Newly Diagnosed Prediabetes with no info

babyflowers · Jul 25, 2015

I had some non fasting blood tests this week for IBD, I hadn't realised that they were also checking my blood sugar levels. When I called for the results the receptionist said that I had prediabetes and my reading was 45.

I was obviously in shock as hadn't expected this, the lady didn't give me any advice or didn't say i needed a follow up appointment, just to go back in a year for a repeat blood test and to look at diet and exercise. I do have a lot of weight to lose and had gestational diabetes with my son 5 years ago, my father also has type 2 diabetes so guess I was high risk but at just 43 years I hadn't realised it would be so early.

I am not sure what to do and how to manage the diet - I already only eat wholewheat bread, brown pasta, basmati rice and sweet potatoes and never have take aways/ready meals etc. I do quite a lot of walking but not fast pace as with the children.

Should I be able to get some advice from the Dr/nurse about nutrition and exercise as from the brief reading of websites today I am confused about things such as whether it's best to exercise before or after meals etc - i'm not sure at this point if i should just concentrate on losing weight or if i should be following a more regimented program and doing glucose testing etc?

Any advice would be really appreciated. I should add that i've had no oral GTT or fasting blood tests, should I ask for this to be done?

Many thanks

ButtterflyLady · Jul 25, 2015

Oral GTT or fasting BG tests aren't all that helpful, HbA1c should be sufficient (was that the test you got 45 for?). I think it was highly unprofessional for your doctor to allow a receptionist to give you the news. It's upsetting news and IMO you are entitled to have a doctor or nurse that you can ask questions with.

I would make an appointment to see the doctor, and it would be more sensible to have your HbA1c checked in 3-6 months rather than 12 months. It would also be a good idea to get a standard set of blood tests to check a range of things, such as kidney, liver, and thyroid function, and cholesterol for example. Also get your blood pressure tested every 6 months at least.

There is a really good generic post in this forum for newbies... someone will be along shortly to post that. Apart from that post, try to take people's advice with a grain of salt, especially websites that promote extreme changes and restrictions. The main things to focus on are losing weight, sensible exercise, and increasing your veges and fibre while trying not to overdo the carbs, especially high GI/refined carbs. You might need medical advice about the type and amount of fibre to focus on, given your IBD. If there's any way you can get to see a registered dietician, that would be helpful.

4ratbags · Jul 26, 2015

Hi and welcome to the forum, you are in the right place to get yourself on track. A lot of the information you will read here may contradict the advice you get from the professionals but everyone here is speaking from experience so don't be afraid to ask questions, we are a helpful bunch. I will tag @daisy1 to send you through some great information to read through. The main thing you can do is to cut out the sugar and cut down on the carbs, while wholegrain/ brown versions of foods have a lower GI they do still contain a lot of carbs. If you look on Pinterest you can generally find a low carb alternative for most things. My father and brother both have pre-diabetes and I have Type 2 but by changing my diet my last HbA1c was 34 so I am now in the non-diabetic range. It will take a while to get your head around everything but you will get there.

daisy1 · Jul 26, 2015

@babyflowers

Hello and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members, mentioned above by two members, which should help you with your diet choices and get you started on your path to good control. Ask as many questions as you like and someone will be able to help.

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 150,000 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.

andcol · Jul 26, 2015

Hello and welcome @babyflowers. The best solution for reversing your prediabetes is to lose weight. You have probably gained the weight not because you over eat but due to genetic insulin resistance (like the majority of T2s). Reduce your bodies insulin requirements and you will likely lose weight. There are several ways to do this
1. Eat less (this was my approach to reversing my T2 and went from 20st to 12st).
2. Eat slower acting carbs (low glycemic) but you really need to look at the glycemic load not the index. You seem to be trying this already
3. Replace some of your carb food with other food. So for example I replaced chips with carrot batons. Replace non-english fruits with english grown - ie I replaced bananas with raspberries. Replace sweets with a cube of 85% chocolate. These little touches will work wonders and are not difficult to implement. Oh BTW try bergen linseed and soya bread - I found it to be very low GI and also low carb and gives you the omega 3 you need.

Of course a combination of all 3 works for me now so it should work for you.

babyflowers · Jul 26, 2015

Thank you everyone for your advice. I will read up on diet etc, I think I do most things pretty well though apart from my daily 1 glass of red wine (although advice on this is also contradictory as some say this is good)! It is hard as I already eat the wholewheat pasta/bread etc but perhaps portion size is too much and I definitely don't do enough exercise apart from normal speed walking.

I definitely need to lose weight so will try the 5:2 diet I think first.

What is the opinion re smoothies please - I have these in the morning as recently bought a blender for this purpose but now it seems these may cause spikes.

A lot to learn!

Gezzabelle · Jul 26, 2015

babyflowers said:
Thank you everyone for your advice. I will read up on diet etc, I think I do most things pretty well though apart from my daily 1 glass of red wine (although advice on this is also contradictory as some say this is good)! It is hard as I already eat the wholewheat pasta/bread etc but perhaps portion size is too much and I definitely don't do enough exercise apart from normal speed walking.

I definitely need to lose weight so will try the 5:2 diet I think first.

What is the opinion re smoothies please - I have these in the morning as recently bought a blender for this purpose but now it seems these may cause spikes.

A lot to learn!

Sad to say that the wholewheat pasta and bread is loaded with carbs as are many fruits and veg...perhaps a quick look at the LFHC diet would steer you in the right direction http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

andcol · Jul 26, 2015

For me I would prefer the whole fruit/veg as this will make your body work harder to release the sugars.

babyflowers · Jul 26, 2015

thanks Andrew, do you have all fruits, i don't like bananas but eat a lot of apples, melon, berries, peaches?

babyflowers · Jul 26, 2015

Thank you Gezzabelle. It's tricky as it says about eating a lot of fat, cream etc - I see from your stats you don't need to lose any weight, but if you do then not sure that that is a good idea either!

