Comment by omegaworks | Hacker News Reader

Comment by omegaworks | Hacker News Reader

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Your advice is incredibly dangerous and somewhat counterintuitive. Do not ignore everything a doctor tells you. Do your own research and understand that nutrition science is still in its infancy.

>Ignore EVERYTHING a doctor tells you about cholesterol.

Except for triglycerides. Triglycerides are extremely dangerous and strongly correlated to arteriosclerosis. There's evidence that triglycerides are formed in the liver when it's forced to process fructose.[1] They're also implicated in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.[2]

Don't ignore your doctor telling you about bad numbers, but take his/her advice as to what to do about it with a few grains of salt. Dietary cholesterol intake has little to do with the cholesterol in your blood. [3]

>Diabetics take note.

I agree with your basic premise that reducing carbohydrate intake can help with various metabolic diseases, but people with Diabetes need to be EXTREMELY careful. Often they've been on pills and injected insulin for such a long time that their body has adjusted and simply stopping the treatment could actually kill them. These individuals have an extremely dysfunctional carbohydrate metabolism and the transition to a low-carbohydrate metabolism is often accompanied by fatigue often called Keto Flu. [4] This kind of benign fatigue mimics dangerous hyper and hypoglycemic events that can require medical attention.

Diabetes can be treated by a low-carbohydrate diet, but the transition off medication needs to be supervised by a medical professional familiar with the practice.

1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3513615 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18460922 3. http://www.scribd.com/doc/101760834/Low-Carb-Research 4. http://elowcarbfoodlist.org/the-keto-flu-symptoms-and-relief...

Re. Diabetes, I think in some cases restricting carbs can be fatal as diabetics can suffer from ketoacidosis, where the blood turns acidic due to an uncontrollable amount of ketones present.

Also, if blood sugar drops too low, hypoglycaemia is a very real and potentially fatal threat.

In this case, a keto diet high in fat may not be ideal - an emphasis on low-GI carbs wound be safer. Perhaps it may be possible to ease into a keto diet slowly but the amount of time and monitoring may be a bit much to bare.

To prevent diabetes, keto all the way but it's a little bit tricky if you're already there and have been for some time.

> Diabetes, I think in some cases restricting carbs can be fatal as diabetics can suffer from ketoacidosis, where the blood turns acidic due to an uncontrollable amount of ketones present.

Ketoacidosis is extremely dangerous for diabetics, but it occurs in cases of extreme high blood sugar, not low blood sugar. These ketones can lead to serious kidney damage, or even kidney failure. Your point about hypoglycemia is dead on though.

As a type I diabetic myself, carbs are actually life saving during a low blood sugar episode (and low blood sugars actually occur more often for type I diabetics with tight control). As an aside, I find it perpetually frustrating how keto-fans like the OP conflate type I and type II diabetes as if there is no difference (because the answer to everything is "keto" \s).

If you're referring to me as the OP, I neither mentioned the keto diet nor am a fan of it per se. I did not distinguish between insulin dependent or not, so I apologize for that.

Oh thanks for clarifying that. It's about lack of insulin, not too low blood sugar, in which case the blood sugar levels will be high, because the body has no insulin to use glucose as fuel. This is what causes the build up dangerous levels of ketones. I understand now.

Sorry, I was certainly exaggerating here. I'm a little upset having dealt with these issues in the past in my family.

You sound like you know what you're talking about so I think we can agree that the way cholesterols are 'generally' discussed is misleading.

Also, transitioning off diabetes medicines is indeed tricky and I'll certainly be reading your linked articles - my father is starting a low carb diet and more or less already self regulates his medication for type ii diabetes.

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