I came to a drastic conclusion about a year and a half ago: if eating carbs makes me symptomatic, why in the world eat them at all?
So I stopped. No bread, cereal, pasta, rice, or anything made of those ingredients. And goodness, no refined sugar.
The results were amazing.
What happens when you stop eating carbs is that the body turns to burning fat for power. You make ketones and use them as energy. They are not to the extent that are made when ketoacedosis happens. In fact. I feel much, much more stable and my sugars are incredibly more stable. With this diet and a special form of yoga called Kundalini yoga, I feel like I don’t even have this disease.
All you have to do is ask yourself, “does this food help me, or make things more difficult for me?” Don’t be afraid to ditch something that doesn’t help. Just test a lot and adjust your doses as you need. Your doc ought to help with that!
Check out my blog where I have posted recipes and details into the research I’ve done into powering yourself with ketones as opposed to glucose.
I came to the same realization and have the same attitude and results. I found it much easier and comfortable than "just take enough insulin and eat what you want". I feel much better and am very stable with a 5.5 A1c for 3 straight years.
So glad to hear that it’s been so successful for you! Never have I met anyone who says that it was the worst decision they ever made. Spread the word to all your t-1 friends!
I put recipes on my blog because after having eaten the diet that made me sick for 17 years, its hard to think of what else there is! Hit me up if you think there’s any info people might want to see or arguments you think would be helpfully persuasive!
Thank you for your Information and the time that you put into it. I have just been diagnosed after struggling for 2 years as a diabetic 1. Last month I was found in a coma with sugars 1700. I am very lucky to be here. Since my diagnosis I have been doing a lot of research to try and beat this thing as I feel its taken over me. I know I have a lot to learn and read but I totally agree with what you say about not eating what is poison for your body. I look forward to reading anything else from you which may help me on my journey to getting my life back. Thank you again and good luck
Good for you! Sorry to hear about your rough spot, but very glad that you’re doing well now. Everything is totally and completely in your control. Would there be anything specific you’d like to see me write about?
I, too, have much better control over my T1 eating a very low carb diet. A cure though? Not possible! You can certainly reduce your insulin needs, but there is NO cure for T1 diabetes. In your blog you say that "Apparently I'm not the only one who has been able to remove all symptoms (ie. cure) Type 1 Diabetes". You go on to say that you have " Greatly decreased bolus insulin as well as steadily decreasing basal dosing. ". It's great that you have better control, but again, there is NO cure. This is very misleading and scientifically inaccurate!
I agree with a lot of your dietary advice Ram. Reducing carbs to near-zero is far healthier and is a great excuse to eat bacon, bacon and more bacon.
However, your statements that you have cured your Type 1 Diabetes is, well, completely wrong. You even state that you have 'Reduced' your insulin needs, but not eliminated them entirely. That isn't curing yourself.
And the Wheatbelly blog you link to - wow! That's medically ludicrous! They're spreading hazardous misinformation that could make poorly-informed people very sick. Holy heck...
It's like proposing broccoli as a cure for asthma - how many people might suddenly stop taking necessary medication because of that statement? Especially if it gets reblogged by someone else?
Think that's ridiculous? Google "Recharge your cell phone in the microwave" and get back to me.
Lol I like “recharge your cell phone in the microwave”. I respect everyone who has lived longer with this disease than I. I am blessed in that I was diagnosed early on and retained some insulin production.
Take a look at the posts “taking finding a cure out of the vocabulary” and the post “creating the right conditions for self healing”. I’m pumped to hear from you on those!
My main thing is that we should completely and 100% forget about there “not being a cure”. We have a set of circumstances that without judgement are simply circumstances. Not good, not bad. With experimentation and bravery we can learn through those circumstances. Everyone deals with something and this is ours. I’m very grateful I’ve had to deal with this “disease”. It’s lessons are a pathway to inner understanding.
Thank you so much for commenting. This is deeply important to me because I know many live with it and we are all out to find healing. (Note healing doe not equal cure, they may or may not be the same but the latter remains irrelevant).
Keith, I do agree that a low carb diet can really help prolong a honeymoon. Bernstein has found that some of his patients can retain some level of beta cell function for many years if they can normalize their blood sugars. But I have to tell you, a low carb diet doesn't cure you and it doesn't heal you. I've never seen one case and believe me, with thousands and thousands of T1s who have passed through here, we would have seen a case if it existed. You posted here before in January and I asked you to substantiate your claims that you are a T1 and are "healed" and we heard nothing from you. Coming here and claiming that as a T1 you can eat some diet and stop taking insulin is just dangerous. If you are dependent on insulin, never stop insulin just because someone makes some outrageous claim about a cure or healing.
Thanks for posting. Sorry I must have gotten sidetracked and never returned to your comment.
There is another huge piece- that is kundalini yoga. I have written a bit on that in the blog too. That is essential for healing not just at the physical level but in the mind as well.
I did not purposely stop taking insulin. It happened gradually over time as I had to keep cutting my basals and carb ratios to keep from lows.
Seeing is far different than from trying yourself. I am committed to encouraging people to try and treat themselves as an experiment. I make no claim that anything will keep you from having to take insulin. People have mistakenly drawn that conclusion.
This is the thing. Will you try it? Will you try eating a no carb diet for period of time and see what happens? Will you commit to experiment with a yoga regimen? Will you try acupuncture? Please do not mistake me for making any sort of claim, but understand that without ever trying yourself you cannot know. Test test test and adjust. Adjust the insulin. Take more, take less.
