Deflated

[MrsBaz37]

After experiencing tiredness and fatigue for some weeks, my GP requested a full bloods screen. Today I’ve found my HbA1c is 48, serum cholesterol is 7.1 I have low vitamin D and two of my liver function tests are abnormal (although that’s not new and has been investigated). My last HbA1c in late 2013 was 44.

The thing is I’m feeling pretty gutted as for the past three to four months I’ve been doing regular exercise and have slimmed down. I don’t weigh myself but clothes have certainly felt better. We don’t eat processed foods and cook most meals from scratch. There’s a history of diabetes in the family with both parents having had heart attacks (my dad at 34) and my mum had a stroke at 75 last year. I DO NOT want to end up with major health issues.

I’ve read some success stories on here in terms of reducing both HbA1c and cholesterol to within normal levels through low carb diets - it’s encouraging to know I can put this into remission. I know there are things I’ve been doing that haven’t helped (penchant for sharing bags of chocolate with husband, high calorie zero alcohol drinks) but I’m dead nervous about not being able to change this.

Can anyone offer any tips? Is blood sugar monitoring worth it? My GP wants to retest in a month so can I feasibly make a change to the numbers so they are heading in the right direction in just four weeks?

Thank you all in advance

 

[Art Of Flowers]

Maybe get a blood glucose meter. See https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/th...-very-appreciated-please.204345/#post-2705107

Test when you wake up and before and 2 hrs after you eat. You will find what foods raise your blood sugar.

See https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/visual-guides for which foods are low carb.

 

[Melgar]

Hi and welcome @MrsBaz37 these feeling are not unusual, especially as you have been working hard to so bring your blood sugars down. The positives, you lost weight. I would suggest that you are still consuming too many carbs for your system to cope.
The thing with type 2 diabetes is your pancreas does not produce enough insulin , it can produce a lot, but not enough. I see that you have diabetes in your family. So genetics are playing a role.

Firstly, a very high percentage of people with type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes have insulin resistance. That means your body has some resistance to insulin. Insulin is a hormone that allows glucose/blood sugars to enter your cells. So in order to overcome this resistance your pancreas has to produce more, a lot more. Add to this mix is the food you consume. So your pancreas is having to churn out enough insulin to counter your insulin resistance AND the food you consume. That is a very simplified version. At some point a person with type 2 finds their pancreas tops out. It simply cannot produce enough insulin. It's produce a lot, sometimes a hell of a lot, but it's still not enough. So your blood sugar has nowhere to go because of the resistance to insulin. The sugars float around in your blood, so at some point your body converts it into fat whilst still having raised blood sugars. At 48, your blood sugars are raised, but not high. There is not much difference between 44 and 48, but I still know it's a concern for you because its gone up and not down despite your hard work..

Now it's far easier and quicker to reduce what you eat than to lower your insulin resistance. (Just so you know, exercise helps to reduce insulin resistance). My suggestion would be to get a glucometer. This would help you to understand what meals are too much for your pancreas. Its important to know that not everyone's pancreas is the same in how much insulin it can produce.

I test first thing in the morning before I have had anything to eat or drink. Usually within the first 5 mins or so. Then I test before and after every meal. I test after the first mouthful and then 2 hours after. If my second reading is within 2 mmol\ls of my first I know my body has coped with the food I have ate. It seems to me that you are still eating too many carbs in your meals, despite the exercise you are doing to burn those carbs off.

Many members here do low carb, some very low carb. The very low carb diets works for a lot of people and they have brought their sugars right down, some from very high levels of over 100. So it's doable. You are already ahead of the game as you cook your meals from scratch. Reducing your carbs will mean reducing or stopping high carb food like pastas, rice, potatoes, pastries, sweets, beer, some carby root crops like carrots and parsnips, sugary deserts. You need to find what your body can cope with. One of our members, @JoKalsbeek produced a blog called 'The Nutritional Thingy' it can be found at http://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html A very infornative and helpful blog.

