Fatigue - any tips to stop it?

[Gibolena]

Hello Everyone!

I have never been on a blog in my life, so this is as new to me as Diabetes Type Two, but is a sign of how desperate I am getting!

I am at the end of my tether with the exhaustion, aching in all joints and tiredness. This hit me five weeks ago, which led to doctor, then HbA1c blood test and the doc says it is "highly probable" I have Type Two. He then sent me for a fasting blood test, which I have had to wait a few weeks for. It was last week, but I couldn't get an appointment back with the doc until next week for the results, so waiting for the official diagnosis.

As soon as the doc gave me the heads up on the probable result that it will be Diabetes, I have completely changed my diet to low carb and low sugar. I have been doing this for about three weeks now. Also walking a minimum of 30 minutes a day, hence increased my exercise. Yet the exhaustion and tiredness is not easing or going away. I also got a glucose reading machine and my fasting blood for last three mornings has been 7.2, 6.2 and 6.3 which I did not think was that bad, yet still got symptoms.

I will have 2-3 days when I am ok and not too tired, but then it is like a light switch being put on and I feel like I have been hit by a bus. This will then last 3-4 days with me sleeping 12 hours a nights! Yet diet and intake not changed from days when I am ok. I am getting paranoid and think I am making it up with it all in my head.

Has anyone else experienced this? What can I do to get it under control please? I have been fighting it and trying to carry on as normal and going to work. The doc said it was best for me to keep going, but I have given in today and reported sick to work again. I feel a proper fraud.

Warm wishes to anyone with advice.

 

[noblehead]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I'll tag @daisy1 as she has some basic information that you should find useful, but it goes without saying if your still feeling fatigued then go back to your gp and ask for further blood tests.

 

[daisy1]

@Gibolena

Hello and welcome to the forum

You need to see your Doctor as Noblehead recommended if your tiredness continues. Apart from that you have made a good start with your diet and exercise which should help you to keep your levels reasonable. Here is the information we give to new members and I hope that you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you like and someone will be able to reply.



BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 140,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

 

[Spencer67]

hey welcome. bloods seems a little raised after fasting, what is your blood sugar like after eating?
if you have dropped a lot of carb out of your diet, which is exactly the right thing to do, you may be going through an exhausting phase while your body adjusts, it can get you like that. You seem to be sleeping well, i wish i could sleep for 12 hours. You may need to get a good source of energy into your body like raw kale or spinach if its really bad fatigue.

 

[Brunneria]

Hi,

I am unclear from your post whether you changed your diet / lifestyle, before or after your fasting blood test? That may impact a bit on the results, so it is worth bearing in mind when you get them.

Also, can you give an indication how low carb you have gone?
Lots of us go low carb, but it is very rare that any of us mean quite the same thing when we say it...

The whole tiredness thing is a pain, isn't it?
Still hits me now, and I have my blood glucose well under control (almost) all the time.

Sometimes we get tiredness when we start seriously low carbing (its called Carb Flu, and you will find it mentioned on threads all over the forum)
and sometimes we are tired because our blood glucose is still not as under control as we need.
And sometimes it is because of non-D related things like viruses, work stress, grief, etc.

As for the achy joints, I only get that if my blood glucose goes to high, or I come out of ketosis (ketosis happens when you go very low carb), because I get inflamed knees and hands if I have high blood glucose. But I can't speak for anyone else for this, because I don't think many people get this.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to test your bg before and 2 hours after food, plus on waking, and at bedtime. Try this for a few days, andmake a note of the results. You may be getting raised blood glucose after certain foods without realising it.

 

[Gibolena]

Dear All

Thank you so much - you are very kind and helpful.

Thanks nobilehead and daisy1.

Spencer67 - good tip of raw kale (don't know if can do that) but certainly been doing spinach - maybe a bit more!

Brunneria - really interesting stuff. Never heard of Carb Flu - sounds lovely - not! But I am wondering if you might be right. Will do some more research. I have gone down to 50-100g carbs a day which probably a very big drop from what I used to do.

I had read something when newly diagnosed to only do BG on waking up after night of fasting, but I will now try what you recommended. Thank you.

To answer your question I had the HBa1c test which indicates I am Diabetic, it was then I changed my diet. So I have had the diet change for about two weeks, then the official fasting blood test with doctor of which I get results next week.

Big thanks again to you all.

G x

 

[Spencer67]

Testing your bg to ofetn is not enough when your diabetic. And i cant recommend exercise enough, i know that when i feel tired it takes my inner most motivation to get me out to do a run, my body says dont do it and it is a mental struggle to get out on the road. energy creates energy, if we stay standing still we stagnate. bruce lee famously said "be like water my friend"...he was 100% spot on. hope you feel better soon.