hepa c w/ diabetis how to manage the diet?

[marso]

my hubby has hepC at the same time diabetic, I most of the time worrying that he might not get the necessary supplements essential for his body. Because there are some foods that are good for his liver but in contrary bad for diabetic.

I do hope can get some usefull advice regrding these problems...

[marso]

hi again and glad to hear those useful advices. it really help us a lot, thanks!!!

now we tend to control the diet of my hubby closely, he's not over wieght so we dnt have the problem losing lbs or controlling his cholesterol level. our problem before he's afraid of getting high sugar so he stick on 3 meal a day which it turns him into a very very low sugar level. but now we tried & follow 5 small meal a day with some fruits and green salad, helpfull & effective on maintaining his sugar level. And as you adviced we bought a pack of sugarfree chewing gums to chew whenever he crave for sweets. even though sometimes he used to drink tea with a half teaspoon of diet sugar.

Thanks again for your advice Mike u've been such a good person who took time posting those usefull advice!!! May God bless you & we look forward for your recovery & coping up with daily struggles in our life.

-Mithch

[mikesimon]

Hi Marso, I can relate too well to your husband's craving for sweets. I too get that way but most of the time I will resist the urge. Sometimes I chew Dentyne Fire Spicy Cinnamon gum and I will chew a whole pack in less than an hour and then I might chew some more. It's sugarless but does have 1 gram of carb per piece so a pack of 12 pieces is less than what we diabeteics call 1 gram of carbs. I'm sure you know that diabtics call 15 grams of carbohydrates 1 carb. I don't know your husband's condition but I'll tell you mine and how I control my diabetes and hopefully you'll get some ideas. Fist here are my stats: 1)I'm not overweight 2)My triglycerides are normal 3)My cholestterol is around 100 so it's low. I use insulin to control my glucose. I use Humulin N twice a day a a source of basal insulin. In case you don't know, basal insulin is aimed at controlling the fasting glucose. I think of it like a trickle charger for a battery - it sort of trickels just enough insulin into the system to control the glucose level until you eat. Bolus insulin is like a burst of insulin that controls insulin when carbohydrates are consumed. I use Humalog (lispro insulin) which takes as little as 15 minutes to take effect and is pretty much done working at 2 hours. I use this just before I eat any meal and adjust dose according to the carbs that I will be ingesting. Bear in mind that I am a liver transplant recipient and though I could control my glucose with oral meds I chose insulin for 2 reasons: 1)While on interferon I couldn't eat much at all so I was getting hypoglycemic frequently due to a lack of carb intake when I was on oral meds. 2)The oral meds either stimulate the pancreas or inhibit the liver and I didn't think that fooling with my organs was the way to go. As it is I eat just about anything I want and cover it with Humalog. I stay away from sweets as a rule and I don't eat a lot of bread but I eat pasta once in a while if I want. I watch my fruit intake and try to eat a lot of vegetables. I am very tightly controlled and if my post prandial glucose is over 150 I am not happy with it. I like it to be 140 after meals if I can achieve that. That's about it for how I control my diabetes. If you have any questions post them and I'll watch for you. I wish you good luck and I hope I've helped a bit. Mike

[marso]

Thanks a lot for those post!!! its really been a big help for us. my hubby also undergoing HCV treatment for almost 4 years now, getting worse at first but just last month we got a quite good result, showing that his liver respond to the treatment.

About his diabetis we also got to found a dr., so far so good its under control, his adviced to take diamicron tab 3x a day before or after meal.

Thanks again and good luck to all of you!!!!

[marso]

hi mike! thanks again for you post, im really thankful that i got to found someone who has the same situation with my hubby like you. i know you can help us a lot by giving usefull information you used for yourself.

with my hubby's diet he can't eat whole meat of any kind, he tried it even a small amount but he is suffering from fever an hour or two after meal, of course its due to his liver. dr's advice stop for while then try when it seems to be ok. so far we used to adjust managing the diet, hope to be good.

my only problem sometimes my hubby wants to eat some cakes & sweets, but surely it will harm him being diabetic. hope you can give us some advice about this matter!!!!

