The Beetus Part 1
Oct. 19th, 2022 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
msconduct[I don't always have much to talk about here, but when I do, it always seems to be massively long. (This is why I'm not on Twitter.) So I'm splitting this into three parts to make it more digestible.]
I've always been terrified of getting diabetes. To me it's one of the more horrendous things you can have, affecting virtually the entire body. Famously, it raises your risk of foot amputation and blindness, and slightly less famously it raises risk of heart, kidney and general nerve problems. Even less famously (at least to me), it can have a hand in skin problems, hearing impairment and Alzheimer's. Lovely! What's not to like?
However, I also always thought I was well protected against it. Because of my autoimmune thyroid condition I have a raised risk of heart trouble and find it very easy to put on weight (which would raise my heart risk even further). To counter these problems, I therefore eat a lot less than most people and it's pretty much entirely wholefoods. So there I was, eating tons of veges and lean proteins, giving simple carbs the swerve entirely, and sticking to a two meal a day regimen, eating only between 12 and 7. Granted, I don't get a lot of exercise, because anything that raises my temperature sets off vicious burning, stinging rosacea. But I was sure my diet was enough to protect me from diabetes.
Then my doctor made me have a routine HbA1c test. In this part of the world, the scale is as follows. Up to 40: normal. 41-49: prediabetes. 50 and over: diabetic. I can't tell you what a shock it was when my test came back with a score of 43. I was prediabetic.
The practice nurse who rang me with this wonderful news was vague. Cut down on simple carbs, she said. I don't eat any of those, I said. Then you probably won't progress to diabetes, she said. The shrug in her voice was audible.
Probably? Well, sorry, but for a life-threatening disease, that hardly seemed adequate. I wasn't just going to accept my fate. In the words of the QAnon morons, I did my own research.
The first thing I discovered is that prediabetes isn't just some anodyne little warning condition. It's not full-blown diabetes, obviously, but it means that although it's not usually symptomatic things are already going wrong with your blood sugar management. And according to the American Diabetes Association, up to 70% of people with prediabetes will go on to develop diabetes.
I really, really needed to do something about this.
As I said above, I've always had to actively manage my weight, not to look good in a bikini but for the sake of my health. (Weight loss is a controversial topic these days, and I want to make it clear that what I'm talking about here is the scientifically proven link between weight and certain diseases, and nothing else.) One of the few weight loss methods that's worked for me in the past is Dr Michael Mosely's 5:2 intermittent fasting. So I read his later book, The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet. This turned out to be based on the research of Professor Roy Taylor from Newcastle University, so I went and read the original research.
Exactly what causes diabetes has been hotly debated. But Prof Taylor's theory was that diabetes was caused by too much fat in the pancreas, stopping it from working properly. He therefore thought diabetes might not be a no way back condition and might be reversible through weight loss.
That's it? Just fat? Seems almost too simple. But was he right?
Was he ever. Of the overweight participants in his study who lost 15kg (33 pounds) or more, 9 out of ten reversed their diabetes (by which I mean they returned to the HbA1c normal range, not just reduced their score) even if they had had the disease for up to six years. This by anybody's measure is an astonishing result.
Prof Taylor's theory is that everyone has a personal "fat point", above which the pancreas simply can't work. Where that point is varies from person to person, and if your fat point is low, you don't even have to be classed as overweight to have too much fat in your pancreas - for you - for it to work. Prof Taylor's follow-up study on people with a BMI of under 25 bore that out: even though a BMI below 25 isn't considered overweight, people who lost weight in that study also reversed their diabetes. This is great news for the population groups such as people of Asian descent who have a higher risk of diabetes even at a low BMI. Prof Taylor also found over all his studies that the people who continued to have HbA1c scores in the normal range following their diabetes reversal were the people who kept the weight off.
He certainly had me convinced. So how was I supposed to perform this miracle? I'll talk about that in Part The Deux tomorrow.
I've always been terrified of getting diabetes. To me it's one of the more horrendous things you can have, affecting virtually the entire body. Famously, it raises your risk of foot amputation and blindness, and slightly less famously it raises risk of heart, kidney and general nerve problems. Even less famously (at least to me), it can have a hand in skin problems, hearing impairment and Alzheimer's. Lovely! What's not to like?
However, I also always thought I was well protected against it. Because of my autoimmune thyroid condition I have a raised risk of heart trouble and find it very easy to put on weight (which would raise my heart risk even further). To counter these problems, I therefore eat a lot less than most people and it's pretty much entirely wholefoods. So there I was, eating tons of veges and lean proteins, giving simple carbs the swerve entirely, and sticking to a two meal a day regimen, eating only between 12 and 7. Granted, I don't get a lot of exercise, because anything that raises my temperature sets off vicious burning, stinging rosacea. But I was sure my diet was enough to protect me from diabetes.
Then my doctor made me have a routine HbA1c test. In this part of the world, the scale is as follows. Up to 40: normal. 41-49: prediabetes. 50 and over: diabetic. I can't tell you what a shock it was when my test came back with a score of 43. I was prediabetic.
The practice nurse who rang me with this wonderful news was vague. Cut down on simple carbs, she said. I don't eat any of those, I said. Then you probably won't progress to diabetes, she said. The shrug in her voice was audible.
Probably? Well, sorry, but for a life-threatening disease, that hardly seemed adequate. I wasn't just going to accept my fate. In the words of the QAnon morons, I did my own research.
The first thing I discovered is that prediabetes isn't just some anodyne little warning condition. It's not full-blown diabetes, obviously, but it means that although it's not usually symptomatic things are already going wrong with your blood sugar management. And according to the American Diabetes Association, up to 70% of people with prediabetes will go on to develop diabetes.
I really, really needed to do something about this.
As I said above, I've always had to actively manage my weight, not to look good in a bikini but for the sake of my health. (Weight loss is a controversial topic these days, and I want to make it clear that what I'm talking about here is the scientifically proven link between weight and certain diseases, and nothing else.) One of the few weight loss methods that's worked for me in the past is Dr Michael Mosely's 5:2 intermittent fasting. So I read his later book, The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet. This turned out to be based on the research of Professor Roy Taylor from Newcastle University, so I went and read the original research.
Exactly what causes diabetes has been hotly debated. But Prof Taylor's theory was that diabetes was caused by too much fat in the pancreas, stopping it from working properly. He therefore thought diabetes might not be a no way back condition and might be reversible through weight loss.
That's it? Just fat? Seems almost too simple. But was he right?
Was he ever. Of the overweight participants in his study who lost 15kg (33 pounds) or more, 9 out of ten reversed their diabetes (by which I mean they returned to the HbA1c normal range, not just reduced their score) even if they had had the disease for up to six years. This by anybody's measure is an astonishing result.
Prof Taylor's theory is that everyone has a personal "fat point", above which the pancreas simply can't work. Where that point is varies from person to person, and if your fat point is low, you don't even have to be classed as overweight to have too much fat in your pancreas - for you - for it to work. Prof Taylor's follow-up study on people with a BMI of under 25 bore that out: even though a BMI below 25 isn't considered overweight, people who lost weight in that study also reversed their diabetes. This is great news for the population groups such as people of Asian descent who have a higher risk of diabetes even at a low BMI. Prof Taylor also found over all his studies that the people who continued to have HbA1c scores in the normal range following their diabetes reversal were the people who kept the weight off.
He certainly had me convinced. So how was I supposed to perform this miracle? I'll talk about that in Part The Deux tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-19 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-20 09:18 am (UTC)