dry mouth

[scampnk]

Hi there,
I was diagnosed last year with pre-diabetes, I've tried to eat low carb and lose weight, a stone in a year, but these last few months I've noticed my mouth has a dry metalic taste, even after brushing, and sometimes after eating certain foods, I get real shakey, is that normal?

I dont use a metre but think I should invest in one.
Thanks for any advice. x

 

[jamly53]

Hi

This is an irritating problem that seems to be due to the raised blood sugars.

As a temporary fix I use Biotene dry mouth gel, toothpaste and mouthwash. They are available on Amazon and I did see some in a bigger Boots store. GP can also prescribe stuff but I haven't asked them yet.

Also chewing gum and sugar free sweets, a probiotic milk drink and a sugar free fizzy drink helps me.

It does get better with more stricter diet control and lower BS levels. I also have an itchy back which seems to be another sign of poor control for me.

I am not an expert but the shakiness is possibly hypoglycaemia. I have this if I have a high carb meal then do not eat for several hours. I used to get it a lot when a child as I was not allowed to eat between meals so often felt ill. In those days sugary cereals for breakfast were the norm and we had no idea they were bad for us. So the key is not to eat those foods but if you do make sure you have a high protein snack such as milk drink or cheese. This is when you grab the chocolate and cakes and sausage rolls. Yummy but bad.


Good luck

 

[scampnk]

Hi, thank you jamly for the reply, I've tried the chewing gum and that seems to help a little, also tried pepsi max, must say its better than water

I've finally got a metre and been recording my results for the last 2 days, Wednesday lunch 6.5 2 hours later 5.4, dinner was 5.9 / 6.4
Yesterday breakfast 5.7 / 5.1 and dinner 5.1 / 5.5
the bulk of my meals have been protein chicken/salmon with salad, so you can imagine my surprise this morning when my 1st reading before breakfast was 8.2 now 2 hours later it's 7.8, the only thing I've done different is drink pepsi max.

Should I be worried??? :eh:

 

[cott97]

Hi
I'm new to this too so no expert and I'm sure more experienced posters will be able to give you more info but there is something commonly known as the dawn phenomenon. This is where your liver dumps glucose overnight to stop you going too low - unfortunately it appears that in type 2 diabetes it appears to do too good a job leaving your levels high in the morning. I have seen recommendations to have a high carb snack before bed and my personal favourite a whisky as the liver concentrates on getting rid of the alcohol and not the glucose however haven't found one that works for me yet! My out of bed levels are consistently above 7.5...

Hope that helps a bit

Cath

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[scampnk]

Hi Cath,

thanks for the reply, I will try having a high carb snack before bed tonight see if that helps, probably not whisky though lol.
Maybe I didn't eat enough carbs yesterday.

Lynn

 

[jamly53]

Hi again

I too have just realised that I have high fasting blood sugar (6.1-8.3). 2 hrs after a meal (5.7-8.3) I am trying hard to

loose weight and am low carb eating as well. I have lost 3 st on this plan before and BS came down.
The dawn phenomenon sounds like a reason for this so will try to do some exercise and eat a snack before bed to see if it helps.

Yes, could be the sugar free drink so will stop that as well and just take water and see if that helps.

However, I cannot keep to this strict diet so may need some help from GP this time as BS levels seem key to the weight loss.

Let me know how you get along but your readings are much lower than mine.

 

[scampnk]

Hi Jamly,
Well I'm doing ok I think, still had a reading of 9 two hours after my breakfast yesterday (sun), so think i have to say goodbye to cheerios lol.

I haven't tried pepsi max again yet but will to see what happens. :crazy:

Also i'm 3 weeks into the 5:2 diet, i'm thinking I should add some carbs on the fast days to see if that helps too.

Hope your readings are ok.

 

[jamly53]

Hi

Ha ha cheerios are lovely but a no no. I fould the 5 2 diet a good one but didnt stick to it. Do you find that as soon as you eat something bad then the rest of the day goes down hill with biscuits etc. On the 5 days eating what I wanted I was not good.

Dukan was great but I went on holiday and was eating other peoples meals. I put on a stone again in 2 weeks.
Got totally demoralised and then put it all back on again. So I am modifying the Dukan diet this time, using a lot of protein, vegetables and the 2 tablespoons of oatbran a day.

I have been really good for a week but son brought home some spare cheese scones from the cafe that he works in. I just had to have one. However, BS was 6.9 this morning so perhaps some carbs in evening does help.

I do feel better for the lack of carbs and the dryness is improving. Going to a wedding next weekend so that should be interesting as I have had no alcohol for a while.

 

[scampnk]

Hiya,

Yes I do find that on the 5:2 I have to be very strict otherwise I just eat everything in sight :?

I tried the Dukan (well tried most diets lol) but cant seem to stick to them, I miss my tipple :roll: thats vwhy I like 5:2 because I can still drink.

I've also found eating a little more carbs than I was helping with the dry mouth, and this morning had golden syrup porridge oats after 2 hours was only 6.9 so better than the cheerios hahaha.

Have a good time at the wedding next weekend.