![[Berstein's diabetes solution]](../images/bernstein.jpg)
People who have read through my earlier letter The Healthy Option will know that I suffer from type I diabetes mellitus. This is a life-threatening illness that can strike at any time in life. It results in the patient's needing to inject insulin several times a day for the rest of their life. Nobody knows quite what triggers diabetes but it is thought to be caused by an auto-immune reaction to a common virus. This results in the body mistaking the cells in the pancreas which are responsible for the manufacture of insulin for virus infected cells. Consequently the immune system destroys them. Most commonly the disease occurs in childhood though in my case I was 42 when diagnosed. Before the discovery of insulin (by a team of Canadian doctors in 1922) this type of diabetes was a killer and patients would die within a few months. Thanks to insulin, type I diabetics are able to lead more or less normal lives—at least in the short term. Unfortunately there are still long-term complications that very often lead to blindness, kidney disease, heart disease and amputations. The longer you have the disease, the more likely you are to suffer some or all of the symptoms of the above. Given that most type I diabetics are diagnosed as children, this is a depressing prospect.
Besides the classic type I diabetic, there is a second, more numerous group who suffer from insulin insensitivity. These so-called type II diabetics can usually, at least for a while, make enough insulin. Their problem is that it doesn't work very well and consequently they also have elevated blood-sugar levels. This condition is most often associated with obesity. Left untreated these patients too will develop all the horrendous side-effects listed and may also wear out their pancreas cells from over-use to become type Is.
Now for both types of diabetes the care regime recommended involves diet and exercise as well as either insulin injections or tablets. The diet prescribed is based around the idea of "slow-release" carbohydrate, low fat, lots of vegetables and salads, and limited protein. Unfortunately, while this diet seems great in theory, in practice blood-glucose levels remain very difficult to control. The diabetic on insulin or tablets finds themself having to juggle numerous variables such as amount of insulin, size of meal, time of eating, whether or not they ill with a cold and even the time of year. The result is that blood-sugars are likely to be highly variable and very far removed from what is normal for the general populace.
Enter Dr Bernstein and his amazing low-carbohydrate routine. He, himself a type I diabetic of over 55 years standing, turns the accepted treatment plan on its head. Instead of recommending a diet based on carbohydrate with each and every meal, he prescribes s a very low-carbohydrate routine. For as he says, there is actually no such thing as "slow release" carbohydrate. Fruits, for example, contain masses of quick release sugars and even foods such as pasta, bread, potatoes and carrots are quickly converted by the body into glucose. The result, as every diabetic will recognise, is huge surges of glucose in the blood that persist for several hours after eating. Even with appropriate insulin injections (or metformin tablets for type IIs), these peaks last for at least an hour or two after meals. The best that can be hoped for is to have relatively normal sugars the rest of the time.
Dr Bernstein's teatment centres on virtually abandonning carbohydrate altogether as a food source. Instead he recommends a diet based on protein, fat and only green-type vegetables. This is coupled with an intense exercise program designed to help reduce blood-glucose while using less insulin or fewer tablets than before.
I have now been on this programme for about a month and already I am starting to see positive results. Not only do I feel better inside but I have more energy than before and my blood-sugars are the best they have ever been. I have no hesitation in encouraging all diabetics (and indeed those who are obese and therefore in danger of developing type II) to get hold of the book Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution.
If you are from the USA you can view it on
If you are from the UK then you would be better off using
Either way, I say buy this book. But don't just take my word for it: just read through the many recommendations on the Amazon site. All of them give the book 5 stars and there are clearly a lot of happy customers around.
Copyright © 2004 Adrian G Gilbert
with this Amazon.com link
this Amazon.co.uk link