Re: cleansing and AC1 test

Do you have your own blood glucose monitor?  From your gestational bout with diabetes?  If you don't have one, doctors generally have them and pass them out at no charge.  The monitoring strips get a little pricy but you wouldn't have to monitor all the time, just on occasion.  You could monitor your BG at the times of your flushes if you have one.

I doubt that any kind of liver flush or colon cleanse would increase your A1C because that's a measure that indicates your BG levels over a few months.  I've done a lot of liver flushes, and though I've only had the diagnosis and a monitor for a couple of years, I tested after one of the flushes and I don't remember it being anything abnormal.

I'm Type II and control my BG through diet alone and hardly ever test any more because I generally know where it's at from what I've been eating to how I feel.  Eighteen months ago my A1C was 5.9 and my doctor was a little concerned, but then three months ago it was 5.4 and he was pleased with that (and so was I).  I use the Virginia Mason Clinic (a top rated diabetes research clinic since 1923) diet of no more than 15 carbohydrates per meal.  I've also found that adding apple cider vinegar along with a meal helps a bit too.

Don't set yourself up for the insulin route.  Once you go on insulin it's very difficult to get off of it, and once you start you many times need it increased as your diabetes progresses.  I know this from family members who have gone onto it.

Another great plan to follow is "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution" by a man who is a Type I and whose diet is even fewer carbohydrates than Virginia Mason.  He recommends four carbohydrates per meal.

Yes, I do fall off my diet from time to time and Bernstein is difficult to follow, at first - though it gets much easier as one goes along - but for me it's better than meds.  Also don't worry about cholesterol levels and all the junk that goes with it.  My lipid profile since I began eating this way has been the best it's  been - ever!  Your cholesterol will go down significantly and my triglycerides (what they say is behind strokes and heart attacks) went from 360 down to 60.