently to the various lifestyle changes, medications, and supplements that are often recommended. I would therefore suggest some "trial and error" to see what works best for you. Again, good luck with that! 😃

If you decide to augment medications with supplements (as I have) then give thought to which suppliers you trust. The low price seller on Amazon is not likely to be a good choice IMHO. I eventually migrated Thorne:

Thorne

Certainly not the cheapest - but I am worth it! 😎

 

[Captante]

(1) DO what your IRL doctor tells you.

(2) There is no step 2.

 

[igor_kavinski]

(2) There is no step 2.

Yes there is. Find a reputable doctor who will prescribe you supplements.

I wish you good luck on your odyssey

 

[Captante]

Like I said an "in real life" doctor .... finding a competent one is up to each of us individually.

Diet and regular exercise are both also critical to being/staying healthy.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The pecans with Cheerios and low-fat milk breakfast works wonders. I can "bulk up" on the cereal and nuts by eating more of it for lunch. Then, the fatty, sweetened or carb-bearing foods I love make up less in percentage of my daily diet -- if I indeed want to eat them.

I have to catch up with my mails and health-insurer e-mails to obtain an A1C blood-test kit. I will go to the health clinic to have a blood test in a week, and then visit the doctor in early October. I have a pulmonologist visit this week: with her, I could've had a telephone "facetime" appointment, could've saved gas that way instead of driving 30 miles round-trip to her office. But she has a nice ass, and I cannot glimpse it with the cellphone.

I think the pulmonologist should have good things to say about my progress with COPD. I am getting my living-room area -- my man-cave -- ready with more floorspace so I can watch David Carradine's ("Kung-Fu") Tai-Chi workout DVD while doing the exercises. This eliminates the unpleasant attempts to exercise by walking up our steep hill here. I am assuming the tasks of constant grounds-care maintenance on our property after I concluded that a contractor was charging me twice the reasonable expense, so that also means more exercise.

My blood-pressure, despite my caffeine intake, now registers in the mid 130's over 80 on a frequent basis.

I got my flu shot and an RSV shot, COVID booster coming up on the calendar soon. I can say that I feel better than I did a year ago, six months ago, etc. Also -- less urgency to pee a lot. I THINK this may be a sign that my A1C has dropped in its equilibrium.

Today, I actually had a Coke with my #1 Whopper meal at Booger King. First soft drink I've had in about six months. For experimenting with other temptations, I bummed a Marlboro from a neighbor about three weeks ago. The fire went dead after I'd consumed half: I apparently wasn't interested enough to smoke it all. I lit it up again, and didn't much want to finish it. I didn't like it enough to succumb to my old addiction, so -- there you are!

With that, I'm trying to comfort myself. If I spent $10/day on cigarettes once, I'm spending more than 50-cents per mile to drive my car. Theoretically, I'm still healthier if I drive 20 miles daily, and it would cost the same. But gasoline prices are another problem. I suppose -- as long as I can make it to the cannabis dispensary every month or two -- I'll be alright with that, anyway.

 

[WilliamM2]

It was

The pecans with Cheerios and low-fat milk breakfast works wonders. I can "bulk up" on the cereal and nuts by eating more of it for lunch. Then, the fatty, sweetened or carb-bearing foods I love make up less in percentage of my daily diet -- if I indeed want to eat them.

I have to catch up with my mails and health-insurer e-mails to obtain an A1C blood-test kit. I will go to the health clinic to have a blood test in a week, and then visit the doctor in early October. I have a pulmonologist visit this week: with her, I could've had a telephone "facetime" appointment, could've saved gas that way instead of driving 30 miles round-trip to her office. But she has a nice ass, and I cannot glimpse it with the cellphone.

I think the pulmonologist should have good things to say about my progress with COPD. I am getting my living-room area -- my man-cave -- ready with more floorspace so I can watch David Carradine's ("Kung-Fu") Tai-Chi workout DVD while doing the exercises. This eliminates the unpleasant attempts to exercise by walking up our steep hill here. I am assuming the tasks of constant grounds-care maintenance on our property after I concluded that a contractor was charging me twice the reasonable expense, so that also means more exercise.

My blood-pressure, despite my caffeine intake, now registers in the mid 130's over 80 on a frequent basis.

