• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Am I actually diabetic

D

davd

Well-Known Member
Messages
80
Location
Yorkshire
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi
Diagnosed type 2 end of April 2020 with an HbA1c of 90 and was put on 1mg of Glimepiride daily for 2 months but after going hypo below 4 a few times my doctor took me off Glimepiride and onto metformin.
Since then my meter testing has been between 5 and 6.5 averaging 5.9 .
I have been low carbing between 30 and 80 carbs a day.
I also keep experimenting with different foods and then testing BG levels and the results keep coming back only with a difference of only 1 on my meter no mater what I eat .
I can have a beef sandwich on whole meal bread and my levels only rise by one.
Today I tested myself to the extreme.
At 11am Brunch 3 bacon, beans , 1 egg on whole meal toast , tested two hours later, BG Reading 5.6 .
Next best test at 14.30 went to pub and came home at 21.00 after 8 pints of lager ( coors light) .
Tested again and could not believe it expecting a high reading but it was 5.6 same as earlier in day .
Either beer does not effect my Blood sugar or I am not actually diabetic.
You may wonder why I might think that but my thinking is that I have for the past 8 years I have been drinking between 1 and 2 litres of ruby port a week ( I love the drink ) but not anymore.
Port is very high in sugar and carbs .
So could the port have pushed my blood suger so high it registered me diabetic.
Since stopping drinking port my levels have come down to near normal no mater what I eat or drink , just a variation of about 1 on my testing.
My next HbA1c is not for another month but I was wondering if my last one of 90 was just based on by drinking too much Port not on my diet .
 
I wouldn’t expect so. If you were not diabetic, or at the very least insulin resistant, then your body would have managed to maintain normal sugars enough that an Hb1ac wouldn’t go that high. The very inability to do so is type 2. For example my very carboholic non diabetic husband eats hundreds of carbs every single day. Hb1ac always low 30’s.

Now what we eat and drink can get us to that point a whole lot quicker and make things a whole lot worse but as you’ve discovered the removal of those same things mean our somewhat damaged bodies can quite quickly cope again, even without medication, just some extra tlc in the diet department.
 
I'd have to agree that the HbA1c test does seem to mean that you are diabetic. You say that you average less than 80 carbs a day- it may be that that is the set spot for your body. 80 grams is still a lot lower than the average diet so you may be fortunate and be able to tolerate 80 grams a day. I haven't tested my limits and keeping it very low carb. Had a bit more than usual this last week- my birthday- combined with another injury that meant I wasn't walking- put on a couple of kgs. I'm assuming at least some of that is water ue to the increased carbs but now back to the low carbs.

When I have lost all the weight I want I might experiment with more carbs but my fear is the carb creep and also whether that will increase the cravings. Also I'm not sure even doubling my current amount whether that would allow any of the foods I miss- probably not in which case why bother.

My advice for what it is worth is that lowering carbs won't hurt your body but high blood sugar levels might.
 
Sounds like what you have is diabetes, successfully managed by diet. That doesn't necessarily have to be ultra low carb. It varies from person to person.

I had 4 pints of Guinness with a friend yesterday afternoon and a further 4 cans of Carling in the evening, which is probably 100g of carbs from beer alone. Yet I only read a 6.8 this morning, which just scrapes through into the pre-diabetes rather than full diabetes range. My morning figure is usually pre-diabetic and my figures throughout the day non-diabetic. I don't seem to need to go ultra low carb to achieve this, but if I go nuts with carbs, I can easily push my sugar past 12. A non-diabetic's should never go over 11. Your system should be able to handle as many carbs as you care to throw at it, and if it can't, you are diabetic.

Get off the drugs, and you don't have to worry about hypos and other side effects. Sounds like you're doing great. But if your A1c was genuinely 90, your blood sugar has almost certainly been averaging over 11 (and peaking considerably higher) when you weren't restricting your carb intake at all.

Alcohol really muddies the water, too. The alcohol itself reduces your sugar levels as your liver proprotises processing it, and this can (at least in theory) lead to a much later spike once the carbs start being processed. Unless you're willing to test through the night, your morning fasting reading is probably the best indicator of how your body handled a heavy drinking session.
 
Last edited:
Nicole T said:
Your system should be able to handle as many carbs as you care to throw at it, and if it can't, you are diabetic.
Click to expand...
Nicely said. Simple, and to the point.
 
