Just been diagnosed today and I'm shocked and worried

[Nicel]

Hello all. I'm 36 year old female. Today I have been told I have prediabetes and I'm quite shocked as this year I have exercised about 4-5 times a week. I have lost 14ib and I'm now in a healthy bmi. I feel fit and well I have been on a really healthy diet all year. I had a blood test for anemia as I was b12 and iron deficient last year. It shows fasting glucose of 6.3 so just has a hba1c test and that has come back at 45. I feel like I can't eat any healthier or exercise more than I do. I don't know what is going to happen. My grandma has diabetes but she's v old. I used to drink quite heavily when I was younger but haven't drank for a few years and quit smoking a year ago. Can anyone explain what options there are for me. I'm seeing a nurse in a week but the doctor today wasn't very helpful. If I can't change my diet and exercise and I don't drink or smoke what else can I do?

 

[cold ethyl]

You might be able to change your diet. What is considered a healthy diet by yourself ( and the official NHS party line) may not be the best diet for a diabetic or prediabetic. If you eat a lot of carbs such as bread, rice. Baked spuds etc, you might find that cutting these out of substantially reducing amount and frequency will have a marek effect on your BS levels. Look at the low carb forum for tips. There's a paper somewhere on here about the diet as implemented by a GP surgery in southport which is a great read on the subject. Put southport GP in search function on here and it should pop up.

 

[Nicel]

You might be able to change your diet. What is considered a healthy diet by yourself ( and the official NHS party line) may not be the best diet for a diabetic or prediabetic. If you eat a lot of carbs such as bread, rice. Baked spuds etc, you might find that cutting these out of substantially reducing amount and frequency will have a marek effect on your BS levels. Look at the low carb forum for tips. There's a paper somewhere on here about the diet as implemented by a GP surgery in southport which is a great read on the subject. Put southport GP in search function on here and it should pop up.

 

[Nicel]

Thank you I will take a look.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hello and welcome from me.

It is perfectly normal to feel shocked, upset, confused, and have the "why me" thoughts. Hopefully these feelings will pass as you come to terms with it. You probably won't think so, but you are lucky you have this warning before full blown diabetes has set in. You have every chance of getting your blood glucose levels back down again, and you probably can change your diet if you have been eating starchy carbs, or too many carbs. Please ask as many questions as you like.

 

[cold ethyl]

Please excuse my dreadful typos. I'm sitting wondering why I can't see anything - maybe because I have my glasses on my head and not over my eyes. Being a diabetic is manageable, being an idiot less so.
Although no one wants to be diagnosed as pre- diabetic, you have been given the chance to make changes and to hopefully stay that side of the line for a very long time, if not forever so ask as many questions as you like. Everyone is every supportive in here.

 

[JTL]

You've come to the right place.
Most of us were shocked and worried too and me not that long ago.
What little I thought I knew about food has been turned on it's head since I arrived here.
I'm now a low carb fairly high fat person and seeing the benefits straight off.
Stick with this place and the fog will start to clear and the worry subside.

 

[Loobles]

I was just diagnosed pre diabetic a couple of weeks ago and at first I had all kinds of thoughts and feelings. I sat down, did tons of research and figured out carbs were evil...whatever the NHS says! Since then, I've checked my blood glucose regularly to find out how my body reacts to carbs and the results aren't pretty when I eat carbs...further confirms carbs are evil, in my mind. Have you got a glucometer? I can recommend the SD Codefree...with its cheaper test strips...you'll be using a lot of them for a while, even if your nurse tells you you don't need to. It's your body and your duty to understand it

 

[sanguine]

Hi Nicel, welcome.

Not much to add to the advice above, except to say that none of this is your fault or because you have done something wrong. Diabetes is a symptom resulting from one or more of several possible metabolic conditions, and it's something that we as individuals can do a lot to fix ourselves. You already exercise, the other two are diet (carb control) and testing our blood sugars to see what foods impacts them and so can be avoided.

You will get good practical advice on here, but advice that is likely to conflict with what the GP team might tell you.

Your HbA1c of 45 is not bad at all - I'm just hitting that on the way back down so you've got a good start on most.

