Wow, I've been stressing out alot about possibly becoming a diabetic (as my father and grandfather both have/had it) but your post ,and I know this'll come off cheesy, has reminded me that my health is still in my hands. Thanks, your post is now my anti-diabetic gospel. :wink:
Reversing Pre-diabetes. Personal Experience
- Thread starter russth
- Start Date
angiev
Newbie
- Messages
- 1
- Type of diabetes
- Prediabetes
- Treatment type
- Diet only
Thank you so much for the info. It was helpful. I am glad that you have decided to do something about it. Keep up the good work. I was just diagnosed with prediabetic and I'm taking a diabetic class to avoid diabetic. God bless.....
- Messages
- 21,889
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
daddys1
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,353
- Type of diabetes
- Treatment type
- Tablets (oral)
Hi Brunneria,Hi guys,
This is actually a very old thread from 2013
@angiev may find it useful to start her own newbie thread and get some feedback that way.
Maybe ask some questions, if she has any?We can be very welcoming.
I just spotted that, thank you, will change daisy1 s message
Neil
daddys1
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,353
- Type of diabetes
- Treatment type
- Tablets (oral)
Hi @angiev, Welcome to the forum, @Brunneria is correct this is a very old thread.
If you were to start your very own as a newbie then we can get daisy1 to come along with lots of good information for you.
Feel free to ask what questions you need to.
Neil
Interesting read since I have just been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. Well, what a wake-up call! I am pleased to see that there is a life after pre-diabetes although it is going to take some hard work and commitment. I received a call from my GP informing me that my blood tests revealed a 6.6 mmol/l and that I am now diabetic! Have been given Metformin although I really do not want to take it. Battling to sleep now with worry although I am sure that I will beat this! I am obese according to the BMI calculator although I certainly do not look it. I was 107 kg when I was informed a week ago, I am now 103 kg having cut out rice bred sugar and potatoes...feeling physically better, although realistically I need to be at 80kg. Thank you for the post Russ, which I have found extremely useful and re-assuring. I look forward to more of your inspiration and those of fellow members. All the best everyone, keep at it!
Hi all. I just wanted to share my experience of being diagnosed as borderline diabetic, and the journey I had to reverse it. It's purely a personal experience, and it is intended to deliver a personal account for anyone, who like me, might have been diagnosed as Insulin Resistant, or Pre Diabetic. In retrospect, while the initial diagnosis was quite a shock, it has been one of the best experiences of my life, as I have gained control of my lifestyle, diet, and emotions, and generally feel like a new person.
I am a 45 year old man. 6'. On 1 January this year (2012) I weighed in at 300 pounds.The heaviest I had ever been. I was not sleeping well. Sweating a lot, lethargic and generally knew that I was overweight and needed to change. I had tried diets before, generally calorie counting but it never lasted long, and the weight came back. This time however I took a good friends advice, and decided to have a full medical. I went to a well known centre in Brussels for a battery of tests, and I unsurprisingly had many many issues, all weight related. The most pressing however was a mmol/l of 6.9. Basically as close to being diagnosed as a full diabetic as you can get.
Today I was re-tested. I have lost 60 pounds this year so far, I completed a 5k last Saturday ( I would have had trouble driving 5k back in January) and my mmol/l was 3.9. It can be done. Here is how I did it, and I sincerely hope it can help some people to motivate themselves to reverse Insulin Resistance, if they get diagnosed with it.
1. You have to give up alcohol. Alcohol provides your body with Acetate, a fuel that the body will burn before it burns fat. You have to lose weight. Burn fat. Give up alcohol. It can be temporary, but trying to lose weight while drinking even a moderate amount is very very hard. Don't compromise. Getting lashed up on a Saturday night will mean that your body will be burning Acetate all the next day and not fat. Not even considering the empty calories you are taking in.
2. For the first 3 months I gave up bread entirely. No sourdough. No Rye. No bread period. I have gradually introduced high fibre bread in the last 2 months, but initially nothing. If you cant do that (bread was my real vice) then Pita bread, especially wholegrain is excellent. Waitrose sell high fibre Pita which is ideal.
3. For the first 3 months I gave up potatoes, white rice and pasta. I replaced white rice with Basmati rice and pasta with brown pasta. The lack of sugar in my diet became very apparent to me on my birthday in the middle of March, when as a treat I had sushi, and the white rice gave me a sugar rush;heart palpatations, sweating etc etc. It made me realise that the medical advice was right about all these hidden sugars in plain sight. If you have to eat potatoes, then the less they are cooked the better. Boiled is OK. Do not eat roast or baked.
