Help for my 16 year old
Hello there. My daughter was just diagnosed in August. She is on 11
units of Lantus one time a day. Her numbers have been all over the
board. She will be 267 one time and drop quickly to 50 - 60’s. Since
she has been having a lot over the 24o mark the doctor said we could
adjust her insulin up or down a unit. However, since she still has
the lows I am a little worried about that without seeing the doctor
first. When she plays basketball she will go high during a game and
crash afterwards too. It seems like a mix of short term and the long
term would be better than just adjusting the lantus dose. What would
you do?
May 31st, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Hi,
Get the book: The PH Miracle for Diabetes by Dr. Robert O. Young.
Follow his dietary advice and she will be off of insulin and
completely normal in a few months.
No offense to your doctor, but she/he can’t really help you unless
they go the extra mile and have really researched their field and are
aware of the latest developments. 99.9% are not up to date. They
prescribe insulin and a carbohydrate counting diets and not much else.
This is fine in the beginning for most diabetics, and is why most
stay on insulin forever, the longer on insulin, the less control most
have. It appears from the readings that you are giving that you are
not yet at a point where the BG is being adequately regulated. If
your child is Type 1, and it appears she is, then a short term insulin
with Lantus is a necessity to handle the inevitable spike of blood
sugar that will occur after eating a conventional diet. If your child
is type 2, then there is no need for the insulin as Young’s diet will
100% stabilize a type 2 and get them off of all drugs. Type 1 is a
bit harder, but possible.
The fact that you do not use short-term insulin at all and only the 24
hr Lantus bodes very well for your daughter. It tells you that she is
producing a significant enough amount of insulin to work with the
Lantus to lower the BG, or that her system is still sensitive enough
that the little bit of lantus is enough for her body to work with to
stabilize the sugar, albeit slowly.
Young’s people who get on his diet early, get off of insulin quickly.
The longer on insulin, the longer it appears to take to get you off
of insulin. There are a number of herbs which will also help
stabilize blood sugar, some have been claimed to cure diabetes in the
Indian medical literature. Eleotin is a herbal compound that is
renown for curing diabetes (both types), but it also takes
regimentation and time.
Goodluck,
Brock
May 31st, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Hi,
Have you read (studied is a better word) the excellent book "Dr
BErnstein’s Diabetes Solution"?
This gives you all you need to know about adjusting insulin and
adjusting diet and exercise accordingly.
Even though you’d fly your changes past your doctor in all likelihood -
it would help a LOT to understand fully what is going on and why - this
book explains very well.
I adjusted my own insulin as my doctor was doing a much worse job
than I could after reading the book
> When she plays basketball she will go high during a game and
> crash afterwards too.
There’s a good reason for this:
During the game, cortisol (stress hormone) is produced and it induces a
high glucose, quite separate form the glucose developed from food. To
keep this from happening so severely, it would help to eat before the
game, and include protein and carbohydrates. You get an idea after a
while, just how many carbs you need, to cover just how much physical
activity. so the idea is to match the carbs for a game with the energy
used in the game. That way you do not have to mess with your insulin
just for the game playing time.
I have learned how much carb to eat before I do a bicycle ride. It has
saved me many a hypoglycemic incident.
Know that exercise is odd in this way:
A LITTLE exercise will actually bring down a high glucose reading.
A LOT of exercise (like a basketball game) will increase reading (due
to stress).
The only way to manage the glucose fluctuations is to eat the right
amount of carbs BEFORE the exercise with lots of protein. (Protein
*sustains* the pre-planning and prevents the glucose from "shooting and
sticking" high).
Also be sure to include fatty acids - they are great to burn right after
eating for energy - like EV olive oil.
If you pre-eat carbs for exercise and start exercising 15 or so mins
after the food - you can get very good control of glucose readings.
That is when I eat all my fun fruits like mangoes and grapes, and even
dried figs for a long bike ride.
Hope those ideas help!
