Sent in as a blog comment, worthy of a new thread.

Hi Eddie,

In addition to your warnings about possible eye damage from a too rapid reduction in BG, I must also add Diabetic Lumbosacral Plexopathy as a possible and regrettable side-effect of rapid BG reduction.

The symptoms of DLP are very similar to siatica and all too often people receive unnecessary back surgery.

I'm 10 months now into my excruciating chronic pain from DLP but am getting on top of it with meds for nerve damage pain.

I rapidly lost two stone by simply restricting my low-carb daily diet to 1400cals and exercising five days a week for more than 35 minutes a session.

Nothing radical, unlike the Newcastle Diet, but enough to cause Diabetic Lumbosacral Plexopathy with muscle-wasting and lancenating pains in my right leg - also known as DIABETIC PROXIMAL NEUROPATHY... a useful reference is here:

http://journals.lww.com/neurotodayonline/Fulltext/2004/02000/Diabetic_Proximal_Neuropathy__Getting_At_the_Root.15.aspx

It took more than seven months and many different specialist consultations plus EMG nerve conductive studies to confirm my DLP syndrome.

If your readers suffer from dehabilitating chronic pain in either leg then DLP may be the reason. I encourage sufferers to seek specialist advice because GPs are over-worked and surely will not catch this rare condition.

People suffering from DLP will also have to manage their own joined-up care and recovery approach because the NHS is not geared up for such odd diabetes-related illnesses.

Keep you the great work with www.lowcarbdiabetic.co.uk - it is greatly appreciated!

Rich

Not doubting the existence and horror of this but I can honestly say that in more than a decade of using diabetes newsgroups and forums I never saw a case of this before.

I have seen a couple of people who suffered eye problems from a rapid drop in BG but in all cases this was a result of insulin use, and in all but one case it proved to be temporary, though obviously scary.

In contrast the number of people reporting diabetic neuropathy making a massive improvement or reversal through low carbing is huge.  Would be interesting to get some actual incidence numbers.

On the subject of diabetic meds related eye issues-Has anyone heard from Kath/Unbeliever recently? Really miss her on the forums and blog and I lost her contact details a long while back.

Paul1976 wrote:On the subject of diabetic meds related eye issues-Has anyone heard from Kath/Unbeliever recently? Really miss her on the forums and blog and I lost her contact details a long while back.

Hi Paul, I do attempt to keep in touch with Kath by email but as you know she has terrible eyesight problems linked to diabetic meds and a big degree incompetence from her HCP's.

The last time we communicated was at the beginning of September after the problems with my email account, I've not been is touch since because she was due for another series of three of injections in her eye which she admits she's not very hopeful of any improvement.

Obviously I don't want to bother her knowing the problems she has in replying to emails but I will contact her shortly given your concern and I also worry about her she's a lovely lady who's had a raw deal.

In the meantime I will dig out her posts about her eye problems from our blog and link them

Thanks Graham,I know it's a long shot but I sure hope that somehow,the injections will help somewhat,been thinking about her a lot recently and all the help and good material she used to post despite it being so difficult for her to do so...Her excellent and informative 'The eyes have it posts'-If you wanted to copy and paste them here Graham in the 'Diabetic complications and other medical problems' forum I could make them stickies?

Cheers

Paul

Paul1976 wrote:Thanks Graham,I know it's a long shot but I sure hope that somehow,the injections will help somewhat,been thinking about her a lot recently and all the help and good material she used to post despite it being so difficult for her to do so...Her excellent and informative 'The eyes have it posts'-If you wanted to copy and paste them here Graham in the 'Diabetic complications and other medical problems' forum I could make them stickies?

Cheers

Paul

OK will do Paul thanks, there are three long posts just hope they paste OK or I'm in for a long night of editing 

graham64 wrote:
OK will do Paul thanks, there are three long posts just hope they paste OK or I'm in for a long night of editing 

So far so good, yes they are excellent posts which I remember well.

There used to be someone else on usenet who had gained excellent control and maintained it for about 30 years but not before suffering from AMD. Her erratic typing was rather endearing when you got used to it. She was one who had used both Avastin (cheap) and Lucentis (extremely expensive) and found the Avastin marginally better and longer lasting. When the drug companies discovered doctors were doing this they tried to make it illegal by refusing to licence Avastin for ocular use. I believe some private opthalmologists in the UK have been using it but the NHS are captive to Lucentis, basically the same drug with a tiny modification, and there are all kinds of Rules restricting its use for financial reasons.

I wish her good luck.