In November 2017 Dr David Unwin (@lowcarbgp) used a CGM for a month. I recorded all his Twitter images and comments and copy/pasted them into a document that I share with people I talk to as a local Healthwatch and Council Community Health Champion Volunteer as they are so educational.
A fellow GP partner Dr Simon Tobin (@DocRunner1) in their GP practice is currently doing a similar self-experiment. I rarely tweet, but do find following certain people incredibly interesting and valuable. I do recommend any who can follow this current self-experiment do so.
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bigleg
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Don't really know much about tweeting (life's too short to add yet another media...) - very interesting stuff but unfortunately preaching to the converted here - how do we get it across to people who need to know?
I also do not know much about tweeting, but I have learnt that Twitter it is a great resource to pass on information to others. I just use the copy/paste facilities to record these amazing self-experiments posted on Twitter into a word document, that I then share with those wanting to learn more but not able/interested in following these self-experiments on Twitter. Just brilliant data.
I use a CGM since I'm type 1. I've been using my CGM for 4 years. It helps see how my blood sugar control is when eating certain foods at different times of day. It also helps to alert me when I'm running low since I don't know that I'm going low ( I don't feel lows). My CGM has alarmed a few times during the night/early morning hours and I had needed to have a snack here and there. My CGM is suppose to alarm when it gets at 80 mg/dl or lower.
Thank you bigleg I’m going to follow both. I continue to struggle to lose weight, but think that my thyroid may be involved as I am trying to stabilise my levels. I have read some tweets from both docs. Very factual and comments from other professionals very helpful also. Dr Tobin is also doing ‘requests’. The news about porridge has not gone down well 😂
Icicles - I was privileged to listen to Dr Unwin live back in 2016, just after he was awarded NHS Innovator of the Year - the only GP to have won that award. Since then I have heard him live on 3 further occasions. The news on Porridge does not go down well, just illustrates how we have been misled for too many years! I suspect that if not metabolically damaged, one can continue to consume - but once experiencing insulin resistance, we do have to be more careful on any of the foods that spike blood sugars. In your journey have you come across dietdoctor.com - it is a brilliant resource. Dr Unwin has done a course for medical professionals supporting patients following the low carb approach.
Twitter is the only social media I use, and for the reason you do too. Follow people who are on the front lines of LCHF to keep up with what's going on.
Very interesting responses to a letter in the Times by Prof Raymam and deserved. Sad that people in such high places are so out of touch with evidence. The discussion is his response to Hospital Food.
I think it's beyond sad. When you're a doctor or researcher, deliberately ignoring* evidence that contradicts your pet theory is professional misconduct.
*ignoring evidence is not the same as, say, debating its validity on methodological grounds. There's a lot of bad science around and it's quite acceptable to point out flaws in experimental procedure. However, the high-carb advocates invariably use the most awful arguments - eg., ad hominem attacks and "won't somebody think of the children?"
Yes!!! I knew it! A few years ago, I tried porridge for breakfast - 'keeps you full for longer' etc.
Piffle.
The sugar crash mid-morning was horrific. I thought I was doing it wrong. I would have my usual snack of fruit to compensate and be starving by lunch time.
I have never been tested for diabetes etc. but strongly suspect I was heading that way.
Since starting LCHF things have been great and no slumps.
I'm just blown away by the level of commitment Dr Unwin is putting into this. He seems to be almost single-handedly turning NHS dietary policy around. It's slow, and it seems like two steps forward and one step back, but it is moving roughly in the right direction. Maybe by the end of the century we'll see an end to this low-fat nonsense!
Totally agree with you TAD. However he always says it was 2 clever women he owes his amazing journey. The first is the patient who entered his surgery with her diabetes in remission and looking amazing and Jen, his wife, the clinical psychologist in helping to develop a different approach to patients. Basically, asking them what goals would they like to achieve in place of simply prescribing treatments, which of course can include 'what you eat'.
Interesting stuff. Behind every great man is a woman or two, right? I'm guessing Jen isn't getting much of the official credit for developing the treatment protocols.
It would be awesome if Dr Unwin (or Jen!) could drop in on this group and offer some advice and encouragement, but I'm guessing he's way too busy ...
After many conversations on HU, I've come to the conclusion that psychology is a big factor in the obesity/diabetes epidemic - not in the sense that obesity is a psychological malfunction (eg, "fat people are just lazy and gluttonous") - but that people are trapped within a scripted behaviour pattern which is heavily reinforced by authority figures. They find it almost impossible to re-write these scripts without "permission" to do so.
I wish I'd pursued a potential career in psychology with a bit more enthusiasm (instead of going off on a completely different tangent) because in view of what I've learned about diet, I might have been able to put it to some practical use. Oddly, it's the tangent I went off on (engineering) that got me interested in the science behind LCHF.
Dr Jen Unwin does get plenty of credit and is often a speaker at conferences as well - often they share presentations - this presentation has a fun start: youtube.com/watch?v=kTDaWkw... . She led the organisation of the Real Food Rocks Festival at Ambleside in July - a brilliant event. There are many of their excellent presentations available on line.
The biggest issue I see with patients putting their diabetes into remission and usually resolving other metabolic conditions, including obesity is being provided with the right information. For too long we have been fed a plethora of mis-information with the Eatwell Guides dominated by industrial foods. Thanks to Dr Unwin and other's work, the Public Health England eatwell guide today does not meet the NICE Diabetes Guidelines. Over the past few years there is a plethora of evidence and scientific papers that prove the science. Dr Unwin only has a twitter account, but he regularly posts patient graphs: twitter.com/lowcarbGP/media.
A few months ago The Daily Mail ran a feature for 6 days. The Sun is in the middle of a similar feature - this week (started last Saturday) the feature is focusing on The Diabetes.co.uk Low Carb program that is now NHS approved. The Daily Mail had a recipe book alongside that was authored by a chef who has is own personal T2D story and his wife, with David Unwin writing the science in the first 50 pages - the book is The Diabetes Weight-Loss Cookbook by Kaite & Giancarlo Caldesi. Slowly the information is becoming more widely available.
BridgeGirl - Dr Joanne McCormack is also a founder member of the PHC (Public Health Collaboration). This is her twitter account: twitter.com/JoanneReynold14 and I found this link in her Blog: fatismyfriend.co.uk/4-exper... It is a radio recording.....she is talking about her local group and how she came to the low carb real food approach. Her blog site also references several groups she runs. If you go to You Tube and put in Dr. Joanne McCormack there are several of her PHC Conference talks.
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Atkins Revisited.
Episode of the food programme exploring the eat well plate
Newbie here