Thanks in advance for taking time, God bless you & good luck!!!


- mitch

[big bloc]

Ive ben on lantus& meds for a year an week 8 of tx.level of sugar ok.have to eat right.other than iching,tired,sleepness an 40 more weeks to go I think GOD

[FlGuy]

As stated above, don't know if your hubby is being treated for the HCV.  I was dx'd with diabetes before I started tx and was on Lanuts insulin as well.  When I reached 12 weeks I had a clear pcr and a follow-up appt with an endocrinologist. The pcr was clear and all the endo stuff was back in normal ranges - doc discontinued the insulin.  Now post-tx about 3 months and all blood sugar levels still normal.  See endo again next week for complete post-tx evaluation.  I'm convinced that diabetes came and left with hcv.

[wMich]

Hello, I am Type II diabetic and currently on treatment for HepC. I take Lantus insulin and time-release metformin (Glucophage) as I did before my HepC diagnosis and starting HepC treatment last summer. You did not mention if your hubby is currently being treated for HepC. My primary care doctor and gastroenterologist both told me simply to eat a moderate and balanced diet as usual and avoid supplements with iron. I take a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement without iron.

You might want to check with a diabetes educator/nutritionist who is also familiar with HepC and the challenges the disease and treatment imposes on the liver. The liver secretes glucose into the bloodstream, thus is quite involved with blood sugar levels. Initially I wondered whether taking metformin (which actually slows the liver's glucose secretion processes) might overtax my already compromised liver. I was told by both doctors that it would not. Some of us feel nauseous and lose our appetites from treatment meds and lose weight during treatment. For some diabetics it is a good thing to lose weight, but surely not to extremes. I was nauseous during the first few weeks but have gained about 6-8 lbs since starting treatment eight months ago. My blood sugar levels have wavered some during treatment but have not been too far out of whack. For me, lack of exercise has probably been a bigger challenge than eating poorly. I have hope that successfully treating my HepC may make my diabetes easier to control. Good luck to you. Be sure to find some professionals and ask lots of questions!
- Lee

[OnAPrettyPoison]

My HCV doctor noted in all the hand out stuff that if you needed a nutritionist they would arrange it.  You may want to do this if you have difficulty controlling his blood sugar.  Often the very things that taste good to us on treatment are the things that are bad for us.  And vice versa (Rocker!) like apple cider vinegar!

[Upbeat]

I control mine with diet and exercise. Meds for diabeties is really hard on your liver.  Do research all the info is out there.  Stuff like bread, rice, and potatos are a no no.  You will learn about complex carbs and simple carbs. If you bake, try using almond flour.  Use juice with splenda.  Above all Test test test alot,  and see what runs your blood up. Check labels and go with low carb food. Some nuts like almonds are low in carbs.

                                                    Ron

[mikesimon]

I'm diabetic but I did clear the hepatitis c sometime back. I don't know what foods you are referring to that are good for the liver but bad for diabetics. I just watched my carbs closely and tried not to eat a whole lot of meat and that seemed to work fine for me. If you mention some foods that you are confused about I'll try and  respond. Mike

[NYgirl]

Well I don't know anything about diabetes and actually it sounds like a doctor would be the best person to ask this of - we DO tend to have a lot of trouble eating while on treatment and lose a lot of weight. If he has the type of diabetes that you get from being over weight this might help out tremendously (trying to find a silver lining).

I do find that it is very possible to live and eat a much healthier lifestyle than I used to and the things that I avoid are friend which really hurt my stomach now and I eat a lot more fruit and yogurt than I used to.

A good doctor would be able to advise you on how to coordinate both things into one healthy treatment.

I'm sure someone with some real knowledge will come in and give you some advice but for now i wanted to say best of luck, we are not doctors in here but are all patients who can speak from experience (something most doctors sure can't)