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Any advice?

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heleedee

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9
I've been type 2 since 2006 and until march was diet controlled. I've had a shocking hba1c and long story short in march I started gliclazide 30 - then 80 after a week. I now also take 2 x 500mg metformin. I do 7-8 hours exercise per week and eat moderate carbs - I feel very shaky when I go to low carb so I've stuck to around 180g daily. My fasting blood sugars are often between 6 and 10. Another doctor has suggested I have the type 1 tests. Any advice from people who've been in a similar position? I feel with the amount of exercise - running or high intensity swimming - I do I should be getting better numbers?


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Glycazide can cause hypo's, you my need to reduce those, I would have a word with the GP to see if you need to go easy on those.
 
Hypos would almost be welcome right now since I think 6-10 is pretty high for a fasting blood sugar. I'm quite worried about how to get them down as I don't think I could do any more exercise!

I don't really want to stay on the gliclazide long term if possible though...


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Ok, then what's your diet like? Give us a usual days meals.
 
Usually I would have:

Breakfast 30g oats with Greek yoghurt or 2 seeded slices toast with butter
Mid morning - sometimes a banana but not always. I'm a teacher so I don't always get a break.
Lunch peppers and houmous or avocado or salmon
Mid afternoon - about twice a week I'll have some wheetabix biscuits but usually I just have black coffee if I get chance
Dinner most days I eat dinner very late as I go swimming until 9 most nights for 2 hours so when I get in I'll have fish - usually salmon - and a small bag of steamed rice and veg.

The only real weak spot I see comes at night time - because I am so busy in the day sometimes when it gets to 11ish I am starving and end up eating some seeded bread toast or tortilla chips - on occasions I eat more than this but I'm talking about averages!

Hope one of you can see where I've gone wrong!


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These way too many carbs in your diet for me .. I find the low carb high fat diet works best at getting my sugars sorted out
 
These would be my guesses...

heleedee said:
Usually I would have:

Breakfast 30g oats with Greek yoghurt or 2 seeded slices toast with butter
Mid morning - sometimes a banana but not always. I'm a teacher so I don't always get a break.
Lunch peppers and houmous or avocado or salmon
Mid afternoon - about twice a week I'll have some wheetabix biscuits but usually I just have black coffee if I get chance
Dinner most days I eat dinner very late as I go swimming until 9 most nights for 2 hours so when I get in I'll have fish - usually salmon - and a small bag of steamed rice and veg.

The only real weak spot I see comes at night time - because I am so busy in the day sometimes when it gets to 11ish I am starving and end up eating some seeded bread toast or tortilla chips - on occasions I eat more than this but I'm talking about averages!

Hope one of you can see where I've gone wrong!


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Avocado Sevenfold said:
These would be my guesses...
Click to expand...

and mine. I can eat chickpeas but I doubt I'd cope with them after a day of other carbs. Try reducing them. Maybe have berries with the yogurt for breakfast and just replace the banana for a lower carb fruit or have a few nuts and a small portion of cheese instead as a snack.
 
Ok skip the nuts and just have the cheese. You could take a small tin of tuna with a ringpull and eat that as a snack. Or if you eat eggs , hard boil a few and take one a day to eat. You might find that if you ate more fat, you wouldn't feel so shaky on the lower level of carbs needed to bring your BS under control. Strenuous exercise can put your levels up as well - perhaps switching to some brisk walking a couple of days a week might help? Also if you are eating very late , you may be going to bed quite high so some of that high FBS is a hang over from whatever you ate at night, especially if it is a carb heavy meal or those tortilla chips. Do you have a meter and do you test regularly throughout day to see what your levels are?
 
I can tolerate whole chickpeas well, but stole some shop bought humous from my daughter and went quite high. Maybe it gets into your system quicker if they are mushed up. Best test yourself. Your food would only need a few tweaks I reckon to make a difference.
 
I've gone back to making my own so lots of olive oil to balance the carbs and I stick a dollop of yogurt in it too. Last batch was so garlicky I thought my mouth might ignite.
 