I got my flu shot and an RSV shot, COVID booster coming up on the calendar soon. I can say that I feel better than I did a year ago, six months ago, etc. Also -- less urgency to pee a lot. I THINK this may be a sign that my A1C has dropped in its equilibrium.

Today, I actually had a Coke with my #1 Whopper meal at Booger King. First soft drink I've had in about six months. For experimenting with other temptations, I bummed a Marlboro from a neighbor about three weeks ago. The fire went dead after I'd consumed half: I apparently wasn't interested enough to smoke it all. I lit it up again, and didn't much want to finish it. I didn't like it enough to succumb to my old addiction, so -- there you are!

With that, I'm trying to comfort myself. If I spent $10/day on cigarettes once, I'm spending more than 50-cents per mile to drive my car. Theoretically, I'm still healthier if I drive 20 miles daily, and it would cost the same. But gasoline prices are another problem. I suppose -- as long as I can make it to the cannabis dispensary every month or two -- I'll be alright with that, anyway.

My insurance was billed $80K for cervical fusion in 2010. I had to pay $10K - pre ACA limits.

Rotator cuff surgery was over $60K with PT in 2016, but that was workers comp, no out of pocket. Except lost wages, and some items they wouldn't cover. Probably 2K.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

It was

My insurance was billed $80K for cervical fusion in 2010. I had to pay $10K - pre ACA limits.

Rotator cuff surgery was over $60K with PT in 2016, but that was workers comp, no out of pocket. Except lost wages, and some items they wouldn't cover. Probably 2K.

I think you read my post on another thread, and answered it here, but that's OK.

I can argue that I have reasonably good health insurance, but I've also been damn lucky so far. I'm recovering from a cigarette habit and COPD, and may have control of my A1C on diabetes-II meds. But surprises for people my age can be just around the corner.

 

[WilliamM2]

I think you read my post on another thread, and answered it here, but that's OK.

I can argue that I have reasonably good health insurance, but I've also been damn lucky so far. I'm recovering from a cigarette habit and COPD, and may have control of my A1C on diabetes-II meds. But surprises for people my age can be just around the corner.

Not sure how that appeared here.

 

[Torn Mind]

You need to move 30 minutes a day and forget about the diet stuff.

I did the diet cuts when they were pushing a T2 diagnosis and dropped some weight but, number didn't go down. Started routine exercise and proved them wrong on T2 and wrote it off to being a sloth for a bit.

This type of advice is not suitable for seniors who might not have the physical foundation anymore to "move".

"Science" has been slothful with regards to diabetes because of the inherent(though not necessarily conscious) conflict of interest in that unhealthy people make good money for the doctors and scientists who deal with disease. There are no lab rats to study if everyone ate well, no surgeries to perform if the foods that help form arterial plaque are avoided.

Insulin resistance is basically the body-version of avoiding an algae bloom. The cell says "Thanks, but no thanks" to the input of sugar. Thus, it is a reasonable inference to avoid most "insulin spiking" foods. Table sugar or easy glucose are obvious elimination choice(that includes many oat products).

The other thing is that diabetes may be mitigated with consumption of a wide variety of minerals or other essentially "nutrients". Seaweed is a tasty salty snack that happens to have the gamut of micronutrients.
Eggs are a readily available source of choline.
Omega-3 sources like shellfish, salmon, or other fatty fish also have a rather comprehensive profile of micros.



Most restaurant food is made with the cheapest oils, i.e soybean oil. There might be additives, leftover hexane, some degree of bad trans fats, etc, and missing nutrients in that type of oil compared to real EVOO. The food is almost always seasoned with or have a starch source accompanying it.


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@BonzaiDuck Cataracts can be related to diabetes induced damage. Blood sugar with no place to go is a volatile thing that will break things on the way.

Cereal is generally a "shortcut food" of blending a multivitamin pill with pure starch. I would not eat too much of it, given that you might be overdosing on B9(folate).

Get a continuous glucose monitor if you can afford it. There's too much conflict of interest in pushing foods that spike blood sugar. The only way to really see if the nutrient benefits of something like beans outweights the blood sugar spike is to get the data from your body.

Order up an Kraft insulin survey; I think you can do it a la carte but it will cost a bit.