I joined the club on Thursday of last week at the age of 44. I currently live in Stockholm and I guess hey do things differently here as all I know is I have a blood count of 13 and I have to go see a dietician, have kidney tests and eyes tests. My doctor says we can hit this with diet. 5 days later I still do not really know what is wrong with me, what I can eat or drink, how do I measure these sugar levels and my heels really hurt when I walk. I am yet to be told if I am level 1 or 2 but I think maybe I am type 2. Got letter to see dietician today for May 13... That's a long wait! I have basically put my self on a very low if at all diet till I know more... Am scared and anxious to know how bad I have this disease/condition. I am now reading about symptoms that I seem to have had for a long while... Does anyone else get heel pain? I have been told I can't just put any cream on the area.... This is one hell of a new fast learning curve.... Any how thanks for listening
Bewildered Noobie
- Thread starter Diabetic-Diver
- Start Date
daisy1
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- Type of diabetes
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- Tablets (oral)
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Hi Diabetic-Diver and welcome to the forum 
Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it helpful. Ask all the questions you like and someone will help.
For foot cream, I can only tell you what I do. I file my feet every day then use any good foot cream. I would think a foot cream would be better than any other cream. Some foot creams can aid healing cracks in the heels for example. I find Akileine the best, which is made in Monaco - I don't know whether you will be able to find it in Stockholm though. It's not cheap here in Switzerland.
BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find well over 30,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes ... rains.html
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it helpful. Ask all the questions you like and someone will help.
For foot cream, I can only tell you what I do. I file my feet every day then use any good foot cream. I would think a foot cream would be better than any other cream. Some foot creams can aid healing cracks in the heels for example. I find Akileine the best, which is made in Monaco - I don't know whether you will be able to find it in Stockholm though. It's not cheap here in Switzerland.
BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find well over 30,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
- Reduce your carbohydrate intake
- Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes ... rains.html
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
- structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
- self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Don't worry, your doctor has not seen fit to put you on medication straight away so you can take some reassurance from that.
Unfortunately, 13 without any units could mean two things, both indicate your blood glucose is high enough for long-term (years) complications, so you do need to get it down, but time is on your side.
You are probably a Type 2, T1's produce no insulin, in T2, your insulin does not work as well as it should. There is a third type, that looks like T2 to begin with, but that is much rarer.
A quick note about numbers:
This is a UK site, in the UK we use mmol/l for instantaneous blood glucose (BG) and mmol/mol for another measure that reflects your blood sugar levels over the last 3 months. This second measure is known as HbA1c. Some other countries use mg/dl for BG and % of haemoglobin glycosylated for HbA1c. You need to be careful what units are being used when you look at any numbers on here. The figures in the previous post have their units and I would strongly recommend you find out what units your number is in.
There is no need to worry about things taking a while. Our bodies take time to adapt and we take time to adapt our lifestyles. You will have urine tests (for kidneys), blood tests (BG, HbA1c, Cholesterol, Triglycerides, Liver function), eye tests (to check for retinopathy) and probably have your foot sensation tested (for neuropathy). Some may be 3 monthly to start with until your BG is stable, eye and foot checks are annual in the UK. Many will be a for baseline at the moment, something to make a comparison with later.
Your dietician will probably be looking at three things:
If you really want to, you can make a start on these by looking at what you eat, particularly portion sizes, and taking the healthy options. There are plenty of resources on the Internet, mostly for diabetic and non-diabetic alike. Don't starve yourself, you will only make your body think there is a famine and you won't keep it up. I adopted a low saturated fat diet (aiming to stay below 5g/day) and was careful about the Glycaemic Index of foods, tempering higher GI foods with lower ones to make a satisfying meal. Moderate exercise can also help with weight loss and make the insulin work better.
Above all, be patient. Diabetes is being diagnosed much earlier now than it ever has been (long before an optician would see signs of retinopathy). That means there is more time to get things sorted.
Doctors are checking for diabetes pro-actively because of the cost of preventable long-term complications (years of bad BG control). About one in 20 Brits are diagnosed diabetics, countless others are undiagnosed. Avoidable complications have been estimated to cost the NHS 10% of its budget - £10billion, it will be a similar proportion in Sweden. I have heard that some estimates say that during this century, 1 in 3 Americans will be diabetic.
Most diabetics are walking around, living their lives as normal, just being a little careful about what, how much and how frequently the eat (plenty of non-diabetics do that too).
Unfortunately, 13 without any units could mean two things, both indicate your blood glucose is high enough for long-term (years) complications, so you do need to get it down, but time is on your side.
You are probably a Type 2, T1's produce no insulin, in T2, your insulin does not work as well as it should. There is a third type, that looks like T2 to begin with, but that is much rarer.