VashtiB said:
I'd have to agree that the HbA1c test does seem to mean that you are diabetic.
Click to expand...
Sure, as this is a long term test, resulting from months of stress on your endocrine system, then to get to that number means you'd have had to have been pre-diab for a long-time. I was 89 a year ago. I had my Metformin doubled by GP and now I adhere to a truly, but not zero or minuscule, but low carb diet. I've knocked back my HBA1C down from that 89 to a manageable 52. Now I have A1C of prediab and sometimes hit <6 during the day. Not too shabby?

For some of us, it is a less strenuous task. For me, it remains or requires me to be vigilant and understanding and caring for my body without the necessity to stress-out over the numbers.
 
Hi @davd,

Your results really look promising (though the meals you have listed don't look excessively carby so far). This having been said, a few members of this forum have been able to go back to eating normally after getting their blood sugar levels back into the normal non-dabetic range -- though this seems to be quite rare.

The only way to know is really to take a glucose tolerance test. You might ask to be referred to a specialist for this and do one yourself (there should be a couple of threads on how do this on this forum).

My take on this is that there is something there (probably genetic) that has caused us to develop high blood sugar levels in the first place -- and I believe whatever has caused this, can cause this again. So, personally I have decided to play it safe and will remain low-carb, especially given that I enjoy this way of eating.

As to your diagnosis, as others have said an HbA1c of 90 is very high, so in my view it is unlikely that this is entirely due to some other factors such as anaemia. Have they done a second HbA1c to confirm or at least a finger prick test, which was also very high at the time?
 
Thanks for replies everyone
I was due this week for my next HbA1c test but with doctor taking me off Glimepiride and putting me on metformin at end of June she has put the HbA1c test back to end of September so she could see the results from the metformin and not been clouded by the Glimepiride.
To be honest I went a week with no medication as it had run out and forgot to reorder before weekend and still tested every day and there was very little difference in BG readings to when taking medication. Have been testing 2 or 3 times a day and just for something to do i added them all together and divided by the number of tests about 130 and the result came to an average of 5.9 which if converted would give me an HbA1c of 34 .
I know that may not be accurate but it gives me an idea of what I could be.
Coors light is not has high as some beers but still about 10 carbs a pint so I had 80 carbs in beer yesterday with what I had to eat as well I consumed about 130 carbs well above what I normally have but still got reading of 5.6 ,
So I could be able to tolerate certain carbs more than others.
Besides knocking the Port on the head I also used to use Coffeemate in my coffee which is nearly all glucose now I just use cream , so a massive reduction in sugar and carbs to what I used to have .
I will wait for next HbA1c
 
Doesn't 5.9 convert to 41, not 34?
Good results anyway

Metformin does have an impact on some more than others.
 
Andydragon said:
Doesn't 5.9 convert to 41, not 34?
Good results anyway

Metformin does have an impact on some more than others.
Click to expand...
According to this 5.9 is 34.
Will report back after next HbA1c test but in the meantime I will keep experimenting on which foods and drink affect my BG levels.
Thanks again everyone your advice is fantastic
 

Attachments

  • 50400D81-180F-459B-B81D-17C5E221E1F5.jpeg
    327.8 KB · Views: 298
Last edited:
If you are only testing three times a day you could be missing the peaks.
 
Metformin alone doesn’t make massive differences. Certainly not as much as an appropriate carb intake does. And it is also something that builds up and therefore I assume tails off rather than having instant effects.

Those 2 or 3 tests a day may be relevant or mean nothing much at all depending on when they are taken. As a sweeping generalisation readings are lowest before eating, peak at around an hour, and then tail off to be closer to pre meal at 2-3hrs - all massively depending on what was eaten. So if all 3 tests are pre meal then the average will be artificially low. All 3 within an hour of eating artificially high. The better range and number of tests the more accurate your calculations will be.
 
Very rare I test before meals ,usually about 2 hours after and then a couple of hours later .
Today had breakfast bacon egg beans and 2 small slices of whole meal toast total about 30 carbs , usually I don’t have toast or beans , but experimenting with foods. Tested 2 hours later and reading was 7.1 .
I usually take an average of all tests throughout the day using mySugar app And I am getting an average of about 5.9 some days lower some a bit higher.
But until I have next HbA1c test I will hold back on expecting too much.
 
davd said:
Tested 2 hours later and reading was 7.1 .
Click to expand...
That's great but if your pre meal reading was 4 then that's bad if it was 6 then that's maybe ok .. without the pre meal you can't really see.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…