My gp has had me only testing twice a day alternating between before breakfast and evening meal and before lunch and bed time - however as I said in my food post often bed time and evening meal time are very close for me! I think I'll try testing more often to see what that does!


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Initially I'd test on rising , before and then 2 hrs after all meals till you get a picture of what is causing the elevated levels, then you can scale back. Some people test at 1hr post meal too and it may be that you do that when the meal has one of those carb heavy items in to see just how high you are spiking.
 
Yep, all of the above, fewer carbs. There is no point random testing it tells you nothing. The reason to test is to see which food spikes you. So before food and 2 hours after, that will tell you if that banana is doing you no good. Pack a snack bag of cheeses, eggs, peperoni etc. Take a salad with tuna or chicken, and make your own small jar of olive oil and lemon juice/vinegar dressing.
 
Could be the Glycazide i had to contact dept of suspect medicines make sure they do not expire for at least another year
 
heleedee said:
I've been type 2 since 2006 and until march was diet controlled. I've had a shocking hba1c and long story short in march I started gliclazide 30 - then 80 after a week. I now also take 2 x 500mg metformin. I do 7-8 hours exercise per week and eat moderate carbs - I feel very shaky when I go to low carb so I've stuck to around 180g daily. My fasting blood sugars are often between 6 and 10. Another doctor has suggested I have the type 1 tests. Any advice from people who've been in a similar position? I feel with the amount of exercise - running or high intensity swimming - I do I should be getting better numbers?


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Click to expand...

Hi heleedee,
It wouldn't do any harm to get tests done for type 1. Are you exhibiting any of the symptoms at all? Weight loss, thirst, frequent visits to the bathroom etc.

What your metformin should be doing is reducing the amount of glucose that your liver puts into your bloodstream (this should lower what is in effect your 'background' blood glucose level)

Glialazide is different however, in that one of its actions is to trigger your pancreas to release higher levels of insulin in order to lower blood glucose levels.

The amount of exercise you are doing is admirable, and you should be seeing the benefits of it reflected in your BG readings. The fact that this isn't obvious could be due to the fact that even working flat out, you pancreas is unable to maintain lower BG levels.

So - diet (as you have already been advised above) is the best way to make a significant improvement to your BGs very quickly. By reducing the number of carbs you eat, you instantly reduce the demands on your pancreas.There will be a potential problem with this though - which you have already mentioned, in that you may become a bit 'wobbly', which is indicative of blood glucose levels dropping too low.
If you feel you would like to follow a much lower carb diet, then have a word with your doctor, as they may want to alter your dose of Glialazide, in order to avoid any potential risks of Hypoglycaemia.(excessively low BGs)
Additionally, as you have already discovered, regularly testing your blood glucose readings is really useful - you can track how different foods affect your BG levels, and can also pick up on potential lows.

Keep up your program of exercise! This will not only help you to naturally reduce blood glucose levels, but will also maintain your insulin sensitivity.

For more information, try taking a look at http://www.teambloodglucose.com/TeamBG/Kit_Bag.html
You may also like to check out the type 1 diabetes case study, because although you do not inject insulin, because you are taking Glialazide, there will be similarities that should help you understand how your body works.
 
Thanks for this bebo321 - very informative. My nurse suggested she thinks I am type 1 - my GP (who just happens to be the one who diagnosed me type 2) refuses to entertain the idea, but I think I'm going to persevere in asking for the tests for type 1.


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heleedee said:
Thanks for this bebo321 - very informative. My nurse suggested she thinks I am type 1 - my GP (who just happens to be the one who diagnosed me type 2) refuses to entertain the idea, but I think I'm going to persevere in asking for the tests for type 1.


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Click to expand...
It does happen heleedee,
When my husband got diagnosed, his doctor initially wanted to give a type 2 diagnosis, but it turned out to be type 1 - although there were some pretty severe symptoms that developed over a relatively short period of time. As I say - much better to know for sure though. Good luck, and get in touch through the teambg website if you have any specific questions or concerns about exercising with diabetes. :)
 
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