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how do i know my pre and post meal numbers are on track ?

12.9 again this morning despite upping my slow release insulin last night to 8 units (after speaking to the DSN)!

Oh well tomorrow is another day!
 
Alexandra100 said:
Sometimes, but my bg, and I believe that of some others, can also rise if I fast for too long, in which case eating something may be the best tactic. It's a tightrope! In my experience nothing in diabetes is straight forward or predictable.
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Hello @Alexandra100 For clarity and to confirm to those reading your posts - you have not been diagnosed with diabetes, as again here your post suggests that you have diabetes.
 
HSSS said:
Out of interest how long can it take to improve insulin sensitivity? Probably a how long is a piece of string type question.

I only started testing after going low carb so have no idea of what my numbers were on diagnosis/without low carb. They fairly quickly dropped from mostly 7 (with some 6 and 8’s) to a lot of 6’s (a reasonable number of high 5’s later in the day and some 7’s in the mornings). Hb1ac dropped from an initial 54 to 44 in the first 3 months and weight by 2.5 stone. Since then any changes in any of the above measures are very minimal. Nothing is really improving anymore. A good holding pattern but I’m not quite where I want to get to yet. Maybe I now need to do something differently to further improve insulin sensitivity, or wait it out as I’m already doing what’s needed other than more time.
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@HSSS - I'm not quite sure exactly what you are stiving for with all this, but I would just say that because x person, who might be "just like you" can achieve an A1c of y or postprandial tests of z, it doesn't mean your body ever will.

Some people trundle along on the edges of diabetes for eon. They'll have the odd A1c test done along the way - often as part of a "Well Woman/Man" check, or as part of a more general blood panel when checking for somerhing else.

An Australian study I read a good while ago (sorry, I haven't kept the link for it) suggested that only about 30% of those diagnosed with pre-diabetes went on to develop T2. This was in the face of no diet or lifestyle changes.

In my view, each person has their personal running zone. None of us have a clue what that zone is until we start testing regularly, and yet further until we've been doing that a while.

All I would suggest to you is that you live your life as well as you can whilst looking after yourself, but not allowing it to be the only thing you do.
 
SB.25 said:
Still unknown as waiting on peptide and islet tests to come back which won’t be until February. Although I’m gearing up for a type 1 diagnosis :)
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whichever you will be just fine , this forum is amazing with the most caring people . Let us know when you get the result won't you .
 
So T2Ds, say before a meal, your BSL is 8 or 9 mmol/l, do you still eat the same number of carbs or do you modify your intake of carbs? (assuming also that you are not taking insulin).??
 
DCUKMod said:
@HSSS - I'm not quite sure exactly what you are stiving for with all this, but I would just say that because x person, who might be "just like you" can achieve an A1c of y or postprandial tests of z, it doesn't mean your body ever will.

Some people trundle along on the edges of diabetes for eon. They'll have the odd A1c test done along the way - often as part of a "Well Woman/Man" check, or as part of a more general blood panel when checking for somerhing else.

An Australian study I read a good while ago (sorry, I haven't kept the link for it) suggested that only about 30% of those diagnosed with pre-diabetes went on to develop T2. This was in the face of no diet or lifestyle changes.

In my view, each person has their personal running zone. None of us have a clue what that zone is until we start testing regularly, and yet further until we've been doing that a while.

All I would suggest to you is that you live your life as well as you can whilst looking after yourself, but not allowing it to be the only thing you do.
Click to expand...

I’m diabetic not prediabetic so it has already developed so not sure of the relevance of those comments. I hear what you say about each person having a running zone. Obviously I understand no two people being the same. I was asking for opinion and experiences of others.

But after only 6 months of knowing about the condition and actively managing it are you really suggesting I accept this is as good as it gets and stop trying to improve things further?

You ask where I’m going with this, as far towards, and in a perfect world into, normal numbers as I can get is my answer. With the view of preventing, or minimising, as many complications as I can.

Maybe the questions are
For how long did you continue to see improvements before finding your “running level”
Is that because you got where you wanted to be or because you couldn’t get it lower in a realistic way for your life?
 
kitedoc said:
So T2Ds, say before a meal, your BSL is 8 or 9 mmol/l, do you still eat the same number of carbs or do you modify your intake of carbs? (assuming also that you are not taking insulin).??
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Personally I’d delay the meal if practical and possibly go for a short walk. Otherwise or if levels remained higher than I wanted I’d try to keep the carbs as low as possible.
 
HSSS said:
Out of interest how long can it take to improve insulin sensitivity? Probably a how long is a piece of string type question.

I only started testing after going low carb so have no idea of what my numbers were on diagnosis/without low carb. They fairly quickly dropped from mostly 7 (with some 6 and 8’s) to a lot of 6’s (a reasonable number of high 5’s later in the day and some 7’s in the mornings). Hb1ac dropped from an initial 54 to 44 in the first 3 months and weight by 2.5 stone. Since then any changes in any of the above measures are very minimal. Nothing is really improving anymore. A good holding pattern but I’m not quite where I want to get to yet. Maybe I now need to do something differently to further improve insulin sensitivity, or wait it out as I’m already doing what’s needed other than more time.
Click to expand...
Have you had your insulin resistance measured? I've only had it done once fairly recently through a private test with Medichecks but really wish I had known about it at diagnosis. (Of course the Nurses and Doctors never mentioned it). It might be worth getting it done if you have a spare £50 then at least you'll have a baseline to start from and can monitor improvements. Mine came back as very slightly elevated after 3 years of very low carb but the letter that came with it said my other markers for T2 were all perfectly normal so nothing to worry about!
 
