Control by diet and excercise

[happycat]

I was diagnosed as type 2 in September. I am trying to control my diabetes by diet and exercise. I have come from 85 to 46 and my glucose levels are now around 5.5 - 6 before meals and about 7 -7.5 after. My doctor tells me that this is just a "honeymoon" that will not last for long. He says it will be tablets first for a while and then insulin injections. (I am needle phobic and pricking my finger to test is quite an ordeal for me, yes, I am a coward.) Is this so? If you control in this way how long has it lasted? Feeling a bit low about this as I have tried so hard. Any comments/experiences welcome.

 

[kentish maid]

I have had type 2 diabetes for 10yrs still diet and exercise controlled last hba1c 41 luckily I am still fully mobile and as I am a widow I can suit myself what I eat.

 

[happycat]

Thank you for your reply. I will try to emulate what you have done. My doctor is not supportive and is very keen to just prescribe medicine. He says that is the only real solution. I have never had much illness and am not overweight and lead an active life so it has been a "bolt form the blue" Thanks again for your help.

 

[hanadr]

I'm a genetic T2 and was also told I would "progress" to more medication and eventually insulin. I vowed I WOULD NOT!
I started 10 years ago on 3 x 500mg Metformin plus 1/2 a Gliclazide. I now use 2 x 500mg Metformin an VERY LOW CARB Diet.[no more gliclazide] My Hb A1c hasn't been out of the 5s for years.
I don't test on my fingers, My Freestyle Lite meter allows me to test on the inside of my fore-arm, which i barely feel. I tend to test once a day, because I have to pay for my strips. [ direct from Abbott Diabetes Care is cheapest!]
Not eating much that can put my BG up means my system doesn't get stressed and I definitely don't need any more medication. However, on a conference a while back, I discovered that most of the people there, had progressed to insulin in about 5 years.
I put that down to self fulfilling prophecies.
Hana

 

[candyfloss]

I am a type 2 and have remained on a low carb diet and exercise for the last 3 or 4 years. There may be no way of knowing whether this unhelpful quack you are seeing is going to be proved right in the long term but whatever the outcome he obviously is doing a very good job of getting you depressed when he should be encouraging you to suggest ways of avoiding going on medication/insulin as long as possible.
The first thing I would do is go to NHS Choices and search for other doctors/surgeries in the area near to you and see what other people have said about them in the reviews. Most surgeries now have websites of their own and its worth looking at them too. I would definately change to another surgery even if it meant further to travel. In the meantime you are doing doing great and dont get despondent.

 

[lrw60]

Hi Happycat,

When I was diagnosed type 2 several years ago I was told I would go on medication for life. Last year after losing weight by dieting I was taken off ALL my diabetes meds because it had gone. Not cured, the dn said it might come back if I put the weight back on, so far I have kept it off. I am using the posts on this forum to help me create a lower carb diet for myself. Less carbs now might mean I will be diabetes free for the rest of my life. In some unrelated cases, my father snapped his spine in an accident and was told he would never walk again. It took him 18 months to prove them wrong. I was told that if I didn't have cortizone injections in my wrist I would lose the use of my hand. I refused to have that muck in me and resorted to diet and excercise. My wrist is fine. The rest of me however......!
Lee.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Hi happycat, I dont low carb, well not to the levels that some people do and far from progressing onto more and more medication I have gone the other way over the last 5 years, I started off taking insulin 4 injections a day and metformin the maximum dose, after 12 months I came off insulin and after Xmas this year I reduced my metformin down to two tablets a day from the four a day I was on. So its got nothing to do with low carb diets and everything to do with control, however you manage it.

My sister who is in her mid 60's now and my mother in law, a long term T2 who is now in her 70's are both well controlled, neither of them as a low carber and my MIL is diet only and my sis is just on Metformin so no one has to become obsessed with low carbing unless they want to. A reduction in carbs is a good idea and some thought about the right kind of carbs wont hurt but thats all that is necessary IMHO.

There is a very rare type of diabetes called LADA (Latent Autoimmune Disease in Adults) or T1.5 diabetes that is seen in some slim T2's but also bear in mind that 20% of diagnosed T2's are not overweight and they are not all LADA. But should in the unlikely event of you at some stage being diagnosed as LADA or T1.5 then you will have to go onto insulin, but even if this does occur you will get used to insulin injections just as I did and just as every T1 has to. But for the immediate future put that thought out of your head, your doctor is spelling out the worst scenario, and with a little care you should have nothing to fear but fear itself

 

[happycat]

Thank you for your replies. I really appreciate you taking the trouble to reply. I feel more encouraged to keep going and do my best to keep things under control. It is very good to hear of people's experiences. LADA 1.5 has been mentioned but I have been told that the treatment is the same. I guess that if it was that type diet and exercise would make no difference, but I don't know. Does anyone on the forum know? You have cheered me up no end.