Hello

[Sp Rhino]

Hi all, Joined today was diagnosed last September, have not had any guidance up to now, so just taking my tablets and hoping for the best.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hi all, Joined today was diagnosed last September, have not had any guidance up to now, so just taking my tablets and hoping for the best.

Good morning @Sp Rhino ,

Diagnosed since September, and just left hanging since? Oof, that's rough... Well, you're here now. What do you want to know?

If I read your profile right you're only on metformin? You haven't changed your diet around or added in any other medications since? (I am guessing not?).

Okay, here's the thing. The first medication a T2 often gets it metformin. High HbA1c? Here, have some Met. While in the leaflet it says it should be given after the patient has tried a diet/lifestyle change and the effect of that was not enough. Not that anyone ever reads a leaflet. (https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/files/pil.10759.pdf for reference). In the morning, our livers dump glucose into our system, to help us start the day. Metformin tells your liver to knock it off some, and decreases the amount of glucose released in the morning. Also, a T2 usually makes a heck of a lot of insulin, but is insensitive to it due to there being so much of it for a long period of time. Metformin makes you a little bit more sensitive to your own insulin. And that's it. That's all it does. It doesn't do anything about what you ingest, and while there are many things that can make blood glucose go up, the main one more often than not, is food... Specifically, the carbs we eat, as the bulk of them turn to glucose once ingested. So it's not just an overdose of candy, as some like to think. It's also the good stuff, like potatoes, rice, porridge, most fruit... Learning what is good for a diabetic, means a complete overhaul of what we think we know of healthy nutrition, quite simply because our metabolism can't deal with carbs properly. https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html might help a bit with the basics, but there's a lot more on this forum's website, and dietdoctor. Diet isn't the be-all-end-all, as it doesn't suit everyone, but it's something you might want to look into. Some go for medication only, others combine diet with meds, some go diet-only. You have choices you can make.

So how do you make an informed choice? Test. Odds are you didn't get a meter, as the NHS would go bankrupt if they'd have to provide one to every T2 on the books, but if you don't mind self-funding, you might find it enlightening. Test before a meal and 2 hours after the first bite. If the difference between the two is higher than 2.0 mmol/l, there were more carbs in the meal than you could process. 2.0.mmol/l or under? Excellent! That meal is worth repeating. Keep that up (or rather, down), and your over-all blood glucose should come down.

Hope that helps... It's all a bit much, but there's some catching up to do if you've been on your own since September! Any questions, throw them out there, it's what we're here for.

Again, welcome!
Jo