Wifezilla
Low-Carb Queen - RIP: 1963-2021
I love it when good doctors blog!
"I typically have patients with DPN keep a food journal to get a more accurate assessment of their daily diet. What I usually find is surprising: Their diet is predominantly refined carbohydrates. These processed, high glycemic load foods are one of the driving reasons they are diabetic in the first place!
Instead of removing the driving factor that causes illness (the foods they eat), most patients simply rely on their prescribed medication. This lulls patients into a false sense of security. They think their illness is being effectively treated and there is nothing more to worry about. But this isn't the case. Diabetics who take medication but don't change their diet could still be damaging their bodies.
Think of it this way. Each time a diabetic consumes carbs, their sugar levels rise above normal. When this happens they may suffer glycation damage--the damage sugar causes to microscopic blood vessels. This leads to the degeneration of nerves that are fed by these microscopic blood vessels. Hence diabetic neuropathy.
Fasting blood sugar levels miss these events, because after an eight-hour fast we find that many diabetics' blood sugar levels normalize. A1C levels may also miss these spikes, because they take an average of blood sugar levels over time--they do not identify what happens on a day-to-day basis with blood sugar.
As a result many supposedly "well-controlled" diabetics still develop neuropathy, and other diabetic complications that can be prevented. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-robert-a-kornfeld/diabetic-neuropathy-preve_b_527647.html
"I typically have patients with DPN keep a food journal to get a more accurate assessment of their daily diet. What I usually find is surprising: Their diet is predominantly refined carbohydrates. These processed, high glycemic load foods are one of the driving reasons they are diabetic in the first place!
Instead of removing the driving factor that causes illness (the foods they eat), most patients simply rely on their prescribed medication. This lulls patients into a false sense of security. They think their illness is being effectively treated and there is nothing more to worry about. But this isn't the case. Diabetics who take medication but don't change their diet could still be damaging their bodies.
Think of it this way. Each time a diabetic consumes carbs, their sugar levels rise above normal. When this happens they may suffer glycation damage--the damage sugar causes to microscopic blood vessels. This leads to the degeneration of nerves that are fed by these microscopic blood vessels. Hence diabetic neuropathy.
Fasting blood sugar levels miss these events, because after an eight-hour fast we find that many diabetics' blood sugar levels normalize. A1C levels may also miss these spikes, because they take an average of blood sugar levels over time--they do not identify what happens on a day-to-day basis with blood sugar.
As a result many supposedly "well-controlled" diabetics still develop neuropathy, and other diabetic complications that can be prevented. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-robert-a-kornfeld/diabetic-neuropathy-preve_b_527647.html