Blood Sugar Levels

[rooneyw]

As a newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic it cam,e as quite a shock but hey ho worst things can happen!!! my doctor prescribed me with Gliclazide which i take 2 in the morning after breakfast ( shredded wheat mmmm) anyway i thiught that my blood sugar count would have settled down by now. i test it when i get home from work before dinner and it can read anything from 5 to 8.5 ??? but when i test in the morning ( as soon as i get up ) it can be as high as 11 or 12 and i am becoming frustrated. I have given up any treats, not that i ate badly in the first place but i have followed Doctors and Dieticians advise to the letter! Am i doing something wrong.

 

[cugila]

As a newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic it cam,e as quite a shock but hey ho worst things can happen!!! my doctor prescribed me with Gliclazide which i take 2 in the morning after breakfast ( shredded wheat mmmm) anyway i thiught that my blood sugar count would have settled down by now. i test it when i get home from work before dinner and it can read anything from 5 to 8.5 ??? but when i test in the morning ( as soon as i get up ) it can be as high as 11 or 12 and i am becoming frustrated. I have given up any treats, not that i ate badly in the first place but i have followed Doctors and Dieticians advise to the letter! Am i doing something wrong.

Hi and Welcome to the Forum.
Quite possibly you might be doing something wrong, however it may not be your fault. This Forum doesn't always go with the Dietary advice on offer from the Dieticians etc. Here is the advice we give out to Newbies, have a read and see the difference.

Here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics.This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different .

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such a bread, potatoes, pasta and rice also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!

As a Type 2 the latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l.
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.
If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do 30 minutes moderate exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

 

[Bluenosesol]

Hi Rooneyw,

not sure when you were diagnosed, but BG's will come down slowly at first.
In the blood stream are the red blood cells, which are made of a molecule, haemoglobin. Glucose sticks to the haemoglobin to make a 'glycosylated haemoglobin' molecule, called haemoglobin A1C or HbA1C. The more glucose in the blood, the more haemoglobin A1C or HbA1C will be present in the blood. Red cells live for 8 -12 weeks before they are replaced. By measuring the HbA1C it can tell you how high your blood glucose has been on average over the last 8-12 weeks.

You can not "flush out" all of your HBA1C in an instant or even enough to get you down to preferred levels it will take a few months, so you need to be patient initially and the results will come .

Good Luck - Steve.

 

[rooneyw]

i was diagnosed in January of this year and it came as quite a shock, i am 43 years old and 11stone, i consider myself to be quite active, i play golf at least once a week and i am a carer for my 18 year old disabled son, so half the time i am rushing round like a wasp in a jar!!!!!! when i was diagnosed they told me my sugar level was 18, i didnt really know what this meant until they told me that its not good and should be between 4 & 7.
thanks for the advise it just get a liitle frustrating when you think you are doing your best but one day its up and another down..

 

[Synonym]

Hello rooneyw and welcome to the forum.

You say that your BG level is up and down very erratically and that is undoubtedly down to what you are eating. You may be eating well but your diet may not be good for diabetes.

Did your doctor and the DN say that you should eat ‘plenty of starchy carbohydrates’ – I would be amazed if they didn’t given what you say about your BG levels! That is the very worst advice and following it will make you ill. :roll:

Cugila has given you very good advice and if you follow that and search through this forum for the ‘success stories’ and do the same your control will improve.

You need to get hold of a meter and find out what your food is doing to you. The doctor or nurse may give you meter and strips but if not you need to buy your own as this is your only life.
Test, test, test!! 8)