A quick note about numbers:
This is a UK site, in the UK we use mmol/l for instantaneous blood glucose (BG) and mmol/mol for another measure that reflects your blood sugar levels over the last 3 months. This second measure is known as HbA1c. Some other countries use mg/dl for BG and % of haemoglobin glycosylated for HbA1c. You need to be careful what units are being used when you look at any numbers on here. The figures in the previous post have their units and I would strongly recommend you find out what units your number is in.
There is no need to worry about things taking a while. Our bodies take time to adapt and we take time to adapt our lifestyles. You will have urine tests (for kidneys), blood tests (BG, HbA1c, Cholesterol, Triglycerides, Liver function), eye tests (to check for retinopathy) and probably have your foot sensation tested (for neuropathy). Some may be 3 monthly to start with until your BG is stable, eye and foot checks are annual in the UK. Many will be a for baseline at the moment, something to make a comparison with later.
Your dietician will probably be looking at three things:
- Weight - maintaining a healthy weight, losing weight if necessary.
- Controlling BG by eating a balanced, healthy diet.
- Reducing your Cholesterol - your target has just dropped from 5 to 4 mmol/l
If you really want to, you can make a start on these by looking at what you eat, particularly portion sizes, and taking the healthy options. There are plenty of resources on the Internet, mostly for diabetic and non-diabetic alike. Don't starve yourself, you will only make your body think there is a famine and you won't keep it up. I adopted a low saturated fat diet (aiming to stay below 5g/day) and was careful about the Glycaemic Index of foods, tempering higher GI foods with lower ones to make a satisfying meal. Moderate exercise can also help with weight loss and make the insulin work better.
Above all, be patient. Diabetes is being diagnosed much earlier now than it ever has been (long before an optician would see signs of retinopathy). That means there is more time to get things sorted.
Doctors are checking for diabetes pro-actively because of the cost of preventable long-term complications (years of bad BG control). About one in 20 Brits are diagnosed diabetics, countless others are undiagnosed. Avoidable complications have been estimated to cost the NHS 10% of its budget - £10billion, it will be a similar proportion in Sweden. I have heard that some estimates say that during this century, 1 in 3 Americans will be diabetic.
Most diabetics are walking around, living their lives as normal, just being a little careful about what, how much and how frequently the eat (plenty of non-diabetics do that too).
Hi. It's not clear whether you currently have a blood glucose meter? If not do get hold of one as that will help you choose the right foods for you. I might disagree slightly with EllisB about a the right balanced diet. In general apart from portion size control, diabetics need to put some control on carbohydrate input as well as having low-GI ones as EllisB says. Many dieticians worry more about fat and salt when talking about a balanced diet. Some of us would challenge these as the priority for diabetics so having a meter will enable you to determine what carb level suits you to match the right blood sugar level. Note that you are unlikely to be a T1, but it's possible. You are likely to be categorised as T2 and there are many 'flavours' within this category. Many can be diet controlled, some like me did have to 'starve' myself together with tablets and now insulin but that is less common. The meter will help guide you.
Daibell,
there does seem to be a group of people on here that favour 'low carb'. That goes against the evidence-based advice I am getting. As for testing. It is all too easy to become obsessive. A high reading out of no-where can feel like you have failed, but you might be going down with a cold, r you might have been rushing around, or you may not have washed your hands properly. Without injecting insulin, there is little you can do other than become depressed. It's early days for the OP, and for me. If the evidence from a quarterly HbA1c is that BG is coming under control, that's enough.
As for fat and salt, remember that as diabetics, we have to keep our blood pressure and cholesterol under tighter control too. The GDA of 95g (70 for women) fat and 30g(20g) saturates is quite generous - I'm managing to stay around 5g sat. fat.
Ellis
there does seem to be a group of people on here that favour 'low carb'. That goes against the evidence-based advice I am getting. As for testing. It is all too easy to become obsessive. A high reading out of no-where can feel like you have failed, but you might be going down with a cold, r you might have been rushing around, or you may not have washed your hands properly. Without injecting insulin, there is little you can do other than become depressed. It's early days for the OP, and for me. If the evidence from a quarterly HbA1c is that BG is coming under control, that's enough.
As for fat and salt, remember that as diabetics, we have to keep our blood pressure and cholesterol under tighter control too. The GDA of 95g (70 for women) fat and 30g(20g) saturates is quite generous - I'm managing to stay around 5g sat. fat.