4. I gradually got into exercise. Not much at first. You body has to adjust. But slowly gradually building up. I went to an expert. Medical knowledge on this subject has exploded in the last 5 years. Basically I exercised gentle low intensity exercise before eating in the morning, as your muscles are depleted of glycogen, and your body will then burn fat, as it has no other fuel source. For full on exercise I gradually introduced High Intensity Training (HIT), which has recently been shown to speed up how quickly glucose enters your cells and tissues (you want that to happen quickly-if you are Insulin Resistant then glucose takes its time entering your cells and tissues resulting in sugar entering your bloodstream). In fact some medical research is now looking at reversing full diabetes by very high intensity short training. Anyway for me I'd do a 15 minute circuit 3 times a week. Nothing too time consuming but hard work while doing it. (Don't do HIT on an empty stomach, and eat some protein within 20 minutes of finishing to prevent muscle depletion).
5. I drank 2-3 litres of water a day, and ate small meals regularly. I had a bottle of water on my desk all day at work. Fruit seems to create controversy. Apart from avoiding stuff like watermelons, whenever I was hungry I ate apples, oranges, pears, bananas, strawberries. I know some people get worked up about eating too many bananas or oranges, but for me it was fine. I'd eat a breakfast, lunch and dinner with some protein, some healthy carbs, and some veggies/fruit. (the protein and veggies are easy for lunch-buy a tuna/chicken salad, for the carbs have a piece of high fibre pita bread for example). I didn't get too worked up about red meat, although I did cut down a bit. I was never hungry. I never calorie counted. I ate whenever I was hungry. Having enough food was never an issue.(also dont cook with extra virgin olive oil- not related to Insulin Resistance, but it degrades at high temperatures which is bad for you-use rape seed oil or something similar instead)
6. I got to bed earlier. Funnily enough I was more tired in the evenings so rather than getting to bed at Midnight I'd go to bed at 10pm.
7. I drank tea and coffee. You have to have some vices. But I gave up fruit juice, and I even avoided diet soda. Not sure if it does fool your body into producing an insulin response, but I avoided it anyway. If water doesn't do it for you, then lime juice in soda water is a good substitute. Cut down on full fat milk. It has lactose. I just went to semi skimmed.
8. Finally. Get more active during the day. Just walking for an extra 30 minutes will add up over the week. Walk to work or to the next bus stop. Go for a walk at lunchtime. Have a meeting with someone while walking around the park. These little things I found really helped.
I can honestly say it was not that hard. I got all the side benefits; reduced cholesterol, improved LDL/HDL ratio, lower blood pressure, improved liver function etc etc. But most of all I got my blood glucose under control. My doctor in Brussels told me I am vulnerable however to this coming back if my lifestyle reverts, so for me while I am relaxing some aspects of my diet, my days of munching on french bread baguettes are a thing of the past.I also still have another 30 pounds to lose.
I sincerely hope that this helps some people. I was able to get extremely good advice, and if my experience can help anybody else, I would be over the moon. I know it is disturbing when you get that first diagnosis. But if you can grasp the opportunity, it can become a life changing empowering experience. My cousin is a full Type 2 diabetic. He was totally unaware that he should avoid things like french bread, which is truly worrying. The level of medical advice in the Uk ranges from the truly great, to the truly awful, and forums like this are fantastic for disseminating relevant useful information. I wish any of you all the very best of luck, and If anyone would like to ask me any questions then please feel free.
I am a 45 year old man. 6'. On 1 January this year (2012) I weighed in at 300 pounds.The heaviest I had ever been. I was not sleeping well. Sweating a lot, lethargic and generally knew that I was overweight and needed to change. I had tried diets before, generally calorie counting but it never lasted long, and the weight came back. This time however I took a good friends advice, and decided to have a full medical. I went to a well known centre in Brussels for a battery of tests, and I unsurprisingly had many many issues, all weight related. The most pressing however was a mmol/l of 6.9. Basically as close to being diagnosed as a full diabetic as you can get.
Today I was re-tested. I have lost 60 pounds this year so far, I completed a 5k last Saturday ( I would have had trouble driving 5k back in January) and my mmol/l was 3.9. It can be done. Here is how I did it, and I sincerely hope it can help some people to motivate themselves to reverse Insulin Resistance, if they get diagnosed with it.
1. You have to give up alcohol. Alcohol provides your body with Acetate, a fuel that the body will burn before it burns fat. You have to lose weight. Burn fat. Give up alcohol. It can be temporary, but trying to lose weight while drinking even a moderate amount is very very hard. Don't compromise. Getting lashed up on a Saturday night will mean that your body will be burning Acetate all the next day and not fat. Not even considering the empty calories you are taking in.
2. For the first 3 months I gave up bread entirely. No sourdough. No Rye. No bread period. I have gradually introduced high fibre bread in the last 2 months, but initially nothing. If you cant do that (bread was my real vice) then Pita bread, especially wholegrain is excellent. Waitrose sell high fibre Pita which is ideal.
