Search the DAFNE Online Forums
15,864 posts found
Mar 18, 2013
Warwick
425 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / BACKGROUND INSULIN Hi Plumcious (Great user name!)I don't know that an entire carb-free day is actually necessary. A carb-free day for me would make a lot of what I do such as riding to work dangerous, so for me it wouldn't be helpful. I definitely find that if I go for 3 or more days without exercising, that my BGLs will rise. I try and ensure that unless I am sick, that exercise happens every second day if not every day. I think that determining the correct basal dose is reasonably easy to do by comparing the before bed BGL with the waking BGL. Testing during the day can be done as long as you start testing when the QA has been completely used - varies for each QA type, but for me on Humalog is about 3-4 hours. Most foods will also no longer be releasing glucose from that time, so you can begin fasting at that point, and then stop fasting when you have reached the end of the period that you are tying to test. So for example, if I wanted to check my afternoon levels, then I would still have breakfast about 7 am, then test at 11 am, and again at say 3 pm to see whether my BGs have risen or dropped or stayed the same over that period and work out whether I have my BI correct or whether it needs to be reduced or increased. This gives a rough check of whether your BI is correct. There are plenty of other factors that could increase or decrease BGs though. Stress, sickness, menstruation, climate are just some of them. Also, (I am vegetarian too), some foods are very slow-release and if I had had foods like beans, lentils chickpeas etc for breakfast in the above test, then I know that my BGs would keep on rising throughout the day, because these foods for me raise my BGs for 8-10 hours after consuming them. Cheers, WArwick. |
Mar 17, 2013
Plumcious
11 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / BACKGROUND INSULIN HiI've found that how much BI I'm on is affected by how fit I am - the fitter i am the less I need, although currently am on 9 units am and 9 pm and am not that fit. Have you ever done the no carb day to check whether your BI dose is right? You do your test on waking and if low treat as normal and don't have your breakfast insulin. If high correct as normal. Then through the day you check your blood sugar as usual and don't eat any carbohydrate at all (unless dealing with a hypo). Obviously this means pretty much no fruit, no bread or biscuits, no cereal, no pasta etc (I know you know this, I'm just saying because I found it much harder to do that I'd imagined it would be)! Then your tests show you whether your BI amount is holding your BG level or whether it's too high (which would be shown by hypos) or too low (you needing to correct). I've never managed a whole day (I'm vegetarian and practically everything I eat seems to have carbs in) - I think when I do it again I'll make some carb free soup beforehand, and may buy sweeteners. |
Mar 17, 2013
Annette Bell
72 posts
|
Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / iPhone app carbs list
Hi! At our course, (run by Carolin Taylor and I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the dietician!) we were asked to manually change the values in our books for a few of the items, as they had been "changed" since printing, and also to add a couple of extras that weren't included (e.g. parsnips). I'll go with the values given in the app then. Thanks for checking this out for me! ![]() |
Mar 17, 2013
Plumcious
11 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Recommended reading?? Has anyone ever read Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal, by Rachel Naomi Remen,, M.D., Riverhead Books, 1996? I would be very interested to know what it's like.I saw it recommended on this web page: http://www.diabetesstories.com/my_research.html where there are others - anyone seen any of them? Thank you very much |
Mar 17, 2013
Plumcious
11 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Advised to not have basal insulin Thank you all.The next morning the nurse on duty knew all about DAFNE and was completely relaxed around me!! I'd heard the staff expressing consternation during their handover about the idea of adjusting your dose according to what you eat! It makes total sense to me after all! I had to have a operation in 2006 and "my" nurse was someone whose daughter had Type 1 - it was so reassuring as she understood everything and let me get on with it. The hypo thing is so scary - especially when high BGs will impact on recovery and also make the staff look at you all horrified ![]() |
Mar 17, 2013
Plumcious
11 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Medicines diabetics are not meant to take I was recently prescribed an antibiotic Clarithromycin (trade name Klaricid) which had a big impact on my blood sugars; they made me more sensitive to insulin and I had a series of hypos and in the end one which resulted in paramedics attending. Sheeeesh![]() After the paramedic hypo I reduced my background/basal insulin by just over 20% (both doses) but think 30% would have been even better as I still had another. Thing was I felt so ill (hence the antibiotics) that I'm not sure I was ever so competent (needed my hand holding a bit!!). Cough and cold wise - people keep recommending Echinacea to me which is a herbal remedy and available in health food shops and chemists. When we've had really bad dry coughs; Pavacol-D is a sugar free cough medicine which is really nice, aimed at dry irritating coughs. (http://healthpharm.com/medicines/colds-coughs/pavacol-d.html). |
Mar 17, 2013
SimonC
78 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Pump Accessories Questionaire Rach101There is a site called shootuporputup.co.uk, which is dedicated to pump users - you may get additional research there. I'm not a pump user - want to be, but can't as they won't put me on one as my control is good - better stop before I start on another rant... |
Mar 17, 2013
JayBee
587 posts
|
Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight?
