# NotMedicatedYet



## keith97 (Mar 9, 2012)

Useful site with daily (weekdays) blog by a guy in California who's staved off medication & complications for 11 years.

Plenty about running (more for plodder types than for athlete types), but lots else besides about diet & research.

I've found it immensely inspiring to my diet & exercise diabetes control, so I hope others do too.

http://notmedicatedyet.com/blog/2012Mar.html


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## Robster65 (Mar 9, 2012)

Hi keith. Welcome 

Would be interesting to hear a bit about your own story. 

How long have you been diagnosed ?

Rob


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## keith97 (Mar 12, 2012)

I carefully typed a full response, read it over once, pressed Preview. Lo and behold, I'd been logged out. I'll try again later


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## keith97 (Mar 12, 2012)

So this is my story.

I was diagnosed in 2005, weighing just over 15st and with a spot-check BG of 17.

My GP told me to thow away my meter, as the Hb1Ac test was more accurate & useful. I regret accepting that advice now. It?s so obvious that the average that test represents masks all the damaging peaks.

I changed my diet radically to be largely toast, rice, pasta, fruit & veg and homemade fruit & veg juice, and had the nutritionist tell me it was excellent.

I was prescribed metformin & statins, lost some weight with exercise, joined a gym, and watched the Hb1Ac results creep steadily upwards to 7.2%

In July 2011, with the GP about to ?intervene? further, I started looking at the internet and found Blood Sugar 101, Not Medicated Yet, and loraldiabetes.

I applied the Test, Review, Adjust principle to both my food and exercise, and quickly lost more weight and got a September 1Ac of 5.6%

I?ve upped my gym sessions from 3 to 6 per week, and added in a weekly yoga session and some road running. In November I did a 10k race in 52 minutes, which was my best running in about twenty years. This was greatly inspired by Tom Ross's site (Not Medicated Yet).

I closely monitor my fasting and 1 hour post lunch & evening meal readings. I keep spreadsheets to help me monitor trends, by checking the average of the last 20 days of each kind of reading. I also mirror the numbers in spreadsheets for each day of the week, with similar averages. That way I can easily see that ?Thursday night yoga is worth about one point off my Friday FBG? and ?a Friday night curry costs about 1 point on my Saturday FBG?. This all enables me to say I expect my next 1Ac to be about 5.2%.

Any time I get or expect a post-prandial reading over 7.8, I either immediately add in an extra walk or do 10 minutes gentle jogging on the spot.

Everything?s fine for me right now, though I recognise I?m lucky that I can cover the cost of my test strips.

My only concern is that I?ve not been able to find a definitive answer to the question of whether raised BG following exercise is as damaging as raised BG as a result of food. I work on the assumption that it?s not, but I?m still trying to tweak my exercise sessions, my pre- and post-snacks, and extend my warm-down routine to try to limit the length of time the reading stays high.

I?m off now to put in some miles ready for a half-marathon in two weeks?.


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## Robster65 (Mar 12, 2012)

It all sounds excellent work Kieth. I would imagine the average GP or dietician might say you're being obsessive and that you should ease off a bit.

I would say, on the face of it, as long as you're not experiencing anxiety from the off-target figures, that you've got it sussed.

My opinion on the post-exercise highs is that they're as damaging as any other but as long as they're coming down fairly quickly and don't peak too high, then you'll probably be ok. If they are going up too high (whatever that is!) then IMO you'd be wise to accept some meds which will keep you healthier in the long run. 

Many people see medication as a last resort and a sign of the body failing. I see them as a means of maintaining better health for as long as poss and, in any case, our bodies have already failed to some degree and you're just staving off the worst of it through careful self-control.

But well done for such dedication and I'm sure you're a lot healthier than I am as long as you don't let the highs get too high before accepting help.

Rob


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## keith97 (Mar 12, 2012)

And I'd say the average GP or dietician won't suffer from my complications !


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## Robster65 (Mar 12, 2012)

keith97 said:


> And I'd say the average GP or dietician won't suffer from my complications !


 
Very true! 

I'm sure they all obsess about their bank balance and the latest gadgets so I think our single-mindedness about health is slightly more justifiable.

Rob


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## keith97 (Mar 15, 2012)

It's taken me three days to realise why I might look obsessive: in my working life I used to be a test analyst, designing test routines to prove computer programs did what they were supposed to do, didn't do what they weren't supposed to do, and failed elegantly when presented with nonsense or "impossible" situations or data.

I'm just transferring my skills to collecting & analysisng BG data. Given a non-invasive continuous monitor I'd be happy as larry & analysising data even more closely !


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