What to expect?

kokhongw

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,394
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Well @engie1967 as you can see, most of the recommendations from fellow T2D remains pretty much the same since your old post
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/cold-turkey-on-carbs.106556/

We share our experience on how we maintain our glucose levels. You have to decide if that's going to work for you and what level of changes you can make.

And if you have not done so, I would highly recommend reading thru the success thread for some inspiration.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/success-stories-and-testimonials.43/

All the best.
 
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daisyduck

Well-Known Member
Messages
988
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi @engie1967 Welcome to the club no-one really wants to join. Have a good read of @daisy1 information when she posts.
Listen to your doctors but have a good read through the forums and decide what will work for you. It's not a quick fix and it has to be sustainable. Personally I follow the LCHF lifestyle and it's perfect for me.
A glucose meter and testing will let you know what spikes you and what foods you can eat without rocketing your BG levels.
Also bear in mind what works for insulin injecting type 1 diabetics is different for what works for type 2's.
It will also depend on what medication your GP suggests. Some of these have side effects and were unsuitable for me. I am controlled by diet and exercise alone , but again, that may not suit everyone.
There is a wealth of information on here. I've have learned far more from the very helpful people on here than I ever did from my GP.
 

Soo2

Well-Known Member
Messages
113
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Welcome

I was diagnosed with prediabetes . I think because you are newly diagnosed with diabetes you should firstly talk to your gp , nurses and any other health care professionals that are there for you !! After you are used to your condition it is down to you How you maintain it ! Good. Luck :)

i was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery with chemo and radiotherapy....someone read that a doctor could cure cancer and told me to follow the doctors diet , which consisted of Coffee Enemas and eating carrots and drinking only carrot juice. I did this for months and ended up very very poorly....but I had to try it!! I was desperate !! .....it didn't work and t wasn't a cure . My point is to read what you can listen to advice and you decide

A very red faced Soo
 
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Resurgam

Expert
Messages
9,849
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
Today was my third diabetes education session.
I think that the costs to the NHS and the changes in how the various checks are done - such as the eye tests being privatised, are beginning to have an impact. There was actually a flicker of interest in Atkins - that is, it was mentioned. The improvement in my Hba1c was far greater than any of the others attending, and there was mention of the lack of information available for dealing with diabetes.
I think anything we can do to reduce the burden on the NHS, and to help those newly diagnosed or not doing well with their control is going to make a difference long term in the viability of the diabetes healthcare available and ultimately in the lives of people living with it. For people where healthcare is far less accessible it could be the difference between a healthy life and a miserable death - I saw my grandmother dying from uncontrolled diabetes.
Yes, I'm noisy about eating low carb and having a meter to test with - and yes I think that more people ought to try it, but only because I was so relieved to see the results of my second blood test. Not only do I have hopes of symptomless diabetes, but of not being a burden on the NHS for the foreseeable future.
 

daisy1

Legend
Messages
26,457
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Cruelty towards animals.
@engie1967

Hello and welcome to the Forum :) To add to all the information you have received above, here is the Basic Information we give to new Members and I hope you will find it useful. If you have any questions, just ask 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 well over 147,000 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

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.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a free 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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.

Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. They're all free.
  • Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why :)
  • Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
 
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BarbaraG

Well-Known Member
Messages
273
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Non-insulin injectable medication (incretin mimetics)
My main suggestion would be that when the health professionals give you advice, be it about what to eat or whether and when to test, ask them what the rationale is behind the advice. And then find somewhere where someone is advising the opposite, and ask what is the rationale is for that. Then decide.

For example, the standard advice is to choose low glycemic index carbohydrates, because they will raise blood glucose mor slowly than higher GI carbs. Whereas, if your BG is generally far too high, you really want to raise it less, rather than just mor slowly. That's the rationale behind reducing the amount of carbs you eat.

So, if you're going to eat 50g of carbs in a meal a which is a fairly typical recommendation, it is better to have those carbs in a low GI form rather than high. But you will probably see a much greater difference if you cut the carbs to 20 or less, rather than just reduce the GI. Ideally - do both - small amounts of low GI carbs.
 
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covknit

Well-Known Member
Messages
467
Type of diabetes
Prefer not to say
Treatment type
Other
For the last few months, I've had conflicting blood test results but have finally had a T2D diagnosis confirmed and I have my first diabetic clinic tomorrow.

