The book is called, Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution by Dr. Richard Bernstein.
He has had type 1 diabetes for many many years and became a doctor in his late 40’s. He did this because he learned a lot living with diabetes and turned his health around and the only way to publish what he learned and be listened to was to become a doctor.
When I heard about this doctor I thought to myself…”He should really know what he is talking about for he actually has the disease.”
I was right. The book recommended almost everything I had discovered the hard way throughout my 15 years with diabetes except he lays out a precise management plan for normal blood sugars. I’m in the process of adapting to his protocol. The top ideas I would recommend you from this book are the following:
1. “The Law of Small Numbers”
Each time you administer insulin there is a certain margin of error regarding absorption. Sometimes more gets absorbed by the body than other times. If you eat low carb, you give less insulin. This lowers that margin of error considerably. So, hours after you’ve given insulin, instead of being “off” by a lot, you chance being off only by a slight amount every time, improving your overall glucose control. I found this out on my own and was so happy to see it affirmed in this book. Conclusion? It truly makes life easier to omit most carbs.
2. Frequent blood sugar checks
Dr. Bernstein recommends 5-7 checks a day. This is assuming you have some sort of routine way of doing things. I will go ahead and assume if you don’t have a routine about your day, you need to check your sugar even more frequently. I typically monitor 8-10 times a day. Notice that this is because currently I have a very unusual schedule-I take care of my newborn twin infants round the clock and can only sleep and eat when a miracle opens a small window of time. This hectic schedule calls for extra monitoring. If I only checked 4 times in a 24 hour period I’d end up in the ER very soon from a low or I would eventually suffer the consequences from too many highs. I prefer checking more often thank you very much.
3. Exercise
This simply applies to all human beings. We all require exercise. Period. If you have type 2 diabetes, your health will improve dramatically by exercise.
4. Normalizing blood glucose levels heals you
This one is great. Dr. Bernstein was falling apart. His health was in shambles and by normalizing his blood sugar levels he literally reversed the overwhelming majority of the damage that occurred during many years of terrible glucose control. Let us take a look again at that word: reversed. I at one point suffered a year of annoying leg cramps as a result of getting my blood sugar back on track. The pain was caused by my body repairing itself. Finally when those leg cramps disappeared, so did all of the neuropathic pain in my feet. Look out 4 inch heels! Very exciting to say the least.
5. You don’t need to use alcohol swabs prior to an injection or finger prick
I have only used alcohol swabs when in public for other people’s sake. People tend to relax when they see you “sterilizing” (although alcohol doesn’t sterilize the skin). Anyway, apart from those instances I never use alcohol to clean my injection site or finger stick site. No harm ever came as a result in all my 15 years with diabetes. Dr. Bernstein sets the record straight as a doctor telling us that no, you don’t need to use alcohol. So save yourself the hassle and just stick or inject away!
6. Unless you are obese or use large amounts of insulin, stay away from insulin pens
Insulin pens do not allow for quarter unit doses. For many people, this means rounding up or down and either getting too much or not enough insulin. I once used a pen that didn’t even provide half unit increments. This was very annoying. I had to try to pull the needle out real fast so that a small amount of insulin would come out as a I pushed the insulin in. I definitely don’t recommend this unreliable method. Soon after my trial with the pens I switched to simple reliable syringes and haven’t looked back since.
7. Use glucose tablets to control low blood sugars
Dr. Bernstein recommends that anytime your sugar is low you use glucose tablets instead of candy or juice or some other form of fast acting sugar. This was hard for me but, I do get the logic behind it. His reasoning is this: glucose tablets work faster AND they are always going to provide you the same measurable amount of carbs whereas sometimes with juice or candy you may overdo the amount (because mmm candy is good!) and subsequently suffer from high glucose after your low. I know this has happened to many of us. It sure has happened to me. When I practice this rule, I do avoid a high blood sugar reading after the low reading, every single time.
So there they are. For type 2 diabetics: Dr. Bernstein’s book talks a lot about issues which would help you as well. He goes into type 2 medications which I don’t know much about. So for ANY diabetic, I definitely recommend you read this book!
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