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Diagnosed - advice welcomed

C

Cluuur

Member
Messages
24
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi there,

I am currently living abroad and have just been prescribed metformin (2x500mg daily) after a 11.4mmol/L fasting BG level.

I am reticent to start taking this without first adjusting my diet and activity levels and trying to improve my sleep and anxiety, which have all been less than ideal for a while now (plus I have PCOS which I believe affects insulin resistance).

My doctor is saying that diet alone will only work for a BG level of 9 or lower and that it will only reduce mine from 11.4 to ~9.5 without the metformin. Is this true?

Like I say, my preference would be to avoid medication if possible - is this realistic or am I too far gone for this?

Thanks, Claire
 
Hi @Cluuur , welcome to the forum.

Did you have your hba1c tested as well? That one tells you something about your average blood glucose level over the past 3 months.

Either, way, we have many members who got their numbers down to healthy levels on diet changes alone, and we also have many members who found they need a bit of help from medication.
Cluuur said:
Like I say, my preference would be to avoid medication if possible - is this realistic or am I too far gone for this?
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Only time can tell. A glucose meter to use at home to test before and after meals can be a powerful tool to find the foods that go well with your diabetes.
I think you'll like to have a read of this, written by one of our T2 members: https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html
 
You're entirely realistic. There'll always be exceptions to the rule, usually due to comorbidities or medications, but yeah... Being in the PCOS camp myself, reducing carbs worked a charm.
 
Thank you both for your replies. I have just picked up my glucometer and have freaked myself out with my first pre-dinner reading of 16.6 - waiting to do my 2hr test, but I wasn't expecting such a high reading after eating what I thought were the right things for the last few days.

Already wondering if I'm kidding myself that I can reduce my BG without meds
JoKalsbeek said:
You're entirely realistic. There'll always be exceptions to the rule, usually due to comorbidities or medications, but yeah... Being in the PCOS camp myself, reducing carbs worked a charm.
Click to expand...
 
What is your typical days meals. What we’ve been lead to believe are the right things aren’t necessarily the right things for a diabetic. If you can list the type of food you eat then the members can help and advise with their experiences.
 
Hi @Cluuur - diet makes a much bigger difference than Metformin for me.

But if your doctor has prescribed it then think about trying Metformin and diet to start with?

You can always drop the Metformin later if you like.
 
Today I've had:-

Breakfast - 2 scrambled eggs with red onion, pepper and mushroom, 2xbacon and one small slice of wholewheat toast (I'll be cutting that out tomorrow)
Lunch - salad (iceberg, spinach, cuc, tom, radish, onion, mush with small amount of ham, grilled hallumi and avocado). I did put a bit of salad cream on it, which I'll omit tomorrow.
Dinner - airfried chicken breast (1tsp sunflower oil and small amount of seasonings) with boiled cauliflower, leek and Brussels sprouts.

Other than the toast and salad cream, the majority of the carbs seem to be from the veg, so maybe I need to rethink my veg/salad choices.
MissMuffett said:
What is your typical days meals. What we’ve been lead to believe are the right things aren’t necessarily the right things for a diabetic. If you can list the type of food you eat then the members can help and advise with their experiences.
Click to expand...
 
Antje77 said:
Did you retest after washing your hands to make sure it wasn't a rogue test result?
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I didn't think to. I will do my 2hr retest and see what comes out. I'll try not to take this too much to heart and see what my fasting number is in the morning.
 
I love this post, not the food, (although that’s very nearly excellent) I just love your effort keep that up and you can do anything! Inspired
 
@Cluuur Fasting BG numbers are the last one to normalise when using diet (either Low Carb or Utra Low Calorie) to reduce/control diabetes.
The reason for this is that Dawn Phenomenon or Foot on the Floor are fairly universal until our livers become used to what are 'normal BG levels, but feel very low to our high BG accustomed bodies. I rarely bothered measuring Fasting BG. only testing before each meal and the follow-up 2 hrs after first bite.

Measure and control the things which you can control. Rather than trying to control the amount of glucose that your liver puts into your bloodstream.
All you can control is eating food which limit the BG rise from the carbohydrates you digest. But that can be enough to take somebody from having an HbA1C in high double figures, to a predicted one of around 48 in only 3 or 4 months. The reason for it taking as long as a few months is because HbA1C measures glycated red blood cells which have a life of around 3 months and so is an average of what was happening to blood glucose levels in the least 3 months. Thus it takes over 2 months to get a big reduction in HbA1C.
 
