Diabetes & Chronic Issues Support Group

[Gryffindorian]

aloe has a rather bad rep amongst doctors over here. Every single plant varies in its contents and there are even differences from one week to the next. As aloe can produce some substances that human livers don't cope well with it's always a sort of Russian roulette what substances and how much of them you get. Standardized aloe products are better in that respect.

A quick research in the German part of the net recommends chamomile, liquorice root, iberis (candy tuft) and angelica roots (garden angelica / wild celery) as remedies against reflux. It also says that all sorts of mint make the problem worse.

Referencing your previous post, I looked at Iberogast on Amazon, and it's quite pricy. But I'm willing to try just about anything to mitigate my acid reflux/toxic gut. My friend at work suggested acupuncture with cupping; it just so happens that Chinatown is next door to us.

ETA:

I checked the ingredients for Iberogast and read my medical provider's health page. It looks like Angelica root and milk thistle are the most effective against acid indigestion without having any known drug interactions.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Iberogast drops are a good remedy against the belly ache, gas and diarrhoea some diabetes meds cause. They have gotten under fire lately since apparently the iberis it contains can cause liver problems if you take these drops frequently over more than a few weeks. I use them only if it's really necessary. Still, one mustn't forget that herbs can have mean side effects, too.
I'm not sure if these drops would help against reflux. Iberis is listed as a reflux remedy. Still, it might be wiser to use something that's specifically desingned for reflux treatment. At any rate you should get your doctor's ok before you start experimenting. Just in case.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

I read the summary of an interesting study (British, I believe) last week that might pave the road for a new diabetes therapy:
the kidneys not only filter sugar out as was previousely known but have now been discovered to re-absorb a lot and feed it back into the blood. A new therapy might be to block the kidnes's reabsorption ability and seems to have worked in animal tests. They are now trying toget permission for tests on humans.
I have to add the caveat that it has to be tired out first what consequences this might have for the other kidney functions and for the rest of the body. In nature, no function is without a purpose and therefore switching it off may cause big damage.

This is the article that triggered the study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5884445/
I'm afraid I can't find the new study itself (I just read the sumary in a German scientific magazine)


Another study I discovered only lately is much older but might be helpful for some of us:
apparently 80% of all people - both diabetics and "normals" - can deal with carbohydrates better when they eat them in the morning. But in 20% it's different: they digest carbs easier in the evenings.
What type you are is easy to find out: just eat the very same once in the morning and once in the evening and then check your blood glucose levels.
I tried it out with my favourite muesli and found out that I am an evening-carb person: 1 hour after eating I had 148 in the morning but only 112 in the evening. So, in the future it's ham and eggs for breakfast and cocoa and a cookie or two (or three ) for a nightcap.

 

[Leviathan]

Got used to the pain...never the nausea and light sensitivity.

Triggers are all over the map.
Pain killers don't work anymore.
2-3 per week.

...anyone got any tricks?

 

[Avro Arrow]

Yes, they certainly do. Sorry to hear you're going through this. (Unfortunately, I don't have any tricks.)

I hope you don't mind, but as we already have a "Chronic Issues" thread, I am going to move this to that one.

I hope someone is able to offer some helpful suggestions.

ETA: OK, once we lost the thread title, there's nothing in the post itself to indicate what the issue is. For anyone reading this, Leviathan's post is about migraines.

 

[RandyS]

Got used to the pain...never the nausea and light sensitivity.

Triggers are all over the map.
Pain killers don't work anymore.
2-3 per week.

...anyone got any tricks?

I have migraines too. My doctor prescribed Sumpitriptipan (I have no idea if I'm spelling that right), but it doesn't always work. For those times, I take Excedrin, which also doesn't always work. Sometimes I just have to lose a day and sleep it off. That doesn't always work either, but nine times out of ten it can be more effective than the pills.

 

[Leviathan]

I have migraines too. My doctor prescribed Sumpitriptipan (I have no idea if I'm spelling that right), but it doesn't always work. For those times, I take Excedrin, which also doesn't always work. Sometimes I just have to lose a day and sleep it off. That doesn't always work either, but nine times out of ten it can be more effective than the pills.

I have similar hit-and-miss results with medications.

Lately, I've hit a very strong link between acid reflux + gastroparesis and migraine. It seems to cause 12 hours of indigestion which causes a migraine spike until the nausea gets too much.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

that sounds horrible Have you tried ginger? It has a relaxing effect on both the stomach and the muscles and this way helps against nausea and secondary headaches (caused by muscles in your neck cramping).
With "normal" migraine, it can be helpful to keep a diary about what you eat, what meds you take, what the weather conditions are etc. Often you can find out what triggers the attacks and then try to avoid triggers.
My migraines get triggered by lily-of-the-valley, propanol (only 1-propanol; iso-propanol/2-propanol has no effect at all), formaldehyde and low air pressure (when a rain or snow storm approaches). Propanol (including au de cologne) and formaldehyde are banned from my lab, I hardly ever go out in May when the liliy-of-the-valley flowers, but the weather can't be avoided. Still, 3 out of 4 isn't bad

 

[Sibyl]

I was approved for a Dexcom G6!!!

 

[Gary Mitchell]

I was approved for a Dexcom G6!!!

That's cool. At least you don't have to have it on the back of your arm like that other one that is advertised.

 

[Sibyl]

That's cool. At least you don't have to have it on the back of your arm like that other one that is advertised.

The other nice thing that will help me a lot is that it has automatic warnings if you go too high or too low. I'm not sure if that other one has that.

