hi newbie

lyn hathawy

Active Member
Messages
38
hi i joined the group just over two weeks ago after been diagnosed with t2.
i was placed on metformin now up to 3 a day and diet but waitin to do an educational course with diabetes team 2 days in march.
what should i do about testing my blood pn never told me what my bloods were or never said anything about testing .it just seems a long time another month before i see the diabetes team any advice would be greatly appreciated
 

daisy1

Legend
Messages
26,457
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Cruelty towards animals.
Hi Lyn and welcome to the forum :) Unfortunately many diabetes teams will tell you it's not necessary to test but it is. Maybe they will discuss this on your next visit. It's very important to see what effects certain foods have on your levels, so you can choose the best things for you to eat. You can't go by what other people say as it's different for everybody. In this information for new members you will find details on how to test plus a lot of other information that will be useful to you. Ask as many questions you like as there is usually someone who can answer.

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 well over 30,000 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 ... rains.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 blood glucose 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.
 

borofergie

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,169
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Racism, Sexism, Homophobia
1. Ignore any Health Care Professional that tells you that you shouldn't test*
2. Do some research and find out which meter has the cheapest strips (I buy my strips in bulk from ebay). It shouldn't cost you more than about 20p per test.
2. Buy the meter that has the cheapest strips.
3. Start testing your BG when you first wake up in the morning (this is your fasting number).
4. Test before you eat each meal.
5. Test 2 hours after you eat each meal.

(*make a mental note of who they are so that you can rub their noses in it after you get your diabetes under control)l

That might sound like a lot of testing, but you need to understand how your body is reacting to different foods (and mainly to carbohydrates).

The eventual aim is that your 2 hour BG reading will be less than 7.8 mmol/l. It'll probably be a bit of a struggle to get there at first but you'll get there in the end.

Carbohydrate turns to sugar in your blood. Workout the carbohydrate content of anything you eat. Cut out any obvious sources of carbs (especially bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and stuff with flour or sugar in it).

Exactly how much carb you can tolerate depends on the condition of your endocrine system. Some of do well on 150g of carbs a day, some eat as few as 50g. It isn't easy in the beginning, but you'll feel so much better within the first few weeks that it gets much, much easier.

Good luck. We're here for you.

Stephen
 

xyzzy

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,950
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Undeserving authority figures of all kinds and idiots.
Excellent advice borofergie.

All I would add is to try and cut your carbohydrate down as low as possible to start with. It seems a bit extreme but it will get you blood sugar levels down as quickly as possible. Think of this as a detox period if that helps. Once you have good control you can gradually try out new foods to see what works for you.

It is important to keep you sugar levels below 7.8 after two hours. 7.8 is the value that most research says that diabetic complications can begin from. Some of us aim for even lower than that so that we try and keep in the range of a non diabetic person at all times.

It's the starchy carbohydrates that do the damage regardless of what any NHS nurse or dietitian tells you. The starchy carbohydrates advice was invented in the 1980's and hasn't been updated in this country since. In more advanced countries such as Sweden you would be recommended to change your diet to exactly how borofergie is suggesting and the NHS starchy diet is positively discouraged.

When you work out how much carbohydrate a food has you will find the value on the side of the packet in very small writing. Include the total count and not the just the "from sugars" count.

For fresh foods that don't have labels you can use web sites like these to get a carbohydrate count

http://www.carbohydrate-counter.org/advsearch.php

or

http://fatsecret.com/

Using borofergie's (and others) method and the testing regime he outlined I have reduced my BS levels to between 4.5 and 6.5 for 99% of all readings. I eat around 75g of carbs / day having gradually increased from around 40g / day from the start. I started 8 weeks ago with sugar levels in the 20's. I now feel far better and importantly back in control of my life.

You will undoubtedly find that the amount of carbohydrate you can eat will be different to me.