Blood Sugar Levels / Insulin

Janrad49 said:

i am a type 2 diabetic ,I have had metforming & lixitide in the past ,I am now on insulin once a day & struggling to control my blood sugar levels which are over the past week pre breakfast 9.2,7.4,8.2,6.9.,9.7 ,7.7 ,&7.8 pre evening meal 10.1,7.7,5.4,5.3,5.8,6.3,&7.8 post evening meal 11.2,10.3. 13.7,11.6,14.4,9.1,& 13.3 i last saw te diabetic nurse in February this yr was due to she her in August but had to cancel due to hols now can’t see her till 31st Oct I don’t feel as I know what I am doing or what I should eat .i need to loose weight but not sure how low carb & insulin will work please can any one help & advise me as it’s all getting me down .

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I was on insulin for T2D and went low carb. It will be very helpful if you could give more details. Are you on a slow acting insulin like Lantus, or are you also injecting a fast acting insulin like Novarapid after meals. How many units of insulin are you injecting a day? Also - do you know how many grams of sugary and starchy carbs you are eating in a day?

Sorry - just re-read your post. I see you are on slow acting insulin once a day. It will still be very helpful if you could give details of how many grams of starchy and sugary carbs you eat a day - or if you are not sure a typical days menu would be helpful. Also how many units do you inject?

Have you been advised to increase your insulin units by that diabetic nurse? Did you start on 24units?

Janrad49 said:

I am on humulin 1 injecting 24 units at bedtime . Not sue about herbs I usually have porridge for breakfast made with half water & soya milk lunch can be a salad with pawns or chicken or ham plus no added sugar muller yogurt plus apple .evening meal can be veg & meat or stir fry & meat plus Greek yogurt full fat .i have also been experimenting with cauliflower rice ,quinoa ,or giant cous cous this is probably all wrong I try to cut out bread ,potatoes,rice pasta .

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You have made a good start on eating low carb by ditching sugar and the starchy carbs like bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. It still looks as though the carbs are too high though. If I ate porridge my blood sugars would spike alarmingly. Also cous cous is a simple carb similar to white pasta - and again if I ate cous cous I would get a high spike. The cauliflower rice is good and so is spiralised courgette.

It is good that you are testing before and after meals. If you keep a diary of what you are eating and pre meal and 2 hours after meal readings you will get a good idea which foods you can eat safely and which foods are giving you those very high readings. I found that weighing my food and working out how many carbs I was eating was very helpful also. To come off the insulin I had to drop to 20g carbs a day, but you may find that you don't need to go as low as that.

The danger with injecting insulin and going low carb is that you get some very low readings, but as you have already started going lower carb and your blood sugars are still too high - it doesn't look as though you are in danger of that happening. But it is still important to keep testing so that you make sure that it does not happen. When my blood sugars started dropping I began to slowly lower the insulin dose by one unit at a time so that I didn't go too low. It is important that you adjust your insulin downwards as your blood sugars drop. I am not medically qualified but am just letting you know what I had to do when I went low carb.

I'll tag Daisy to give you some Newbie information @daisy1. Hopefully this is all I have to do to tag Daisy as I have not tried to tag her before.

Janrad49 said:

The nurse who stared me off on the insulin started me off on 10 units & told me to increase it by 2 units each time I haven’t seen anyone since February & the next appointment I have been offered is 31st October

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Like @Krystyna23040 states eating lower carb requires LESS insulin rather than more.
What has your lowest reading of any bg whilst on the humulin insulin? That has to be the concern.
Monitor heavily at least 7 bg finger pricks tests a day.
You must be attentive when changing insulin and food dynamics.
Are you prepared to monitor yourself heavily for the next few week/months?

Janrad49 said:

I have been as low as four if going low carb will achieve the weight loss & lower insulin I will try my best what ever it takes to achieve this

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I absolutely agree with @ickihun that you must be really vigilant and monitor heavily - especially as you have gone as low as 4. It is vital that you don't go into a hypo.

@Janrad49

Hello Janrad49 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 be able to 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.
  

Note that if you have excess weight the insulin may be fighting insulin resistance. The Low carb diet should help reduce weight and then the insulin will have more effect and should need to be reduced.