 

[DimesDan]

The other nice thing that will help me a lot is that it has automatic warnings if you go too high or too low. I'm not sure if that other one has that.

You mean the Freestyle Libre? I was running them for a couple of years, good bit of kit, I use the Dex5 now (which, like the 6) has alerts to my phone due to the bluetooth functionality, it needs calibration (where the 6 doesn't) and I can reuse my sensor for multiple sessions (even though I don't need to worry about that kind of thing) where as the 6's sensor is a one session thing.

In the 21 years since I was diagnosed, it's amazing how the tech has progressed, my first injection was with a hypodermic syringe, then onto pens until 4 years ago and now my second pump. And of course the glucose testing, that has come leaps and bounds too.

 

[think]

https://www.dexcom.com/
yes this is looking better and better because I have to do the level thing but... I don't at all maybe if I feel weird or if.. I have eaten well like I bought the wrong jelly and for on one the time with limits on my money makes it that I had to use that jelly will that sucked I ended up with like 300 sugar levels not good .. very bad. so.. yeah this would really help me.. I set up a poll on fb for people to say yay or nay my insurance covers it so .. sure. you know. but I guess someone that knows me would -- have advice as well as here.

 

[Nakita Akita]

That's cool. At least you don't have to have it on the back of your arm like that other one that is advertised.

My boyfriend had that one.
He brought us A1-c numbers down now though.
I think.
He doesn't have to use it anymore.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

At my job you can't wear the Dexcom G6 as we have to bend over a lot, crouch through thickets and wear rubber waders and life vests which would constantly rub against the sensor. So for us Limnologists the upper arm sensor is more convenient.
Fortunately, I don't need any sensor at all (yet) nor any finger pricking apart from the frequent checkups at my GP.

However, I noticed that some days I can even eat a handfull of grapes without much of an effect and at other days I only have to look at a carbohydrate and feel my blood pressure rocketing up. Have those of you with an insulin resistance made the same experience? Is it always that unsteady? What might cause these fluctuations?

And: my dentist alerted me that I have a lack of vitamin C and my teeth are beginning to come a little loose. I read up on it and it seems that diebetics need far larger amounts of Vitamin B, C and D than healthy people (partially because Metformin & co "steal" vitamins). I'm really pissed that in 2 years my doc didn't tell me about this. Did yours tell you? It seems to me that nowadays a patient always has to be 3/4 of a GP oneself, because the professionals never take the time to explain anything to us.

 

[Sibyl]

My doctor used to tell me I needed to take more vitamin D but he never mentioned that it was inherent to diabetics. I simply thought it was because most of my waking hours were in the middle of the night. He never mentioned B or C.

Carbs seem to have a different effect in different situations. I think that's one of the reasons I've had such a difficult time getting my diabetes under control, which is why this Dexcom 6 will hopefully be great for me.

Stress has a major effect on glucose levels. I've been steady all day long, haven't eaten anything for a few hours and if I become really stressed, my glucose will shoot up over 300! That also happened to me in my dad's last days.

I'm technically Type 1.5 which is classified as a late-onset subset of Type 1 (I was in my mid-20s when I was diagnosed
). I will need to take insulin for the rest of my life. I'm hoping I can get under good enough control that I can qualify for a pump.

Now, if they could combine the Dexcom 6 and a pump...

 

[DimesDan]

My boyfriend had that one.
He brought us A1-c numbers down now though.
I think.
He doesn't have to use it anymore.

Being able to track in real time glucose levels, whether it's a full CGMS such as Dexcom, or Flash-GMS such as a Libre is one of the most recent and significant game changers in diabetes care.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Since a pump is conneced to the tissue already, I wonder why they haven't fitted it with a sensor yet. Nowadays when mini-computers are the size of a wrist watch, it should be possible to insert a tiny brain into the pump. Perhaps the problem is that computers must not get wet and therefore can't get built into the pump? (After all, we consist of more than 70% water.)

Yes, stress causes the body to go to red alert. In practical terms that means being ready to fight or run and so the body's emergency stash of glucose is released almost instantaneousely to fuel nerves and muscles.

I'm a subtype of 2 - I have enough insulin (yet) but have a rather marked insulin resistance. The sugar can't get into the cells. Imagine a keyhole that some idiot has blocked with superglue - it's a similar principle. After a while my liver filters out the sugar and stores it as fat. Without meds I starve to death while getting plumper and plumper.

Many medical studies found that there is a connection between obesity and type 2 diabetes, but all of them claim you get type 2 because of being obese. I think they got hold of exactly the opposite end of the stick: early type 2 often have an insulin resistance and therefore become obese, not the other way round.

 

[Sibyl]

I know I was thin as a rail when I was diagnosed and only started gaining weight much later within the last ten years or so but I have a feeling that has more to do with my sedentary lifestyle whereas I used to be active most of the time.

 

[Sibyl]

My Dexcom 6 arrived on Friday morning. I have an appointment to go over how to set it up and use it tomorrow, but that appointment was set up when I was still expecting a Dexcom 5, which I guess is a whole lot more complicated as a friend of mine has told me.

Dexcom 6 is a breeze. It very wasteful given that it has one-use applicators that look like something out of SciFi. You peel, press, snap a tab, and press a button and the sensor is applied. You then snap the transmitter into the sensor, input the sensor and transmitter codes into your receiver and you're basically done. There is a warmup period, but after that, you're good to go.

I sure hope this thing will guilt me into taking better care of myself.