 

[ajbod]

Blood Glucose monitoring is to most on here ESSENTIAL. it is the only way you can weed out the foods YOUR body struggles to handle. Random testing is meaningless, test around meals. Just before first bite, and 2 hours after finishing. Provided the rise from start to finish is no more than 2 mmol, and not higher than 7.8 mmol. Then your body can cope with that meal. If the rise is more, something in the meal was too carby to handle. By further testing that meal, with less of the carby foods, or even removing them altogether, you will get a healthy for YOU, meal for your repertoire. as your recipe book grows, you will have meals you don't need to test, or at least not very often, things do change from time to time. Eventually you will reach a point where merely looking at foods, you will know whether it's worth eating or not.
Welcome to the forum, well done for losing some weight, but you may well find if you do try low carb, the weight will most likely go a lot faster.

 

[Rachox]

Hi @MrsBaz37 and welcome to the forum. You have already received some good advice. I just wanted to add that having a repeat HbA1c in one month does not give an accurate measurement of progress. Let me explain, an HbA1c measures the excess glucose stuck to red blood cells (called glycated cells). Red blood cells live around 12 weeks, so after four weeks there will still be a lot of old glycated cells. Tests are usually done at least three months apart.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

After experiencing tiredness and fatigue for some weeks, my GP requested a full bloods screen. Today I’ve found my HbA1c is 48, serum cholesterol is 7.1 I have low vitamin D and two of my liver function tests are abnormal (although that’s not new and has been investigated). My last HbA1c in late 2013 was 44.

The thing is I’m feeling pretty gutted as for the past three to four months I’ve been doing regular exercise and have slimmed down. I don’t weigh myself but clothes have certainly felt better. We don’t eat processed foods and cook most meals from scratch. There’s a history of diabetes in the family with both parents having had heart attacks (my dad at 34) and my mum had a stroke at 75 last year. I DO NOT want to end up with major health issues.

I’ve read some success stories on here in terms of reducing both HbA1c and cholesterol to within normal levels through low carb diets - it’s encouraging to know I can put this into remission. I know there are things I’ve been doing that haven’t helped (penchant for sharing bags of chocolate with husband, high calorie zero alcohol drinks) but I’m dead nervous about not being able to change this.

Can anyone offer any tips? Is blood sugar monitoring worth it? My GP wants to retest in a month so can I feasibly make a change to the numbers so they are heading in the right direction in just four weeks?

Thank you all in advance

Hi @MrsBaz37 ,

Your HbA1c is still at a level where it's pretty easy to get it back into the normal range. I don't know whether you can do it in those 4 weeks, but you likely can get it to drop enough to be encouraging. Ditch the carbs where you can. As you cook most meals from scratch, it should just be some minor adjustments.... Move to extra fats and protein to replace the carbs you're missing out on, as per the Nutritional Thingy. No idea what you're eating/drinking besides the chocolate and the drinks, but even just dropping those'd help... Test around your meals and see the difference between what works for you and what makes you spike, it'll make it a lot clearer whether you're headed in the right direction and which meals help you do that. But yes, getting better blood sugar control can be done. Between going for that and I assume, a decent dose of vitamin D supplements, I'm sure you can be feeling a lot less fatigued, fairly soon. Should impact your liver values too, assuming the cause is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which should improve on a low carb diet as well. Life can get better. Hang in there.
Hugs,
Jo

 

[ajbod]

because 48 is Borderline, and there is a small allowable inaccuracy anyway the second test is necessary for diagnosis. Due to the inaccuracy your 48 may actually be slightly too high or too low. As could happen with the second test. One month is not enough time between the tests, it should be 3 months. However, if you were to go strict Keto until the second test, I'm confident the affect on your Hba1c, even after only one month, will be sufficient to drop your Hba1c enough to swerve a diagnosis. When you have your second test, i would suggest doing it 12 to 14 hours fasted, this way if they repeat the Cholesterol test, you will have a more accurate figure to work on, I'm convinced the dropping of the fasting recommendation is purely a ploy to push ever more (victims) on to Statins.

 

[MrsBaz37]

because 48 is Borderline, and there is a small allowable inaccuracy anyway the second test is necessary for diagnosis. Due to the inaccuracy your 48 may actually be slightly too high or too low. As could happen with the second test. One month is not enough time between the tests, it should be 3 months. However, if you were to go strict Keto until the second test, I'm confident the affect on your Hba1c, even after only one month, will be sufficient to drop your Hba1c enough to swerve a diagnosis. When you have your second test, i would suggest doing it 12 to 14 hours fasted, this way if they repeat the Cholesterol test, you will have a more accurate figure to work on, I'm convinced the dropping of the fasting recommendation is purely a ploy to push ever more (victims) on to Statins.

