…and Elvis is alive. You forgot that!
Actually he just left the building… 
Aren’t we all in this community?
actually on Lantus/Humalog
My apologies, I was thinking you really meant 10 mg/dl and not 10 mmol/L. I though that was far out as Ive never heard of someone hitting 10! Also, your references to DKA. So, my mistake. Also, Im sorry you ended up with DKA and in hospital. Thats never fun.
As for the pumping, Im on a MM pump with humalog, so Im right there with you on the non delivery thing. Ive had a few occasions where Ive had to figure out some quick remedies to pump failures. Driving 1+ hours for new set, scrambling / swimming 3+ miles to meet the wife with a new set/insulin, etc. that steet rise we start on is hard to turn around. Ive hit 300+ mg/dl which has taken 3 hour square waves to get back down (poor site, broken tubing, etc). Its an adventure sometimes!
Last thought, Jacq, do you think the low carb diet slowed your progression into DKA at all? I would think that less fast acting glucose (carbs) in circulation would mean the possibility of a slower rise. That brings me to another question something to the effects of does BG rise slower with minimal carbs in the system.
wait wait… This is your brain… This is your brain on insulin. =^D
Ok, just to round out the discussion. We’ve talked about how Atkins causes DKA and mateo’s “interesting” views. I’d like to bring this back to the original topic. The study. Here is Tom Naughton’s take on the study
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2010/09/09/the-atkins-study-…
In this blog post, he takes special aim at our favorite diet guru Dean Ornish who wrote in the Huffington post that he is finally vindicated(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-dean-ornish/an-atkins-diet-increas…). Unfortunately, Tom Naughton does speak kindly of poor Dr. O’s piece.
Tom Naughton, comedien, reformed health-writer and of “Fat Head” movie fame is always a “hoot.”
Oo,
The reason why people get fat on high carb diets is the carbs themselves.
Ideally, a portion of your carb intake will go directly into ATP production for energy, with the rest going into glycogen production in the liver and muscles to be converted into glucose later when needed. Excess carbs beyond that, get stored as fat. When you eat way too many carbs, you’re basically having it converted straight to fat.
You have a huge turnover of protein in your body. Think of all the skin, hair, and fingernails that we are constantly producing and you haven’t even begun to account for all of the protein turnover a body goes through in a normal day. The main source for replacement of all the amino acids needed to rebuild proteins is your own daily protein intake.
Insulin is a major major major anabolic hormone. Basically, without it, your cells can’t build much of anything, whether that be fat, protein, or glycogen.
FHS,
“Ideally, a portion of your carb intake will go directly into ATP production for energy, with the rest going into glycogen production in the liver and muscles to be converted into glucose later when needed. Excess carbs beyond that, get stored as fat. When you eat way too many carbs, you’re basically having it converted straight to fat.”
In this case what is happening to the fat and protein? Arent they doing the same thing, i.e., getting turned into glucose, stored for later, etc.
Im seriously going to need to take a biology course here soon. Oh, wait Im getting one! =^)
Though a percentage of fat & protein are converted to glucose & can be stored as fat, fat & protein serve other functions. Protein is a constant need to build new cells, repair injuries, muscles, for skin/hair/nails,etc. Well, that’s the simple answer because it’s a complex system involving inter-related metabolic functions. Fat is needed for the functioning of nerves, hormones, also for repair & a ton of other bodily functions.
In a perfect world?
You’re eating just enough carbs to offset your energy requirements, whatever that may be. That would include feeding back into your pool of glycogen whih you’re constantly pulling from if you have any kind of activity level at all.
That frees up protein for anabolic processes. So, any protein you eat is broken down into amino acid building blocks which can then be used to build whatever protein that needs to be replaced. You wouldn’t need to convert it to glucose, or, alternatively, burn it for ATP production which is the last thing you want to have to do with your protein source.
Fat/lipids are useful for a lot of things besides energy storage. They are a major component of cell membranes, for one thing. The only part of a lipid (“fat molecule”) that can be converted into glucose is the glycerol. The trigycerides, which make up the major portion, by far, of a lipid cannot be converted to glucose.
The bottom line is, you need some carb source for your daily minimum requirement, whatever that is and wherever it coems from. You doubt this? Check your BG meter. When was the last time it read 0?
The nice thing is that it really doesn’t matter where that glucose comes from as far as your body is concerned, If you’re not eating it, you’ll convert the protein you eat into it. If you’re not eating enough carbs or protein, you’ll break down your muscles to get it.
Strike a nice balance between activity level and food intake, which is the essence of a low carb diet, and you’ll be fine.
No I don’t think that at all because as my consultant explained to me you will go into DKA regardless of what your sugars are if you have no insulin. It is the lack of insulin that causes the DKA not the hightened sugar. It was a whole new way of looking a low carb for me. I still eat relatively low carb, I have coeliacs so carbs are difficult for me anyway.
I’m not saying that the atkins diet caused my DKA,
A lack of insulin caused my DKA and the absolute lack of carbs in my diet meant that my BG rise was not as meteoric as it usually is for DKA
Never the less it totally put me off atkins and I ate so much meat that I ended up veggie!!
I’m not against low carb diets, infact as a coeliacs my diet is pretty low carb anyway, the carbs I do eat are beans, quinoa and lentils.
I actually think that the atkins diet gets quite a bad press as most people just focus on the first 2 weeks. The rest of the diet is much more sensible
However
I did induction for 3 weeks and during that time I felt like crap, had the worst constipation (depite fybogel and 3lts water a day) Developed awful pains in my knees, felt sick, fell into DKA, had to be admitted to hospital.
Would I recommend Atkins for T1’s ? No
Onesaint,
If someone doesn’t take sufficient insulin (or any insulin either intentionally or due to a delivery failure) to cover what they’re eating, DKA is a possibility depending how high BG is & for how long. I was told to contact my doctor or go to the ER is BG was over 250 for an extended period of time & if ketones were also consistently high. Knock on wood, this hasn’t happened. I’ve been able to bring high numbers down when I’ve been sick.
Yes, low carb would slow down DKA, in the event of insulin not being delivered, because there are less carbs to raise BG further.
Yes, lower carbs also cause less of a rise.
My father did not have diabetes, but he died of heart disease. Therefore, if I were going to experiment with a low carb diet, I would probably try South Beach (which I think is healthier than Atkins). I did try Atkins as a teen (I am not a diabetic) and felt sick after a few days. So lower carb, moderate or low fat I consider healthy; Atkins I do not. Love Blaine’s Low carb cooking show on TV and his recipes are high fat. But a high fat dessert once in a while is far different than a high fat lifestyle.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published their research that included about 350,000 subjects. Their conclusion–dietary saturated fat was not associated with increased CVD or CHD risks. http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/ajcn.2009.27725v1