So it’s nice to see some new research that backs up my real life experience -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/03/lowcarb-diet-trumps-lowfa_n_668484.html
Has anyone else experienced this benefit to living low carb?
Yes, absolutely. My numbers improved dramatically, including my blood pressure.
Excellent - good for you! I can’t wait to take this study in to my GP (not my endo) cuz she poo-poo’ed the whole notion.
Well, I’ve been on low carb for some years now. My weight is good, my blood pressure is good, my cholesterol? Well, I’ll just say my HDL is 60 mg/dl and my tryglycerides are borderline (150 mg/dl) and my calculated LDL is scary. However, previous tests indicated that my LDL was all the large fluffy stuff. Besides, I really don’t care, I’ll never take a statin again anyway. Now as to the blood sugar, I guess I would say I have the best that I can achieve. I still suffer from chronic impaired fasting blood sugar problems and my HbA1c is 6%, which is probably why my triglycerides are still high. But on the other hand, I just reviewed my meter readings over the last three months. My average blood sugar rise from dinner (postprandial - preprandial) was 4 mg/dl with a standard deviation of 18 mg/dl. So in the eyes of Dr. B, I guess that is pretty good.
I don’t really bring up the diet issue with my doctors anymore. I tell them I follow a low carb diet, and I just don’t go into details. If I asked them, they would probably tell you that they think I am eating 250-300 g of carbs a day just like I was taught by the dieticians.
Love the last statement…“just like I was taught by the dieticians…” So true. And I TOTALLY agree about the statins - I will never, never, never take them again. The side effects are awful, it’s an awful medicine, and what I’ve learned is that PWD tend to have even more side effects than the general population.
Hey, I’d say 6% is pretty darn good!!! Mine hovers between 5.4 & 5.6.
My biggest problem is that since starting insulin, I’ve put on about 20 lbs and can’t seem to lose it. Of course, the dietitian tells me it’s because I “DON’T EAT ENOUGH CARBS AND I’M STARVING MY BODY” - can you believe it?
Not to hijack, but when I was on a statin I had a LOT of problems with word recall. I thought I was crazy, but then I looked online and sure enough, this side effect had been noted in women my age. Something about the brain needing a certain amount of cholesterol for good functioning. Anyway, as soon as I stopped the statin I stopped having to search around for common words.
This is the kind of comment I get all the time… That I am starving my brain, or my body… which is absolutely not true. For the first time in my life, I am actually at peace with my body, not hungry all the time, or binging on all kinds of stuff.
And high cholesterol is NOT the problem… it is a side effect of the problem. This is one of the reasons why prescribing statins is really such a moot point. Why not work on fixing the problem that is causing the high cholesterol to begin with? But NOOOOO that would be a hugely novel concept to a doctor or nutritionist… Throw bandaids at the problem, and not really do anything about it.
Heres the adstract from the Annels. Seems all the test results were good for low carb. Oh, except the starvation of the brain thing. =^D
http://www.annals.org/content/153/3/147.abstract
"… During the first 6 months, the low-carbohydrate diet group had greater reductions in diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride levels, and very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lesser reductions in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and more adverse symptoms than did the low-fat diet group. The low-carbohydrate diet group had greater increases in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels at all time points, approximating a 23% increase at 2 years. "
Too bad fixing health issues doesnt make as much money as putting band aids on them does.
Absolutely! I firmly believe that high BG or carb overload (for non-diabetics) creates the high cholesterol issue.
And like you, I rarely experience hunger on low carb and THAT provides, as you said - peace. Nothing worse than the gnawing hunger generated by empty carbs.
My experience bears this out also. My lipids weren’t bad before, but they’ve improved. My doctor continues to bring up the statin issue for prevention. Told him at my last appointment several weeks ago, that I don’t wish to discuss this again. Still holding to the theory there’s a contest with a big prize for the doc who writes the most statin Rx’s.
I won’t discuss the low carb diet with docs either. Heard enough nonsense about brain starvation & am weary of arguing.
I have declared that I am “allergic” to statins. During my recent surgery, they actually put a wrist band on me reminding everyone of my “allergy.” I ask all my doctors to mark it on my chart on the top and they all mostly have. Every time, they bring it up, I remind them of what is marked on my chart and that it would be a real “error” to attempt to prescribe a statin to me. That shuts them up real quick, but they still won’t let the matter sit.
I LOVE IT!!! I’m going to do that, too (esp. since I don’t trust medical professionals - for the most part). How clever you are!