 

[Nicel]

Hmm thinking about a low carb diet and being vegetarian. I've been struggling to increase my protein to as I work out so much. I am going to consider possibly eating meat again. I really don't want to get worse and will don what I can. Thanks for all your responses. I will look at that test. I think I will feel better taking some control myself

 

[cold ethyl]

There are several vegetarians on the forum who might be able to give you some advice. If you look at low carb section there are a few threads on it and a recipe thread which has some great veggie stuff on it ( started by purplekat). It's probably easier to low carb when you eat meat or fish, but it is perfectly doable without either if you don't want to restart eating them.

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

Hmm thinking about a low carb diet and being vegetarian. I've been struggling to increase my protein to as I work out so much. I am going to consider possibly eating meat again. I really don't want to get worse and will don what I can. Thanks for all your responses. I will look at that test. I think I will feel better taking some control myself

Hi @Nicel. Sorry about your news. I was diagnosed type 2 diabetic in January and have managed to quickly bring down my blood glucose to non-diabetic levels by following a low carb vegetarian diet. It is very doable and the food is delicious and varied. If you want any help, just shout

This is the new recipe thread that Ethyl referred to. More recipes on the way soon.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/vegetarian-vegan-low-carb-recipe-index.61859/

 

[jack412]

Hmm thinking about a low carb diet and being vegetarian. I've been struggling to increase my protein to as I work out so much. I am going to consider possibly eating meat again. I really don't want to get worse and will don what I can. Thanks for all your responses. I will look at that test. I think I will feel better taking some control myself

Getting good food in a diabetic diet is hard enough without being vegi as well. Read and watch video
http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

All you need to do is reduce wheat flour from your diet, that single thing will make a big change

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

Getting good food in a diabetic diet is hard enough without being vegi as well

Have you tried it Jack?

 

[jack412]

I haven't tried being a t1 either, but I know that's hard too, having animal protein and fats available makes it easier

 

[Adelle0607]

Hi @Nicel! Welcome to the forum, the members above me have helped me in one way or another to keep my blood sugars and hba1c reach good numbers : @jack412 @sanguine @coldethyl @Bluetit1802 @JACKTHELAD @Avocado Sevenfold @Loobles as their experiences have been very valuable on how I currently manage my own numbers I've been reading and absorbing all the info here and you are in a good place...

apart from the great advice they have given, I would also like to add on the glycemic index and the relationship it has with the blood sugars. Not all vegetables are created equal and some make your sugar go high and some keep them at a good level. Normally, what is good for us are the ones with low GI to medium GI. But the most important thing is to test the numbers using a meter, as one can tolerate a specific vegetable/fruit while others don't. Since you're a vegetarian, I will be including links on both glycemic index and glycemic load for vegetables it might help you to choose for the next meal you'll be having.

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fi...arbohydrates/glycemic-index-and-diabetes.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/379508-the-glycemic-index-table-of-fruits-vegetables/#page=1

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/glycemicindlist_4.htm

Best of luck! Hope you will learn as much as I did.

 

[jack412]

There is more than one road to Rome, as long as our BG, weight and BP is/will be in range, we are winners

You can LC vegi
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...=en-US#hl=en-US&q=low+carb+vegetarian&spell=1

 

[daisy1]

Hello Nicel and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. You will have lots of questions so go ahead and ask them and someone will be able to help, as you have already seen.

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 100,000 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.

 

[Nicel]

Thanks sooo much everyone. Knowledge is power and you all certainly have a lot on here I'll be reading and absorbing all your info and looking to implement some changes

 

[Scandichic]

Hmm thinking about a low carb diet and being vegetarian. I've been struggling to increase my protein to as I work out so much. I am going to consider possibly eating meat again. I really don't want to get worse and will don what I can. Thanks for all your responses. I will look at that test. I think I will feel better taking some control myself

Have a look at
http://www.dietdoctor.com
Works for me! On the actual website there are a number of different types of diet. I would say a meter is invaluable. I recommend the sd code free as per @Loobles
I'd keep a food diary too. And I'd avoid the NHS eat well plate like the plague.