DAVE DRUM wrote in a message to THOM LACOSTA:

 DD> At first I thought "How wonderful. An herbal remedy that does what
 DD> this  prescription stuff does." Then it dawned on me that what most
 DD> of the  drug houses do is to find, extract and codify (and PATENT)
 DD> native, old  wives', natural, herbal, etc. remedies and market them
 DD> under newer,  slicker names under prescription at VERY high markup
 DD> - with the  collusion of the FDA, Patent office and AMA.

Yes...and then there's the differential pricing based on country(g).


 DD> My croaker tends to throw pills at everything. 

Marvelous moniker....

 DD> I had already cut
 DD> his  prescribed dosage (8 mg/day) of Amaryl in half before I
 DD> started on the  Gymnema. Fortunately, I am well read enough that I
 DD> can sort of self  medicate within his prescriptions.

Mine is a bit better....he'll tell me why he is suggesting a med...and will
attempt to answer my questions of how it works and any side effects when
asked.  He learned early on not to assume I couldn't/wouldn't do a lot of
research.

TL>I do know that exercise is a big help.....I am now riding my bike
TL>between 1 and 2 hours a day......feel a LOT better.

 DD> I get a fairish amount of low impact exercise. What caused my
 DD> problems  was untreated high blood pressure. Whooo Boy! Damaged my
 DD> kidneys which  led to bloating with fluids, which then caused the
 DD> congestive heart  failure, which led to .... Anyway - they wrung
 DD> 100 lbs of water weight  out of me in seven days in hospital. When
 DD> I was released I took blood  pressure medicine and pee pills. It
 DD> wasn't until six months after I had  been on the furosemide that I
 DD> became diabetic. I am told by others that  six months is pretty
 DD> typical. I don't like it - but, it's nice to know  that I am not
 DD> excessively weird in what has caused my diabetes. 

Ah...the side effects....ACTOSE seems to cause a 12 to 20 pound weight
gain...and it ain't water!  My doc tells me now that I've gained the
weight, I need to modify the diet and exercise even more.....which I'm
doing....who wants to be a blimp with high sugar levels?

 DD> Fortunately my RD is most emphatically not a food Nazi. I can talk 
 DD> things over with her - and we trade tips about formerly "sinful"
 DD> foods  that are available in tasty versions that do not affect my
 DD> glucose  levels ... such as Edy's (Dreyer's on the left coast) and
 DD> Blue Bunny I  Scream in the "No-Sugar-Added" formulations.

Most of the diabetes educators/nutritionists I've run acrosss are ALL
overweight....so I look at them with the "Ah, do as I say, not as I
do." jaundice.

The most difficult things I've had to avoid are good bread and
pasta....they were a staple of my diet and I sorely miss them.  I've tried
the low carb versions....and as my daughter says "Oh, it's cooked
cardboard again." when I attempt to conjur up something tasty.

So, now I'm looking at more complex carbs that don't cause such a spike in
the sugar....thank goodness I enjoy a lot of the beans and legumes.


 DD> "Sex at age 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope." George
 DD> Burns þ CMPQwk 1.42 5653 þ

Ha Ha!


cya,
thom
http://www.tlchost.net/echolist/ 
--- GEcho 1.20/Pro