Hi Jlm - Could you please clarify a couple of things for me?
Firstly, when were your bloods running under the 7 you mention; fasting/before food/after food or randomly? And, secondly, what motivated you to stop taking your Gliclazide? Does your Doc/nurse know about your change to your medication?
Dropping the animal foods, except for your fish is interesting. Could you help me understand why you adopted that approach?
People lose weight at different rates, so it's pretty impossible to predict how long the impact of dietary changes will take before they become apparent. The statin debate is often discussed on the forum, so if you would like to do any further reading on it, I'm sure either a further search could return some threads, or you could create a specific thread on it for yourself.
Should you choose the latter, it would likely be helpful if you posted your most recent cholesterol test results - especially the breakdowns if you have them.
Sometimes it's a tricky balancing act, but I wish you well whichever options you choose.
Thank you so much for your detailed and very helpful and kind reply. I am pretty new to the forum and this is terrific that people are helping.
To answer your questions and add some new info:
I am eating 3 meals a day and testing before most meals and sometimes late at night.
What motivated me to get off Gliclazide is losing weight. I want to lose 10 kg and while on Gliclazide I can't seem to lose weight. So I have been off it for 4 days so far.
So 2 months ago started taking sugar readings with a home monitor for the first time ever. They were in the 12 - 16 range the first week. But now they are mostly in the 6 - 7 range except for there 3 days. But I am learning more about cholesterol and the entire controversy with statins. My GP wanted me to start statins last week due to high cholesterol and triglycerides. So I started to research it and joined the forum and now I amore confused about cholesterol but am believing that I should not be on it. Today for the first time in 2 weeks I had a cheese omelet and it was delicious. So I am thinking the low or no carb diet with mostly plants and some protein is good. I have been eating a good deal of tofu lately.
The GP and nurse know about my changes and agreed with me that I can get off Gliclazide for 4 weeks and then have another blood test to see if what I am doing is bringing my readings down. This includes readings for other tests: liver, kidney, cholesterol, triglycerides.
I stopped eating so much animal protein as I wanted (I thought) to reduce cholesterol.
My recent cholesterol test results are ( bit confusing but this is what I have)
non-HDL cholesterol - 22 Dec 15 - 3.48 mol/mol
8 Jul 16 - 4.62
28 Feb 17 - 4.08
4 May 17 - 5.01
3 Aug 17 - 3.80
Plasma triglyceride - 28 Feb 17 - 5.6 mol/L
4 May 17 - 8.9 mol/L
3 Aug 17 - 5.7 mol/L
My recent readings are as follows
HbA1c - 3 August 2017 - 57
HbA1c - 4 May 2017 - 73
HbA1c - 31 Jan 2017 - 111
So with my new diet the numbers are getting better. I hope to get them below 48.
What others tests would be helpful to share with you and others on the forum?
Any help or comments or suggestions is welcomed. Thank you all. Jeff