Newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes

[bettyboo66]

Hi, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and put on 500mg of metphormin to take once a day about 2 weeks ago

That was it! No explanation of how to proceed other than tweak my diet.

I have carried out some research of my own and I know that I need to lower my carb intake but would be interested to hear who others started their journey when diagnosed..hopefully to give me some information and inspiration.

I also have an underactive thyroid which doesn't help when you are trying to lose weight.

 

[Mark Rawlinson]

Do you know your Hba1c number and do you monitor blood sugar levels ?
Who is it that told you, a Dr or a diabetic nurse ?

 

[bettyboo66]

Do you know your Hba1c number and do you monitor blood sugar levels ?
Who is it that told you, a Dr or a diabetic nurse ?

Hi Mark it's 48 mmol/moles

No I don't monitor my blood sugar levels i wasn't told to.

A Dr told me and then 0rescribed the pills

 

[Resurgam]

@bettyboo66 As you are only just in the diabetes range it is rather odd that you have been given no advice on diet but prescribed medication - and told not to test - that is rather like being told that you don't need a speedometer in your car, just wait to see if you get fined for speeding.

I could not take the Metformin I was prescribed - there were drastic consequences, but I threw out the tablets and simply ate low carb and I went from HbA1c of 91 to 41 in six months. I tested my blood glucose after eating to ensure that at the 2 hour point I was under 8mmol/l and once I saw that for days on end I felt a lot better and 20 years younger. I also lost 12 inches off my waist. My tolerance of carbs is very low, but I went on eating under 40gm of carbs a day for many years.
I am taking Dapagliflozin now, for my heart and kidneys rather than diabetes - so I need to eat more carbs so as not to go wobbly, but as you are only just in the range then simply doing an inventory of where the carbs are coming from and either cutting back or replacing those foods or drinks should produce results quite quickly.

A Spirit Healthcare Tee2 + meter was a useful bit of kit to check what I ate. The VAT can be avoided if you fill in a form - it can be done electronically - declaring yourself diabetic and taking medication. I did that 10 years ago when setting up an account with them.
It was useful for checking how I responded to various foods - some people can tolerate oats, for instance - I found that not only were all grains a bad idea but that legumes provided more carbs than the listed amount if eaten as the naked seeds, but beans and peas in pods were just about OK.
I stick to foods with 10% carbs or less and that seems to be a good rule of thumb, but it is a well known fact that icecream eaten within 100 yards of the sea is perfectly fine
But just once in a while.

 

[Mark Rawlinson]

Hi Mark it's 48 mmol/moles

No I don't monitor my blood sugar levels i wasn't told to.

A Dr told me and then 0rescribed the pills

48 is not that bad, does your surgery have a diabetic nurse ? They could be more help
I also started on metformin with a Hba1c of 129, but was gald to come off it (I had begged to go on insulin instead)
I was given a blood testing kit and shown how to use it when I was just on metformin

 

[KennyA]

Hi and welcome. While your HbA1c score is just at the 48 level where the health service will automatically diagnose diabetes, it is quite some way from normal. The normal range for blood glucose is somewhere between 35 and 42 mmol/mol. Most non-diabetic people are around 37 mmol/mol - the attached graph shows this clearly.

Metformin has no impact on carbs or sugars in your food. Instead it interferes with the natural ability of your liver to make glucose itself. It might help to manage your condition, but it can't, of itself, get you back to normal levels.

I found (once I'd been diagnosed - they spent nearly ten years telling me I wasn't diabetic) that reducing my carb intake worked very quickly (four months) to get my BG back to normal levels. I'd had a range of nasty diabetic symptoms for years, and they all went at the same time, although I do have some permanent damage. I did this without medication and by reducing my carb intake to about 20g carb/day. This is a little bit more carb than is in a single slice of bread. It worked, and has gone on working for nearly seven years now. Incidentally, I also lost around 90lbs in the years that followed normal levels.

Alongside this I tested my BG around meals - taking a test before I ate, and then again two hours later. At the two hour point your system should have dealt with the carb/sugars in what you ate, and lowered your BG levels to your starting point, or somewhere close to it. Fingerprick testing isn't all that accurate, and a single reading on its own might not tell you much. What you're looking to do is build up a picture of how your system deals with what you eat, and therefore identify the things you can eat freely, as well as the stuff that's best avoided.

