About 5 weeks ago I got really bad constipation, which led to massive anxiety on my part. My late father was a Diabetic who was insulin dependant, so I asked the Doctor at the time if I could have a blood fasting test. I had two blood tests which came back with the following numbers 50 and 51. I really don't understand what these numbers mean, whether they are high, low?, nobody has explained. I am seeing a Diabetic Nurse on the 10th. Many thanks for your help.
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Can someone explain my blood readings
- Thread starter Adrian74
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Hi @Adrian74 and welcome to the forum.
Was the test that was done called HbA1C ? From the numbers you quote, it seems likely that it was.
Pre-diabetes is an HbA1C between 42 and 47 mmol, Diabetes is 48 or above, so based on that it seems that you re diabetic, but only just. Many people are diagnosed with HbA1C levels of up to or even well over 100.
Many people who are only just diabetic find that they can push their Blood Glucose back into non-diabetic levels by eating fewer carbohydrates (both starches and sugars) and increasing Protein and a moderate amount of Fat (without medication or even additional exercise).
Was the test that was done called HbA1C ? From the numbers you quote, it seems likely that it was.
Pre-diabetes is an HbA1C between 42 and 47 mmol, Diabetes is 48 or above, so based on that it seems that you re diabetic, but only just. Many people are diagnosed with HbA1C levels of up to or even well over 100.
Many people who are only just diabetic find that they can push their Blood Glucose back into non-diabetic levels by eating fewer carbohydrates (both starches and sugars) and increasing Protein and a moderate amount of Fat (without medication or even additional exercise).
I am unsure what the test was called, but thank you very much for this information, it has been really helpful.
Kind of a had a feeling some months ago that things were not quite right. I was getting really thirsty in the middle of the night, and also feeling a bit lousy.
For the last 3 weeks I have cut out all the bad foods, trying to eat the right foods, cutting out all the fats and drinking more water, but the shock of the diet change has taken its toll on me, and I have ended up feeling even worse. My body needs more food, so I need to find the right balance.
There's no need to cut fats, it's the carbs that push up your blood glucose. So you may have a second look at the foods you are choosing.
This also means that you can likely eat more, and feel better!
Here's a link to a blog by one of our members you might like, I think it explains the basics pretty well: https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html
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Sorry, but I have to say that what we were all told was 'healthy' isn't exactly true, certainly not for Type 2 diabetics as can be easily proven by 2 measurements (before & after a meal) with a Blood Glucose meter !
Don't fear fats!, Fat is an essential Macronutrient so the following is true for all including non-diabetics:
If you stop eating Protein you die in weeks/months
If you stop eating Fats you die in months
If you stop eating Carbohydrates you live at a healthy weight for many many years.
Yet we are constantly told to eat lots of complex carbs and to reduce fats. But it's the carbs that are (mostly) making us fat! Eating Fat (without carbs) will very rarely make somebody gain body fat. Yet eating carbs without Fats will do so in almost every case!
You are probably feeling terrible precisely because you are eating too little fat and too few calories.
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Just to clarify:
I eat Low Carb - not No Carb.
It's almost impossible to eat No Carb, just as it's almost impossible to eat no Protein because almost all foods contain those, however until industrial processing became available, few non-animal sources of food contained Fats.
So yes, this mean that our ancestors ate mainly saturated fats rather than unsaturated, and they obviously didn't all die of heart disease!
I eat Low Carb - not No Carb.
It's almost impossible to eat No Carb, just as it's almost impossible to eat no Protein because almost all foods contain those, however until industrial processing became available, few non-animal sources of food contained Fats.
So yes, this mean that our ancestors ate mainly saturated fats rather than unsaturated, and they obviously didn't all die of heart disease!
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Hi, and welcome. Fat in the diet is not stored as bodyfat. On the other hand, carbohydrate is digested to glucose and if there's a surplus it either hangs around in the bloodstream (raising your blood glucose indicators) or is stored as bodyfat.
You may need a complete reset on what you think of as "healthy eating". I did.
Unfortunately the official dietary advice (for diabetics and no-diabetics alike) is still to base meals around starchy carbohydrates. The promotion of this way of eating since the 1980s has been followed by what the media call the "obesity epidemic" and the rise in numbers of people with T2 diabetes. That really shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone, but the advice was aimed at reducing heart disease (unnecessarily, as the drop in smoking meant the predicted heart disease levels never happened).
Up to then, T2 was next to unknown in the general population and weight loss advice was to cut out sugar and starchy carbohydrates. The low-carb way of eating is really not at all anything new.
MrsA2
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Remember too to drink lots of water and add salt to your food. You've probably moved away from processed foods which contain salt and it is a nutrient our bodies need and you might not be getting enough anymore.
Dotn worry, all these changes take time to adapt to, and it's a big learning curve. Be patient and take time
