DeejayR
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 2,389
- Type of diabetes
- Treatment type
- Diet only
I've been visiting my younger brother, who is also Type 2. However, while I have been able to learn a lot about my condition thanks to this forum, I think his situation reflects much of the ambiguity and lack of coherent information many of us get from the NHS.
Like me he has never been overweight and is energetic and active. We both adopted the NHS "healthy plate" diet and lost weight (in my case alarmingly). At the same time I progressed from prediabetes (HbA1c 46) to Type 2 (48). But he has no idea what his levels before or since signify, although he is being assessed every three months.
The difference is that I discovered this forum and changed to lower carbs and higher fat while monitoring my blood sugar, and have so far remained at 48, and feel very well. He on the other hand has seen two doctors at the same surgery with conflicting views. One says he has nothing to worry about and his condition is stable, and the other says he needs frequent assessment and probably medication. So he continues to avoid obvious sugar products but eats a lot of "healthy" bread, sweet potatoes and the other things that we tend to treat with caution or avoid.
His diabetes seems to have been put on the back boiler in favour of glaucoma, for which he has an increasingly forlorn hope of treatment as NHS cuts penetrate ever deeper; high blood pressure, for which he takes medication; and high cholesterol, for which he takes no meds.
The best prognosis seems to be that he will gradually take more pills to keep him in the same place, if not becoming worse.
He says his cholesterol level is "5, up from 4" (he only has the overall figure), and his blood sugar he thinks was "4" (?) and is rising. So much for educating the patient. Rather than start taking more meds, presumably statins and perhaps metformin (which he has never heard of), he has volunteered to start cycling again and can be found pedalling the lanes come snow or shine.
He is usually a stickler for doing the approved thing (he pays taxes no one else has ever heard of) but in this case he was anxious to hear how I set about maintaining my wellbeing, so in due course I'll send him a few snippets from the forum's boundless basket of wisdom to see if we can reel him in. As ever, thanks for being here.
Like me he has never been overweight and is energetic and active. We both adopted the NHS "healthy plate" diet and lost weight (in my case alarmingly). At the same time I progressed from prediabetes (HbA1c 46) to Type 2 (48). But he has no idea what his levels before or since signify, although he is being assessed every three months.
The difference is that I discovered this forum and changed to lower carbs and higher fat while monitoring my blood sugar, and have so far remained at 48, and feel very well. He on the other hand has seen two doctors at the same surgery with conflicting views. One says he has nothing to worry about and his condition is stable, and the other says he needs frequent assessment and probably medication. So he continues to avoid obvious sugar products but eats a lot of "healthy" bread, sweet potatoes and the other things that we tend to treat with caution or avoid.
His diabetes seems to have been put on the back boiler in favour of glaucoma, for which he has an increasingly forlorn hope of treatment as NHS cuts penetrate ever deeper; high blood pressure, for which he takes medication; and high cholesterol, for which he takes no meds.
The best prognosis seems to be that he will gradually take more pills to keep him in the same place, if not becoming worse.
He says his cholesterol level is "5, up from 4" (he only has the overall figure), and his blood sugar he thinks was "4" (?) and is rising. So much for educating the patient. Rather than start taking more meds, presumably statins and perhaps metformin (which he has never heard of), he has volunteered to start cycling again and can be found pedalling the lanes come snow or shine.
He is usually a stickler for doing the approved thing (he pays taxes no one else has ever heard of) but in this case he was anxious to hear how I set about maintaining my wellbeing, so in due course I'll send him a few snippets from the forum's boundless basket of wisdom to see if we can reel him in. As ever, thanks for being here.
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