I’ve managed to lower my blood sugar enough to stop using my insulin and lowered my blood pressure as well, this by doing a keto diet. I have 4 vials of insulin that I get sent to me from Lily’s patient assistant program and I’m probably not going to use them now. What can I do with them? I don’t think they’ll take them back and I know you can’t give them to another person, but geesh, I hate to waste them or throw them away. Any suggestions?
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I would put them in the fridge and keep them as backups, as they will be good for over a year. Keto is great, but after several months, some people occasionally want more variety, especially on a seasonal basis or vacation, so if you occasionally switch in and out of Keto, your backup insulin can help you transition in and out of Keto while keeping your BG steady.
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I guess that’s all I can do is just keep them in the fridge. I don’t plan on going off keto. It was “wanting more variety” that landed me on insulin in the first place and I ended up with a heart attack. So doing keto is necessary for me to keep off from medicines that are giving me too many side affects and hopefully keep my blood sugars in a good place. Hopefully I won’t have to ever go off it. But one never knows what may come in the future.
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@Gin803 I am on record as not liking the term reversing when it comes to T2DM. There are certain genetic variants in about 10% of the general population that cause our bodies’ cells to resist the action of insulin.
The reason I don’t like the word reverse is because it suggest that one can return to the way things were before diagnosis. But it you want to use the word, I reversed T2DM for 10 years with diet and exercise.
I still follow a low carb diet and do regular exercise, but my Insulin secreting pancreatic Beta cells have died off from over work over the years. To manage and control I am currently on Metformin and an insulin pump.
Now your experience may vary. It is possible that you will have good BG management with the keto diet for the rest of your life. However, you must be constantly vigilant by continuing to regularly test to monitor your BG levels.
Proper diet and regular exercise are keys to good BG management. This is true whether you take pharmaceuticals or insulin supplement. There is no way to change the DNA that is written in every cell of the body.
It is the insulin resistance that is the driving force that causes T2DM to progress. The Beta cells are working overtime to manage BG levels. Over time they die off. This is not the same as T1DM. In T1DM the Beta cells are killed off by the immune system.
As to your vial so insulin, legally you can’t give them to others. Yes, i have done that myself, but only to people I know and trust.
One last thing, I know how good it feels when you can get off of medication or insulin and how you can beat yourself up if you have to resort to meds or insulin again.
There is no shame if you do what is necessary to have good control and prevent the horrible complications of diabetes that can blind, lead to amputation, dialysis and/or heart attack.
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Thank you Luis3. I understand what you mean by not liking the term reversing T2. I don’t mean that I’ve returned to the way I was before diabetes, but that my numbers have reversed… gotten lower. I hear people say they “cured” their diabetes and I have the same reaction to that. You still have the underlying condition. I guess I felt “reverse” was a better term to explain going back to better a1c and less insulin resistance. I’ve been low carb since 2005, but over the years and lots of losses, stress and grief in our family I spent less time caring about my diet, let a lot of “carb creep” in, lots of eating out and cheat days, ended up using Humalog with meals to keep my blood sugar down… which seemed to only increase my insulin resistance, and give me more excuse to eat more carbs and the cycle just continued to get worse until I had a heart attack. So I’m hoping I can reverse the damage, but I’ve only been 2 months into it, so we’ll see. I may not be able to. I still cannot get bg readings under 100 without lots of exercise to bring it down. Diet alone isn’t doing it, but is helping. I also do occasional intermittent fasting. I’ve lost 9 lbs in the last couple months of doing this and hoping for good results but we’ll see. You may be right and I may end up on insulin again to keep my numbers down. I hope not. From all I’ve read and studied recently it is hyperinsulinemia that is the highest cause of heart disease.
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@Gin803, what to do with your excess insulin supply seems to be resolved. Please excuse my remarks about related matters.
I want to add encouragement of your choice to use dietary choices to improve your health. It’s well nigh impossible to persuade anyone to change their eating habits. But you’ve done that, and you’ve been able to stop exogenous insulin.
I also want to encourage you to stay the course! Therapeutic carb limiting, combined with exercise and intermittent fasting will enhance your chances of returning your blood sugar levels to normal levels. You didn’t accrue metabolic dysfunction overnight so you need to give this remediation program some time.
If you can, try to focus also on your sleep and stress relief. Meditation is wonderful but singing, praying, or knitting also can work magic. Try to eat your meals with family and engage in regular social interaction, if possible.
What I’m trying to say is that “lifestyle change” is potent and includes much beyond eating patterns. Keep up the good work; I hope to read positive status updates as time progresses!
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Thank you Terry4. Very encouraging. I’m motivated to stay the course… it’s that or a life of meds and side effects or another heart attack or worse.
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Good for you! That is awesome. I bring any left over diabetes items that I don’t use anymore into my Endo office. If insulin is refrigerated I’m sure they know of people who can use.
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