What should I expect? How is my life about to change? Is there anything I should now so differently?
Hi. You will find lots of help on this site. Many people have lived with the ups and downs of T2 diabetes for many years and can give you advice. T1 diabetes is different but even within T2 every one is different and we all react differently. I was diagnosed T2 September 2016 so I am a newbie and still learning. My experience is the first time I met my diabetes nurse she did weight, height, blood pressure and tested my toes. She recommended a 600 calorie a day diet. As soon as I got home I surfed the web and discovered the Newcastle diet. I knew that was not for me within 2 minutes of learning about it. I have recently learnt there is another low calorie diet without the nestle optifast drinks but cannot recall the details at the moment. When I went to the Desmond course 6 weeks later they told me the low calorie diet is a last resort diet and other options should be tried first. You will find many experiences of health professionals disagreeing between themselves. You need to become your own expert in you. The Desmond course I went on promoted portion control and the eatwell plate. By that time I had already reduced my consumption of sugar and starches to as close to zero as sanity allows. Within 48 hours of avoiding those 2 types of carb I felt better than I had for a couple of years. I continued taking fibre until new year when I went LCH(ish)F. I am planning to gradually reintroduce fibre to see how I react. I already know I am not to have porridge. Hopefully your cholesterol has also been tested. I had to wait until my Desmond course for my figures which were hba1c, total cholesterol, ldl, hdl and blood pressure. When you have your figures and heard what your diabetes nurse has to say you will be able to prioritise which aspect of your health to research first. All the best for tomorrow
 

CherryAA

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,171
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
http://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-7075-6-21

The day I was diagnosed I was clueless but I was lucky enough to find the above piece of research . Buried in there is this sentence

"One female patient had an increased physical activity level during the study period in spite of our instructions. However, her increase in physical activity was no more than one hour of walking per day, four days a week. She had implemented an 11%-carbohydrate diet without any antidiabetic drug, and her HbA1c level decreased from 14.4% at baseline to 6.1% after 3 months and had been maintained at 5.5% after 6 months."

The research as a whole said to me, low carb is good news, the specific lady in question seemed like a good role model and the lower the carb content seemed to be the better the result. The graphs showing the Hba1C reductions looked very promising. Then I found this website where a whole bunch of people were doing the same thing.

At that point I thought - No I'm not taking the drugs, I've obviously been living with this problem for a while now, I just didn't know it, so I gave myself 3 months to fix it myself and I've achieved as good results as the lady in the study plus a weight loss of 4 stone.

People recommend the LCHF diet because it has worked for many of us and its tasty as well!.

Good luck
 

Freema

Expert
Messages
7,346
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
As I see the type 2 diabetic problems there is no way other than looking at the carbs that our bodies can not handle , it seems to me that the only really working diet is low carb, maybe combined with metformin and a lot of moving ones body which helps insuline resistance .To eat as few carbs as possible is what lowers ones blood glucose and that is the only way to try to prevent the disease from progressing. ... Some unfortunately also have to take insuline and insuline affecting medications But still try to balance ones diet on lower carb intake and ones blood glucose will go down. Of cause when taking insuline and insuline affecting drugs one need to make sure not to go too low ...

But from all I have learned there is no way around lowering ones carb intake as much as possible if one does not want to become progressingly ill in many other adding ways .
 
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AM1874

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,383
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Not much
For the last few months, I've had conflicting blood test results but have finally had a T2D diagnosis confirmed and I have my first diabetic clinic tomorrow.

What should I expect? How is my life about to change? Is there anything I should now so differently?
Hi @engie1967 .. welcome

As others have said, managing and controlling your diabetes through exercise, diet and testing - with or without medication - seems to be the best way forward. For me, committing to an LCHF lifestyle and testing 3-5 times a day, seems to be working .. I have lost almost a stone since my diagnosis on Feb 7th and my BG levels are down from 12.5 to around 6. There is a wealth of info about LCHF on the forum .. and a host of kind folks ready to provide positive and relevant advice and support.

Ifyou are planning to test your BG levels, this may be useful. I was given the website at: https://homehealth-uk.com/product-category/blood-glucose/ for the SD Codefree meter and I ordered one a few days ago.. it arrived a few days ago . While I was waiting for this I also found the website at: http://spirit-healthcare.co.uk/product/tee2-blood-glucose-meter/ who distribute the TEE 2 meter, which is free. I have been using both for comparatine purposes since Feb 16th. In an email yesterday, I received details of a new T2 testing programme offer: https://www.type2testing.com .. another free meter. The costs of testing comes down to the ongoing charges for test strips and lancets. I'm testing 3-4 times a day which works out at around £10 to £12 per month for the three packages above. I don't know yet whether my Surgery will provide the strips etc on prescription .. but, more importantly, I now know what my BG levels are .. and I will be able to manage them
Hope this helps