Hi guys .... Another newbie

[Kezziej]

hi everyone, I posted on another thread but thought I would introduce myself here mad give you all a bit of background too ..... I hope your sitting comfortably lol

I'm Kerry I'm 35, I have ankloysing spondylitis (a form of autoimmune arthritis) and a couple of years ago I started to have funny spells as I called them, I would feel hot sweaty, shaky, weak and lightheaded ... I had to sit down, because my mum is type 2 I started recording my bloods and nothing really showed up, the odd case of being high but nothing that could dx me as being diabetic or pre diabetic, but because of my mums history I had a gtt, my results were this, 4.5 of starting and 3.2 at the end, my doctor said I'm basically pre pre diabetic and to cut sugar out and eat more greeny veg ..... Nothing else. I've had the odd episode since like above but just got on with it. Last year I suffered with a binge eating disorder and I notice I would binge and feel very tried after, hot etc but didn't think much of it. For the last 8 month on and off I've been eating clean but not losing weight so last week I joined weight watchers and I've got to say I've felt at my worst for a long time, headaches, tried, moody, no energy, hungry all the time no matter how much I eat, and on Friday I had the worst episode yet, I had eaten a high carb sugary meal and felt tired so went to sleep for a couple of hours ( due to my arthrist I get fatigue so I thought it was that) when I woke I was very hot sweaty a bit dizzy, I thought I'd overheated so got some water but started to feel faint and shaky, I knew straight away what it was so grab a sugary drink and had to walk 5min to grab my son from nursery ( the drink came with me) but to honest I felt like my legs were going to go and I had to sit on the floor outside the nursery I felt that awful, my heart rate was up too. Lucky enough a friend is a paramedic and made sure I was ok, i also couldn't get my words out properly, after 15mins of having the drink I felt better talking and walking. This episode made me re look into what had happened the other year with my gtt test and I came across reactive hypoglycaemia..... So here I am.

I'm looking to change my diet and get control of how I'm feeling, I didn't realise my despession, tiredness, moods and hot flushes could be because of RH. But I really could do with some advise on diet as I do not want to end up like my mum, she's t2 got kidney failure, nerve issues, everything you can think of related to diabetes, and I have 5 stone to lose too.

I'm so sorry for the long post, I'm just glad I've finally found somewhere I can get some help from X

 

[himtoo]

Hi @Kezziej
welcome to the forum

not an RH person myself -- but can empathise with you.
the really cool RH people should be along soon with some support

Keep posting !!

all the best !!

 

[Brunneria]

Hi and welcome

As a seriously cool RH person, it is my honour to greet you!

No, seriously, we are probably going to be a bit of an anti-climax after that drumroll from @himtoo lol!

Probably best if you have a good read around and see if any of the comments, experiences and symptoms resonate with you. If so, then the biggest, baddest and best weapon in the RH armoury is diet (going low carb), but there are a few other options too, and a fair bit of elimination that needs doing before you decide whether it really is RH.

It is such a grey area for the NHS, and for us too - since there are a lot of other conditions that share symptoms, as a few of us have discovered!

So once you have had a look round, come back and ask anything, and we will all try and help.

 

[daisy1]

@Kezziej

Hello and welcome to the forum In case you haven't already seen this on your travels around the forum, here is the information we give to new members and I hope this will be useful to you. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

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

LOW CARB PROGRAM:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/low carb program


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.

 

[Kezziej]

Oh wow! Thank you guys so much, I feel so lost on how to eat at the moment for example.....

Can I have oats? Or a seeded bread once a day? Or is this too much carb?

Can we have sweetener or xylitol?

Can we have fruit? I love fruit so would really miss this

I feel like I'm going to be living on egg and bacon lol

 

[Brunneria]

I can't have oats. Some people can. And I only have bread about once a week, one slice, as a bit of a treat.
You may have a better tolerance than me. Best to check it out with a blood glucose meter to see what your personal reaction it.

I find both xylitol and erythritol fine. But I don't use xylitol because we have 2 dogs and it is very poisonous to them.

As for fruit, again, it comes down to personal tolerance. I have berries a couple of times a week, and I can tolerate about 1/4 of an orange. Other people do better.

Basically, you can try anything, but bear in mind that if you get a reaction (a reactive hypo) then you may be able to tolerate it in smaller portions. And be careful of stacking too many small carb portions together, and triggering a hypo.

Hope that helps.

 

[Kaz261]

Hi Kezziej and welcome to the forum. Brun and Nosher have loads of knowledge and experience and will help you through.

