Help

[CatsFive]

I have Diverticular disease as well and like @lovinglife flare ups basically disappear with low carbing, strangely enough several other complaints respond well to low carb. It almost makes you think too many carbs are NOT a healthy option for humans full stop, we cope with them in our diets up to a point, when various illnesses crop up, with diabetes being the only one that can be easily blamed on them.

I'm guessing if you have symptoms from the diverticular disease you have diverticulitis. I have diverticular disease - diagnosed at a colonoscopy - but no symptoms. I found lower carb plus my BP medication makes me very constipated, so I'm taking psyllium husk powder most days which resolves the issue.

 

[ajbod]

The silly thing with Diverticular disease is, that you have Diverticula in the bowel. When undiagnosed you have Diverticulosis. When diagnosed Diverticular disease, and when you have a flare up, it becomes Diverticulitis.

 

[ajbod]

I was diagnosed when i was blue lighted into hospital with an infected inflamed bowel, (very very painful).
Most people are diagnosed by accident, when being tested for something else. My only symptoms usually are, bloating, which low carb takes care of, and occasional constipation. If i eat more fibre, as recommended for Diverticular disease it exacerbates any constipation, because the Diverticula are more likely to cause a blockage. by eating low carb, i basically forget all about the problem.

 

[lovinglife]

I was diagnosed when i was blue lighted into hospital with an infected inflamed bowel, (very very painful).
Most people are diagnosed by accident, when being tested for something else. My only symptoms usually are, bloating, which low carb takes care of, and occasional constipation. If i eat more fibre, as recommended for Diverticular disease it exacerbates any constipation, because the Diverticula are more likely to cause a blockage. by eating low carb, i basically forget all about the problem.

Similar to me, I also had abscesses and was very lucky not to lose part of my bowels. I was diagnosed with originally T1 changed to T2 when in hospital, they said the high sugars were creating the infection.

I found low carb helped enormously and when I’ve had the rare flare up I just stick to plain chicken and steamed veg with butter. I don’t even think about fibre these days, I get enough from my diet I think.

Hopefully our experiences and how me manage both conditions is giving @Thornliebank confidence and peace of mind that it can be done

 

[Thornliebank]

Hi Thornliebank and welcome.

First thing - have you been diagnosed as Type 2, as your "about" info says, or as Type 1 as your post says? I think it's more probable that you are T2, in the circumstances. Please let us know which it is.

It's unfortunately not unusual these days to be given very little information on diagnosis. Normally people are diagnosed as T2 on the basis of a blood test called the HbA1c - you'll automatically be diagnosed as T2 diabetic if the result is 48mmol/mol or more. The "normal" range is 38-42.

This figure is an indication of how much glucose there is in your blood. There's nothing magic about the number, it's just that you're much more likely to experience diabetic symptoms with higher glucose levels, although many people (me included) had diabetic symptoms with much lower blood glucose levels.

T2 diabetes isn't the progressive inevitable disease that some people still think it is. It is possible to put the condition into remission. Reducing carbohydrate intake was the key thing for me and many others - essentially the traditional advice of "cut out starches and sugars".

Best advice at the moment would be to read as much on the forum as possible, especially the "Success Stories" section, and keep asking questions.

Morning Kenny A, still trying to get my head round situation, obviously very happy to be back to pre diabetes , but just thinking I’m now down to 42 , how the …. Do I ever get down to 6 or 7 ish it seems such a very long road , I’m trying to do the low card , and small portion, doing that are we talking months or years ?

 

[Antje77]

I’m now down to 42 , how the …. Do I ever get down to 6 or 7 ish it seems such a very long road

42 is your hba1c in mmol/l, and it's right on the edge between normal and prediabetes!
A hba1c never gets as low as 6 or 7, the reference range for most labs is 20 to 42. (Unless you measure in different units, in some countries hba1c is measured in %. A hba1c of 42 mmol/l is the same as a hba1c of 6%.)

6 or 7 could also be the level of blood glucose in mmol/l as tested with a fingerprick. That one doesn't go as high as 42 (unless in very unusual circumstances, usually in undiagnosed T1 when they end up in hospital).

So you do not need to get your hba1c much lower to have completely non-diabetic numbers.

 

[KennyA]

Morning Kenny A, still trying to get my head round situation, obviously very happy to be back to pre diabetes , but just thinking I’m now down to 42 , how the …. Do I ever get down to 6 or 7 ish it seems such a very long road , I’m trying to do the low card , and small portion, doing that are we talking months or years ?

First thing to say is well done on the reduction. Something's working well. 42 mmol/mol is only just out of the 38-42 normal non-diabetic range, and with the allowable error in the test it's entirely possible you're in normal range already. The HbA1c looks back about three months and gives you a sort of average picture of how your blood glucose was, with a skew towards the most recent weeks. So again, your current BG may have improved from the position three months back.

