Newbie looking for help and advice

[not_likely]

Hello

I am new and just after some help and advice.

For as long as I can remember (at least 20 years) I have been having episodes where I suddenly get very shakey, flickering in my vision, clammy, feel like I’m going to die etc. I always felt like this was related to food. Recently I purchased a blood glucose monitor from Amazon (Sinocare), took my blood sugar when feeling like this and got a reading of 3.1mmol/L. I have since then had readings of similar when feeling like this -always around 3mmol/L. Last week I called the doctor and a nurse phoned me back. She has booked me in for blood test which I have next Monday and said in the meantime to eat a high Carb diet. I told her I was really shocked by this as I told her the only time I’ve ever not got these episodes was when I Was following a very low carb diet. She laughed and asked if I wanted to try a high carb diet and she cancel the blood test, but I asked to keep it anyway.

So after talking to her I followed a high carb diet- shredded wheat, brown toast, potatoes ...and birthday cake (there Have been a couple of family birthdays). Then last Tuesday at 5pm I started feeling ill again, took my blood sugar and it was 15.1mmol/L. Since then it has hovered around high 9mmol/L- 10.6mmol/L. I spoke to a doctor yesterday and she said it was nothing to worry about and to continue eating as normal to get a better idea from the blood test on Monday. I don’t feel I can eat normally because I’m so scared! She also said that it’s perfectly normal to get low blood sugar from time to time and to not worry about it.

It terms of other medical history- I have PCOS, retinal vasculitis and GAD which often manifests itself as health anxiety. I been on Sertraline for my anxiety For about 4 years. My retinal Vasculitis is not active at the moment but I still get flickering in my eye, which I am certain is related to blood sugar and what I’ve eaten but my ophthalmologist just laughed at me when I said this. They have never found a reason for my vasculitis. Autoimmune conditions do run in the family.

I have been tested on and off over the years (at my insistence) and my blood glucose has always been fine.

This morning I took it first thing and it was 8.9mmol/L. I’m really after some advice over what I should be eating, questions i should be asking the doctor etc. At the moment I feel I am just being fobbed off and that they do not take me seriously because they can see I have anxiety. I told the doctor I feel generally unwell but she was unconcerned by this and to be fair it may well be because my anxiety is pretty bad over this whole thing.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hello

I am new and just after some help and advice.

For as long as I can remember (at least 20 years) I have been having episodes where I suddenly get very shakey, flickering in my vision, clammy, feel like I’m going to die etc. I always felt like this was related to food. Recently I purchased a blood glucose monitor from Amazon (Sinocare), took my blood sugar when feeling like this and got a reading of 3.1mmol/L. I have since then had readings of similar when feeling like this -always around 3mmol/L. Last week I called the doctor and a nurse phoned me back. She has booked me in for blood test which I have next Monday and said in the meantime to eat a high Carb diet. I told her I was really shocked by this as I told her the only time I’ve ever not got these episodes was when I Was following a very low carb diet. She laughed and asked if I wanted to try a high carb diet and she cancel the blood test, but I asked to keep it anyway.

So after talking to her I followed a high carb diet- shredded wheat, brown toast, potatoes ...and birthday cake (there Have been a couple of family birthdays). Then last Tuesday at 5pm I started feeling ill again, took my blood sugar and it was 15.1mmol/L. Since then it has hovered around high 9mmol/L- 10.6mmol/L. I spoke to a doctor yesterday and she said it was nothing to worry about and to continue eating as normal to get a better idea from the blood test on Monday. I don’t feel I can eat normally because I’m so scared! She also said that it’s perfectly normal to get low blood sugar from time to time and to not worry about it.

It terms of other medical history- I have PCOS, retinal vasculitis and GAD which often manifests itself as health anxiety. I been on Sertraline for my anxiety For about 4 years. My retinal Vasculitis is not active at the moment but I still get flickering in my eye, which I am certain is related to blood sugar and what I’ve eaten but my ophthalmologist just laughed at me when I said this. They have never found a reason for my vasculitis. Autoimmune conditions do run in the family.

I have been tested on and off over the years (at my insistence) and my blood glucose has always been fine.

This morning I took it first thing and it was 8.9mmol/L. I’m really after some advice over what I should be eating, questions i should be asking the doctor etc. At the moment I feel I am just being fobbed off and that they do not take me seriously because they can see I have anxiety. I told the doctor I feel generally unwell but she was unconcerned by this and to be fair it may well be because my anxiety is pretty bad over this whole thing.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

First off, we can't diagnose on here.

That said.

Hello, Me, 4 years or so ago. I'm going to give you a whole lot of information and it's going to be all over the place, so please forgive me, and for goodness sake, take notes. I'm not kidding. It's a lot and you're not going to get it all in one go, as it'll be an information overload. It'll also be a lot of scary stuff, but rest assured, THERE ARE SOLUTIONS. Okay? Keep that in mind as you read. This is entirely fixable.

First off, the PCOS. You already know it influences your male and female hormones, but insulin...? That's a hormone too. PCOS comes with insulin resistance, and eventually, quite often, Type 2 Diabetes. Your fasting blood glucose is already going up, so insulin resistance seems to be present already. Your HbA1c is most likely relatively normal though, because of the hypo's you're having, skewing the average.

And yes, they are bona fide, real hypo's, not just your run-of-the-mill, perfectly-healthy low blood sugars people without metabolic issues have. There's a condition called Reactive Hypoglycemia. I didn't know I had it before I became a T2 until I came on here and puzzle pieces started falling into place, the more I read about it, but yeah... Basically, if you eat a carby meal, your blood sugars shoot up. And your pancreas freaks out, and dumps WAY too much insulin, resulting in a hypo. And as you've already figured out yourself, if you eat low carb, nothing happens... Because the pancreas won't have anything to overreact to. Your gut feeling is right: low carb would treat RH and prevent more hypo's. There's a test for it, the long oral glucose tolerance test (never go for the short one, they tend to end before the hypo occurs), but most GP's never even heard of it, nor know how to treat it if they do establish RH.

