The doctor could do nothing for me

[andrewducker]

I went to see the doctor this morning, to talk about that thing that doctors love best - self-diagnosed problems investigated via the internet.

I've had blood sugar issues for decades - the first time I had a hypoglycemic attack I was (I think) 16. I'm fairly sure this was down to my liking sweet things far too much, and consequently stuffing myself with them at every opportunity. Basically, whenever I eat something sweet my blood sugar spikes for about half an hour, and then crashes, leaving me shaky, sweaty, with my head spinning, and generally feeling pretty rubbish and incoherent. Oh, or just plain grumpy. My reading (with some help from Julie) led me to think this was probably Reactive Hypoglycemia.

The solution for which is to "stop eating the bloody sweet stuff that makes you feel shit". And so I don't. Mostly. Except when I have all the self-control of a rat on crack, for instance when I'm stressed, which I am too much of the time at the moment *sigh*.

Also, both stress and weight feed into this - when I'm less stressed it affects me less. When I'm thinner it affects me less. As I'm currently overweight and stressed, things could be better. But I am working on this.

A more recent issue is gluten related. I've been having an issue for about a year where eating bread made me "gassy", with pasta causing a similar (but lesser) effect. And this has been getting progressively worse, to the point where eating a couple of pieces of toast would cause my stomach to swell up and then do awful things which I shall not inflict on you*.

And so I went in and told the doctor, and he said "Yes, that sounds like reactive hypoglycemia. Don't eat sweet things. And that's gluten intolerance alright. If you're willing to eat gluten for 6 weeks then I can do a test at the end of it for coeliac. Which we would treat by telling you not to eat gluten." To which my response was "I am not putting up with 6 weeks of pain and awful noises* in order to be told not to eat something I'm currently not eating."

And he sympathised with me on both counts, and sent me on my way.

Glad I went in though. I'd have felt really stupid if there was something useful they could do and I hadn't checked. Or if I'd completely misdiagnosed myself. It's always nice to have doctors tell you that you're right :->





*Feel free to imagine in your own time.

Comments

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Are you interested in others experience and / or advice on this? I am happy to share what I have learned if it would be useful. (I don't have these particular intolerances, but I have other related stuff, as you know.)

[andrewducker]

Yes please!

If you'd rather do it in person then I'm happy to wait :->

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

I've got loads of stuff on this as you know and I'm happy to talk about it via any medium at any time.

Reading this, though, what really came to mind is that it's all about negatives. Don't eat sugar. Don't eat gluten. Etc.

What is starting to work really well for me is choosing some positives instead and focusing my attention on them. I've added £150 per month to my food bill (which has come out of other stuff that matters to me, like clothes and products and therapy) so that I can buy the foods that I really like and are good for me. It means that I'm ordering out more often* and buying more luxurious foods at more expensive stores. But it also means that I can design a week full of food that I will love and I won't feel deprived, even if that week does not include all the food that I used to love. It probably wouldn't be that much if I lived in Edinburgh.

Another thing I do is slowly try to increase the number of 'top line' days - days where everything I eat is healthy - per week. If I try and make every day a top line day, I won't make it. It's too big a jump from where I'm at now. So right now I am trying for four a week, and when that's embedded I will go for five a week. Yes, it means that I sometimes feel lousy after the other three days, but it's sustainable. I am playing a long game here.

* I adore Indian food and it's good for me. So once or twice a week I will order all the vegetable dishes from the curry house round the corner and keep them in the fridge and eat them over the course of the next few days. Etc.

[andrewducker]

Oh, absolutely. I don't do "diets" which consist of "For a limited time, do something really hard and unpleasant" - but I am happy to change my diet to one which is healthy, and find things that taste nice.

Luckily I like cold meats, vegetables and eggs, and am very happy to mix them together in different combinations.

I like your idea of buying in a bunch of food. I shall give that a go!

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

For me, the important thing is to avoid a sense of deprivation. If I feel deprived, lots of triggers get hit and I go into child mode and start bingeing.

That's why I don't have any banned foods, even though I hope very much to get to the point where there are lots of foods I stop eating. I just can't get there by banning them.

[andrewducker]

Aaah. If I don't ban myself from certain things then I have the self control of a rat with a deep-rooted crack problem. It seems that in some ways we are opposites :->

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Depends also on (a) priorities and (b) individual model of cause and effect. I did fifteen months of a textbook diet - no dairy, almost no wheat, no sugar, no processed food - and have never been more obsessed, or had worse digestion. Concluded that stress harms me more than chemicals, and (eventually) adapted strategy accordingly.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Also, I have no way to gauge whether this would be useful or rubbish because all metabolisms are different, but I have spent many hundreds of pounds on supplementation with the intention of smoothing out my blood sugar, and the only thing that's ever made a blind bit of difference is taking two of these with supper. They help me sleep as well. (It's possible that these aren't independent. I don't know.)

[andrewducker]

Julie's been praising magnesium recently. I shall give these a go!