Active Low-Carber Forums - View Single Post - Long term LC and diabetic neuropathy?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisa N

Brad, I don't think that Dr. Atkins ever specifically spoke to those issues, possibly because his specialty was cardiology and I don't believe that he used his own patients' records to follow progress at 10 years out, espcially given that paper records can take up quite a bit of space and legally doctors are only required to keep records for the past 7 years. I have heard, though, that there is a book coming out this fall written, at least in part, by Dr. Atkins on the subject of diabetes or diabesity as he referred to it and perhaps some of the questions that you have are addressed in the new book.
However...Dr. Richard Bernstein (the site that I gave the links to) has spoken to at least some of those issues. His own cardiac profile, even as a type 1 diabetic is picture perfect after more than 3 decades as a low carber.
His own story is that he has managed to reverse quite a few diabetic complications (I believe that neuropathy was one of them), including early kidney damage, with a low carb approach.
I will say, though, that if a neuropathy is to reverse itself with a low carb approach, it will likely take some time. Peripheral nerves can and do regenerate, but it is a slow process. When I was young, I severed a nerve in my left foot by stepping on a sea wall spike (all the way through the foot) causing numbness to my last 3 toes and part of the distal foot. It did regenerate over the period of a few years, but the process was...uncomfortable.

Hi Lisa, Karen was just speaking of this new book so I will be on the look out. Also the issue of Dr B speaking to the remarkable improvement he noticed in himself. I just mentioned to Karen that his observations are important even though he is coming from the perspective of a T1.

I was interested in your remark about the amount of time it would take to get any improvement in a neuropathy via LC. Do you think it would take any more time than it would if a patient were medicated in the normal ways and ate in the typical ways? You see, with that remark of yours you are moving in the direction that made me first wonder about LC and diabetic neuropathy in my own case. Conversations with my endo have been interesting on this score. For he thinks that while LC can work well in certain ways with diabetes it may not work so well in other ways, one being the recovery of certain damaged nerves resulting from the neuropathy. And since I'm the only one of his patients on LC he wants to study this further. Of course, the neuropathies are so complex they are little understood. He is particularly interested in a certain dimension of my neuropathy that involves the sensory nerves lying closer to the skin of both feet. The damaged nerves there sometimes form a very interesting pattern of flame red edema in both feet and he feels this is subtly related to very small increases and decreases in glucose in my blood. He suspects my low carb diet has exacerbated this dimension of the neuropathy. He compares my profile with various other patients he has all normally medicated and eating normally.

This is just a rought sketch of the matter. But you hit the kernel with that remark above. It also explains why I am here trying to gather any other info on the topic. The upshot as far as I am concerned is that I feel there has been some improvement over the last 2 and 1/2 years on LC even though my doctor thinks in certain ways I would not be improving as slowly if I were medicated like most diabetics and eating carbs. We have a good laugh about this view of his. He agrees my feet would be somewhat better at the expense of most likely dying sooner! I stick to LC. Brad.