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When husband Eddie was first diagnosed with Diabetes, eight years ago, the very first book we bought about diabetes was Dr Richard K Bernstein's 'Diabetes Solution'. To this day if anyone comes to us and says they have been diagnosed with diabetes this is the book we would recommend ...
Looking at Verner Wheelock's blog site today - he has put up a very good article about Bernstein you may wish to read.
" Richard Bernstein developed T1D in 1946 when he was 12 years old. For the next 20 years he endured a poor quality of life (1). He was placed on a diet which was low in SFAs and contained about 45% of calories as carbohydrates. As a consequence he had to have very high doses of insulin. During his twenties and thirties, his general health was deteriorating. He suffered from severe mid-chest burning all the time, “burning shoulders” and progressive deformities of his feet which had impaired sensations.
By his early thirties he had trained as an engineer and was married with small children but his health continued to get worse. His wife who was a physician pointed out that he spent most of his time ei9ther experiencing or recovering from hypoglycaemia. This was usually accompanied by fatigue and headaches. The fundamental cause was the due to the high doses of insulin which were necessitated by the amount of carbohydrates he was consuming. In order to obtain information on how his blood glucose levels were fluctuating he purchased an instrument which enabled him to make these measurements using a drop of blood.
By doing this 5 times every day he discovered that his blood glucose varied from under 40 mg/dl to 400 mg/dl which is huge when compared with approximately 80 mg/dl which is considered to be normal. Applying his engineering expertise, he decided to reduce his intake of carbohydrates so that the insulin dose could be lowered and have two injection per day instead of one. So while he succeeded in reducing the fluctuations in blood glucose, his health remained poor. In an attempt to learn what further steps he could take Dr Bernstein researched the scientific literature and discovered that in animals, the complications of diabetes could be prevented or even reversed by avoiding the swings in blood glucose levels and maintaining them at normal levels.
In the light of this information he monitored his blood glucose carefully, up to 8 times a day. Crucially, he started to make small, experimental changes in his diet and in his insulin regimen to determine the effect on the blood glucose. The insight gained enabled him to fine tune his insulin treatment and his diet so that he could achieve normal values all the time. Very quickly his health improved significantly. His fatigue disappeared, he gained weight and he was able to develop muscle quite easily. His insulin dose was just one third what it had been previously. Subsequently this was reduced to one sixth with the development of human insulin. The painful lumps under the skin caused by the insulin injections which were slow to heal disappeared. Above all he had the satisfaction of solving a difficult problem and of getting his condition under control. "
There is much more to read with relevant links here
http://vernerwheelock.com/219-the-life-and-work-of-dr-richard-bernstein/
Looking at Verner Wheelock's blog site today - he has put up a very good article about Bernstein you may wish to read.
" Richard Bernstein developed T1D in 1946 when he was 12 years old. For the next 20 years he endured a poor quality of life (1). He was placed on a diet which was low in SFAs and contained about 45% of calories as carbohydrates. As a consequence he had to have very high doses of insulin. During his twenties and thirties, his general health was deteriorating. He suffered from severe mid-chest burning all the time, “burning shoulders” and progressive deformities of his feet which had impaired sensations.
By his early thirties he had trained as an engineer and was married with small children but his health continued to get worse. His wife who was a physician pointed out that he spent most of his time ei9ther experiencing or recovering from hypoglycaemia. This was usually accompanied by fatigue and headaches. The fundamental cause was the due to the high doses of insulin which were necessitated by the amount of carbohydrates he was consuming. In order to obtain information on how his blood glucose levels were fluctuating he purchased an instrument which enabled him to make these measurements using a drop of blood.
By doing this 5 times every day he discovered that his blood glucose varied from under 40 mg/dl to 400 mg/dl which is huge when compared with approximately 80 mg/dl which is considered to be normal. Applying his engineering expertise, he decided to reduce his intake of carbohydrates so that the insulin dose could be lowered and have two injection per day instead of one. So while he succeeded in reducing the fluctuations in blood glucose, his health remained poor. In an attempt to learn what further steps he could take Dr Bernstein researched the scientific literature and discovered that in animals, the complications of diabetes could be prevented or even reversed by avoiding the swings in blood glucose levels and maintaining them at normal levels.
In the light of this information he monitored his blood glucose carefully, up to 8 times a day. Crucially, he started to make small, experimental changes in his diet and in his insulin regimen to determine the effect on the blood glucose. The insight gained enabled him to fine tune his insulin treatment and his diet so that he could achieve normal values all the time. Very quickly his health improved significantly. His fatigue disappeared, he gained weight and he was able to develop muscle quite easily. His insulin dose was just one third what it had been previously. Subsequently this was reduced to one sixth with the development of human insulin. The painful lumps under the skin caused by the insulin injections which were slow to heal disappeared. Above all he had the satisfaction of solving a difficult problem and of getting his condition under control. "
There is much more to read with relevant links here
http://vernerwheelock.com/219-the-life-and-work-of-dr-richard-bernstein/
