Questions & Answers

Goodevening all.... I am new to this site and have a sorta uncomfortable question to ask. I have Type 2 Diabetes and take Metformin 1000 mg. 2x daily, Glimepriride 4mg once daily, plus 20 mg Lisinopril for high blood pressure. I have chronic constipation, followed by diahrea. I sometimes don't have any movement for 4 to 5 days. I get bloated, have stomach pain at times. Periodically I take magnesium citrate to get things moving, but after a couple days I start slowly plugging up again. I… read more

I can’t count the number of times I have seen someone post up “disappointment” in a reading and I comment “take the win”.

What exactly do I mean?

For those that are striving for a level of control (we) can often try to “over achieve” and get upset with ourselves if we miss some mythical target we have in our minds.

If we simply take a step back, and instead of being hard on ourselves (causing some stress which is detrimental to the very blood sugar levels we are trying to control) then maybe… read more

Some tricks to slow the absorption of carbs in pasta, rice, potatoes
1) cook the carbs al dente, this will slow the digestion rate a little. Baby steps.

2) eat with vegetables, protein and fat, this will slow digestion more. In fact, if you eat in this specific order you will slow digestion more. 1st bite vegetables, 2nd bite vegetables, 3rd bite protein, 4th bite carbs - you will slow digestion more. Baby steps.

3) eat the carbs cold, after being refrigerated overnight, this will slow… read more

In the past few years some significant research was conducted to try and determine if a more "personalized approach" with regards to A1C targets would provide greater benefits to some patients.

Depending on our particular situation the "typical guidelines" may not necessarily apply to us.

The General Guideline is to target an A1C of equal to/less than 7.0%

An A1C of >7.0 is associated with a significantly increased risk of both microvascular and cardiovascular complications (Kidney Disease… read more

Yesterday on Henry's daily call we got into a bit of a discussion about what A1C is "good enough" and I am going to expand some of my personal thoughts on that here.

There is some percentage of us Type 2's that seem to never be satisfied with our A1C even if it's (really) Good Enough.

Just like some bunch in wider society we are driven to do better, go faster, last longer, make more, build bigger or whatever. That can be a good thing because it drives innovation. Otherwise we still might be… read more

That is an important question.

Often the reaction of someone newly diagnosed is “I needed to fix this yesterday”.

That can lead to panic, confusion about where to start and bring on stress or depression – after all, Type 2 is a pretty big topic to wrap your head around.

Most times if I reply to a new member’s initial post my first piece of advice is “try to relax and take a breath”.

I go on to say that “in general” (which means that it applies to nobody really – none of us are average but we… read more

The simple answer is, 70% of Type 2's don't follow their treatment plan, much less any kind of "friendly diet" anyhow so it's kinda like the "eat less fat" mantra to try and protect people from themselves when they want a simple answer.

The real answer is "complex" but not complicated.

White Bread, Potato, Rice, Pasta and a few other "processed starches" metabolize to sugar almost quicker than table sugar and they keep us "high" even longer than table sugar. So it is sound advice for those… read more