Newly Diagnosed - your first level suggestions pls

[pkumar]

Hello All,

My wife recently diagnosed with diabetes and Im concerned and worried. I would like to do everything to support in our journey to bring this under control for her.

Background
Age : 42
F
Indian Origin
Food : Vegetarian (no meat / no egg)
Active Lifestyle (as in commute to/from office - pre covid times).
Wt : 72 Kg (recently dropped from 79 kg - un planned wt loss)
Ht : 5.3 ft
No family history of Diabetes
No sugar at time of pregnancy
Last year (2020) was extremely stressed for her with work at home. Eps Oct/Nov/Dec. Symptom - mostly tired.
We went for dr appointment in Dec and identified as high BP. (160/130).

On BP Medication : Losartan 50 MG / one tab every morning

In Jan 2021, after blood test, came to know, blood sugar of 11.7% (31 Dec)

On Sugar Medication : Metformin (500mg) : 60 tablets : one tabs twice a day

1. First Im bit shocked and overwhelmed, sleepless nights at same time giving confidence to wife.
2. My wife is also concerned.

Im going to go through various resources available in this forum. However, any initial advice/suggestions / lessons learned will be great.

For now I undersand, focus is on a) Lifestyle - walking/yoga etc b) food with low carb.

Thank you for your time.

Kumar

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hello All,

My wife recently diagnosed with diabetes and Im concerned and worried. I would like to do everything to support in our journey to bring this under control for her.

Background
Age : 42
F
Indian Origin
Food : Vegetarian (no meat / no egg)
Active Lifestyle (as in commute to/from office - pre covid times).
Wt : 72 Kg (recently dropped from 79 kg - un planned wt loss)
Ht : 5.3 ft
No family history of Diabetes
No sugar at time of pregnancy
Last year (2020) was extremely stressed for her with work at home. Eps Oct/Nov/Dec. Symptom - mostly tired.
We went for dr appointment in Dec and identified as high BP. (160/130).

On BP Medication : Losartan 50 MG / one tab every morning

In Jan 2021, after blood test, came to know, blood sugar of 11.7% (31 Dec)

On Sugar Medication : Metformin (500mg) : 60 tablets : one tabs twice a day

1. First Im bit shocked and overwhelmed, sleepless nights at same time giving confidence to wife.
2. My wife is also concerned.

Im going to go through various resources available in this forum. However, any initial advice/suggestions / lessons learned will be great.

For now I undersand, focus is on a) Lifestyle - walking/yoga etc b) food with low carb.

Thank you for your time.

Kumar

Hi @pkumar ,

The vegetarian bit poses some problems with the low carb lifestyle, but there's people here that do pull it off, so... You might want to have a look at this section of the forum for meal ideas: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/vegetarian-diet-forum.71/ I do know paneer is fine, but I'm Dutch, so know just about nothing about your kitchen and what your low carb options are. Leafy greens, above ground, non-starchy vegetables (preferably no pulses/beans), cheeses, that sort of thing's fine. If you can use cauliflower rice instead of actual rice, that'd be great. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/ was written with T2's in mind who are omnivorous, so I do apologise for the foods-with-faces in there, but maybe it can still be of some use to you. But yeah, you got the gist of it...! Calm, steady exercise like yoga and walks, and a low carb diet, should get her back to feeling a whole lot better. odds are she could stop taking the metformin in due time too.

Good luck!
Jo

PS: I lost weight without trying, and that's usually a red flag for T1 rather than T2, so keep an eye on things. I got tested and still remained a T2, but that's not the case for everyone. If she goes low carb and takes walks and whatnot and nothing changes, go back to the doc and get a C-peptide and GAD test done.

 

[Andydragon]

PS: I lost weight without trying, and that's usually a red flag for T1 rather than T2, so keep an eye on things. I got tested and still remained a T2, but that's not the case for everyone. If she goes low carb and takes walks and whatnot and nothing changes, go back to the doc and get a C-peptide and CAD test done.

Good advice, Just to say when I was diagnosed the same thing happened to me. I believe where bloods are substantially too high it can happen regardless of type but definitely should stop once bloods start to be controlled

 

[Daibell]

Hi. Unexplained weight loss can be a sign of T1 so keep an eye on that. A vegetarian diet may not be easy if it is too high in carbs. Try to include fats and proteins to balance the carbs.