Re: beyondhom Re: rubric help & thoughts needed

Hi Irene

Yes - as with everything, individualisation is the key! And how interesting that a diabetic (and I guess everyone, but we don't notice it) reacts differently blood sugar-wise, to different foods, never mind their glycaemic index.

Your story about mango is interesting - and makes me thing about my own food sensitivities. I am sensitive (don't like to use the word allergy, as it's not life-threatening) to many foods. Apart from the usual wheat (which I can eat from time to time) I don't do well at all on dairy (goat and sheep is fine) plus a host of other individual idiosyncrasies such as rice, onions, apples, quinoa, ginger, chicken, pumpkin seed, cashew nuts, red beans etc etc. When I did my food exclusion diet to work out exactly what was giving me all the indigestion and IBS, the friend who put me onto it (she's a clinical ecologist) suggested I try and rotate foods on a four-day cycle. Well, quite hard to do if you have to eat out every day and want to have a big salad for lunch! She also suggested I try more tropical fruits rather than just apples etc. But I discovered I can't do passion fruit (they burn my oesophagus terribly, like pumpkin seeds) nor custard apple. And this is in spite of not having eaten them for years (I grew up in Africa, so ate them a lot)

Yet I'm fine on potatoes and tomatoes - in fact, anything from that family is good for me. And I've lost count of the number of times that well-meaning people, when they hear I'm on a food-exclusion diet, warm me not to touch potatoes or tomatoes! I'm half-Irish - thank God for potatoes!! My best carb.

So I guess individual blood sugar reactions to certain foods must be part of the same idiosyncratic response. In fact, it would be interesting to take your pulse before and after eating mango. If it speeds up, it's a sure sign of food allergy/sensitivity, even if the reaction, whatever form it takes, doesn't come on straightaway.

Liz


From: Irene de Villiers 
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2012 11:34 PM
To: [email protected] 
Subject: Re: beyondhom Re: rubric help & thoughts needed


  

On Apr 11, 2012, at 1:44 AM, Liz Brynin wrote:

Hi Liz,

Thanks for explaining. I've never used porcine insulin so I do not know how it would feel.
I DO feel "warnings" though sometimes only seconds if I am exercising or if I eat meat (hi animal protein) - with Novolog - but I suspect they are DIFFERENT and/or more subtle "warnings" than what people felt on porcine.
I can see if one expects one kind of response and it does not come - it's not automatic to look for a different one, especially more subtle.

I still think it is far too easy to get a life threatening hypo from insulin if more than 4 units is EVER injected at a time. Also if one is not aware of INDIVIDUAL responses. There are just too many factors that influence glucose levels, so that more than 4 units is a dicey idea - that's not anyone else's suggestion - just my own approach to keep myself safe after a few scary episodes. 
I also never add more insulin if the first 4 units "fail to work". I add meat to MAKE them work. That will allow the first shot to work as it should have done. If you add more insulin THEN eat meat, or THEN do exercise, you WILL have a dangerous hypo, as both the first shot and the second will kick in together, suddenly - as a severe overdose.

I feel it is important to know how much insulin does how much response in a specific diabetic - and to ensure that noting stops it form doing its response. It's never okay to add more insulin when a first dose "fails". YOu have to instead "trigger" it to work. And you need to know also, which foods and which activities "use up" insulin how fast.

I did a great deal of experimenting to learn this for my case, it cost a few hundred dollars in test strips, as I tested every 15 mins during my experiments to see exactly how my body worked, adding one meal or ingredient or exercise routine to my list at a time to know how IT affected me. But it was absolutely worthwhile to do.
I was lucky I suppose, to have a couple unexpected "close shaves" that let me know I'd better get individual about it. It really needs that IMO. For example I discovered I can eat mango with no rise in blood sugar, but touch broccoli and I'm through the roof.....so if I took insulin for mango, I'd be hypo in a flash. ALL to do with MY individual response and little to do with actual carbohydrate or glycemic index. I also found a bicycle ride dumped my glucose in half a mile and I could expect to suddenly fall off my bicycle under a truck if I had insulin after a high carb meal, then rode my bike. I could predict exactly where I'd come unglued:-) I even taped easy to swallow, high sugar candy under my bike seat, so if I took insulin for a meal then unexpectedly needed to ride home, I had a counter-measure handy if I fell with the bike lying next to me. 

Insulin can be dangerous, in my view. It needs to be *individually* managed. All those crummy ideas about glycemic index and "slow carbs" are baloney in my book and lead you to think that approach is safe when it is not. 

> And the girl who died in her sleep was found to have died of a severe hypoglycaemic episode - she went into a hypo and never woke up - so said the coroner's report.

I can see how easily it can happen.
But I'd blame the lack of individual approach, not the insulin on which she clearly relied for "warnings".
If one knows what amount of insulin will do which for a specific person, IN ADVANCE, rather than waiting for "warnings from the insulin" (which will never happen in your sleep anyway - and which can come on too fast if one is awake) - that's a better control and our lousy allopathic system does not know or care about that yet - with this kind of tragic result.

Namaste,
Irene
-- 
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."