Ellis
Hi EllisB. Yes, this is an interesting subject that has been much debated over the last year or so on this forum and in the media. At the end of the day we all have to make up our own minds. The problem is that some of this evidence-based advice, albeit from professionals, is often not based on scientific evidence but badly managed or reported research; the food industry as always is lurking in the background. Trying to break through all this is not easy. I don't subscribe to the excessive low-carb debate but from the many, many posters on this forum having carbs sensibly low, perhaps below 150'ish gm/day has helped them reduce weight and blood sugar. This to me is real evidence. I agree that you can become obsessive with measuring and before insulin I only measured perhaps once a week to check how a particular meal affected me and guess what; carbs for me were the culprit. There are many postings around the web about cholesterol and the finger of suspicion does point towards the pharmas who created statins manipulating the stats. There is a great 1 hour Youtube video on the subject. I gather from all this stuff that high blood cholesterol does not directly relate to high risk of heart attack and that the body needs cholesterol for many vital functions. I believe in 5-10 years time the cholesterol thing will have abated and statins will fade; we'll see.
phoenix
Expert
- Messages
- 5,671
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Pump
In Sweden they also use mmol/l for blood glucose readings on a meter. So no difference.
The next bit might be important for when you are told your HBA1c (ie 'average' over 3 months measurement : check what the unit is before comparing things on this (or any forum or website outside Sweden)
Sweden are supposed to have changed to use mmol/mol in 2010 . The UK now also uses this unit. You should in this case get a number that is probably anywhere from about 45mmol/mol upwards. These are called IFCC units. Hopefully no problem, everyone will be speaking the same language!
On this forum, you will find that many people still use percentage figures and some are still given them in this form by their doctors. There is a calculator on this site to change one to the other.
This next bit is only applicable if you are given a percentage figure for your HbA1c Which hopefully won't be the case. So ignore until them.
In the UK and most of the world the percentage figure is sometimes called DCCT aligned and sometimes called NGSP units. (the same thing. People don't mention that though because everyone is using the same percentage figure.
Everyone that is except for in 2 countries . One of which is Sweden. They used unique units called ' Mono S units'
NGSP units (as used elsewhere) are about 1% higher than the Swedish mono S HbA1c units.
Here's a convertor .
http://www.hba1c.nu/english.htm
As Daibell said, carbs are hotly debated here.
I would suggest that the evidence-based advice from our healthcare professionals is probably best for us newly-diagnosed diabetics. If it works for the majority... If that fails, Low carb is an option, but can be tough to follow.
You may well be right about statins. My Dr is letting me try to get my cholesterol under control without. My next Blood test is a fortnight away. There is no denying that my 7.1 last September was bad - even the LDL/HDL ratio was bad. TBH I did not need a blood test to predict that! I started from an extremely bad diet, but looking at the other folks on my X-PERT course, many of us do. Sometimes I think the medical profession promote lifestyle and diet, but they don't believe it themselves. I believe it is possible, and when diagnosed early, we have the opportunity to learn what works for us and develop our own management strategy.
Thanks Phoenix for the confirmation on units. I, uncharacteristically, tried to avoid being too technical. That means the OP and I in the same position as me - HCP's understand old units, as do long-term diabetics and old articles. Many articles about diabetes and cholesterol are in mg/dl so we must learn all systems in use if we are to do our own research.
We have probably added to the OP's bewilderment so my advice there remains balanced diet, aiming for lower GI meals. My meal this evening was : 1 skinless chicken breast fillet in paprika glaze, 1/4 savoy cabbage 1/4 sweetheart cabbage, 2 carrots, 1/2 leek, 4 large sprouts and 6 baby new potatoes.
HTH someone
Ellis
I would suggest that the evidence-based advice from our healthcare professionals is probably best for us newly-diagnosed diabetics. If it works for the majority... If that fails, Low carb is an option, but can be tough to follow.
You may well be right about statins. My Dr is letting me try to get my cholesterol under control without. My next Blood test is a fortnight away. There is no denying that my 7.1 last September was bad - even the LDL/HDL ratio was bad. TBH I did not need a blood test to predict that! I started from an extremely bad diet, but looking at the other folks on my X-PERT course, many of us do. Sometimes I think the medical profession promote lifestyle and diet, but they don't believe it themselves. I believe it is possible, and when diagnosed early, we have the opportunity to learn what works for us and develop our own management strategy.
Thanks Phoenix for the confirmation on units. I, uncharacteristically, tried to avoid being too technical. That means the OP and I in the same position as me - HCP's understand old units, as do long-term diabetics and old articles. Many articles about diabetes and cholesterol are in mg/dl so we must learn all systems in use if we are to do our own research.
We have probably added to the OP's bewilderment so my advice there remains balanced diet, aiming for lower GI meals. My meal this evening was : 1 skinless chicken breast fillet in paprika glaze, 1/4 savoy cabbage 1/4 sweetheart cabbage, 2 carrots, 1/2 leek, 4 large sprouts and 6 baby new potatoes.
HTH someone
Ellis
