I wanted to make this a Subforum but didnt know how so I posted this here. I have been a diabeteic for about 25 yrs. I am now on the inslin pump which seems to be working well. I was basically wanting to know if there are otheres diabetices that use the pump or discuss any other ways others could share to help other diabetices control ther sugar levels.

This post has been edited by magic: Apr 1 2008, 01:03 AM

Diabetes can be caused by too little insulin (a hormone produced by the pancreas to control blood sugar), resistance to insulin, or both.

To understand diabetes, it is important to first understand the normal process of food metabolism. Several things happen when food is digested:
A sugar called glucose enters the bloodstream. Glucose is a source of fuel for the body.
An organ called the pancreas makes insulin. The role of insulin is to move glucose from the bloodstream into muscle, fat, and liver cells, where it can be used as fuel.

People with diabetes have high blood sugar. This is because their pancreas does not make enough insulin or their muscle, fat, and liver cells do not respond to insulin normally, or both.

There are three major types of diabetes:
Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in childhood. The body makes little or no insulin, and daily injections of insulin are needed to sustain life.
Type 2 diabetes is far more common than type 1 and makes up most of all cases of diabetes. It usually occurs in adulthood. The pancreas does not make enough insulin to keep blood glucose levels normal, often because the body does not respond well to the insulin. Many people with type 2 diabetes do not know they have it, although it is a serious condition. Type 2 diabetes is becoming more common due to the growing number of older Americans, increasing obesity, and failure to exercise.

I have type 2. I have alot of problems that are associated with diabetes also like nurothopy in my feet and lower legs, partial kidney failure, high blood pressure, foot ulcerations and ect... I think more older people should be check normally by there phsicians for diabetes. I am currently on the inslin pump and so far it works good however I still have the weight gain, and dieting just dont help. According to my doctors this is normal and exspected.

I am not a diabetic – however, since it is in my family I seek to actively control and monitor my glucose levels with my diet choices. I learned this through my grandmother who WAS a diabetic (she passed because of issues relating to a stroke, not her diabetes). That clarified – there are many ways to control this disease; my grandmother, with diet, managed to wean herself from the need to inject insulin and was instead medicated with one pill a day and her personal diet modifications.
These went as follows:
Add fiber to your diet . . .
Recent studies have shown that EACH unit of fiber ingested (insoluble or soluble) absorb 7 units of carbohydrate – one article I found notes some interesting things - http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fiber.html
Eat smaller meals, but eat more frequently during the day . . .
This helps balance blood sugar over the whole day so that your body is neither going from starvation mode to overfull nor having drastic changes in glycogen.
One of my favorite tricks is – food separation . . . (if you want to lose weight)
Suzanne Somers has some great recipes featuring this trick, and a food separation bible can also assist in doing this – it even evened out my aunt who had issues with LOW blood sugar.
Another one of my favorite tricks is – blood type based eating planning . . . (in order to optimize the previous)
Peter D’Adamo has done some great research on this topic – it can assist in helping to identify foods which can cause you to go into extremes of sugar overload or otherwise cause your system to mis-function.
Do not deny yourself the comfort food – just eat smaller portions with a ration of fiber integrated into the meal
Trying to deny yourself of all of your favorites is a key way to cause a diet (as I like to call it – a life adjustment) to fail – miserably . . . this is where a bottle of fiber (oat fiber or another type or edible fiber) added to those comfort foods and stirred in so that you cannot tell can assist – so that you can safely add your treats – once a week
Physically do a cross check of all of the crevaces of your body – DAILY . . .
My grand-uncle was also a diabetic; after he lost several of his toes due to lack of circulation (and the propagation of gangrene due to this lack) – he was not as capable of focusing on some of the dietary issues just because he lost some of the incentive. After he had this loss it seemed to lose focus on diet and got more convinced that diabetes was going to ‘get’ him.
Making sure you stay on top of the physical issues which can be caused by diabetes can ensure that your spirits stay up and you have one more day to turn things around.
& Don’t give up.
I hope this helps . . .

Thanks for the info its very informative. How ever on the other hand I am limited to there sugestions on high fiber foods due to my potasium is very high and is causing my kidnies to fail. When the doctor gave me the list of what to avoid the foods that have high potasium I looked at him and said gee what can I eat? so fruits and most vegies I cannot eat as well as nuts. But the cerial and brown rice, oatmeal and such I can and those are mostly the type of food I eat. Again thanks for the link I am sure it will help others to have this information. Very apprechative thank you!

I guess the inslin pump is not so popular? Is any one else using the pump?