Back to your fasting blood glucose... Those numbers are, off the top of my head, prediabetic. You're not diabetic yet, but with your pancreas working overtime so often, you have a lot of insulin floating around your body. The more there is, the more insensitive you get to it, and with PCOS in the mix as well.... You're overflowing with insulin and it's not doing it's job right anymore. You are headed toward T2, but you don't have to become a diabetic.

You have a choice at this point.

You either follow the advice you've been given and adhere to a high carb diet, which will continuously spike your blood sugars, fast-track you to full-blown T2, and will keep giving you reactive hypo's which are a *** when you drive for instance, as you might kill yourself and possibly others by blacking out, or...

You start a low carb diet. Fix the spikes in blood glucose, fix the reactive hypo's, fix your insulin resistance, and avoid T2 entirely. Make no mistake though, we're talking remission, not a cure, and the moment you start in on carbs again, it'll all come rushing back. On low carb you'd be symptom and complication free though, and not need meds either.

You could just let things get to a head, develop T2 and then go for medication, but... If I had the chance to avoid the whole thing, and the years of misery that went with being an undiagnosed T2 for what now seems like forever.... I know what I'd choose.

https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html <-- that should help get you started, if that is the path you opt for. Lots of people on here have been in your shoes, yours truly included, except that I didn't find all this stuff out until, well... Late. Very late. You have a chance not to let things get that bad.

Good luck, and if you have any questions, throw them out there.... There's a whole hive mind here that tends to help people really well.
Jo

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hello

I am new and just after some help and advice.

For as long as I can remember (at least 20 years) I have been having episodes where I suddenly get very shakey, flickering in my vision, clammy, feel like I’m going to die etc. I always felt like this was related to food. Recently I purchased a blood glucose monitor from Amazon (Sinocare), took my blood sugar when feeling like this and got a reading of 3.1mmol/L. I have since then had readings of similar when feeling like this -always around 3mmol/L. Last week I called the doctor and a nurse phoned me back. She has booked me in for blood test which I have next Monday and said in the meantime to eat a high Carb diet. I told her I was really shocked by this as I told her the only time I’ve ever not got these episodes was when I Was following a very low carb diet. She laughed and asked if I wanted to try a high carb diet and she cancel the blood test, but I asked to keep it anyway.

So after talking to her I followed a high carb diet- shredded wheat, brown toast, potatoes ...and birthday cake (there Have been a couple of family birthdays). Then last Tuesday at 5pm I started feeling ill again, took my blood sugar and it was 15.1mmol/L. Since then it has hovered around high 9mmol/L- 10.6mmol/L. I spoke to a doctor yesterday and she said it was nothing to worry about and to continue eating as normal to get a better idea from the blood test on Monday. I don’t feel I can eat normally because I’m so scared! She also said that it’s perfectly normal to get low blood sugar from time to time and to not worry about it.

It terms of other medical history- I have PCOS, retinal vasculitis and GAD which often manifests itself as health anxiety. I been on Sertraline for my anxiety For about 4 years. My retinal Vasculitis is not active at the moment but I still get flickering in my eye, which I am certain is related to blood sugar and what I’ve eaten but my ophthalmologist just laughed at me when I said this. They have never found a reason for my vasculitis. Autoimmune conditions do run in the family.

I have been tested on and off over the years (at my insistence) and my blood glucose has always been fine.

This morning I took it first thing and it was 8.9mmol/L. I’m really after some advice over what I should be eating, questions i should be asking the doctor etc. At the moment I feel I am just being fobbed off and that they do not take me seriously because they can see I have anxiety. I told the doctor I feel generally unwell but she was unconcerned by this and to be fair it may well be because my anxiety is pretty bad over this whole thing.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

One more thing: Your blood sugars fluctuate a lot, and you go high regularly (over 8,5). If blood sugars are all over the place, they feed into depression and anxiety. I'll never be a "normal" person, but the clinical depression/introverted borderline personality disorder and social/generalised anxiety disorders are now manageable. They certainly weren't before low carbing. Not even close. So there's a little hope for improvement there, too!!!

 

[not_likely]

Thank you so much for your quick reply! I have been freaking out that the doctors won’t listen to me so it has really helped. I have been doing quite a lot of reading on this recently so suspected that I would have to do a low carb diet but got confused when the nurse and doctor both said the opposite.
I didn’t know if I should follow the doctors advice or my gut instinct which can sometimes be a bit all over the place!

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Thank you so much for your quick reply! I have been freaking out that the doctors won’t listen to me so it has really helped. I have been doing quite a lot of reading on this recently so suspected that I would have to do a low carb diet but got confused when the nurse and doctor both said the opposite.
I didn’t know if I should follow the doctors advice or my gut instinct which can sometimes be a bit all over the place!

There was one nurse who was supportive, and my GP figured I'd gotten my numbers down on my own and she'd just keep an eye on me to see what happened next. The other nurse, two dieticians, and an endo were all dead-set against it, and wanted me to go high carb, low fat. The same diet that got me to morbidly obese, diabetic, with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and wounds on my feet that never healed. A lot of people here are swimming against the current, and while the NHS is currently coming around when it comes to low carb, it's really, really slow to trickle down to the medical professionals on the ground, giving people hopelessly out-dated and potentially lethal advice.

Trust in yourself a little more, you had the right end of the stick all along.
Jo