LOL whoops! ^_^; My bad!
This does sound like a good idea, but often DP causes you to wake up high too so dealing with the rise before it starts would be good too... unless she means going for a run sometime around 4am shortly after the reasonable BGs of 2 or 3am..? :/ I planned to chat about this on the book discussion thread - unless you want to make this thread it? I don't mind, haha. ![]() Edit: If we do that, shall I link the dietary fibre stuff from my personal diary thread here too? |
Mar 17, 2013
Warwick
425 posts
|
Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? The book is highly recommended, Small correction though - it is called Your Diabetes Science Experiment, not My Diabetes Science Experiment.The book suggests that a great time to lose weight is early morning using a 30 minute walk before breakfast if you are affected by the dawn phenomenon - waking up with high BGLs. You don't need extra carbs because your BGLs are already quite high, and the exercise should bring them down into a normal range. I was on a diabetic exercise conference a couple of weeks ago, and the recommendation for losing weight is to exercise in the couple of hours after a meal. The reasoning is that by doing this, you can lower your QA dose to handle the drop in BGLs that cardiovascular exercise will produce without needing to eat extra carbs. If you exercise several hours after a meal, then your BGLs are likely to drop, but the only way you can deal with that is to eat carbs which prevents you from losing as much weight. One of the lecturers was asked how high is too high to exercise? His response is that there is no such things as a BG reading that is too high to exercise, as long as there are no ketones present. If there are ketones present with a high BG reading, then do not exercise. Get the ketones down first using the techniques described in the DAFNE handbook, or get medical assistance if you can't do that yourself. Hope this helps. Warwick. |
Mar 16, 2013
xJeanx
8 posts
|
Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? Thanks for the advice from both of you. I had seen the "Carbs and Cals" app advertised at my Diabetes Centre so think I might download that seeing as it has now been recommended to me. I am also going to look at Amazon now for the book you recommended to me "My Diabetic Science Experiment". Thanks again!![]() |
Mar 16, 2013
JayBee
587 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Dawn Phenomenon Pardon the resurrection of an old thread, but I was wondering if any of you have tried splitting your before bed/evening BI dose so you get two peak working times to cover the dawn time? I'm thinking about trying this myself but it'd be good to know if anyone has tried it already.I currently take 16 BI in the morning and 11 BI at night, Levemir. The BG rise happens between 3am and 7am for me and I find that when I took my evening BI at 10pm, I would tend to wake on 7BG but I would suffer highs before bed because of my day BI running out (I would go to bed on 15BG, something like that). I'm looking at splitting my evening BI dose something like 80% at my usual time of 8pm then the rest at 10pm to try and assist for the rise. Thoughts? |
Mar 16, 2013
JayBee
587 posts
|
Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? Lower your insulin doses instead of eating extra carbohydrates for exercise, as described in the DAFNE guidebook, is a great way to lose weight straight off the bat.As for books, I'm currently reading a book called My Diabetic Science Experiment by Ginger Vieira which has not only complimented my DAFNE education but, because it's written by a sporty lady with Type 1, I also plan to use it for getting my exercise regime balanced right so I perform better than I could before. She goes into a very helpful amount of detail regarding food which will be great for someone looking to lose weight too - it's written for all diabetic types. Not sure about apps... most stick to the old thinking of diabetes so aren't that great; especially with what I've learnt from the book I've recommended. You need to learn your body's needs first, then you can concentrate on weight loss and it's amazing what was not covered on the DAFNE course in more detail (for me anyway). Best wishes. |
Mar 16, 2013
victorri
12 posts
|
Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? Carbs and cals app gives you calories and fat as well as carb values |
Mar 16, 2013
xJeanx
8 posts
|
Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? Hi there,Does anyone know if there is a good book and/or app out there that's good for counting carbohydrates and losing weight? Thanks Jean :-) |
Mar 16, 2013
mum2westiesGill
