• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Diabetics warned over blood sugar

R

raydavies

Well-Known Member
Messages
83
Having been told by my GP, Practice Nurse and dietician not to test, I find this quite bizarre!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpres ... RWwfheGdxA

I decided to start testing after reading up on the subject here and eagerly await delivery of my kit. It's a bit maddening that I have to pay for it, especially as on the one hand DUK are saying test, whilst their cohorts in the NHS are against it. It's like dealing with Janus.

It seems that finding this forum could be a lifesaver! Thanks for all the advice here.

Ray
 
I'm going seeing my Diabetics nurse on Tuesday about the diet pill thingy Xenicol so will be printing this article out as well - being Type 2 I've been told I dont need to test but like a lot of people on this forum I got the freebie monitor and buy my own strips.
 
I picked up this news in a little article in "The Daily EXpress"[not my usualpaper] which I read over coffee in Costa in Waitrose this morning. I have aleady written to the journalist in question pointing out that the penny pinching of the PCTs isn't allowing T2s to test unless they pay for their own equipment.
I'll let you all know i I get any response.
DUK are in favour of self testing and do campaign on it just in case people don't know
Hana
 
it's all about keepin those a1c's the same as non-db's at the end of the day, i thought we all new the lower the a1c's the better?! the nhs really needs make people realise this, though i'm not sure they realise it themselves.

is this the 'Ray Davies' btw?

howie
 
Keeping blood glucose levels to between 6.5% and 7.5% cuts the risk of long-term complications from the disease.
Click to expand...
This figures are too high.

My Dr has always supported testing, & approved my approach to diet. However, up to May 2008 (8 years after diagnosis) I followed the DUK/NHS diet recommendations. My HBA after diagnosis (8) has not been above 7, but I developed disabling leg muscle pains. (Neuropathy) Since then I followed a reduced carbohydrate diet, which cleared the pains & restored my mobility.

You will see other threads where the DUK diet is discussed. Its early days for you, & with care you should be able to keep the complications at bay for many years.
 
My hospital consultant said I should be testing more .When first diagnosed I was told the official advice was not to bother if T2. I think it should be up to the individual
 
It is up to the individual, If they have the means and the will to pay.
Hana
 
Ray,
IN MY OPINION (seems we have to preface every statement on this forum with these quite redundant words or somebody will jump down your throat)...
...self-testing is absolutely essential for diabetics, no matter what sort of diabetic you are. We have these incredible machines now which are easy and all-but-painless to use. It can be expensive depending on your doctor's attitude to prescribing strips, but it's worth it. Even if you end up testing only once a day (after an initial period of more frequent testing for purposes of experiment) it's 50p a day well spent.
Wouldn't you rather monitor your own condition rather than leave it to a doctor? I know I would. No matter how good they are, they can't be there for you every day. Self-testing is not a rebuke to doctors, it's just an act of a responsible adult, especially if you have loved ones who don't want to see your heath go to hell.
 
Even if self testing's had no other benefit then giving diabetics a feeling that they have control over what happens to their glucose levels, I would still consider it worthwhile for the beneficial effect on the diabetics' moral and psychological well being alone.

However, self testing clearly has more benefits than that.

Personally I find that as a diabetic I am called uppon to make decisions about what and how much I eat and the amount and intensity of exercise I take in an effort to keep my weight, blood glucose levels, blood pressure and blood lippid levels under control.

I find that the only way to make the right choices is:

- to obtain at least a basic understanding of how nutrition and exercise affect the targets I wish I wish to control. Sites like these one are a great source of nformation on this.

- to have an measure of how much food (carbohydrate, protein etc) I consume and the level an intensity of exercise I do. Maintaining a food and exercise diary is a useful way to do this and you will also need a way of breaking down your food intake into its separate nutritional aspects, I use a site on the net to do so.

- to get timely and accurate feedback on how the diet and exercise choices one has made affect blood sugar levels, lippid levels etc so that one can learn from his mistakes and make progressively better choices. To get such feedback I weigh myself daily using home scales, take home readings of my blood pressure (initially I did this a number of times a day but now only have to do this two or three time a week) and, most importantly, I use my glucose meter to monitor blood glucose levels about four to six times a day. It is a source of frustration to me that I can only have feedback on lippid levels when I have a lippid panel done by a lab, which is only every two or three months.

To illustrrate the usefuleness of the glucose testing, although I am a T2 on metformin only and have been assured by my doctor that I should not have any hypos, I have found that I can certainly do so if I have heavy exercise when my glucose levels are below 5. I did so the other day and ended up with a reading after the exercise, which I had to cut short, of just 3. Now I test before exercising and have a small snack if I am too low.

Regards
 
Back
Top