Blood Pressure And Cholestrol Increase!

Hi Cahar and welcome to the Forum. As you are new I’ll tag in @daisy1 for her useful info post.
First congratulations on your reduction in HbA1c that’s a good drop you’ve achieved there.
Cholesterol levels are always a difficult one, but you need to get a breakdown of the cholesterol counts, HDL, LDL and triglycerides. Are you on a low carbohydrate diet? Have you lost weight? Sorry for all the questions but it’ll help us help you. My total cholesterol has gone up but both my Trig/HDL ratio and my total cholesterol/HDL ratio have improved. Drs tend to just look at the total. The reason why I ask if you have lost weight is because significant weigh loss can cause cholesterol to climb. I expect they are wanting you to start on a statin, but bear in mind that they can raise blood sugars.
As for your blood pressure, before accepting any additional meds for high BP I would get a meter and check your readings at home. My BP is always raised in the surgery (white coat syndrome!) but normal at home.

You cannot judge anything at all from your total cholesterol. It is fairly meaningless. You need the full breakdown of HDL, LDL and triglycerides before you start to panic!

What was your blood pressure before and now?

Everything takes a while to settle down. Presumably you have gone LCHF fo achieve that improvement in your HbA1c? And have you lost some weight? As soon as you lose weight, the lipids that we’re previously trapped in your fat cells start to circulate in your blood, and your cholesterol might have a temporary ‘blip’ going up. But, on the positive side, your HDL will likely have gone up and your Triglicerides down (both very good things) and your actual heart health risk will be improved. Always ask for a printout of a full breakdown of your lipid panel, post results on here and somebody knowledgeable will tell you what they mean.

But take away message is ‘Don’t panic’ your Cholesterol will go back down as you get settled into LCHF in the long term.

As for Blood Pressure, get online and buy yourself a monitor, make sure it’s an upper arm one (the others are useless) and, if you can afford it, a reputable brand, like your doctor uses, eg Omron.

Take your blood pressure every day and record it. We use an excellent app called iBP, our doc loves it! BP fluctuates massively in the shortest space of time! Hurried to the doctor’s surgery? Couldn’t get parked? Frustrated by a delay? You name it, it causes temporary rises in BP. Find a time of day when you are usually relaxed and chilled out, allow yourself a 10 minute ‘chill down’ time, then take your BP 3 times, recording the average. You will probably find that your BP is fine and you have been suffering from ‘white coat syndrome’ from anxiety!

Good luck!

@Cahar

Hello Cahar and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you need to and someone will help.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

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 235,000 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

Reduce your 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

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.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

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.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
  
  
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
  

Cahar said:

Hello Rachox,
Many thanks for your reply. Yes I have lost 32lbs in total and quickly shrinking out of all my clothes. Good excuse to go shopping! So perhaps that explains the up in cholestrol. I have an appointment with the nurse on the 13th Sept so can ask about the ratios etc then and see what she says. I'm not keen to take anymore meds such as statin or up the BP meds. I'd rather tackle it all with diet if that is possible. I like the idea of a monitor for BP, will look into it.
Thanks again. Cahar

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My GP and the nurses at the surgery always take an average of my home BP readings, which I do daily for one week leading up to routine appts. Since low carbing, loosing weight and getting my blood sugars under control I’ve dropped one of the two BP meds I was on, Amlodipine, another med that can raised blood sugar levels!
It can get expensive, this weight loss! I’ve gone down three sizes and taken to shopping in charity shops, whilst donating my ‘big clothes’ to them!

Rachox said:

..... I’ve dropped one of the two BP meds I was on, Amlodipine, another med that can cause raised blood sugar levels!

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I can concur with this. I was prescribed 10mg Amlodipine after a BP reading of 183/109. Since then I have been struggling to get my BG down from an average of 12, plus permanent headaches and spaced out feeling. In addition, my BP wasn’t falling low enough.

I asked for a different BP med (Lisiniprol, which also helps protect kidneys) and within 48 hours my BG was averaging 7.1, no more headaches, and. BP down.

I can now work on reducing that pesky BG even more, and address the cholesterol problem which is similar to yours. I refuse to take statins again.