I have always been very overweight/obese (I have issues with compulsive/binge eating) and was diagnosed T2 at the age of 34. I am now 60. After a couple of years of adequate control through diet, I was put on metformin, so have been on that more than 20 years. I have lost and regained weight many times, and always fallen off the waggon sooner or later. I seem to do better when I don’t “go on a diet” - I have given up hope of “normal weight”, and since then have not returned to my highest ever weight. I weight cycle much, much less, and am currently around 8 BMI points lower than my maximum.
4 years ago my HbA1C had shot up to 86. I was put on Trulicity injections, which worked very well. HbA1C came down to the low 50’s and bobbled there or thereabouts for the following few years. Last year it was 56.
A year ago, at my annual review, I was told my QRisk thingy had just nudged above 10% - basically due to getting older, as my blood and other results, weight, BP etc were negligible different to the previous year. So even though my total cholesterol was only moderately raised at 5.3, HDL was good and ratios good, I was started on Atorvastatin.
This year, my HbA1C came back at 71! I told the practice nurse I had just started a fitness campaign and made adjustments to diet, couldn’t we wait 3 months, retest, and see how I was getting on. She wasn’t keen, and gave me a prescription for Jardiance (empagliflozin) which I have collected, but not yet started. I wanted to wait a few days until I could get hold of some Libre Freestyle sensors to see what was going on, and what effect the new med had, plus I have been out with my walking group today, and didn’t fancy 7 hours without access to a toilet if it had a strong diuretic effect.
However, something stirred in my memory about statins having an effect on glycemic control - and this is worse with Atorvastatin than some others. Could this be the cause of the big rise in HbA1C? In which case, it might make more sense to stop the statin rather than start the flozin.
Plus of course, diet and exercise….. having the Libre sensor on I can see just how horrible my BG is….. it has only been under 8 for a few hours, and has peaked as high as 14 after eating. I have started to cut down on carbs - not counting, just cutting down the obvious starches and sugars. When we were walking today, it initially went down, but then started going up, even before I had eaten my lunch. After we finished the walk, it fell rapidly (14.5 to 9 :-( ) over the course of about an hour. Again, I have something stirring in my memory about exercise rising during exercise being a sign of inadequate insulin levels…. or, I guess, strong insulin resistance.
I have to decide whether to carry on taking the statin….. really I should discuss this with the nurse (she is going to ring me after I’ve been on the new med a few weeks, but she will have assumed I have started on it as soon as I got it). Part of me wants to just stop the statin and see what happens to my BG.
Will anything bad happen if I just stop taking it?
I am concerned about:
- being on loads of meds
- if I do eventually go full on keto (not sure I want to, or could stick to it, but it’s an option), the risk of DKA when on a Flozin
- how well I can follow LCHF long term, given my longstanding issues with food and eating.
Despite having T2 for more than a quarter of a century, I have as yet no signs of any complications.
Any useful thoughts or suggestions?
4 years ago my HbA1C had shot up to 86. I was put on Trulicity injections, which worked very well. HbA1C came down to the low 50’s and bobbled there or thereabouts for the following few years. Last year it was 56.
A year ago, at my annual review, I was told my QRisk thingy had just nudged above 10% - basically due to getting older, as my blood and other results, weight, BP etc were negligible different to the previous year. So even though my total cholesterol was only moderately raised at 5.3, HDL was good and ratios good, I was started on Atorvastatin.
This year, my HbA1C came back at 71! I told the practice nurse I had just started a fitness campaign and made adjustments to diet, couldn’t we wait 3 months, retest, and see how I was getting on. She wasn’t keen, and gave me a prescription for Jardiance (empagliflozin) which I have collected, but not yet started. I wanted to wait a few days until I could get hold of some Libre Freestyle sensors to see what was going on, and what effect the new med had, plus I have been out with my walking group today, and didn’t fancy 7 hours without access to a toilet if it had a strong diuretic effect.
However, something stirred in my memory about statins having an effect on glycemic control - and this is worse with Atorvastatin than some others. Could this be the cause of the big rise in HbA1C? In which case, it might make more sense to stop the statin rather than start the flozin.
Plus of course, diet and exercise….. having the Libre sensor on I can see just how horrible my BG is….. it has only been under 8 for a few hours, and has peaked as high as 14 after eating. I have started to cut down on carbs - not counting, just cutting down the obvious starches and sugars. When we were walking today, it initially went down, but then started going up, even before I had eaten my lunch. After we finished the walk, it fell rapidly (14.5 to 9 :-( ) over the course of about an hour. Again, I have something stirring in my memory about exercise rising during exercise being a sign of inadequate insulin levels…. or, I guess, strong insulin resistance.
I have to decide whether to carry on taking the statin….. really I should discuss this with the nurse (she is going to ring me after I’ve been on the new med a few weeks, but she will have assumed I have started on it as soon as I got it). Part of me wants to just stop the statin and see what happens to my BG.
Will anything bad happen if I just stop taking it?
I am concerned about:
- being on loads of meds
- if I do eventually go full on keto (not sure I want to, or could stick to it, but it’s an option), the risk of DKA when on a Flozin
- how well I can follow LCHF long term, given my longstanding issues with food and eating.
Despite having T2 for more than a quarter of a century, I have as yet no signs of any complications.
Any useful thoughts or suggestions?