3. For the first 3 months I gave up potatoes, white rice and pasta. I replaced white rice with Basmati rice and pasta with brown pasta. The lack of sugar in my diet became very apparent to me on my birthday in the middle of March, when as a treat I had sushi, and the white rice gave me a sugar rush;heart palpatations, sweating etc etc. It made me realise that the medical advice was right about all these hidden sugars in plain sight. If you have to eat potatoes, then the less they are cooked the better. Boiled is OK. Do not eat roast or baked.
4. I gradually got into exercise. Not much at first. You body has to adjust. But slowly gradually building up. I went to an expert. Medical knowledge on this subject has exploded in the last 5 years. Basically I exercised gentle low intensity exercise before eating in the morning, as your muscles are depleted of glycogen, and your body will then burn fat, as it has no other fuel source. For full on exercise I gradually introduced High Intensity Training (HIT), which has recently been shown to speed up how quickly glucose enters your cells and tissues (you want that to happen quickly-if you are Insulin Resistant then glucose takes its time entering your cells and tissues resulting in sugar entering your bloodstream). In fact some medical research is now looking at reversing full diabetes by very high intensity short training. Anyway for me I'd do a 15 minute circuit 3 times a week. Nothing too time consuming but hard work while doing it. (Don't do HIT on an empty stomach, and eat some protein within 20 minutes of finishing to prevent muscle depletion).
5. I drank 2-3 litres of water a day, and ate small meals regularly. I had a bottle of water on my desk all day at work. Fruit seems to create controversy. Apart from avoiding stuff like watermelons, whenever I was hungry I ate apples, oranges, pears, bananas, strawberries. I know some people get worked up about eating too many bananas or oranges, but for me it was fine. I'd eat a breakfast, lunch and dinner with some protein, some healthy carbs, and some veggies/fruit. (the protein and veggies are easy for lunch-buy a tuna/chicken salad, for the carbs have a piece of high fibre pita bread for example). I didn't get too worked up about red meat, although I did cut down a bit. I was never hungry. I never calorie counted. I ate whenever I was hungry. Having enough food was never an issue.(also dont cook with extra virgin olive oil- not related to Insulin Resistance, but it degrades at high temperatures which is bad for you-use rape seed oil or something similar instead)
6. I got to bed earlier. Funnily enough I was more tired in the evenings so rather than getting to bed at Midnight I'd go to bed at 10pm.
7. I drank tea and coffee. You have to have some vices. But I gave up fruit juice, and I even avoided diet soda. Not sure if it does fool your body into producing an insulin response, but I avoided it anyway. If water doesn't do it for you, then lime juice in soda water is a good substitute. Cut down on full fat milk. It has lactose. I just went to semi skimmed.
8. Finally. Get more active during the day. Just walking for an extra 30 minutes will add up over the week. Walk to work or to the next bus stop. Go for a walk at lunchtime. Have a meeting with someone while walking around the park. These little things I found really helped.
I can honestly say it was not that hard. I got all the side benefits; reduced cholesterol, improved LDL/HDL ratio, lower blood pressure, improved liver function etc etc. But most of all I got my blood glucose under control. My doctor in Brussels told me I am vulnerable however to this coming back if my lifestyle reverts, so for me while I am relaxing some aspects of my diet, my days of munching on french bread baguettes are a thing of the past.I also still have another 30 pounds to lose.
I sincerely hope that this helps some people. I was able to get extremely good advice, and if my experience can help anybody else, I would be over the moon. I know it is disturbing when you get that first diagnosis. But if you can grasp the opportunity, it can become a life changing empowering experience. My cousin is a full Type 2 diabetic. He was totally unaware that he should avoid things like french bread, which is truly worrying. The level of medical advice in the Uk ranges from the truly great, to the truly awful, and forums like this are fantastic for disseminating relevant useful information. I wish any of you all the very best of luck, and If anyone would like to ask me any questions then please feel free.
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so to prevent prediabetes turning into full blown diabetes I keep reading about eating healthy losing weight and eecercising .... Myself I am curvy but not fat I ate generally healthy mostly fish or chicken with vegetables and I own a border collie puppy so I am out walking every day.... My main symptoms of prediabetes is extreme hunger and if I don't eat then I get nausea and headaches.... so how am I suppose to lose weight etc with these constant symptoms ???? Help
Thank you for sharing that Russ and very well done. I was doing some medical research and, after some bloods were taken, my GP was alerted to a high "fructose" level. She sent me for an hba1c test which came back at 42. I was shocked as 2 1/2 yrs previously a fasting glucose was 5.4 (had some tests as my haemaglobin was low due to frequent blood donation). Anyway GP suggested repeat hba1c at 3 months which I have now had and has come back as 43. I have to see the GP later this week but saw the lifestyle nurse last week who said all my other tests including thyroid, kidney function, liver function, cholestrol, BP, triglycerides, etc were fine.