Second point would be to separate the fingerprick readings (given in mmol/l) from the HbA1c results (in mmol/mol). The fingerprick readings are a snapshot of where you are right at the moment you took the test. That figure is only explicable with the knowledge of what you were doing at the time. So it will vary depending on many things - first thing in the morning, whether you've eaten recently, if you're ill, how many carbs were in what you last ate, exactly how long ago you ate etc. "Normal" for a non-diabetic person is usually quoted as somewhere between 4.0 and 7.8 mmol/l depending on circumstances (mainly whether the test is done fasted or not).

Normal and Diabetic Blood Sugar Level Ranges

Normal blood sugar ranges and blood sugar ranges for adults and children with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and blood sugar ranges to determine diabetes.

www.diabetes.co.uk

The example I always quote is of me having a small latte. I was using a CGM at the time which is the only reason I know how this went. I started off at 5.4mmol/l. 20 minutes after drinking the latte I was at 8.7. One hour after the latte I was at 5.3. So in that single hour I had both elevated and normal readings - but the lesson for me was that my system can currently deal with the carbs in a small latte.

If I'd done a fingerprick test after 20 minutes I might have thought I couldn't handle a latte at all. If I'd only tested after an hour I might have thought the latte had no impact at all on my BG.

It would be great if you could take your fingerprick readings and average them to convert to HbA1c. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. The fingerprick readings will give a reasonable indication of how you're doing - eg if all your post-meal readings are genuinely under 7.8 it would be surprising if your HbA1c didn't reflect that. But because fingerpricks you only get info from the testing points, it's possible that you may miss highs and lows - when you're asleep, for instance. That's OK, because the HbA1c will pick that up.

The analogy is the satnav (fingerprick) and the map (HbA1c). The satnav tells you where you are right now and whether to turn right or left at the next junction. But from time to time you check the map, because the satnav doesn't tell you your general direction, and if you're seeing signs for Scotland when you wanted to drive to Cornwall, maybe there's something not quite right.

I went from an HbA1c of 50 (on diagnosis) to 38 four months later, and it's stayed around there since. I was lucky, and it did get rid of almost all my diabetic symptoms at the same time. I did go hardcore 20g carb/day, but that's neither essential nor practical for everyone. You need to find out what works for you - looks like what you're doing now is working.

best of luck!

 

[Thornliebank]

42 is your hba1c in mmol/l, and it's right on the edge between normal and prediabetes!
A hba1c never gets as low as 6 or 7, the reference range for most labs is 20 to 42. (Unless you measure in different units, in some countries hba1c is measured in %. A hba1c of 42 mmol/l is the same as a hba1c of 6%.)

6 or 7 could also be the level of blood glucose in mmol/l as tested with a fingerprick. That one doesn't go as high as 42 (unless in very unusual circumstances, usually in undiagnosed T1 when they end up in hospital).

So you do not need to get your hba1c much lower to have completely non-diabetic numbers.

First thing to say is well done on the reduction. Something's working well. 42 mmol/mol is only just out of the 38-42 normal non-diabetic range, and with the allowable error in the test it's entirely possible you're in normal range already. The HbA1c looks back about three months and gives you a sort of average picture of how your blood glucose was, with a skew towards the most recent weeks. So again, your current BG may have improved from the position three months back.

Second point would be to separate the fingerprick readings (given in mmol/l) from the HbA1c results (in mmol/mol). The fingerprick readings are a snapshot of where you are right at the moment you took the test. That figure is only explicable with the knowledge of what you were doing at the time. So it will vary depending on many things - first thing in the morning, whether you've eaten recently, if you're ill, how many carbs were in what you last ate, exactly how long ago you ate etc. "Normal" for a non-diabetic person is usually quoted as somewhere between 4.0 and 7.8 mmol/l depending on circumstances (mainly whether the test is done fasted or not).

Normal and Diabetic Blood Sugar Level Ranges

Normal blood sugar ranges and blood sugar ranges for adults and children with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and blood sugar ranges to determine diabetes.

www.diabetes.co.uk

The example I always quote is of me having a small latte. I was using a CGM at the time which is the only reason I know how this went. I started off at 5.4mmol/l. 20 minutes after drinking the latte I was at 8.7. One hour after the latte I was at 5.3. So in that single hour I had both elevated and normal readings - but the lesson for me was that my system can currently deal with the carbs in a small latte.

If I'd done a fingerprick test after 20 minutes I might have thought I couldn't handle a latte at all. If I'd only tested after an hour I might have thought the latte had no impact at all on my BG.

