Hi everyone!

I've been reading and posting on this board for quite a while and thought it was time I introduced myself. I tried Atkins several years ago and lost about 30 pounds on it. Then I was diagnosed as a diabetic and told adamantly by my health care providers that I HAD to follow the ADA diet. Well...I lost weight for a while, but then had 3 pregnancies in 2 years (during which I actually lost weight because I didn't want to have to go on insulin) followed by a serious 9 month case of post partum depression during which I self medicated with food. Gained back all the weight I had lost PLUS some. Last spring I wound up with my blood sugar out of control and my blood pressure dangerously high (190/103...my DOCTOR almost had a stroke!) and decided it was time to take action. At least a good scare like that had the effect of motivating me to do something. I want to live to see my two little girls grow up! A friend recommended Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes solution, so I got the book, read it and the rest is history. 10 months later, I'm off all my medications and 65 lbs. lighter. After seeing my success, my husband has also decided to join me on this WOL and is doing wonderfully on it as well. Diabetes and heart disease run in his family and I was starting to get very worried about his ever-increasing midriff. The only big mistake I have made so far is kidding myself over the holidays that a few days off from this WOE wouldn't hurt me...boy was I wrong! I gained 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year and have only now lost it. I won't ever make that mistake again! This is a wonderful site..I learn something new almost every day. Keep up the great work everyone!

I was surprised to see a "hello" post from you - you're a regular here. But I'm sure glad you did post.

I can't help but wonder (a generalized musing): If someone, such as you, that has gotten their diabetes under control with diet alone and is medication free were to go to another doctor and get tested for diabetes, would the test come back positive? Beyond some point of progression of the disease, I'm sure it would. But I can't help but speculate that in the early stages - perhaps even for the bulk of its course - that it is not truly a "disease" but merely a very poor, but normal, state of affairs resulting from a horrible and abusive diet.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings.

It's good to have you here and I look forward to seeing your posts.

Keep the Faith!

Wbahn....

Given the nature of Diabetes, which is that your pancreas simply doesn't produce enough insulin or none at all, I'm sure I would still be diagnosed as a diabetic were I to have a glucose tolerance test today. Even though the damage that I've done to my pancreas through years of eating horribly is irreversable (Beta cells don't regenerate once you've burned them out), that doesn't mean that I can't live a completely normal and healthy life now that I've learned how to eat best for the condition that I have and prevent further damaging the beta cells that I have left that DO function. I have to say that I've always wondered how a diet high in carbs could "treat" diabetes since it's primarily a problem with carbohydrate metabolism. It never made sense to me to give you more of what you have a problem with in the first place and it makes me crazy to see recommendations coming from the "powers that be" that sugar is okay for diabetics as long as they "cover" it with medication..YIKES! Now I know better.

I thought that Type II Diabetes went through a progession where first your pancrease was putting out a huge amount of insulin (basically going full tilt) but that many of your body's systems had become so insulin resistant that even that amount was insufficient. Then, your ability to produce insulin drops off as the beta cells are destroyed.

If this is the normal progression, I'm wondering about the people in the first stage where their pancreas is still capable of delivering a lot of insulin but where their body needs even more than that do to the high resistance.

Or is this stage what we are now hearing referred to as pre-diabetes and diabetes is only the case after a lot of the beta cells have been destroyed.

lisa, I'm so glad you posted this, and I sure hope a lot of newbies also read it.

Doesn't Dr. B (been six months since I read him, so I could be remembering wrong) give some hope that some beta cells can actually regenerate in the face of healthy LC eating? If so, what a miracle, eh?

If not, still, getting off all meds and having your blood sugars controlled by food and exercise alone is a great result. (and not one anyone seems to get on the ADA eating plan, eh?) I'd guess you see the weight loss as a great bonus, with the health concerns primary in your mind.

And yeah, those darned carbs are addictive...so hard to control them in tiny amounts! And old, bad habits come rushing back in so quickly.

Love your sense of humor (even about serious stuff)

You're right about type 2 starting that way in some cases. In college, I was hypoglycemic which then turned into type 2 diabetes when I was 30 because I kept up my bad eating habits. There are actually a lot of different causes of type 2...some people develop it like I did...hypoglycemic first from excess production of insulin, then diabetic as your beta cells gradually burn out. Others have a slow progression where they never really produced too much insulin, but for some reason, their beta cells start to die off. Those people generally develop diabetes later in life like my Father in law did. And like all things...there are exceptions to the rule and varying degrees of disease. Still...In all cases, I think a low carb lifestyle is helpful (if not mandatory) for either condition and I think if people start low carbing while they are still in the hypoglycemic stage, they can save themselves a lot of trouble later. I was just talking to a lady at the health food store yesterday about using this WOE to control hypoglycemia. We were both looking at the low carb products and she asked me which were best and of course, I couldn't keep my mouth shut about this wonderful WOL and what it has done for me. Nobody had ever told her that hypoglycemia can lead to diabetes if left untreated.