In the absence of carbohydrates in the meal, the liver turns to gluconeogenesis – the process of converting protein to glucose. I eat up to 30g of carbohydrates with every meal, and I always have to dose insulin for the protein…
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For the uninitiated, I’ll let you in on a secret. Pre-bolusing insulin is key to preventing post-mealtime spikes in blood sugar. So what is pre-bolusing? It simply means that you inject your insulin in advance before eating by up to forty minutes. This gives it enough time to hit the bloodstream and take better care….
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Doctor Blake Donaldson, who started treating obesity in 1919, had some pretty harsh advice to his diabetic patients: “You are out of your mind when you’re taking insulin in order to eat a Danish pastry.” On the long and short I agree with him, but exceptions must be made. One such occasion is my birthday.…
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If you have a needle phobia, you don’t want to get type 1 diabetes. A lifetime of insulin injections is daunting to anyone. Now imagine you’re so scared of needles that a simple blood test makes you pass out. When there’s a gory injection scene in a movie you have to look away not to…
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My first encounter with the hypoglycemic rage monster happened a few weeks after I got diabetes. I was in line at a bookstore waiting to pay when the cashier asked the woman in front of me if she had a club card. She didn’t so they started filling in an application together, full of all…
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Here’s what happened. The other day I was lounging around the house in my jogging bottoms when the door buzzer rang. It was a friend of the bear’s popping in for a surprise visit. I pre-bolus for meals by 30 minutes, so I’d just injected insulin and stuck my lunch in the oven. A quick…
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Many years ago when I lived in the UK something tragic happened at work. I was a waitress at a small neighborhood restaurant and my colleague had only been there for a few weeks, when she ordered the lunch special. The problem was this: the special was buttermilk chicken, and she was severely allergic…
Dr Bernstein is my hero. I was lucky enough to come across his book The Diabetes Solution when I was newly diagnosed. It advocates normal blood sugars for diabetics by following a very low carbohydrate diet. At the time I was carb counting, or trying to match the grams of carbohydrates in my meals with larger insulin doses…
So does drinking water lower blood glucose? If you’re dehydrated, yes. In this case it will increase your glomerular filtration rate and give the excess sugar somewhere to go. Some people recommend that you drink lots of water after eating a high carbohydrate meal and spiking your blood sugar though. While it’s not going to…
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