I'm still learning what I can tolerate, but we are all different. As Brun says, get yourself a glucose monitor (if you haven't already) and test each food to see what happens. You may be surprised!

Oats are unpredictable for me. Sometimes I'm ok (ish) with them and others I'm not. I can eat a slice of seeded bread a day, 2 if I have a couple of eggs with them. I have berries with Greek yogurt, a small amount of muesli and almonds for breakfast and a very small (fun size) Apple as a mid morning snack. I'm also ok with 3/4 grapes or a satsuma sized orange.

It's taken me around 9 months to learn all this and I still don't always get it right. Be patient and take one day at a time.

Good luck!

 

[Lamont D]

hi everyone, I posted on another thread but thought I would introduce myself here mad give you all a bit of background too ..... I hope your sitting comfortably lol

I'm Kerry I'm 35, I have ankloysing spondylitis (a form of autoimmune arthritis) and a couple of years ago I started to have funny spells as I called them, I would feel hot sweaty, shaky, weak and lightheaded ... I had to sit down, because my mum is type 2 I started recording my bloods and nothing really showed up, the odd case of being high but nothing that could dx me as being diabetic or pre diabetic, but because of my mums history I had a gtt, my results were this, 4.5 of starting and 3.2 at the end, my doctor said I'm basically pre pre diabetic and to cut sugar out and eat more greeny veg ..... Nothing else. I've had the odd episode since like above but just got on with it. Last year I suffered with a binge eating disorder and I notice I would binge and feel very tried after, hot etc but didn't think much of it. For the last 8 month on and off I've been eating clean but not losing weight so last week I joined weight watchers and I've got to say I've felt at my worst for a long time, headaches, tried, moody, no energy, hungry all the time no matter how much I eat, and on Friday I had the worst episode yet, I had eaten a high carb sugary meal and felt tired so went to sleep for a couple of hours ( due to my arthrist I get fatigue so I thought it was that) when I woke I was very hot sweaty a bit dizzy, I thought I'd overheated so got some water but started to feel faint and shaky, I knew straight away what it was so grab a sugary drink and had to walk 5min to grab my son from nursery ( the drink came with me) but to honest I felt like my legs were going to go and I had to sit on the floor outside the nursery I felt that awful, my heart rate was up too. Lucky enough a friend is a paramedic and made sure I was ok, i also couldn't get my words out properly, after 15mins of having the drink I felt better talking and walking. This episode made me re look into what had happened the other year with my gtt test and I came across reactive hypoglycaemia..... So here I am.

I'm looking to change my diet and get control of how I'm feeling, I didn't realise my despession, tiredness, moods and hot flushes could be because of RH. But I really could do with some advise on diet as I do not want to end up like my mum, she's t2 got kidney failure, nerve issues, everything you can think of related to diabetes, and I have 5 stone to lose too.

I'm so sorry for the long post, I'm just glad I've finally found somewhere I can get some help from X

Hi @Kezziej
Welcome from another cool dude!!!

We will help as much as we can, I know the awful circumstances you find yourself and every where you turn, you seem to be going backwards, there no end to it, I think feeling hungry all the time is something horrible and something I haven't felt for a couple of years now, I don't miss it!
There is a lot of good information on the forum to get your head around, when with your other stuff going on doesn't help.
I've had a lot of tests including OGTT, the test proves you have excessive insulin and you have an imbalance after digestion.
The way to control insulin overproduction is to not eat certain foods that has your pancreas creating more. In other words control blood glucose levels.
No over production of insulin, no hypos, then gradually less symptoms, and the benefit of that is less visceral fat.
Less visceral fat, means feeling better and extra energy, to help you.
There is a lot of good things that will help you fight this, but control and a very low carb diet, is paramount to getting you healthier.

I've come a long way from my diagnosis, had bumps along the way, but now so busy, working and getting my life back.

You can do the same, take one step at a time. Knowledge is key to understanding the condition, you have to because there aren't many doctors out there that know anything about it.

Ask away, we will help.

Welcome to our unique and weird club!

 

[Kezziej]

Hi guys sorry for such a late reply, I've had so much going on that like normal I've out my health on the back seat, things have got worse with my mum diabetes in that she might lose her sight. I desperately need to sort me out. I saw mt diabetic nurse and I had the hba1c done (is that right) and it came back as 42 so they said they were happy and to carry on. But I'm still having issues with my blood sugars and I want to sort out my health as I don't want to turn out like my mum. I'm sick of feeling ill all the time ...... So low carb here I come ....... Wish me luck x