Diabetes / Byetta Update - Making Progress!

[Stavs]

Granted there are a lot of Diabetes forums out there, I dont feel comfy with those people as they are way too into their diabetes for me. Not a bad thing, just not my cup of tea. So, I figured I'd share with the people I am actually interested in and enjoy communicating with, which is you guys

So, I started this lizard spit (Byetta) back on the 7th of April. My blood glucose level was hovering anywhere from 160 t0 340 before I started. I totally dropped the Pepsi and started seeing improvements and got it down to anywhere from 120 to 200 using Byetta, glipizide, avandia, and Januvia. As my levels started to drop, I started experimenting with my meds. I dropped the Januvia 2 weeks ago and my levels remained the same (maybe a little better). I dropped the Avandia about a week ago, and the levels spiked for a day slightly, but then went down. Monday I started the 10mg dosage of Byetta. I changed my routine to 10mg Byetta twice a day, and glipizide twice a day. My sugars have never been lower. This afternoon before lunch I recorded my lowest reading- a 76. I then had some lunch, 2 slices of pizza and a medium root beer, and my post lunch # was 111 (great considering I had a sugary soda and carbs). Came home and my 6pm reading was 84. Had a slightly larger dinner and my post dinner reading was 160.

Overall, I have to say this Byetta is working like a dream for me. I have been able to cut out two medicines with serious side effects and save $100 a month. Downside is the fatigue I am experiencing from the larger dose of Byetta, which will hopefully subside. Oh, Byetta also helps curb your appetite which translates into weight loss. I dont weigh myself outside of the doctor, but we'll see if I lost any weight in the next week and a half.

[smanoli]

Congrats, glad your finding something that works for you.

I had a friend w/ Type I diabetes in grade school and so she had to give herself insulin 3x (or more) a day, not something I'd want to do.

My grandfather has Type II diabetes and for a while was able to control it with diet, but now at 88? he has to take insulin too.

This is the first that I'd heard of Byetta, I may have to look into that a little, sounds pretty cool.

[Dennis S]

Try some chromium picolinate. (Look into it first) My doctor "prescribed" it for me.

[Stavs]

What does it do?

[Jimmypoo]

There are several "factors" via supplements that could be missing from your natural self, that help process carbohydrates, that assist in regulating glycogen vs fat stores use, etc.

There's a lot of reading to do, and while some of the nutritionist books are good, I'd always recommend reading something along with it that is done by a graduate level biochemist and/or --better yet, someone with that kind of degree + MD. Ph.D. / MD makes for a much broader scope, and they would have a detailed understanding of certain factors that simply have nothing to do with extracting livers, delivering babies and performing lobotomies.

Much like pharmacology/toxicology and an MD together make for very powerful understandings of exactly how a drug works within the body, and how the body metabolizes the drug.

Unfortunately, I don't have any recommendations. However, as soon as I need to take Gila Monster spit, I'll know way more than I need to. :-)

[Stavs]

[quote Jimmypoo]However, as soon as I need to take Gila Monster spit, I'll know way more than I need to. :-)
Just watch out for the tendency to swat your eye with your tongue.

[Jimmypoo]

yeah.... but the ladies can see me from across the bar when you do that, and will come running, so it has its benefits.

[Dennis S]

[quote Stavs]What does it do?
It's too scientific for me to say, but there's lots of information available.

http://www.google.com/search?q=chromium+diabetes&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

You can read about it on pubmed if you are not sure about its scientific validity.