Diagnosed as Type 2 in May

Hi,

Yes, cut out all the low fat stuff and eat the real stuff. No need to go overboard, but don't actively avoid it. If you reduce carbs you need to replace the lost calories or you will lose weight and feel ****, and these can only come from increased fat or extra protein.

Morning fasting readings are sometimes affected by your liver dumping glucose to get your body up and running to compensate for having no food in your body. This is the liver dump, or dawn phenomenon. There is a thread for Type 2's called What is your morning fasting. We record our levels and help each other out if necessary. Do join in if you wish.

Also test out new foods by testing immediately before you eat, then 2 hours after your first bite. If you get anything higher than you want to see, adjust that meal by having either smaller portions of any carb food, or avoiding it for the time being. Set yourself a post meal target. We all have these, and are all different. The NICE guideline target for Type 2's is 8.5 at 2 hours, but this is too generous. Many of us aim for under 7.8 to begin with, and many more aim for a lot less.

Let us know how you go on.

Hi Mark,

We're all different. My metabolism seems really slow to me, so after initial disappointments I only test before meals - try to keep the main meals in a four hour slot of each other so I suppose I'm testing 4 hours after . I think the regularity, day in, day out lets me draw more info from the results than I'd get from (say) testing before and after a different meal each day.

I hope for 6 or so before breakfast (10 - 10:30, I'm retired) and often have a carb packed Kellogs Nutri|Grain bar just for convenience - it's my dose of sugar. If I test at 12:00 because I'm driving it will certainly be 9 and has been 11.3. Before lunch, 2 - 2:30 it'll hopefully be back about 6 and there I do go low carb. Before the evening meal it's usually about 6 again I do low carb but I like fruit so blood sugars will be high 7s or even 8s before bed. Surprisingly (for me anyway) I find if I have a little supper before bed it seems to help with the figures next morning. As though it keeps your metabolism ticking over.

I'm 71 so I suppose feeling **** is normal



J

whiskymark said:

I certainly will starting tomorrow morning. Thank you! Does this mean that the fasting test in the morning can often be higher than the rest of the day because of this phenomenon?

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Yes, morning fasting levels are often the highest readings (other than post meal ones), and often is the last reading to get under control. You must test immediately on getting out of bed after washing your hands. If you get up and potter about first, your reading may be even higher, especially if you have a shower first.

whiskymark said:

I think my metabolism has always been in overdrive as I have always been skinny and struggled to beef up a bit and could generally always eat or drink what I wanted. Maybe that's part of the problem here!

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It's your antlers that do it...

Are you on sr metformin?

Unless you have been scanned, there is no way of knowing if you have visceral fat or not. If you do have it, it can cause insulin resistance and that's what metformin is used for. If your BG readings are good just with diet though, you may be able to get things under control with diet and exercise alone.

Hi whiskymark and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it helpful. Ask all the questions you need to and someone will help.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 100,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

I'm going to leave it for one of the more seasoned members to offer some guidance, all I can say is that I'm also T2 and pushed myself too much today and made a 200 mile drive to the airport, leaving home at 6am without breakfast and, apart from a motorway coffee with cream, didn't get to eat lunch until 3pm by which time I was getting the shakes. BS were 5.4., but picked up to 6.4 two hours later after a healthy LCHF snack. I didn't have the other symptoms you are experiencing but I do think we have to listen to our bodies (and our meters) and listen to what they are telling us.

Sorry you are feeling as you do, but hope someone will come along and give you the benefit of their experience and some reassurance.

Beware of the pizza effect. It is well known that pizza may show little effect on BS for the first couple of hours, then BANG up go your levels, which can stay elevated for up to 8 hours.