Come up with a diet and yoga/ meditation regimen that you will follow for 40 days without judgement and see what happens. Expect nothing. If you’ve never some yoga it doesn’t matter. If youve never meitated it doesnt matter. I’ve detailed an example of an exact practice on my blog. I can write more directions if anyone is interested.
To your question where’s the beef- I don’t eat it right now for religious reasons.
I think you very much for you comments. I’d like to propose a question to further the conversation- would anyone be willing to try a completely different lifestyle for 40 days and see what happens? Test test testing with our accu-check the whole way?
I also forgot to highlight the immense difference in healing and cure. Different worlds. Please don’t use them interchangeably. I mean healing in that you have found a way to be happy healthy and at peace through all circumstances. Cure is not a part of the conversation as I see it.
I'm just thinking of the desperate parents back in the early part of the 20th century, who subjected their children with type1 to a slow painful death, on a diet completely restricted of carbs, and their complete JOY and thankfulness when insulin was discovered,and then made available to them. If everyone who had type 1 before insulin was available eventually died a horrific death, what is then, that they didn't do yoga, or breathe correctly?
But you said, as I noted earlier, " In your blog you say that "Apparently I'm not the only one who has been able to remove all symptoms (ie. cure) Type 1 Diabetes"."
None of us have used them interchangeably. If by healing you mean that you have better control, I have no argument. If you mean you no longer have T1 diabetes, I take issue. What did your blood tests show when you were diagnosed with T1? Do you have antibodies? People with T1 cannot stop taking insulin no matter how good their control. People with T2 can, sometimes, control it with diet and exercise alone so they're asymptomatic.
I did in fact have insulin antibodies. It is confounding to be sure.
I also might want to change that heading to the article referred to with the ie. that might be misleading I apologize.
Everything is mind. If you believe you cannot do something you will not. If you believe you can, you might. It is worth using careful observation and your own direction of thought to expand mind and leave behind harmful attachments. Fact is fact and if indeed there is no way to leave the disease behind if we are awake and duly unattached to our desire for it to be healed then we will be able to make that distinction honestly. You can only try and leave the unskillful attachments of identification in the dust and try something.
I fully support you in that eating a low/zero-carb diet is an important part of diabetes management. I even go as far as to say that many government nutritional guidelines are utter bunk!
But, I am going to call you on the following:
I mean healing in that you have found a way to be happy healthy and at peace through all circumstances. Cure is not a part of the conversation as I see it.
Your first sentence is fluff and nonsense with no actual meaning or value to anyone, especially people who are managing a medical condition that can kill them if not treated properly.
Your second sentence is you trying to save face and not admit being in error as you backpedal away from an earlier statement now that you are being challenged with facts.
Once again, I support you in your choice of low-carb dieting and a healthy lifestyle.
But, realize that you are making medically false and inadvisable claims that can bring harm to others.
Go take a look at the wheatbelly blog post you refer to as supporting your claim to 'curing' your T1D. Look into the comments see how the writer of the wheatbelly post has also backed down from their claim - although you're one up on them because you've taken medical fact to heart and changed your post title. Thank you for that.
The wheatbelly blog has not. Shame on them.
I am really glad for you that you are having such luck with your diabetes management.
With LADA being a fairly new flavour of diabetes, have you looked into whether you have a late-stage version of that? Maybe that is what is leaving you with enough pancreas function that you can manage your condition with reduced/no insulin.
Because the insulin antibodies were positive, they haven’t run any other tests. I’d be curious if there was some other type of diabetes!
I apologize if you’ve misunderstood anything posted on my blog type1nomore.blogspot.com as not being a factual account of my experience thus far.I will stand by all published material and am willing to write more, explain myself as well as admit that it might all be completely wrong! I suppose I shall see in the coming years.
I would absolutely love if people would like to see more content on the blog, perhaps requests for explanations of certain material. Please let me know.
I also hope that each of us finds our healing, in whatever form that may be, and uses the resources we’ve been blessed with to make careful observations and conjure bravery to make radical changes and see if they have a benefit.
I also hope that each of us finds our healing, in whatever form that may be, and uses the resources we've been blessed with to make careful observations and conjure bravery to make radical changes and see if they have a bene
And there we have it in a nutshell.
I appreciate all that you say Ram. Because this is your clear intent throughout. I am not sold on everything you say being something I would do, but I will find my own way. The same with Wheat Belly. Only recently, as I have gained more understanding of my neuropathy, have I discovered issues with wheat and gluten. I must say that this has made a huge difference in my overall health and my neuropathy in particular. But again, it is not a 100% solution.
I'm just saying as you are; Be open to the possibilities and test, test, test while you experiment. Stay committed to YOUR health and the process of learning. Work out your own salvation as the Bible says.
And I'm glad you dropped "cured" from you heading.
Testing positive for antibodies and having a c-peptide test showing insulin deficiency is the standard for confirming a T1 diagnosis. But studies have shown that perhaps 20% of those diagnosed with T2 are antibody positive and perhaps 15% of nondiabetics are antibody positive. I'm really happy that you have found a lifestyle which leads you to blood sugar control, but everyone's diabetes is different. And you have not demonstrated that you clearly have T1 and I ask you to not claim that anything you have done cures or heals T1. This can mislead people coming here for information and is potentially dangerous. People coming here need to understand that T1 is a fundamental loss of insulin production. Failing to seek proper treatment and using insulin can be potentially harmful and even fatal.
Many of us have found great value in low carb, gluten free or paleo diets. And yes, exercise really, really helps. But it manages our condition, it doesn't cure and it doesn't heal and claims that you can stop using insulin can absolutely set our heads spinning.