HSSS said:
Personally I’d delay the meal if practical and possibly go for a short walk. Otherwise or if levels remained higher than I wanted I’d try to keep the carbs as low as possible.
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Thank you. That makes good sense. So many dietitians in the past did not 'get it' about doing this, you were expected to eat come hail or shine !! I can understand some reluctance for them to agree to reducing carb intake when the patient was prescribed insulin but there was this weird blame thing that you should not have a high BSL before a meal so suffer !!
 
HSSS said:
I’m diabetic not prediabetic so it has already developed so not sure of the relevance of those comments. I hear what you say about each person having a running zone. Obviously I understand no two people being the same. I was asking for opinion and experiences of others.

But after only 6 months of knowing about the condition and actively managing it are you really suggesting I accept this is as good as it gets and stop trying to improve things further?

You ask where I’m going with this, as far towards, and in a perfect world into, normal numbers as I can get is my answer. With the view of preventing, or minimising, as many complications as I can.

Maybe the questions are
For how long did you continue to see improvements before finding your “running level”
Is that because you got where you wanted to be or because you couldn’t get it lower in a realistic way for your life?
Click to expand...

I'm not suggesting you settle into anything, more suggesting that you can only do what you can do, and the whole thing is a balancing act between aggressively managing a condition versus living a less mindful life.

Only you can decide how far you push any given envelope, and having got to numbers only just on the cusp of prediabetes, you're in a good place.

I guess in all of it the challenge is if you push, push and push to get your A1c to whatever you feel is your aim, but then end up with alifestyle you find to be uncomfortable or restrictive, what do you do? Do you feel bound by that, because once you reach x point, you don't want to vary from it.

We do sometimes see people who do this - strive and strive for a really low A1c, only to find they've taken themselves to a restructive (for them) place.

When is good good enough is never an easy question to answer.
 
bulkbiker said:
Have you had your insulin resistance measured? I've only had it done once fairly recently through a private test with Medichecks but really wish I had known about it at diagnosis. (Of course the Nurses and Doctors never mentioned it). It might be worth getting it done if you have a spare £50 then at least you'll have a baseline to start from and can monitor improvements. Mine came back as very slightly elevated after 3 years of very low carb but the letter that came with it said my other markers for T2 were all perfectly normal so nothing to worry about!
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No I haven’t, as I’m sure most here haven’t also. But it does sound like a good idea. Might well look into it.

Due to my own issues and those of family members I think a broad ranging blood test , bgl, insulin, thyroid, vitamin, sex hormones, cholesterol at a young adult age whilst healthy would be such a good baseline to have to base any subsequent decisions about what is “your normal” and which way numbers have moved. Never going to happen on the nhs but it could short cut a lot of later problem solving.
 
HSSS said:
No I haven’t, as I’m sure most here haven’t also. But it does sound like a good idea. Might well look into it.

Due to my own issues and those of family members I think a broad ranging blood test , bgl, insulin, thyroid, vitamin, sex hormones, cholesterol at a young adult age whilst healthy would be such a good baseline to have to base any subsequent decisions about what is “your normal” and which way numbers have moved. Never going to happen on the nhs but it could short cut a lot of later problem solving.
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Thoroughly agree ... as I said I use medichecks who seem pretty ok try and time the tests alongside regular NHS ones so they can fill the medichecks blood vial whilst they are doing their own. Never had a prob so far.
 
bulkbiker said:
Have you had your insulin resistance measured? I've only had it done once fairly recently through a private test with Medichecks but really wish I had known about it at diagnosis
Click to expand...
That's very interesting. Could you give more details? As private tests go, £50 is not so much to pay. I'd really prefer to find out how much (or rather little) insulin I am producing, but I gather (probably from posts of yours) those tests are much dearer.
 
bulkbiker said:
Thoroughly agree ... as I said I use medichecks who seem pretty ok try and time the tests alongside regular NHS ones so they can fill the medichecks blood vial whilst they are doing their own. Never had a prob so far.
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Do you just turn up for the nhs test and ask them to fill your vial, or do you prearrange it? Not sure how I’d get hold of the the phlebotomist beforehand to ask and seriously don’t think the surgery would agree it if I asked the receptionist. Not sure how else I’d get the blood though
 
Alexandra100 said:
That's very interesting. Could you give more details? As private tests go, £50 is not so much to pay. I'd really prefer to find out how much (or rather little) insulin I am producing, but I gather (probably from posts of yours) those tests are much dearer.
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This was the one I had
https://www.medichecks.com/diabetes-tests/insulin-resistance-test
You get fasting insulin, fasting blood glucose and they calculate HOMA Insulin resistance from that.
You get a little explanatory note from their consultant by e-mail with the results usually the day after they receive the sample through the post. I'm very impressed with their level of service.
The only problem I found was getting the sample taken so I used my surgery when I was having other blood tests done and asked the phlebotomist to fill the vial. If you bleed easily from lancet pricks then you could probably fill the required sample but I don't so couldn't fill the DIY sample bottle they asked for.
 
HSSS said:
Do you just turn up for the nhs test and ask them to fill your vial, or do you prearrange it? Not sure how I’d get hold of the the phlebotomist beforehand to ask and seriously don’t think the surgery would agree it if I asked the receptionist. Not sure how else I’d get the blood though
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I just took the medichecks vial in when I had my last HbA1c and asked her to fill it up.. no pre-arrangement .. after all it's your blood and she already had the needle in my arm. I also explained to her that the NHS didn't seem able to perform the fasting insulin and insulin resistance test that I wanted so she was quite interested in why I was having it done.. although with that slightly dismissive tone that most HCP's seem to have when you are taking control of your own health!
 
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