I also think the LOW blood sugars that occur in diabetics and those with insulin resistance are problematic too.

It has been noted recently that one episode of very low blood sugar in diabetics (which can be very common) is enough to accelerate Alzheimer's risk.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...ing-brain.html
This study above illustrates the glucose problem. Good blood flow with low sugar in it, would be a factor too.

Here is another about hypoglycemia:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/146021.php

I imagine all nerves suffer when glucose gets too low.

When blood sugar is high, that means the cells are not getting any either, since the mechanism of transport seems to be not working (or insulin is missing).
Also the damage to peripheral nerves can be due to sorbitol being formed in the periphery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetic_neuropathy

I think we see in the ACCORD program, where the aggressive arm was closed early because of DEATHS, that keeping glucose TOO LOW or trying to keep the HbA1C around 6 (and under 7) led to death in that study. The total results have not been published yet, and when they are, it should be very revealing. The ACCORD study was about diabetics and glucose control. The other patients were allowed HbA1C of 7 after the more aggressive arm (group) was closed.

Keeping elderly patients at levels that are considered "normal" for non-elderly patients, may be a huge mistake, and lead to all sorts of pathology and loss of quality of life, and perhaps even death to some!

Thanks everyone. I was in for my quarterly checkup with my oncologist today, and the nurse told me that given the 6.0, I should get my PCP to write a script for a glucose testing meter so I can get some feedback for how I'm doing with diet. I think it's not a bad idea.

yeah, nurse!

My doctor says 6.0 is fine.

Exactly--I hear so many contradictory staments from different doctors that it's hard to know who to listen to. But it seems to me that if I lowered that 6.00 to maybe 5.7 or 5.5, would it really hurt anything?

The problem is how do you know if it's doing any good? If the point is to head off further damage, how would you know if you were partially sucessful? Since I don't have a Test Joan and a Control Joan to compare, there's no way to know if any of it helped. Sometimes if feels like that when gulping down all of these supplements too.

But what else can you do? When you get to the point where it's clear the docs are not going to help you, you have to either choose giving up or trying to help yourself.

if you are a diabetic and have gotten it DOWN to that, yes it is fine..

If you are at 5.5 that is just fine. No need to worry about it.
Diabetics who are hard to control, can get high like 13!
I knew a 40 yr old nurse recently diagnosed who was very happy with 8.5! and that is still too high!

You might see in 5-10 yrs however it goes up even tho you are doing the correct diet things. That is what is happening to me.
As we get old, things change. I think metabolic syndrome is inherited to some extent. Some error in the metabolism of citrate.

You might want to watch this video (it is long) but it explains how sugar and fructose ruin our metabolism:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Seems like we have a difference of opinion here about whether or not 6.0 is cause for concern. One thing I've mentioned before before but not in this thread is that I've lost 25 lbs. in the past 8 months for no apparent reason. In fact, I've been eating whatever I want, which before now would have caused me to balloon. As we all know, that's another diabetes symptom, but on the other hand, unexplained weight loss can be caused by a host of other things too.

So again, I dunno . But I'm trying to look at the simplest answers first.

Hi All.

I just got the ACCORD results letter from Cornell. The results were presented On March 14, at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Atlanta,Georgia.

Here's the website that has the whole thing.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/NEJMoa1001286.pdf

Now in my letter from Cornell, it states the following:

ACCORD tested whether or not tight control of blood glucose, blood pressure, and blood lipids would lower the number of heart attacks, strokes, and deaths in people with diabetes. The intensive glucose treatment portion of the trial ended in February 2008. The findings at that time showed that intensive glucose control did not significantly reduce the number of heart attacks or strokes when compared to standard glucose control, while people in the intensive group had a higher death rate.

Clinic visits for ACCORD were completed last summer and the information from those visits have now been analyzed. The blood pressure portion of ACCORD found that intensive blood pressure, treatment did not reduce the overall risk of cardiovascular disease (a combination of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke) when compared to standard treatment. However, intensive blood pressure treatment did appear to reduce the risk of stroke. The lipid portion of ACCORD found that combining fenobibrate with a statin for lipid control did not reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes or cardiovascular death when compared to statin treatment alone"



I just received the results in the mail the other day.

Melody