a bit of advice

[weeglo]

Hey!

I am looking for some advice please as my Dr kind of left me a bit vague. I have been getting pins and needles in my hands and feet so Dr ordered some blood tests. All came back fine except to say I was in the pre diabetic range (HbA1 was 43) and that I would be referred to a prevention program. I researched on here what that meant and have massively cut down on sugar and got me one of the blood glucose monitors. I have only been taking readings in the mornings and its always around 6.5 but the last two days its been 7.1 yesterday and 7.8 this morning - i had a caesar salad around 6/630pm and 2 small spoonfuls of my nephews ice cream and nothing after that until I took reading at around 730am. Ive not had any sweet stuff (bar a handful of peanut m&ms on Sat night) for around 10 days before that. I should also note that sometimes after i have eaten i just want to have a nap - not all the time though.

I have got the appt through for the prevention programme but its not until November - should i wait and tell them then? or should I be calling the Dr? Or am I just being over anxious? Any advice would be really appreciated - thank you

 

[Resurgam]

Hey!

I am looking for some advice please as my Dr kind of left me a bit vague. I have been getting pins and needles in my hands and feet so Dr ordered some blood tests. All came back fine except to say I was in the pre diabetic range (HbA1 was 43) and that I would be referred to a prevention program. I researched on here what that meant and have massively cut down on sugar and got me one of the blood glucose monitors. I have only been taking readings in the mornings and its always around 6.5 but the last two days its been 7.1 yesterday and 7.8 this morning - i had a caesar salad around 6/630pm and 2 small spoonfuls of my nephews ice cream and nothing after that until I took reading at around 730am. Ive not had any sweet stuff (bar a handful of peanut m&ms on Sat night) for around 10 days before that. I should also note that sometimes after i have eaten i just want to have a nap - not all the time though.

I have got the appt through for the prevention programme but its not until November - should i wait and tell them then? or should I be calling the Dr? Or am I just being over anxious? Any advice would be really appreciated - thank you

Wanting to have a nap might indicate a meal too high in carbohydrates - it is both starch and sugar you need to tot up to see what the impact might be.
I found that 'healthy' carbs made almost exactly the same spike as pure sugar, so don't differentiate at all between sourcese of carbohydrate, just count them all and keep them in low numbers.
The everyday menu planning has foods with 10% carbs or less, and my limit is 40 gm of carbs, though from time to time I do stray off plan, but it is not every week that I do that, and I have had normal numbers for quite some time now.
I do, however, always concentrate on eating proteins and fat as the basic parts of meals - salad and icecream is not dinner in my scheme of things.

 

[weeglo]

Thanks Resurgam

I maybe should have pointed out that I was out for dinner with family and thats not a typical dinner. I did have plenty of chicken with it My point was more if I should be worried about the reading being so high after not eating for 11 hours

 

[lovinglife]

Fasting tests on there own are pretty meaningless on how food you’re eating is affecting you. The best way to test to see what the food you are eating is doing to your BG is to test immediately before your meal then 2 hours after first bite. You are looking for a rise of no more than 2 points, more than that and you may need to reduce you’re portion size of the carbs or leave them out altogether.

As you are on the very cusp of pre diabetes you may not need to make too many adjustments, but lots here control there BG with a low carb diet using fats to satisfy their hunger. Nothing wrong with a Caesar salad, one of my favourites but don’t use low fat dressing use a full fat one and go very easy on the croutons.

Foods to eat if you do consider a low carb way is all meats fatty cuts are better than lean, chicken with skin on, high meat sausage Heck are are good brand, bacon, fish, eggs, cheese, cream, full fat Greek yogurt, butter, mayonnaise, a few nuts, avocados, extra virgin olive oil, avoid vegetable oils, above ground veg - below ground veg is best avoided apart from celeriac- great to replace potatoes.

Best fruits to eat berries such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, rhubarb is a good one too. For sweet treats try a couple of squares of above 75% chocolate, sugar free jellies

Foods that are usually a problem BG and may need to be restricted or avoided all together are bread, potatoes, rice, pasta. It’s valuable to know that all carbs turn to sugar so always count the carbs not the sugars.
Take time to learn, it’s not a race and it’s a lifestyle change not a diet, the best thing you have in your armoury is your meter, you will get to know exactly what you yourself can eat with testing,

Can be daunting I know but we’ve all been new to this at one time and you will get the hang of it quicker than you think

 

[KennyA]

Hey!

I am looking for some advice please as my Dr kind of left me a bit vague. I have been getting pins and needles in my hands and feet so Dr ordered some blood tests. All came back fine except to say I was in the pre diabetic range (HbA1 was 43) and that I would be referred to a prevention program. I researched on here what that meant and have massively cut down on sugar and got me one of the blood glucose monitors. I have only been taking readings in the mornings and its always around 6.5 but the last two days its been 7.1 yesterday and 7.8 this morning - i had a caesar salad around 6/630pm and 2 small spoonfuls of my nephews ice cream and nothing after that until I took reading at around 730am. Ive not had any sweet stuff (bar a handful of peanut m&ms on Sat night) for around 10 days before that. I should also note that sometimes after i have eaten i just want to have a nap - not all the time though.

I have got the appt through for the prevention programme but its not until November - should i wait and tell them then? or should I be calling the Dr? Or am I just being over anxious? Any advice would be really appreciated - thank you

Hi and welcome. All tests have an allowable margin for error, so don't get too hung up on differences of 5% or less.

All digestable carbs (sugar is a carb) end up as glucose in the bloodstream. The before and after test is designed to show the impact of whatever you ate on your BG, by revealing how well your system dealt with the resulting glucose. After eating carb your BG naturally rises (everyone's does) and will fall once your insulin goes to work. If you have insulin resistance, the insulin doesn't work as effecrtively and won't clear the glucose.

So if the second test at +2 hrs is not more than 2mmol/l higher than the first, and not above 7.8, you're handling that OK. Otherwise, you are eating too much carb for your system to cope with. It matters much less how high your BG rises for a very short time - what does the damage is elevated BG levels over months and years, not a few minutes.

Sugar is one thing to avoid but rice, pasta, pastry, oatmeal, cereals, potatoes and most root veg, bread, and fruit are also high in carb - usually in a starchy form, or as fructose. These if eaten regularly will also raise your BG and keep it high. Unfortunately most of the official advice still tells people to eat lots of starchy high carb items, which are really no good for anyone with insulin resistance let alone diabetes.

Many people report elevated levels in the morning. This is because your blood glucose is affected by many things other than food eaten, and one of them is your liver. Our livers have a habit of adding glucose (glucose that it's made itself) when they think we need it: one of those times is first thing in the morning. Livers are very slow learners and it can take months for the liver to accept that you don't need it. After nearly four years I still often have elevated (for me) levels in the morning and it's usually the highest I'll be all day.

One of the things about lowering your carb intake is training your system to accept lower blood glucose levels as how things should be. If you eat a lot of sugar every so often - the ice cream, the M&Ms - you're undoing some of that training.

The other thing is that many of us see diabetic symptoms - damage caused by diabetes - long before we reach the "official" diagnosis level of 48+mmol/mol. I'm one of them - had the nasty symptoms for about ten years before diagnosis, was told firmly I didn't have diabetes as my blood sugar wasn't high enough. Symptoms equals disease in my book.

Best of luck - this is a very helpful place and the best thing to do is read around and ask questions - and then ask some more.

 

[weeglo]

Thank you so much KennyA and Lovinglife!!

This makes so much more sense to me and gives me info that I need - parameters to aim for! I was totally lost and didnt really know where to begin. I really appreciate it