Aimee's Story

Hi!

I'm Aimee, I was diagnosed with type 1 way back in 1971, at age 16. Do the math, I'm 63

Back then they told you, no sugar at all, and that's what we all did. But at 22 I became interested in nutrition and the new health food craze and started eating what is now called “real food”. 

I lived on sautéed veggies and salads. But in 1996 at the age of 42, after having diabetes for 25 years, I started getting really sick! I do believe the real food diet kept me healthy for many years.

I also didn't even have a glucose meter to check blood sugars until 1985, 14 years only having urine sugar tests, and still on 1 injection of insulin per day. 

My symptoms in 1996 were painful frozen shoulders, frozen painfulhips, knee pain, depression and fatigue. No internet. I would go to medical libraries to try to find out what new disease I had, really! 

I went to every kind of body worker I could find and was treated by many who after several months or a year of treatment, literally scratched their heads and said, “sorry I can't help you!” Skeletal issues weren't on any list of diabetes complications, all I found there was blindness, kidney disease, heart disease, amputations, neuropathy.

 Then I read an interesting article in a magazine, Diabetes Interview, later online as Diabetes Health. The article was by Dr. Richard K. Bernstein on Frozen Shoulder and Diabetes! He said frozen shoulder was a complication of high blood sugar! At the end of the article was an offer for 2 cassette tapes by Dr. Bernstein on his method of achieving good blood sugar numbers. You better believe I ordered the tapes by snail mail. And so they came to my mailbox. My husband and I listened to the tapes. Dr. Bernstein gave enough information for me to start his plan the very next day. 

I went from taking 1 shot a day to taking 5 shots and switched to 2 different kinds of insulin. That was scary, but the biggest change was eating very low carb. Only 30 grams of carbs per day. After a few vegetables and a few ounces of cheese that was it. But I was so desperate at this point I would try anything!

Almost immediately I started feeling better. First thing I realized was feeling calmer. My children noticed right away. I didn't lose my temper and fuss at them as much. I didn't go to bed at 8 o'clock because I couldn't stand to be awake! I actually felt good, for the first time in as long as I could remember!

It took a few months for the other symptoms to abate. The pain and all over stiffness went away pretty quickly. The frozen shoulders took the longest and several months at a physical therapist. 

Dr. Bernstein’s book Diabetes Solution came out a few months later in 1997, after I was already on the mend. I've read it a few times, my husband has also read it. This book has helped diabetics all over the world. 

I don't mean to give Dr. Bernstein and his book all the credit. I know I have worked to develop a positive attitude and focus on my health and organic lifestyle eating mostly food grown with a short distance from my home. 

46 years of type 1 and no complications!

You can contact me @thebuttereater_t1d on FB at Aimee Fields Perrin and www.thehappyhealinglife.com