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A few more questions....

Hm112819

Hm112819

Active Member
Messages
43
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
Hi guys, first off a massive thankyou to the people posting and sharing your knowledge and experiences.

After a H1AC result of 54 2 1/2 months ago. I decided to reject drugs and try to lose weight, exercise and restrict carbs.

I started on a super low carb diet and managed to control BG very quickly (although still a little high). I've subsequently lost 4 stone (17.5 - 13.5), exercised daily for an hour and started to reintroduce sensible carbs (sweet potato).

I'm now between 4.5 - 5.5, before meals and 4.8 - 6.1 one or two hours after meals.

Whilst i dont intend to change my current diet, I'm a little curious to know what a carb loaded meal will do to my BG, can anyone suggest a sensible way to find out? Or shall i have a blast at a glucose tollerance test.

Also a few more questions:

- I've been using my daughter's (she out grew hyperinsulinism) Acumen tester, but strips are abit pricey. Is there a cheaper testing machine out there?

- I appreciate it might be a pipe dream, but is there anyone with experience of weight loss alone sorting BG out?
 
Sorry one more question. I was prescribed statins and have blindly taken them for 8 years, without ever questioning what they did. After doing tons of reading on here (I didn't realise the negative side effecrs), I now think I'm going to knock them on the head.

Any thoughts?
 
You must be doing something good - to be able to eat sweet potato and not have BG levels in double figures is impressive. I couldn't even think about eating anything so carb dense as that.
The only way to tell what eating a particular meal does to BG levels is to check - there are cheap options - I am sure someone will let you know the website for mail order meter and strips which many people use.
Glucose tolerance testing is only accurate - or considered accurate for people eating 'normal' diets, and low carb is not considered normal.
If you have been taking the statins for so long you can't have been badly affected by the side effects - they were pretty devastating as far as I am concerned, and I took them for about 5 weeks, I think.
 
Sounds like you're doing very well...why change it? Bottom line is that you may well be able to tolerate a few more carbs now that things are under control. Until recently, having worked hard to get my levels down to normalish levels, I was having no real problems with a few more carbs here and there (a croissant, some chips, the odd bit of toast), but that's out the window at the moment as a short course of steroid treatment knocked everything to hell. The only way really is to eat and test to see what the impact it. I would have made very little progress without testing to establish what was working for me. Statins - for me..hardly worth the small risk for the small possible gains when a low carb diet can increase the good cholesterol (HDL)...the last thing I need is more prescription drugs.
 
Thanks for the responces.

With regards to sweet potato, I meant it as a substitute for bread, pasta, rice and potato.
 
Hm112819 said:
- I appreciate it might be a pipe dream, but is there anyone with experience of weight loss alone sorting BG out?
Click to expand...
Hi @Hm112819 It depends on the reason for your T2. There are various factors, including genetic history, other medical conditions and damage to liver/pancreas from diets or medication that can cause T2 diabetes.
Mine could have been partly genetic, but I believe it was largely due to weight gain which was almost entirely around my middle which would have led to increased visceral fat around my pancreas and liver. I think that losing over 30 lbs, and decreasing my waist size lowered my bg levels.

As to a cheaper bg meter, I suggest the TEE2 which is free with the first 10 testing strips. I can't remember offhand the cost of additional test strips. I think it was £7.50 for 50. I have to go out now or I would look it up, but if you use the search box at top right, search TEE2 you will find more info.
 
I could tick any of those boxes, dad's got prediabities, I take blood pressure meds and overweight!

Thanks for the meter tip, I'll get one ordered. My slightly obsessive testing was starting to become an expensive habit.
 
OK I'm back. re statins, i also took them for years without any obvious side effects, though I did have some shoulder muscle pain at first. I stopped taking them after I learnt they can raise bg levels. Also I learnt that the total cholesterol figure doesn't mean anything. Mine is higher than the NHS guidelines want, at 5.7. But the HDL, LDL and triglycerides figures and their ratios to each other are more relevant than the total cholesterol figure.
It's a personal choice as to whether you take statins, but you should find out the cholesterol breakdown, which will be on your blood test report. That should, in theory anyway, be online. Or you can ask your GP surgery for a printout.
 
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