My husband was diagnosed with diabetes 7 months ago. He had lost 60 pounds and was urinating frequently. He is 5'10" and he went from weighing about 195 to 138. He was 40 at the time. When we started testing his levels before he got on meds they were in the 400's often and 560 once. Then we went to the doc. and he was placed on avandia, amaryl, and 3 glucophase a day. He drastically changed his diet. He absolutely ingests no sweets, juices, cokes, etc. Lately every time he tests it is in the 300's, tonight it was 378. He said, "what am I doing wrong." I often wonder if he is actually type 1 instead of type 2. We do not have health insurance. He has seen a P.A. at a clinic two times. He had the 3 month blood level test run the first time he went in. We do not have the finacial resources to attend to this in the way that it seems a must. I feel helpless, and think there is something more I could be doing, but feel uneducated, even though I have worked hard to try to educate myself. Any suggestions?

Does he still eat starchy foods? Things like bread, pasta, cereal, potatoes, corn, rice (anything made from grains) can raise bloodsugar levels faster and higher than plain sugar.

What about the fats that he eats? Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils have been linked to insulin resistance, which is just the early phase of Type II diabetes.

An excellent book on the subject is "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution". This website also provides quite a bit of useful information (click on the blue hypertext links for the meat of the info) www.survivediabetes.com (http://www.survivediabetes.com)

Alan

When he eats starches he mainly eats whole grains, not refined. And we always get grains that say 0 grams of sugar when we select bread, pasta, etc. Doesn't that make a difference. Isn't there a big difference between bread that says 5 grams of sugar per slice compared to bread that says 0?

Oh, I forgot to ask about this, he drinks about 4 diet sodas a day. I read somewhere that aspertain could rais bs. Does anyone have comments about this. And he smokes a pack of cigarettes a day.

Call your clinic and ask them about sliding scale fees. Diabetes is not something to play around with as left untreated aka the high blood sugar readings it can cause permanent damage to many areas of the body including causing blindness and loss of sensations in various parts of the body. If he were to get any type of sore if will definately take a lot of care to heal and if it doesn't heal well it could lead to amputation etc. I am being very blunt as diabetes is very serious when not properly taken care of. You cannot be refused medical care due to inability to pay. Granted it may not be easy to find the care you need but it is out there. Start by calling your usual docs clinic and ask about payment plans or sliding scale fees and get this taken care of.

Was a C-Peptide test done on your husband? It is quite possible that he has Type I diabetes, not Type II, in which case those oral medications won't help him.

Many states have something called "uncompensated care" fund...for those who make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford health insurance coverage. You might want to inquire at any hospitals in your area or in the nearest city to see if you can qualify for this. If so, all your care will basically be free.

Your husband's blood sugars are still running quite high, and this is not something to fool around with, so do make some inquiries as to how you can get some help with this. If he's on that much medication and watching his diet closely, those blood sugars do strongly indicate that he may be Type I.

Also, try the American Diabetes Association at www.diabetes.org. (http://www.diabetes.org.) You may be able to get info re how to get his treatment covered.

Please let us know what happens. I'm quite concerned about your husband, as I'm sure you are, too!


[This message has been edited by SamQKitty (edited 04-18-2002).]

[This message has been edited by SamQKitty (edited 04-18-2002).]

Oh, one other thing. You mentioned looking at the grams of sugar in food. Actually, any carbohydrate raises blood sugar, but you can't totally avoid them. Yes, it's good to keep the sugar low as those are empty calories, but it's more important to look at the total grams of carbohydrate per serving. You may want to do a search on "carbohydrate counting +diabetes" which will give you a lot more info on how carbs affect blood sugar and how much to have and when.

Originally posted by SanAnton:
When he eats starches he mainly eats whole grains, not refined. And we always get grains that say 0 grams of sugar when we select bread, pasta, etc. Doesn't that make a difference. Isn't there a big difference between bread that says 5 grams of sugar per slice compared to bread that says 0?

All carbohydrates other than fiber convert to sugar in the bloodstream. Whether a bread has 5 grams of sugar or 0 grams matters little. What matters is the total amount of carbohydrate minus any fiber. The carbohydrates found in grains are nothing more than chains of glucose molecules. Enzymes in your digestive system break these bonds easily so what you really end up with is glucose (bloodsugar).

In the book I mentioned previously, Dr. Bernstein, who is a Type I insulin-dependent diabetic, determined that he got a 5 point rise in bloodsugar for every 1 gram of carbohydrate he consumed. So for a typical slice of bread that contains 15 grams of carbohydrate, you could be looking at up to a 75 point rise in bloodsugar level depending on your capability to produce insulin and your capability to utilize the insulin (degree of insulin resistance).

Limiting the intake of carbohydrate makes it much easier to keep bloodsugar levels in check. A carbohydrate gram counter book available at any bookstore would be a very useful tool for a diabetic. Foods that have little or no carbohydrate include meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and most cheese. Green leafy type vegetables have very low levels of digestable carbohydrate and are typically high in fiber. Most fruit and nuts have moderate levels of carbohydrate. Things made from grains (wheat, corn, rice, etc.) and potatoes are high in carbohydrate content.

Alan

We eat an enornmous amount of stir fry with stuff like bell pepper, carrots, squash, and peas. The 3 children and I are vegetarians and 2 of my kids are allergic to dairy. So he basically has no dairy and very, very little meat in his diet. It is sort of crazy to try to feed my kids and my husband both. I have not been reading carbahydrate grams. I looked up his info. on the link provided and it appears that he can have about 300 or so grams of carbs. a day. He said that he would keep a little running tab on paper to see how he is doing in that arena.

Originally posted by SanAnton:
..I looked up his info. on the link provided and it appears that he can have about 300 or so grams of carbs. a day...

300 grams of carbohydrate equates to 1200 calories which is 60% of the calories in a 2000 calorie per day diet. Standard government dietary recommendations pushed by the United States Departement of Agriculture that have no scientific basis to support them. 300 grams per day of carbohydrate is way too much for anyone other than someone in excellent physical condition doing extensive physical work or exercise. Even then, there are better food choices, but it likely won't do as much damage to them in that case. This much carbohydrate is especially bad for a diabetic or anyone with an impaired carbohydrate metabolism (insulin resistance). In my opinion, a diabetic should be consuming less than about 80 grams of carbohydrate per day. Dr. Bernstein would recommend even less if the person monitors bloodsugars frequently and understands how their metabolism works.

Alan