Blood sugar reading

[maxgarry]

Hi Everyone
I was diagnosed type 2 adout 18 months ago. I am currently trying control by diet. I cannot exercise as I have had 3 back operations and have been left with nerve damage, and am disabled. I have been trying to eat sensibly and have recently started to self test. I am a bit confused and concerned that my morning test, 1.5 hrs after breakfast, has twice read 11.7(6.8 pre breakfast). Is this ok or not?
Any advice would be welcome.

 

[viviennem]

Hi, Maxgarry

What did you have for breakfast? You don't say what sort of a diet you are using to control your BGs. If you've had cereal and toast, for instance, it could certainly send your BGs to that level - which is too high. You should be aiming to have your 2-hours-after readings around the same level as your before-meal readings, though it can take a bit of time to get there!

Don't worry about it at the moment - that puts up your blood glucose too! :roll: Let us know what you're eating through the day, and we'll do our best to help.

Viv 8)

 

[Spaceage]

Agree with viviennem be very careful of carbs for breakfast lunch dinner and snacks inbetween, very difficult to drop them out completely but do try. I was advised that a diabetic plate should consist of 50-60% protein, 20-30% Veg/fruit and the rest carbs and you should eat protein followed by veg/fruit and if you're still hungry then eat the carbs....hope this helps

 

[daisy1]

Hi Max and welcome to the forum Here is the information which we give to new members and I think you will find it helpful, especially regarding diet. Ask any further questions you may have and there is usually someone who can answer.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS


Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find well over 30,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes ... rains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
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Please sign our e-petition for free testing for all type 2's; here's the link:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/petition/

Do get your friends and colleagues to sign as well.

 

[xyzzy]

Hello Maxgarry and welcome.

Here's some info I've found new members have found useful in the past. As you've been diagnosed for a while I suspect some of the things I say you will already know so apologies in advance!

A lot of us have found that reducing carbohydrates is what really helps with blood sugar levels. So just to get things a bit clearer in that means drastically reducing or stopping eating anything with plain sugar in it like cakes and biscuits and sugar in tea and coffee. Importantly also try and at least halve starchy foods like rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, cereals and anything else made with flour. Replace those things with extra meat, fish, cheese, eggs and especially vegetables. Vegetables that grow above ground are best but most of us find carrots ok too. A small amount of fresh fruit is fine and I personally fine fruits that end in berry to be the best. If you're ok with artificial sweeteners then things like diet coke are fine but obviously the non diet versions of drinks are definitely out.

Blood sugar wise the NHS (NICE) guideline says to be under 8.5 two hours after eating any meal. Many of us see that as a bit out of date nowadays with 7.8 being a better target to aim for. 7.8 is what the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) recommends as a lot of modern research shows that 7.8 is the number where if regularly exceeded bad things will start to happen with your body. Depending on how much risk you want to take some of us aim for even lower targets of around 6.5 as that would be the maximum that 19 out of 20 average non diabetics would reach.

A lot of us do a thing called carb counting. This just means that you work out from the backs of packets how many grams of carbohydrates you eat in a day. If you want to do that but are unclear how then ask. The main rule is to include the total carbohydrate count not just the "of which sugars" value. A good target that most people would recommend is to aim between 120 and 150g of carbs a day. This is called a low to moderate carb regime and would be what you would be recommended to eat by your doctor if you were Swedish or German as it's become standard practice within their health systems. The American Diabetes Association also recognises the value of a carbohydrate regime like this.

A benefit of carb counting is it will allow you to fine tune the amount and types of carbohydrate you can eat safely when combined with your meter as no two people are the same. You may find you have to adjust your initial grams per day down (like me) or you might find you can eat more. Some people on the forum cut their carbs to a very low figure of less than 30g / day called ULC or ultra low carbing. Again while this may seem extreme it is not necessarily a bad thing and other countries don't actively discourage people from doing it. At those kind of levels AND if you are still producing enough insulin quite a few members discover they can give up all their medication if they want to. If you are wondering I still quite like carbs so eat around 65g / day on average, I'd love to eat a few more but then I wouldn't be able to keep my levels safe which to me is the most important thing.

Here in the UK you may find your local doctor and nurse will also have no problem with a low to moderate carb regime but some very much still do and may well recommend you eat all the starchy foods I listed above in quantity. Again the choice is entirely yours. If you want to eat at that higher carbohydrate level then most diabetics have to accept sooner or later they will need the help of stronger diabetic drugs to keep in those safe blood sugar ranges.

Losing weight is important if you need to. Extra weight is a major cause of what's called insulin resistance. What that means is that the insulin you produce is being stopped from working properly by excess weight. If you lose weight your insulin resistance will begin to get better and of course losing weight is good for other things like your heart. Unfortunately don't think by losing weight you will be "cured" If you are very lucky you might find that with a reduction in insulin resistance your ability to eat things may get somewhat better but how much better is really determined by how long you were running at high blood sugar levels as those high levels can and do destroy the very cells in the body that produce insulin.

Finally an idea of how long it takes to get your blood sugars under control. In me on a low carb and Metformin regime it took around 8 weeks. Each week I saw a gradual improvement. In some people it happens in days. We have had a couple of new members recently who cut their carbohydrates really low and got back to near normal blood sugar levels in just about a week. From this take it that everyone is different!

Just keep asking questions it's what the forum is all about.