Hi all, I am new to the diabetic community. I was diagnosed today and feel so embarrassed. It was not unexpected to be honest, my figures have slowly been going up over the years and I have been unable to stop it happening.
My HbA1c is 6.8 and fasting blood 8.6
My cholesterol was slightly elevated aswell.
I have been referred to weight management but no medication as yet. My doc has started me on aspirin and statin before I see the chest clinic and then she might start me on Metformin.
So bit scary as only 42. Why did I push and push as the tip myself over the top?
Thanks for listening. X
Ah, here we go again.... And I'll tell you the same thing I've told others: You did NOT do this to yourself! No need to feel ashamed
at all. I was overweight, went to a dietician, and got even bigger on her high carb, low fat advice. She just shrugged and told me I should just accept I was "one of those people" who can't lose weight. You became big because you have a problem processing carbohydrates back out.
If you don't know that, no conventional diet is going to help. You become big because T2 is developing, you don't develop T2 due to weight. It's really the other way around. Thing is, almost all carbs turn to glucose once ingested. And your panceas pumps out LOADS of insulin to keep your glucose levels down, but you aren't sensitive to your own insulin anymore. So more and more is needed, until there's just a tipping point. Your body can't keep up anymore, your levels go up, and T2 is an imminent fact. Excess glucose, which can't be burned off because the insulin isn't doing what it's supposed to, gets stored in fat cells. What doesn't get stored floats around, doing damage, and after a while, you're a full-fledged diabetic. So t
he weight-gain is a symptom of prediabetes, long story short. You didn't know this was the case. So there's no blame there, okay?
So now what? You can try several things, Medication can be a first stop, but two things: side-effects can be severe. And on medication only, diabetes is a progressive disease. You'll need more meds as time goes by, eventually probably headed towards insulin. If you change your diet to low carb/high fat, you can reverse the T2. You'll still be diabetic, but it would mean having normal bloodsugar levels, no complications, and no progression of the disease. (It also could tackle others things related to diabetes, called Metabolic Syndrome: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, high bloodpressure, high cholesterol....) You could do diet and meds in a combination, and you could try going diet-only. I got off the diabetes meds (and statins) in about 3 months after diagnosis. Could've been faster, but then I didn't find this place (and dietdoctor.com, and Dr. Jason Fung) until much later, so I made a lot of mistakes along the way. Otherwise I do believe I could have been medication-free a lot sooner. Life's a lot better with T2 under control. 25 kilo's lighter too. While having bacon once or twice a day.
NHS advice still recommends the EatWell plate. And the EatWell is excellent for people
without T2. So do keep that in mind when you see a dietician... I had to sort my own diet out, with the help of a glucose-meter. If I'd eaten what was recommended to me after the T2 diagnosis I'd probably be on insulin right now, which is a sobering thought. Get a meter, and test before a meal and 2 hours after. Then you'll know whether the meal agrees with you; you shouldn't go up more than 2.0 mmol/l post-meal. As almost all carbs turn to glucose once ingested, you want to avoid potatoes, bread, pasta, rice, cereal, corn, and fruit (save for berries, avocado and tomatoes, those are okay). Stick with meat, poultry, fish, eggs, mushrooms, above-ground veggies/leafy greens, cheese, butter, full-fat greek yoghurt, extra dark chocolate (85% Lindt is good!), nuts, olives, that sort of thing.
Really, don't blame yourself. If something's going awry in your body and
you don't know what it is, you can't do anything about it. Now you know. Now you can get started. You'll be okay. Just stop it with the blame-game. Loads of us here tried to tackle our weight and failed, because we didn't know we were experiencing one of the symptoms of prediabetes and how to treat it. Even our doctors didn't know. Take a breath. And know you can take control of this, and your life. It can get better. You will feel better. I haven't been this healthy in well over a decade. There's HOPE here.
Good luck!
Jo