Anyone know across the good old U.S.A. if there are alternative, holistic, natural practitioners that follow and/or support Bernstein's ways?
I would love to get rid of my Endo!
Well, the only one I know of is Dr. Mona Morstein. Over at Dr. B's forum, there is a thread on Finding Dr's, and Jimmy Moore keeps a list of low carb Dr's, but Mona is the only one the that fits your request that I am aware of.
Well, it was my Naturopath who made me read Bernstein's book in the first place . . . but that wasn't quite your question. ;)
My Endo is a good guy. I told him straight out that I was going to follow Dr. B. He said that he had heard of him. He said that he didn't care what I did as long as my numbers were good. That was summer 2009. It is now summer 2013, and my last A1c was 4.9 without pills or insulin, even though I'm LADA. Endo said it was "stellar." I am still producing some insulin and knew I was an autoimmune diabetic earlier than most.
At first, my endo was supportive.
He noted I had good kidney function and said to give it a whirl.
It was a surprise to hear it as he's a little bit hard to communicate with.
A couple of months later, even despite improved A1C's he, out of the blue seemed to completely forget I was low carbing, and gave me a huge lecture on the dangers of low carbing and kidney damage, and how a 'balanced diet' was much more healthy.
He'd never heard of Dr Bernstein, and I had to basically say that I was going to continue anyway as I felt it was giving me an insulin reaction I hadn't had in years.
I suppose I have no real way of knowing how well known he is (Dr. Bernstein that is) to gauge if my Doctor is showing signs of more worrying not caring out of touch behavior.
This isn't the first time he's done this. He tends to give me this seemingly random other side of the argument routine, even if I'm following his direct requests from the appointment before hand.
I was given a massive lecture on using my bolus wizard with my pump because I was 'bolusing too much' in his opinion.
I tried it, and honestly, the boluses I tend to give were mainly very tiny adjustment doses, not days of pigging out (I mean taking a 135 down to a 90 with a .2 of a unit kind of situation), so I saw a reduction in boluses given, but a raise in my A1c because I was having to let the slightly elevated numbers go un-adjusted.
I arrived back at the next appointment only to hear him tell me that I obviously knew what I was doing with my high numbers of boluses, and to continue. This held up to the memory of the lecture I had received from him the month previous had me internally yelling blue murder.
While he see's continuous patients that may blur conversations together, I remember what he says word for word, and it's beyond frustrating. At the very least I think it's particularly unkind, as I have this devils advocate Doctoring happening right before me. I leave thankful that I won't have to return for a couple of months, and concerned with my health, even though I feel I'm doing really pretty well overall.
I feel really stuck with him. If I truly believed I'd have no insurance issues with an alternative provider, I'd jump at one. My endo gives me free insulin samples too, and money is an issue. :(
I have a great endo if you live in denver dr. Claudia Panzer.
Chicago Burbs.
kaittype1,
The Endo I wrote about is Charnogursky at Loyola U. Medical Center. He used to work at Joslin. I see him in the southwest burbs of Chicago at a satellite. He's a reasonable man. You can also see him on the main campus.
Thank you for the info. I will look him up. I am in the Northern Burbs. So, I know that the next step is working on diet with my son. As his numbers change (the are rising now) he MAY become more interested in using nutrition to stabilize his blood glucose.
I just found out about a functional integrative specialist in Park Ridge. Someone who will look at "Why" his body is on fire. Someone who will look at his history. Someone who know the connection to nutrition and disease.
Keith Berndtsonhttp://www.parkridgemultimed.com/httphttp://www.parkridgemultimed.com/
Thank you.