[drmittal]

I am family physician dealing with good number of patient with Diabetes Mellitus Type II. In my experience of 30 yrs with Diabetic patient, I have seen patient consult with their clinician mostly when they develop complication arising out of Diabetes like macrovascular, neurological or end organ damage. As such we need to built up like well baby clinic, a system where from the day one of diagnoses of DM TYPE II, patient is enrolled and managed in a such a way so as to have a normoglycaemic person.

A proper evaluvation at the time of entry and subsequent followup schedule should to be developed to monitor the Diabetes and early detection of complication of Diabetes. A scheduled blood profile and clinical evaluvation can perhaps bring down comorbid complication of Diabetes.

 

[jwags]

Welcome to DF. I think the problems with complications, at least here in the US is that dieticians and CDE's recommend very high carb diets to their diabetic patients. They baiscally tell them it is ok to eat pasta, rice, flour products and even sugar as long as you take medication. This causes very high after meal pp #'s. Many Type 2 diabetics are also told not to test alot, I was told to test twice per week. What I have learned from my online community is frequent testing before and after meals will tell you how your body reacts to food so you can change your diet to get lower bgs. I have used this approach to get my bgs very close to normal. Most of the time my fasting is in the 80's now and after meal numbers are usually 120 or under. This is my defense against complications , keeping those bgs under 100 most of the day.

 

[Shanny]

Thank you for your interest in our forum, drmittal, and the points you've made may well be true in your country. What jwags describes is definitely the scheme of things here in the States. For whatever reasons, the medical & professional communities here - for the most part - insist we "need" carbs, and whatever medication is required to cover those carbs is what they cheerfully provide. Despite dedicated PWD & controlled studies having proven time & time again that dietary carbs are NOT required for good health, the powers that be cling to their money-making myths.

 

[Jen]

... As such we need to built up like well baby clinic, a system where from the day one of diagnoses of DM TYPE II, patient is enrolled and managed in a such a way so as to have a normoglycaemic person.

I'm sure your intentions are good here, however...diabetes is a chronic and self-managable condition, requiring periodic support from a medical professional. Your emphasis on external management for all seems quite patronizing. Rather, those people on the diabetes journey should be supported with radically improved dietary recommendations from the medical community, support for more frequent self-testing, education about how to practically apply the information gleaned from testing, and more respect from their physicians.

That said, I realize that those who participate in forums such as this are a self-selecting group of "activists" who may not represent the majority of diabetics. With proper education, however, I'm certain that there would be many more of us.

Jen

 

[anuradha.m]

Diabetics need to be educated on how to manage the symptoms and evolve with each situation. A Doctor can only help with the situation so patients must be taught to understand their symptoms, rather than pump him with medicines. I have always said a low calorie diet with minimum amount of carbs is ideal for a diabetic....and like "Bug" said we have to learn to eat to the meter.

 

[Guest]

Welcome we have a good system here in my country. Although I tend to agree that Type 2 diabetes is probably not taken seriously enough when it comes to educating patients to test and control their diets. I was also told I only need to test twice a week.... when in theory I should have been told to test a minimum of twice daily. But really all diabetics no matter what 'type' should be testing regularly throughout every day... how else are we going to get a clue about what our bodies are actually doing. I agree that the medical profession should support all diabetic patients from diagnosis. Here we are able to call our diabetic educators for assistance whenever we need help. Our educators write everything down and they also consult with our endocrinologists when needed. So really there should be a good system for everyone... but I guess the health systems about the world could do with much improvement in general as they are overloaded and under resourced generally... this flows on to the patients.

 

[foxl]

I see an endo 4x per year and my internist 3x per yr. I was wondering "why?" since internist merely tells me to keep on keeping on ... but, he asks me all the questions about possible complications, reviews how I am doing emotionally, and other questions too that might be subtle clues to my health.

It seems ... boring and needless, until your post reminds me, those questions are most likely helping me stay on track! Yes, I am self-motivated, but we all know bad habits sneak in rather than rush ... and so do certain symptoms!