hi been type1 for 4 months my conroll is rubbish could any help me as i am no good on the food side of things dont know what to eat and what not to eat my bms are 15-25 all day i take 6 novo rapid morning 5 dinner 15 tea time and 30 levemir at bedtime dont eat that much sugar but there still high thanks
new type1
- Thread starter pricey59
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Hi,
Sorry to hear you're struggling so much, it's horrible being diagnosed with diabetes.
Controlling diabetes is a bit of a big subject, but the basics come down to the fact that insulin lowers your blood glucose, and eating carbohydrate raises it (starches like bread, rice, pasta and potatoes raise it just as much as sugar does). If your bloods are permanently high, it implies that you're not injecting enough insulin to cover the amount of carbohydrate you're eating.
It's not just as simple as injecting more insulin willy nilly though; you do need to know what you're doing, how much to inject and when. If you're not comfortable adjusting your insulin doses to match your food, I would suggest speaking to your diabetic team for help. Being able to adapt your doses properly is really important in getting good control, but you do need to learn how to do it - it's not hard, but it's also not something I'd like to try simply explaining on the internet either - too much room for error!
Food choices are also not that simple. Many people find that eating less carbohydrate gives them their best control, BUT again you need to balance the insulin to the carbohydrate; if you were to simply eat less carbs and keep the injections the same you might set yourself up for hypos. Again, this is why it's important to understand how it all works, and speaking to your diabetic team about all of this is your best bet in my opinion.
Do read up as much as you can on here, on other sites, and in books ("Think Like a Pancreas" and "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution" are two I'd recommend, both available from Amazon") and learn as much as you can about the condition. Try not to be too disheartened about your current bloods; you're right, they do need to come down, but the important thing is that you've recognised that and you're doing something about it.
Sorry to hear you're struggling so much, it's horrible being diagnosed with diabetes.
Controlling diabetes is a bit of a big subject, but the basics come down to the fact that insulin lowers your blood glucose, and eating carbohydrate raises it (starches like bread, rice, pasta and potatoes raise it just as much as sugar does). If your bloods are permanently high, it implies that you're not injecting enough insulin to cover the amount of carbohydrate you're eating.
It's not just as simple as injecting more insulin willy nilly though; you do need to know what you're doing, how much to inject and when. If you're not comfortable adjusting your insulin doses to match your food, I would suggest speaking to your diabetic team for help. Being able to adapt your doses properly is really important in getting good control, but you do need to learn how to do it - it's not hard, but it's also not something I'd like to try simply explaining on the internet either - too much room for error!
Food choices are also not that simple. Many people find that eating less carbohydrate gives them their best control, BUT again you need to balance the insulin to the carbohydrate; if you were to simply eat less carbs and keep the injections the same you might set yourself up for hypos. Again, this is why it's important to understand how it all works, and speaking to your diabetic team about all of this is your best bet in my opinion.
Do read up as much as you can on here, on other sites, and in books ("Think Like a Pancreas" and "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution" are two I'd recommend, both available from Amazon") and learn as much as you can about the condition. Try not to be too disheartened about your current bloods; you're right, they do need to come down, but the important thing is that you've recognised that and you're doing something about it.
hey again, and again i'm 4 months in too. 
don't worry too much about what you're eating at this stage, just avoid refined sugars. and for now only eat at mealtimes.
most important thing for me was getting my basal (bedtime) insulin correct. the hospital started me on 20units levimer which i slowly brought down to 13units cos i kept going low in the night. i did this by checking BG before sleep and when i woke up, and occasionally in between (in the am) (+ don't eat for 4 hours before sleep when adjusting cos it will confuse things). i aimed to wake up with pretty much the same BG as before i went to sleep, now i fully trust i wont hypo during sleep, which is bloody reassuring. so if you wake with higher BG before sleep then you need more, lower you need less, the same then 8) but it might be best to speak to professional before adjusting basal if you don't understand it fully, though personally when i did they were wrong anyway and just told me to up it!
(basal is to counter your liver pumpin' out glucose so it doesn't matter if you go to sleep with 10mmol/l and wake with 10 cos it's doing its job)
once your basal is good and your waking with a similar BG to what you went to sleep with you can start learning/guesstimating how much you bolus (mealtime) insulin you need. so for every carb we eat we need to inject a certain amount of insulin so that when it's breaks down to glucose and moves into the blood it can taken up by our cells (lowering your BG or keeping it stable).
before i understood much about BG control i just kept on testing which led me to being pretty clued up. aim to get you bg's between 4-8 for now (defo under 10). you might feel a bit low at 4-5 i used to untill i got use to it. when you get a bit more of a pro you can mimic non diabetic BG's but that'll come after a bit of time.
3 times as much bolus with dinner seems a bit weird to me? but if your eating 3 times as many carbs with dinner then hey it makes sense.
combine your efforts with this forum and eventually you'll be a pro. there's a lot of veterans on here that'll always offer support and help. (look after our BG's and few years time they'll be us) if that makes sense.
all best,
howie
don't worry too much about what you're eating at this stage, just avoid refined sugars. and for now only eat at mealtimes.
most important thing for me was getting my basal (bedtime) insulin correct. the hospital started me on 20units levimer which i slowly brought down to 13units cos i kept going low in the night. i did this by checking BG before sleep and when i woke up, and occasionally in between (in the am) (+ don't eat for 4 hours before sleep when adjusting cos it will confuse things). i aimed to wake up with pretty much the same BG as before i went to sleep, now i fully trust i wont hypo during sleep, which is bloody reassuring. so if you wake with higher BG before sleep then you need more, lower you need less, the same then 8) but it might be best to speak to professional before adjusting basal if you don't understand it fully, though personally when i did they were wrong anyway and just told me to up it!
(basal is to counter your liver pumpin' out glucose so it doesn't matter if you go to sleep with 10mmol/l and wake with 10 cos it's doing its job)
once your basal is good and your waking with a similar BG to what you went to sleep with you can start learning/guesstimating how much you bolus (mealtime) insulin you need. so for every carb we eat we need to inject a certain amount of insulin so that when it's breaks down to glucose and moves into the blood it can taken up by our cells (lowering your BG or keeping it stable).
before i understood much about BG control i just kept on testing which led me to being pretty clued up. aim to get you bg's between 4-8 for now (defo under 10). you might feel a bit low at 4-5 i used to untill i got use to it. when you get a bit more of a pro you can mimic non diabetic BG's but that'll come after a bit of time.
3 times as much bolus with dinner seems a bit weird to me? but if your eating 3 times as many carbs with dinner then hey it makes sense.
combine your efforts with this forum and eventually you'll be a pro. there's a lot of veterans on here that'll always offer support and help. (look after our BG's and few years time they'll be us) if that makes sense.
all best,
howie
Hi there,
You've had some excellent advice already, so I won't over do it.
You are new to this, so don't worry unduly. It will begin to make sense before too long.
In general terms, test your blood sugar regularly until you begin to get a picture of the foods that raise your levels too high. Then you can begin to replace them with foods which do you more good.
One final point - you're in the right place to find all the advice you need, so take it easy.
All the best,
fergus
You've had some excellent advice already, so I won't over do it.
You are new to this, so don't worry unduly. It will begin to make sense before too long.
In general terms, test your blood sugar regularly until you begin to get a picture of the foods that raise your levels too high. Then you can begin to replace them with foods which do you more good.
One final point - you're in the right place to find all the advice you need, so take it easy.
All the best,
fergus