Are carrots ok, don't see much info on those but they could be a good substitute to carbs, along with sweet potato.

Bluetit1802 · Jul 26, 2015

Have a look at this thread, which you may find useful. http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/a-new-low-carb-guide-for-beginners.68695/

Being pre-diabetic you don't need to take very drastic action, but you do need to take some action to avoid those levels creeping up. Loosing weight will help enormously, but so will a tweak to your diet.

andcol · Jul 26, 2015

Hi @babyflowers I tend not to eat lots of fruit. Berries and the occasional apple is about as far as I go and unfortunately bananas are my favourite but they completely disagree with me. Fruit contains a lot of glucose and fructose which will both raise your blood glucose levels. Berries have much less fructose and glucose.

As for fat making you put on weight I am afraid that that is a myth. It is insulin levels in your blood stream that makes you store fat and the way to increase your insulin levels is to eat carbohydrates or the way your body process fructose when it has other power sources.

For me carrots are great. I eat them everyday, raw; other struggle with them because they have quite a lot of carb as they are a root veg. The same goes for sweet potatoes.

Brunneria · Jul 26, 2015

Hi and welcome!

Have a google for green smoothies.
They are fruit smoothies with added veg. You get all the flavour of the fruit, all the nutrition and fibre of the veg (which you hardly taste) and they have much less impact on your blood glucose than an ordinary smoothie.

There's one other huge benefit - they are bright green, so kids love em, and think they are eating monster goo or something.

Theres a link in my signature, if you are interested in recipes.

Libbaloo · Aug 19, 2015

babyflowers said:
I had some non fasting blood tests this week for IBD, I hadn't realised that they were also checking my blood sugar levels. When I called for the results the receptionist said that I had prediabetes and my reading was 45.

I was obviously in shock as hadn't expected this, the lady didn't give me any advice or didn't say i needed a follow up appointment, just to go back in a year for a repeat blood test and to look at diet and exercise. I do have a lot of weight to lose and had gestational diabetes with my son 5 years ago, my father also has type 2 diabetes so guess I was high risk but at just 43 years I hadn't realised it would be so early.

I am not sure what to do and how to manage the diet - I already only eat wholewheat bread, brown pasta, basmati rice and sweet potatoes and never have take aways/ready meals etc. I do quite a lot of walking but not fast pace as with the children.

Should I be able to get some advice from the Dr/nurse about nutrition and exercise as from the brief reading of websites today I am confused about things such as whether it's best to exercise before or after meals etc - i'm not sure at this point if i should just concentrate on losing weight or if i should be following a more regimented program and doing glucose testing etc?

Any advice would be really appreciated. I should add that i've had no oral GTT or fasting blood tests, should I ask for this to be done?

Many thanks

Libbaloo · Aug 19, 2015

Hi I agree. I got my news from GP over the phone ( a 10 minute call) after a fasting blood test for general women's health check at 50 yrs. I am a newbie too and am feeling rather overwhelmed with all the tips and insights online about dieting and checking despite the fact I have a fairly good medical awareness. (but new to me re use of cream instead of milk to slow down the digestive rate)

It would be good to have an intro page within the prediabetes forum for those in the first stage experience of diagnosis. The NHS approach isn't great. I didn't get any sort of reference leaflet but I was left with advice to 'lose weight and we will review after Christmas'.

I also look at my 21 yr old son's snacking and junk food diet and whether he will go this way too. He is tall and slim but growing a tummy with all the hidden sugars and carbs he consumes (plus x box!). No need to go to GP so no likelihood of any blood monitoring. But teens think they are indestructible!

ButtterflyLady · Aug 19, 2015

Here is some info about prediabetes: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/pre-diabetes.html

Growyourflow · Mar 17, 2017

4ratbags said:
Hi and welcome to the forum, you are in the right place to get yourself on track. A lot of the information you will read here may contradict the advice you get from the professionals but everyone here is speaking from experience so don't be afraid to ask questions, we are a helpful bunch. I will tag @daisy1 to send you through some great information to read through. The main thing you can do is to cut out the sugar and cut down on the carbs, while wholegrain/ brown versions of foods have a lower GI they do still contain a lot of carbs. If you look on Pinterest you can generally find a low carb alternative for most things. My father and brother both have pre-diabetes and I have Type 2 but by changing my diet my last HbA1c was 34 so I am now in the non-diabetic range. It will take a while to get your head around everything but you will get there.

Hello I am also Prediabetic and work out regularly. I was finding that I had very low amounts of sugar in my diet but still was headed toward diabetes. I started doing research on diabetes management as my family has a history of diabetes type 2....I am trying to find ways to independently manage my condition.

Edited by a mod

azure · Mar 18, 2017

Growyourflow said:
Hello I am also Prediabetic and work out regularly. I was finding that I had very low amounts of sugar in my diet but still was headed toward diabetes. I started doing research on diabetes management as my family has a history of diabetes type 2....I am trying to find ways to independently manage my condition.

Edited by a mod

Welcome @Growyourflow What's your HbA1C? How,are your fasting sugars?

Growyourflow · Mar 18, 2017

I am at 6.1% and around 112 so relatively Low end

azure · Mar 18, 2017

Growyourflow said:
I am at 6.1% and around 112 so relatively Low end

Good news then

Do you test your blood sugar at home?

Newly Diagnosed Prediabetes with no info

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