502 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / 7-day waking average 4.4 - bedtime6.1 - this morning - 21.33pm - tea & QA - @21.06 - hypo - treated with 4 jelly babies - 01.10am - bedtime test was done - no supper tonight due to late tea Pizza (takeaway) for tea / garlic bread / had 2 mini choc bscts as garlic bread not eaten 100g cho/carbs Insilin 10u humalog, split into two doses, first 6u before eating, remaining 4u 1 hour later Before pizza = 3.3 (treated) then 6.2 +1 hour = 3.7! ( but took remaining 4u of QA!) +2 hour = 5.3 +4 hour = 4.4 (bed) |
Mar 16, 2013
HelenP
218 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Pump Accessories Questionaire 1. Sometimes especially in the hot weather.2, I wear a band made from a flexible lycra material around my waist. 3. Local producer. 4. I have tried a baby sock pinned to the side of T shirts for bed. I have also tried a phone sock that you wore around your neck similarly to a lanyard. Hopeless. 5. Enough. 6. Yes 7.Does not matter. 8. Smaller pump. I think the secret is battery size with better batteries we ought to be able to reduce the size of the pump. The issue is wearing it to bed... especially when you wear little or no clothing to bed! Daytime does not bother me although the pump occasionally bungee jumps when getting out of the car etc. |
Mar 16, 2013
JayBee
587 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Improving DAFNE online manual If the link in marke's post isn't working for you (it doesn't for me), try this link to the insulin section.It will only work if you're a site member and a verified graduate. |
Mar 15, 2013
marke
686 posts
|
Hi, I have now been sent version 10 of the Carb book that apparently came out last year but didn't get sent to us. This increases the carb value of a Jacket Potato to 10.5 from 10, it doesn't decrease it to 7 !! I am told there is a version 11 being worked on for release later in the year, Either way no one has ever told me its actually 7. When you say they gave you 'changes' where these printed and by whom since the course literature is supposed to be fixed and controlled by DAFNE Central which is why we can only publish what they send us. Any changes would have to come from them not from local HCP's making their own changes, thats not how its supposed to work. |
Mar 15, 2013
marke
686 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Improving DAFNE online manual Hi, sorry but the online handbook is an electronic version of the one given out on the course ,we cannot add or change it in anyway, we are not allowed to do so. We are also not allowed to make it available in PDF format because it could be shared to non-DAFNE Diabetics. The section on insulin injections is here its in the section on insulin. I'm not sure what your comment 1) means, as previously we cannot 'add' anything to the handbook. This response is all I can do, which tells you where to look. |
Mar 15, 2013
JayBee
587 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Weight training It'll be a thread on this forum - you'll be able to follow it easily. No worries.Hope it all works out to help you continue your training. ![]() |
Mar 15, 2013
Mike87
10 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Weight training Thanks for all the responses, very helpful. My PT has given me some references to read up on just thought I'd ask people in the same situ as me.Jwo that sounds good, could u keep updated on this thread and what goes on?? |
Mar 15, 2013
JayBee
587 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Weight training NuMo is correct. The type of exercise matters and you'll find you will need to adjust insulin as your body needs that as much as carbsfor exercise. Warwick and I are going to start a conversation soon linked to this sort of thing after reading a book recently published call "your diabetes science experiment" by Ginger Vieira. It compliments DAFNE by adding more information detail, so I do recommend reading it generally. We plan to start the new thread soon once a few experiments are done. |
Mar 15, 2013
Garry
328 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Weight training Don't be surprised Mike87.Depending on how rigorous your training is you may well find BGs going up initially as we respond to adreniline and other hormones which make us temporarily insulin resistant. Your liver also may also respond by releasing it's store of glucagen into your bloodstream as a 'Fight-or-Flight' preparation. So try get as much information on what your BGs do, both before and after exercise and you'll get to know your normal response. Unusual BGs then are much more clear and you can try figure out what made them differ. Regards Garry |
Mar 15, 2013
NuMo
28 posts
|
Topic: General Discussion / Weight training Hello Mike,I can't comment on weight training as it is not my field. However, your experience is similar to mine. I am a Yoga Teacher and I find coping with exercise quite tricky. It is so unpredictable - sometimes bg goes down, other times it goes up. According to runsweet.com, this is due to the aerobic/anaerobic quality of the exercise. They may be able to give you more detailed information than I can. |