I had given up potatoes apart from a very small amount occasionally, pasta, rice, and dropped bread to about twice a week (eat soya and linseed) instead of sandwiches every day. Dropped my fruit intake from about 7 a day to 3 max on advice of GP. Don't drink loads of alcohol anyway as it does not agree with me so there is no point. Still have porridge a couple of times a week but only the rolled oats sort, not instant.
I commute to work 3 days a week so do about 30 a day walking and do a Zumba class once a week, b adminton ab out once per month and barn dancing. On days when not at work try to do some walking too.
How long did it take you to sort yourself out? I am so disappointed that I have not been able to do it. I am 63.
My weight was OK by the way at 9 stone 6 pounds at 5 feet 7 1/2 inches. I am now, due to reducing the carbs, 8 stone and officially underweight. As you can see I am at a loss to know what to do.
Anyway, well done. Will have to talk to GP and see what she says.
As a footnote I am not giving up though although I cannot lose any more weight.
I had given up potatoes apart from a very small amount occasionally, pasta, rice, and dropped bread to about twice a week (eat soya and linseed) instead of sandwiches every day. Dropped my fruit intake from about 7 a day to 3 max on advice of GP. Don't drink loads of alcohol anyway as it does not agree with me so there is no point. Still have porridge a couple of times a week but only the rolled oats sort, not instant.
I commute to work 3 days a week so do about 30 a day walking and do a Zumba class once a week, b adminton ab out once per month and barn dancing. On days when not at work try to do some walking too.
How long did it take you to sort yourself out? I am so disappointed that I have not been able to do it. I am 63.
My weight was OK by the way at 9 stone 6 pounds at 5 feet 7 1/2 inches. I am now, due to reducing the carbs, 8 stone and officially underweight. As you can see I am at a loss to know what to do.
Anyway, well done. Will have to talk to GP and see what she says.
As a footnote I am not giving up though although I cannot lose any more weight.
@gemini2, I wonder if it is still possible to transfer your post to be its own thread. You can also private message the original poster (OP).
You compared recent HbA1c result to an old fasting glucose result. This does not establish that your metabolism changed, because there are two ways to be dysglycaemic: before a meal, or in response to a meal. The people who are "impaired' only in glucose tolerance (keeping blood level low postmeal) outnumber by over 2:1 the people who are "impaired" only in the fasting level. (Some are impaired in both ways.) The A1c on its own does not distinguish between impaired fasting glucose and impaired glucose tolerance. Have you also had a new fasting measurement?
You also mentioned your age, 63. Age is one of the strongest risk factors for prediabetes and diabetes for someone who is negative for so many other clinical indicators.
There is a possibility, kind of small, that you test high using this test. There is a list of "interferences" that would cause this, eg, anaemia. If you're in the lower part of the reference range for red blood cell count, not to mention below range, you'll test a little bit high.
Still, 42 and 43 are high, and you'll want to determine the type of hyperglycaemia. Type 2 is less likely because you are negative for most of the indicators that there is insulin resistance. You could ask for a measure of fasting plasma insulin. Combined with fasting plasma glucose, this yields a measure of insulin sensitivity.
LADA (creeping autoimmune hyperglycaemia) is possible at any age.
You compared recent HbA1c result to an old fasting glucose result. This does not establish that your metabolism changed, because there are two ways to be dysglycaemic: before a meal, or in response to a meal. The people who are "impaired' only in glucose tolerance (keeping blood level low postmeal) outnumber by over 2:1 the people who are "impaired" only in the fasting level. (Some are impaired in both ways.) The A1c on its own does not distinguish between impaired fasting glucose and impaired glucose tolerance. Have you also had a new fasting measurement?
You also mentioned your age, 63. Age is one of the strongest risk factors for prediabetes and diabetes for someone who is negative for so many other clinical indicators.
There is a possibility, kind of small, that you test high using this test. There is a list of "interferences" that would cause this, eg, anaemia. If you're in the lower part of the reference range for red blood cell count, not to mention below range, you'll test a little bit high.
Still, 42 and 43 are high, and you'll want to determine the type of hyperglycaemia. Type 2 is less likely because you are negative for most of the indicators that there is insulin resistance. You could ask for a measure of fasting plasma insulin. Combined with fasting plasma glucose, this yields a measure of insulin sensitivity.
LADA (creeping autoimmune hyperglycaemia) is possible at any age.
I don't think you're gonna get an answer. russth posted that in 2012 and his last login appears to be in 2014.