Thanks for the response. I wondered why my bloods are taken without fasting beforehand but getting individuals on to statins makes sense - GP practices get bonuses for diagnosis and prescriptions after all. Even if they prescribe, I will not be taking them as I feel I can reverse it through diet. Thankfully my GP is good and I think she’ll support a lifestyle change first to see if that works.
The replies to my post have been super useful and I’ve already downloaded Diet Doctor and ordered a glucometer to test regularly. I’m aiming to go low carb but not Keto, maybe at around 80g per day. Considering the daily recommendation for adults is 260g (!!!) I’m convinced I’ll see changes. After having a look at my diet I realised I was overdoing it with foods such as granola in the mornings, too much chocolate and zero alcohol drinks that on examination contain tons of sugar. I’m feeling better now that I know I can battle it and that others have had success with a diet and lifestyle overhaul

 

[ajbod]

You have to realise many on here would poo poo that daily recommendation. It's not the sugar consumed that is the primary problem, all carbs are processed by the digestive system into Glucose. So the sugar that causes the problems (although consumed sugar is a problem), is produced from following a "healthy" diet. I gave up Statins after a very careful consideration, I've had 3 strokes, only 2 official. My Cholesterol level is around the 6 mark. 45 years ago, i was given, at the time a very new drug for severe acne. (Roaccutane) basically very high doses of vitamin A, which can be very bad for the Liver, so for about 6 months i had full Liver function tests done every week. Funnily my Cholesterol level then, was the same as it is now. On Atorvastatin 80mg i had terrible leg pains, and struggled to walk as i couldn't raise my heels of the floor. Within 4 days of stopping i could jump like a Masai.

 

[AloeSvea]

After experiencing tiredness and fatigue for some weeks, my GP requested a full bloods screen. Today I’ve found my HbA1c is 48, serum cholesterol is 7.1 I have low vitamin D and two of my liver function tests are abnormal (although that’s not new and has been investigated). My last HbA1c in late 2013 was 44.

The thing is I’m feeling pretty gutted as for the past three to four months I’ve been doing regular exercise and have slimmed down. I don’t weigh myself but clothes have certainly felt better. We don’t eat processed foods and cook most meals from scratch. There’s a history of diabetes in the family with both parents having had heart attacks (my dad at 34) and my mum had a stroke at 75 last year. I DO NOT want to end up with major health issues.

I’ve read some success stories on here in terms of reducing both HbA1c and cholesterol to within normal levels through low carb diets - it’s encouraging to know I can put this into remission. I know there are things I’ve been doing that haven’t helped (penchant for sharing bags of chocolate with husband, high calorie zero alcohol drinks) but I’m dead nervous about not being able to change this.

Can anyone offer any tips? Is blood sugar monitoring worth it? My GP wants to retest in a month so can I feasibly make a change to the numbers so they are heading in the right direction in just four weeks?

Thank you all in advance

Hi there. My question would be - how committed are you for going the heart health route? Absolutely - get a blood glucose meter and eat to the meter to get out of the prediabetes zone - that can only be good for your general health. But in terms of knowing what's going on in your arteries (ie artheroschlerosis/artery hardening or not?) - you might need to have more fullsome discussions with your doc/medical team, and maybe pay for some revelatory tests? This goes beyond the very limited cholesterol level and statins treatment, which only gives limited information. And goodness knows, statins appear not to be the preventative they are said to be in some medical and pharmaceutical circles, according to stats and studies I have read about or seen. (unless you are a middle aged man or olde4r who has already had a cardio vascular event, apparently, is the oft quoted exception.)

Good that you already know about the vitamin D level thing. You can make some simple 'lifestyle' changes to get that up, as in get out into sunlight during safe-sun times, and/or take a supplement, and get your levels checked. Maybe also have a look at your vitamin B12 level too? As that can have huge health consequences.

 

[derekhansen]

Like you I was diagnosed with a borderline Hb1ac (mine was 49) and like you I was determined not to go onto medications. I started a low carb lifestyle keeping the daily consumption to around 50g. My Hb1ac was down to 37 after 3 months and a year down the line I have lost over 4 stone and feel so much better for it. So it can be done.