• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Dieting

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
I may have to try Metformin soon as my insulin is 3 times higher then the normal range and that is even on my extremely low carb diet. Its going to be very interesting to see if I will be able to tollerate it or not in regards to the mito info. In the past Ive had extremely bad reactions to drugs which affect mito function badly. Ive learnt from my experiences to stay away from drugs which poorly affect the mito. I guess I'll soon see if the postives outweight the negatives of this drug for me (cause having high insulin gives me symptoms too and isnt good for me either.. it runs my immune system down etc and of cause Im going to end up with diabetes if something isnt done).
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,104
Location
australia (brisbane)
I may have to try Metformin soon as my insulin is 3 times higher then the normal range and that is even on my extremely low carb diet. Its going to be very interesting to see if I will be able to tollerate it or not in regards to the mito info. In the past Ive had extremely bad reactions to drugs which affect mito function badly. Ive learnt from my experiences to stay away from drugs which poorly affect the mito. I guess I'll soon see if the postives outweight the negatives of this drug for me (cause having high insulin gives me symptoms too and isnt good for me either.. it runs my immune system down etc and of cause Im going to end up with diabetes if something isnt done).
Tania, looking at the link u posted using mito supps like q10, nac and lipoic acid and regular b12 injections can help protect and negs from using metformin, hopefully avoid needing insulin. common side effects i have read about are gastro symptoms but starting low and slowly increase to the dose needed. pills normally come in 500mg, just try half a tab for a week then whole tab etc eventually u will want to take 500mg with each meal. U will find as it works it supresses your food intake but it also works well with low carbs well. I was at a stage where i was on very low amounts of carbs and couldnt lose weight. correcting adrenal hormones and insulin resistence got the weight moving etc

u may find reduced insulin resistance will improve mito issues and also help improve many hormone problems too????
I hope it works for you.
 

Yocheved

Spoonless In Seattle
Messages
29
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Diet really depends on how ill you are. Three years ago I was in the mild to moderate range, and was still a bit active. I was able to do the HCG protocol with 500 calories a day, and I felt AMAZING! I lost 60 pounds in one year, and as I started adding foods back into my diet I was able to find some triggers that I wasn't aware of, like walnuts and bakery yeast.

Now that I'm in the moderate to severe range, I know I could never survive a diet plan like that, so I'm really glad I did it when I was more functional. (I did try doing the HCG injections without restricting calories, just to see if it would help control my ME symptoms, but I never felt any effects from it. I'm not sure where that initial high came from, unless it was just my body detoxing from everything.)

Whatever meal plan you choose, make sure you do it with the advice of your doctor or naturapath, and be sure to take lots of both pre- and pro-biotics!

BTW, still holding steady at 130lbs, with no regaining problems. I eat a pretty "normal" way now, just with fewer carbs than before.
 

Rand56

Senior Member
Messages
675
Location
Myrtle Beach, SC
If anyone is looking for a non-drug alternative to Metformin, I read some good info about corosolic acid helping in blood sugar regulation. I bought a product about a week ago called GlucoFit from Nutricology which has corosolic acid in it. Other brands have a similar product. About a week prior to me starting to take this, I added in manganese which helps in glucose utilization and bilberry which can also help control blood sugar. So far so good. My appetite has actually been curbed to a good degree and seems like it has taken away my cravings..especially for pasta which has always been a weakness of mine. Many years ago I did a "Zone" <Barry Sears> diet which was the most successful diet I ever did. The whole basis of that diet is controlling blood sugar. I tried the Atkins diet too many years ago which did work for me, but I felt lousy on it and after stopping I seemed to put the weight back on pretty quickly.