NAmaste,
IRene
June 1st, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Hi ,
I agree with Brocks analysis, and his reading
recommendations . I read all these guys and many more
. However it’s your daughter that needs to read too ,
and learn what her options are . Mine is dragging her
feet , although I am given to understand that this is
normal for her age and developement . I think if she
had been younger it would have been easier to make
dietary changes . Her BS has gotten worse and her self
monitoring is sketchy , her readings are all over, and
genrally hight now than ever .
My daughter was diagnosed a year ago just after her
16th birthday . If I’d had my way I would have had her
on mainly raw food diet, or at least something like
Bernsteins program. Bernsteins therapy which is mainly
13 hrs of visit time with him and meal planning
costs thousands of dollars. But you could probably
follow a regimen like his on your own if your child
will cooperate .
However even though I got my daughter off some
inflamatory foods, like wheat and gluten generally
and cows milk which my family show intolerance to, and
got her to eat more vegetables, a completely medicinal
dietary regimen was impossible for me to implement
without her commitment . I read about the
Boutenkos(check out raw family .com) , and lamented
that we weren’t attacking the problem together that
way . I do hope that it won’t be impossible for my
daughter to at least significantly reduce her insulin
intake, whenever she is ready to get serious ,(she
takes novolg with meals and lantus) . But the fact is
that diet and excercise is(along with emotional self
care, and healing ) ,absolutely necessary.
I have found one retreat supervised medically , and
which goes the Raw food way , in Arizona, called the
"Tree of Life". She is actually going there for a week
next week . They actually have a one month program,
which has helped both type 2s and type 1s get off
insulin . As Brock says type 1 may be harder, but
apparently it’s not impossible. The Boutenko mom
refused to let her child go on insulin when he was 9
with type 1 . The whole family went raw. I wish that I
had not been alone in trying to coach my daughter ,
learn about the disease etc , but I’m divorced and the
rest of the family was not going to get on board. I
believe anything is possible with a combination of
faith, persistence, treating food as medicine , and
utlizing other therapies which support "whole person"
healing . Really there is no time to waste and there
are solutions through diet . But everyone has to come
to it in their own way . I agree with Brock . DO not
rely on conventinal doctors for answers because they
only have one "solution" and that is ever increasing
dependence on Insulin , which is not good for people
anyway . It’s a question of rallying the family around
, and getting your daughter to appreciate that she has
choices to make . It’s tough .
In my household , it made me a researcher , a "green"
juicer , and experimenter with whole foods, and
organic farming, but my daughterneeds to catch that
fever too.
My own wish for my daughter is not only that she
licks this , but turns it into a way to help others do
the same .
Incidentally , I did check out raw food cusine , and
it is delicious.
P.S Also I just got back from a conference of the
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey ,
where the CEO of the Organic
Center(www.organic-center.org), said that there is
evidence of a correlation between the increased use of
pesticides and type 2 diabetes. This may be in part
because conventional , genetically modified crops,
grown with tons of toxic pesticides , are also
altered to grow faster and bigger; have more sugar
content, while they also have 50-75% less minerals,
vitamins, and antioxidents, than smaller natural,
organic fruits and vegetables. So it appears
conventionally grown vegetables contribute not only
to cancer and premature births by increasing the
"body burden" of toxins but also apparently
contribute to diabetes too.
So when you go for the vegetables, make sure they are
organic .
Liz Nelson
June 3rd, 2007 at 1:34 am
Liz,
Please could you let us know how your daughter gets on at the Tree of Life
centre next week?
Jaine.
August 29th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Hello
I am an adult with diabetes typ1.the non diabetic people body uses 2 kind of insulin.Basal to control the blood suger in 24 hours even they eat nothing and a bolous one when they have meals.so I think Lantus as a basal insulin is not enough.I should take another insulin to cover the meals.it could be humalog(lispro)or novolog(aspart) as bolous.so I think you should consult her doctor for this.with lantus as base and humalog as bolous my blood suger is under good control.
with best wishes