It would be great if you could take your fingerprick readings and average them to convert to HbA1c. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. The fingerprick readings will give a reasonable indication of how you're doing - eg if all your post-meal readings are genuinely under 7.8 it would be surprising if your HbA1c didn't reflect that. But because fingerpricks you only get info from the testing points, it's possible that you may miss highs and lows - when you're asleep, for instance. That's OK, because the HbA1c will pick that up.

The analogy is the satnav (fingerprick) and the map (HbA1c). The satnav tells you where you are right now and whether to turn right or left at the next junction. But from time to time you check the map, because the satnav doesn't tell you your general direction, and if you're seeing signs for Scotland when you wanted to drive to Cornwall, maybe there's something not quite right.

I went from an HbA1c of 50 (on diagnosis) to 38 four months later, and it's stayed around there since. I was lucky, and it did get rid of almost all my diabetic symptoms at the same time. I did go hardcore 20g carb/day, but that's neither essential nor practical for everyone. You need to find out what works for you - looks like what you're doing now is working.

best of luck!

First thing to say is well done on the reduction. Something's working well. 42 mmol/mol is only just out of the 38-42 normal non-diabetic range, and with the allowable error in the test it's entirely possible you're in normal range already. The HbA1c looks back about three months and gives you a sort of average picture of how your blood glucose was, with a skew towards the most recent weeks. So again, your current BG may have improved from the position three months back.

Second point would be to separate the fingerprick readings (given in mmol/l) from the HbA1c results (in mmol/mol). The fingerprick readings are a snapshot of where you are right at the moment you took the test. That figure is only explicable with the knowledge of what you were doing at the time. So it will vary depending on many things - first thing in the morning, whether you've eaten recently, if you're ill, how many carbs were in what you last ate, exactly how long ago you ate etc. "Normal" for a non-diabetic person is usually quoted as somewhere between 4.0 and 7.8 mmol/l depending on circumstances (mainly whether the test is done fasted or not).

Normal and Diabetic Blood Sugar Level Ranges

Normal blood sugar ranges and blood sugar ranges for adults and children with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and blood sugar ranges to determine diabetes.

www.diabetes.co.uk

The example I always quote is of me having a small latte. I was using a CGM at the time which is the only reason I know how this went. I started off at 5.4mmol/l. 20 minutes after drinking the latte I was at 8.7. One hour after the latte I was at 5.3. So in that single hour I had both elevated and normal readings - but the lesson for me was that my system can currently deal with the carbs in a small latte.

If I'd done a fingerprick test after 20 minutes I might have thought I couldn't handle a latte at all. If I'd only tested after an hour I might have thought the latte had no impact at all on my BG.

It would be great if you could take your fingerprick readings and average them to convert to HbA1c. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. The fingerprick readings will give a reasonable indication of how you're doing - eg if all your post-meal readings are genuinely under 7.8 it would be surprising if your HbA1c didn't reflect that. But because fingerpricks you only get info from the testing points, it's possible that you may miss highs and lows - when you're asleep, for instance. That's OK, because the HbA1c will pick that up.

The analogy is the satnav (fingerprick) and the map (HbA1c). The satnav tells you where you are right now and whether to turn right or left at the next junction. But from time to time you check the map, because the satnav doesn't tell you your general direction, and if you're seeing signs for Scotland when you wanted to drive to Cornwall, maybe there's something not quite right.

I went from an HbA1c of 50 (on diagnosis) to 38 four months later, and it's stayed around there since. I was lucky, and it did get rid of almost all my diabetic symptoms at the same time. I did go hardcore 20g carb/day, but that's neither essential nor practical for everyone. You need to find out what works for you - looks like what you're doing now is working.

best of luck!

Thanks Kenny , although I don‘t completely understand what an HbA1 c is ( I’m going to look at the glossary a little later) would you say that 38 ish is a good number to be heading for ?
I wish I understood it better ,Im away at the moment , but will try and get my head around it when home.
I don’t have a finger prick machine, should I get one , do I or do I not need it .
sticking quite well to low carbs only thing I have a problem with is potatoes , not too keen on sweet ones.
You did say on our first conversation that low card was good for your diverticulosis , and I agree so far.
thanks for all help everyone I can’t get enough help.

 

[KennyA]

Thanks Kenny , although I don‘t completely understand what an HbA1 c is ( I’m going to look at the glossary a little later) would you say that 38 ish is a good number to be heading for ?
I wish I understood it better ,Im away at the moment , but will try and get my head around it when home.
I don’t have a finger prick machine, should I get one , do I or do I not need it .
sticking quite well to low carbs only thing I have a problem with is potatoes , not too keen on sweet ones.
You did say on our first conversation that low card was good for your diverticulosis , and I agree so far.
thanks for all help everyone I can’t get enough help.

