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When I was diagnosed, my DN advised porridge as a good breakfast. I dutifully ate porridge for a few weeks after that, until I got to grips with monitoring (which I was initially strongly discouraged not to do). I found that the problem with porridge is, for me, although my BG doesn't go too...

Absolutely, they are idiots - and malicious idiots at that :evil: For all it getting a lot of press coverage HIV is, thankfully, a relatively rare disease in the UK. Estimates are that approximately 0.12% of the population are infected - that is slightly over one in a thousand. The only way...

The only way to be certain which type you have is something called a C-peptide test. Most T1 diabetics have very low levels of C-peptide (or none at all), whereas T2 diabetics usually have either normal or raised levels. This is a test that has to be done in a lab - and that, no doubt, is what...

I suggest that you ignore peculiar readings. Finger-prick tests are great for giving you a rough estimate of your true BG, but they aren't that accurate. Not only are domestic meters not up to the standards of lab equipment, but the tiny blood sample taken means that infinitesimal amounts of...

I wouldn't worry too much - the chances of getting HIV like this are very small (unless you know that your sister is infected - even then it is only really dangerous if you use it within a very few hours of the infected person). However, that said, there is no point in taking unnecessary risks...

This can be really confusing, because diabetes is a complex disease. In fact, it isn't really a disease at all - it is a symptom which can be caused by a number of conditions. Moreover, it is a simplistic generalisation to divide diabetes into just two types - in addition to T1 and T2 there...

High BG causes your eyeballs to "dry out" very slightly. This is a very gradual process, so it often isn't noticeable although a slight blurring of vision can be a symptom of diabetes. When your BG falls as the diabetes comes under control, the eyes will suddenly get more fluid, and this...

Strange though it may seem for people indoctrinated in the whole "fat is evil" school of thought, this sort of meal is pretty good for you - especially for diabetics. For years I have rarely used my frying pan - avoiding this sort of fare like the plague. Now it sees daily service! However...

On the subject of the cost of strips, you don't need many strips to monitor your condition. You need a lot of strips to learn what is going on in your body, and the effects of different foods. However, you don't need to do this very often (only when you are first getting the diabetes under...

If you are going to self-test then it is important that you have a strategy. Testing can tell you various different useful things - but only if you time it and interpret the results correctly. So, here are various testing strategies you might like to consider. Not all will be relevant for...

Having made these sort of radical changes to your diet you should have made more progress with BG by now. Unfortunately, it all depends what state your pancreas is in. Since T2 diabetes doesn't always cause symptoms, it is quite possible that you have been walking around with high BG for years...

As for a monitor, I too use the One Touch Ultrasmart. It is a geeky gadget that allows you to enter all sorts of useful data and plots pretty histograms for you. The down side of this is that the strips are expensive (although since the One Touch meters are very common, you can often find them...

That is completely out of order. Doctors should treat patients with respect and discuss their concerns fully. Unfortunately many corners of the medical profession has an arrogance that makes this sort of attitude all too common. I am afraid that GPs frequently don't know very much about...

When your BG comes down the tiredness and thirst should go away almost immediately (certainly within a very few days). How quickly you can get your BG down depends upon a number of things. These include how high it was to start off with (did the doctor give you any figures?), what state your...

Good move. Monitoring is the only way that you have of learning what does and doesn't work for you. Frankly I think that the only realistic chance that you have of controlling T2 diabetes by diet is to design a personal diet based upon this sort of testing. Meters generally aren't the...

I have an Ultrasmart, and it is quite good in that you can at least enter this sort of data. However, it is quite cumbersome to use. If I can't drive it from my iPhone, I would at least like a more PDA type of interface (i.e. preferably using a touch screen, and definitely with some way of...

Delve around these forums - you will find lots of advice on high carb vs low carb diets. Regardless of what dietitians and medics might tell you (which, incidentally, varies) most T2 diabetics find it much easier to control their diabetes on a low carb diet. In fact, I have never heard of a T2...

I would vote to leave well alone, at least for the moment. There are a number of issues here. The important thing with a board like this is that it is large enough for a community to develop, without becoming so large that it becomes unmanageable. At the moment, this is about right. There is...

All you need is for the meter to be bluetooth enabled, then it could communicate with all sorts of phones, PDAs etc as well as wirelessly uploading data onto your desktop computer. If the right development tools were chosen it would be possible to support most modern devices. If an...

Hi berrylover, When you are first diagnosed it is quite natural to feel scared, angry and generally deeply ****ed off with the world. However, try not to - it really isn't so bad once you get used to it and there are even up sides! The immediate good news is that the symptoms (the thirst and...