Antje77 said:
Did you retest after washing your hands to make sure it wasn't a rogue test result?
Click to expand...
My 2hr test was 16.7 so definitely not a rogue result but hopefully means my dinner was a good option for me going forward.
 
@Cluuur I was diagnosed with a random glucose test of over 17mmol/l and HbA1c of 91.
I did manage to take medication for a few weeks, but it made me really ill so I stopped it. My test at 6 months for HbA1c was 41, and 7 years later it is 43, just by eating low carb.
Watch that PCOS if you are eating low carb with natural fats - on the low carb forum I have chuckled as I read the 'I'm pregnant!!!' posts - my sister fell pregnant after a two week visit here, after moaning about the food and the lack of biscuits. They were about to qualify for fertility treatment.
I cook chicken thighs in my ancient Tefal Actifry, no need for any additions, then do the mushrooms in the juices left after cooking the chicken. We do need to have fats - they are the essential building blocks for so much around the body.
 
Cluuur said:
My 2hr test was 16.7 so definitely not a rogue result but hopefully means my dinner was a good option for me going forward.
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Yes, that's basically no BG rise at all from your dinner. Isn't that great (though with good low carb food like that I would have been mazed if it had shown much of a rise. Now all you need is a few sleeps (with no food overnight) and those numbers will start to drop provided you don't mistakenly eat something high in carbs
But don't panic if you make a mistake, because you can always re-group and recover in about 1 day. At least with testing meals you know 2 hrs later if you made a mistake rather than waiting 3 months for an HbA1C test to tell you!
 
Cluuur said:
My 2hr test was 16.7 so definitely not a rogue result but hopefully means my dinner was a good option for me going forward.
Click to expand...
Keep a close eye on your numbers, and just in case they won't drop, don't hesitate to contact your HCP with your information.
There is always the possibility of a different type of diabetes.

Good luck, and fingers crossed your numbers will drop!
 
And this is the best way to start - don't overthink it, start somewhere, use your BG meter, and adapt as you go.

You're already making positive changes, which is the most important step. Keep tweaking meals, keep looking for areas you can swap (e.g. if you like brocolli, it's about half the carbs per 100g compared to brussel sprouts), and just keep going. Take it step by step, ingredient by ingredient, meal by meal, and day by day. Also, consider using an app to track your food, even if you just focus on the carbs number in it for now.

It's not about having a diet that's the finished article straight off the bat. It's about making it sustainable, while at the same time reducing carb intake and BG in turn.

When it comes to your BG readings, a mindset I saw and stole very early on was "there are no good or bad numbers, they're all just data points that allow you to make informed decisions and positive changes".

Keep going, improved numbers should follow! You're doing great!
 
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Thanks Paul. I am recording my food in MFP and am using the notes section to keep a log of the corresponding BG levels for those meals, so hopefully it will all serve as useful data to keep me on the right track.
 
Cluuur said:
Thanks Paul. I am recording my food in MFP and am using the notes section to keep a log of the corresponding BG levels for those meals, so hopefully it will all serve as useful data to keep me on the right track.
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That's good. I was impatient at the start, completely understand how you feel. However, go easy on yourself. Your body gets used to having high BG levels, so as they hopefully start to drop, your liver then kicks in and tops your system up with glucose. As you reduce carb intake, this slowly improves, and your system adapts to having lower BG levels. It's frustrating, but just keep going with the process you're doing and if your T2 diagnosis is accurate, you'll start seeing better numbers.
 
Hi all - I'm trying to work out if I'm making actual progress or not and starting to get a bit frustrated with my numbers. I've gone low carb (between 20-45g most days, usually in the 25-35 range) - I've pretty strict on the diet and most carbs are from veg and nuts. I've also added in a quick 10 minute cross-trainer session after each meal the last few days to try and save storing anything I'm consuming, as well as more intensive exercise at least every other day. I think I'm about 7 weeks in and I can't work out if what I'm doing is enough! I've lost about 6kg in weight and I no longer drink water like a fish or need to get up every night for the loo, and my wonky vision has gone away - so I guess something positive is happening?

The lack of consistency is my biggest irritation I think! I had the same lunch today and yesterday and got completely different pre and post meal changes it is really making me question what I'm doing.

I think deep down I know it is helping and that I'm stupidly expecting years of poor glucose management to be remedied too quickly and probably just need a little reassurance to keep me motivated!

Sorry for the ramble - just needed to get it out!
 

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