This pattern of testing showed me very clearly how well I was able to deal with various foods. For example, I found that I can eat more beans and legumes than the carb value would indicate, but that pastry and just about anything made with (British) flour will elevate my BG far more than would be predicted from the carb count alone.

There are some very helpful websites around. This one - https://www.dietdoctor.com/ - has loads of basic information about the carb content of various foods and drinks. You might be surprised at how much sugar there is in much of what we're told is "healthy". There's also a fair bit of misinformation on the internet - some is just scam, some a people hoping that they can go on eating what they want if they take a miracle supplement, some is people looking for validation of their own choices, or laying down the law for everyone. Dr David Cavan has writtent a number of books (he's an NHS consultant endocrinologist) about T2 diabetes myths and I think his books have loads of useful information.

The key thing is to find what works for you - there are many paths to the same goal. That could be (like me) diet only, or you might find that medication really helps.

Best of luck. There's years of experience on here, and questions are encouraged. If you haven't found it yet, there's a "Success Stories" section where you can see how many of us have approached the same problem.

 

[bettyboo66]

@bettyboo66 As you are only just in the diabetes range it is rather odd that you have been given no advice on diet but prescribed medication - and told not to test - that is rather like being told that you don't need a speedometer in your car, just wait to see if you get fined for speeding.

I could not take the Metformin I was prescribed - there were drastic consequences, but I threw out the tablets and simply ate low carb and I went from HbA1c of 91 to 41 in six months. I tested my blood glucose after eating to ensure that at the 2 hour point I was under 8mmol/l and once I saw that for days on end I felt a lot better and 20 years younger. I also lost 12 inches off my waist. My tolerance of carbs is very low, but I went on eating under 40gm of carbs a day for many years.
I am taking Dapagliflozin now, for my heart and kidneys rather than diabetes - so I need to eat more carbs so as not to go wobbly, but as you are only just in the range then simply doing an inventory of where the carbs are coming from and either cutting back or replacing those foods or drinks should produce results quite quickly.

A Spirit Healthcare Tee2 + meter was a useful bit of kit to check what I ate. The VAT can be avoided if you fill in a form - it can be done electronically - declaring yourself diabetic and taking medication. I did that 10 years ago when setting up an account with them.
It was useful for checking how I responded to various foods - some people can tolerate oats, for instance - I found that not only were all grains a bad idea but that legumes provided more carbs than the listed amount if eaten as the naked seeds, but beans and peas in pods were just about OK.
I stick to foods with 10% carbs or less and that seems to be a good rule of thumb, but it is a well known fact that icecream eaten within 100 yards of the sea is perfectly fine
But just once in a while.

Thank you. I will look into Spirit Healthcare Tee2 + meter and ask if there is a diabetic nurse at the Dr's

 

[SaskiaKC]

@bettyboo66 As you are only just in the diabetes range it is rather odd that you have been given no advice on diet but prescribed medication - and told not to test - that is rather like being told that you don't need a speedometer in your car, just wait to see if you get fined for speeding.

I could not take the Metformin I was prescribed - there were drastic consequences, but I threw out the tablets and simply ate low carb and I went from HbA1c of 91 to 41 in six months. I tested my blood glucose after eating to ensure that at the 2 hour point I was under 8mmol/l and once I saw that for days on end I felt a lot better and 20 years younger. I also lost 12 inches off my waist. My tolerance of carbs is very low, but I went on eating under 40gm of carbs a day for many years.
I am taking Dapagliflozin now, for my heart and kidneys rather than diabetes - so I need to eat more carbs so as not to go wobbly, but as you are only just in the range then simply doing an inventory of where the carbs are coming from and either cutting back or replacing those foods or drinks should produce results quite quickly.

A Spirit Healthcare Tee2 + meter was a useful bit of kit to check what I ate. The VAT can be avoided if you fill in a form - it can be done electronically - declaring yourself diabetic and taking medication. I did that 10 years ago when setting up an account with them.
It was useful for checking how I responded to various foods - some people can tolerate oats, for instance - I found that not only were all grains a bad idea but that legumes provided more carbs than the listed amount if eaten as the naked seeds, but beans and peas in pods were just about OK.
I stick to foods with 10% carbs or less and that seems to be a good rule of thumb, but it is a well known fact that icecream eaten within 100 yards of the sea is perfectly fine
But just once in a while.

100 yards? I wish it were 100 miles!