HbA1c is a measure of how many of your red blood cells have been glycated - that means they've had a glucose molecule attached. If you count those and compare them with the ones not glycated it gives an idea of how much glucose there's been in your blood over the lifetime of the red blood cell - and as they live around three months, that's how far the test looks back.

38 is the low side of a normal blood glucose - tha attached graph might help explain. With a HbA1c of 38 you would have lower blood glucose than the bulk of the non-diabetic public. My numbers for the past four years have wobbled around between 34 and 38, and I'm completely happy with that.

I would always advise using a glucometer.

It will give you a reading on what your blood glucose is right now - there's a bit of allowable error but it is the only thing that shows you how well your system deals with foods that tend to raise your blood glucose. Testing before and after eating demonstrates whether and how quickly your insulin response can clear whatever glucose is produced by digestion of carbohydrates. That way you can be sure which foods you can and can't deal with.

For example, both ordinary potatoes and sweet potatoes are carb heavy - usually estimated at more than 60% carb by weight. So 150g of potato (in whatever form) will deliver 90g of carb - this would be far too much for my system to cope with and I therefore don't eat potato - or rice, pasta, bread etc, all of which carry the same amount of carb punch.

I'm not the mod with diverticulitis - that's @lovinglife . I'm the mod with gout.

 

[Thornliebank]

Welcome to the forum

As you are only just in the T2 range there are great ways to get your blood sugar down. Especially if like me you are already on a bagful of other drugs every month and don't want to add more into that mix.

Whether you prefer drugs or want to cut carbs I suggest you try to cut down on carbs at least a bit, not just cakes and sugar in tea/coffee.

If you choose to try low carb then you can eat meat, poultry, fish and eggs plus lots of green veg, green salads, cauliflower, mushrooms, with smaller amounts of berries and some other veg such as tomatoes.
If you still cook for yourself then microwave bread made with ground almonds is a good substitute for bread (see 90 second bread), otherwise you can buy lower carb bread online but it is expensive.
Breakfast could be eggs and bacon with half a tomato and mushrooms.
Lunch, a salad with cheese or cold meat or tuna
Dinner, just concentrate on the meat/chicken/fish options with plenty of veg.

I have full fat Greek yogurt most days, with some fresh raspberries.
And full fat milk for drinks, although less milk than I used to have
and I have a couple of squares of dark chocolate in the evening - I switched from milk to 85%

I don't do a cooked breakfast so I made up a mix of seeds and nuts instead (it also prevents constipation when you cut out some of the fibre in a low carb diet).

I have links for low carb cakes, etc if you like cooking.

Hi , can you tell me where to find the bread recipe please ,I don’t eat much , but can’t find out how many carbs are in a slice Of sourdough bread , maybe someone can give me an idea please

 

[KennyA]

Hi , can you tell me where to find the bread recipe please ,I don’t eat much , but can’t find out how many carbs are in a slice Of sourdough bread , maybe someone can give me an idea please

Hi Thornliebank

I've found the dietdoctor website to be helpful. This link
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/recipes/bread

will take you to a number of low-carb "bread" recipes. There are more here:

Food, Nutrition and Recipes

Add your own recipes, discuss food and what works for you, help other people with diabetes to understand about diet.

www.diabetes.co.uk

I have always worked to the principle that bread is around 50-60% carb. So a single slice weighing 25g would have around 13g carbs. Some people do report that sourdough has a smaller impact on BG than other breads. I've not tested this on myself.

 

[Dancing Badger]

Hi , can you tell me where to find the bread recipe please ,I don’t eat much , but can’t find out how many carbs are in a slice Of sourdough bread , maybe someone can give me an idea please

This is a link to a whole thread about sourdough, which might be of help.

Adventures in Sourdough

Thanks. @MrsA2. I've had no problem giving up sugar, cakes, biscuits, pasta, and the Mars bars etc. I used to love scotch eggs, and thought they were okay. I still miss bread a bit, and wrongly thought that sourdough would be better. I don't eat much rice now, but it was a really small portion...

www.diabetes.co.uk

 

[Thornliebank]

Hi Thornliebank

I've found the dietdoctor website to be helpful. This link
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/recipes/bread

will take you to a number of low-carb "bread" recipes. There are more here:

Food, Nutrition and Recipes

Add your own recipes, discuss food and what works for you, help other people with diabetes to understand about diet.

www.diabetes.co.uk

I have always worked to the principle that bread is around 50-60% carb. So a single slice weighing 25g would have around 13g carbs. Some people do report that sourdough has a smaller impact on BG than other breads. I've not tested this on myself.

Thanks KennyA that’s very useful again