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Originally Posted by Karen D.
Interesting question, Brad. Have you read Dr. Bernstein's book? His own personal experience certainly supports his theory that his methods work for the long term. He has been managing his own type 1 diabetes for many years (I believe he was in his early 30s when he began and is now in his early or mid 70s.) I'm at work and don't have my book with me, so I can't check on his actual stats, such as A1C, blood lipid levels, blood pressure, etc., but they're all listed in the book and are all considerably better than normal.
Your question reminds me of a question that I've had for a long time, though - why has there not been research done into the long-term effectiveness of a low carb diet for diabetics compared with the standard "diabetic diet"? Or a broader study comparing the long-term complications of the various methods of managing diabetes? I simply can't understand why this hasn't been done many years ago. It would be a relatively easy thing to do compared with the complexities of many studies that have been done over the years. It almost makes my paranoid mind wonder whether certain powerful groups (pharmaceutical companies and groups whose research they sponsor) are opposing it for reasons of their own. Well, pardon my rant for the day!
Karen
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Hello Karen! I basically skimmed Dr. B's book. Frankly, I don't remember seeing any such data. Of course his personal observations are very important. And coming from him extremely important even though he is a T1.
But still as you go on to say and I have asked about we need those broader studies made available. You see, I actually think Atkins himself has such data. He and his group has been at this 30 years and they often claim the benefits of LC for diatetics. But where is the data or any kind after 10 years? It would be that "anecdotal" type of data that he is sometimes faulted for since it is his own data and not properly and scientifically acquired. But Karen, that would still suit me since I am a believer in LC to start with. I just want to know what people like Atkins have observed over the long haul. I see no need to wait for the properly conducted scientific study. Though that would be nice.
Now I don't want to upset you as I have perhaps a few already but I fault the great Dr. Atkins for not giving us a glimpse of the long term impact of LC on say something like our health in general and more specifically how it impacts diabetes and its disorders. Even if such data is anecdotal. As I say it would be could enough for me since I am a believer in the benefits of LC. You see, he constantly gives us data for the "short term" you might say. How it benefits our lipids and so on. But you know he has seen hundreds if not thousands of cases that stretch into 5 or 10 years or even longer.
In my opinion, the reason he emphasized the "short term" benefits and not the long term is that he was presenting a "diet" as a competitor among many diets and so he concentrated on the short terms benefits. After all, most people diet for only a short term. The long term way of life that is indicated by low carbing is not something that sells like the short term diet that can "lose you 10 pounds in one week." We know that story. I don't blame him for selling it this way. After all diet plans are profitable. But I just wish he had filled this story out the same way for the long term benefits. And I am assuming they are there! I just want to know what he found himself along that line. In other words, I wish besides extolling the merits of LC for short term gain he had also done more to show us the benefits of LC as a way of life which I think it is especially if you are like me controlling a disease.
So Karen you are probably right when it comes to the more scientifically controlled experiements. Such studies certainly wouldn't be in the interest of pharmceutical companies that make a mint off selling drugs to millions of diabetics. But Karen I think you have to be fair here. The blame really goes to the diabetics themselves who want their cake and eat it too. Don't you agree? My endo has over 20,000 diabetic patients. I am the only one who controls the disease with low carbing. He claims and we know he is right that all the diabetic wants is the magic pill that P&G is working on now. Almost all diabetics are fat with high blood sugar. They await the magic pill. Meanwhile they eat cake. And even in the last resort when a gallon of insulin won't bring down their blood sugar they still are reluctant to get serious and save their lives by LC. Isn't that the sad truth?
Karen, one last thing. Too wordy here I know. Since I'm looking for some info in the direction of how LC can help diabetic neuropathies you can see why I am a little irked that Atkins and others haven't made even their anecdotal observations about this known. Of course, it could turn out there is no positive impact of LC on neuropathies like mine. Or negative either in which case it wouldn't matter. But still it would be nice to know, as you say, the long term impact of LC on diabetes and the many dimensions of this disease.
I think your rant is necessary! Honestly though I think it has to be directed in a few more directions. Thanks, Brad