Diagnosed type 2 two years agp

I'm afraid that your diet is not suitable for T2. Breakfast cereals are high carbohydrate and sugar. I cannot eat any bread at all, spikes are too high, potatoes, pasta and rice the same. Suggest you test 1 hour before food and 1 & 2 hours after and see the difference. There will be lots of posters who will give you good advice so ask any questions you need. I will tag @daisy1 who will give you advice for newly diagnosed.

@Messy7

Hello and welcome to the forum Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask more questions and someone will be able to help.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

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 150,000 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

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/low carb program


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.

Hi. Whilst your carbs may be a bit on the high side, I would be suspicious that you may be a Late onset T1 and not T2 as you are quite young. How is your weight? If your weight and BMI are reasonable then I would ask the GP for the two tests i.e. GAD and c-peptide. Your HBa1C is pretty good so your spiking is slightly strange. If the GP doesn't understand the two tests or won't do them, then at least ask for further medication such as Gliclazide. I've been down the same route and had to suggest to my diabetes GP that he added Gliclazide which he readily agreed to. This drug stimulates the pancreas to produce more insulin and is a pre-cursor to insulin in the longer-term if you are a T1.

Hi. Bottom line...weetabix is not on the menu anymore, nor is bread. People can argue all they want about this but most Type 2s would get a spike in blood sugar from weetabix. I was shocked when I first realised what a bit of toast did to my levels. I tried a number of alternatives...to find that even the cereal with the lowest carb content with reasonable GI (Bran Flakes) still bumped it up. Only when I had abandoned all cereal and all bread along with other high carb foods did my levels become manageable. Things are pretty good now, and I risk a wee bowl now and then and a wee croissant as a treat (still spikes!). Two bits of advice - maybe up the fluid intake (I drink 2-3 litres of very, very diluted Robinsons no added sugar juice a day), and...record what you eat along with those meter readings...a "food diary" will inform you to good effect. Good luck.

Messy7 said:

I was diagnosed two years ago at 44 years old, fit and healthy, enjoyed a already low carb diet because hubby was a type 1 diabetic since childhood, so easier to adopt his lifestyle.

My father had been diagnosed along with other members of the family on his side with diabetes, non over weigh, all very fit and active people, but in later life, mid 70s

Well I my dad had died 9 months earlier, I lost over a stone in weigh, I drunk more water, and I started to need the toilet more, I was tired all the time. A friend said to me are you ok? then like a thunderbolt it hit me, I wonder.

When I got home I borrowed Mike meter and tested my blood, 9.6, ok, let's test this, so I had a baked potato, waffles and ice cream, very unusual for me. Two hours later retested 22.4.

Made an appointment and tests were done, average over three months 11.3, given metoformin 500mg 3 times a day, and informed by GP 'you know more about it then me, you just came for the pills'

Well I was told to come back in 6 months for review, results, 6.2. Six months later 6.1.. came back in 12 months for next review..

Well over the last month or so my symptoms have returned, I feel lousy, I eat less carb then ever and exercise more, around 50g a day, I can't control my blood sugar.

Yesterday. I had one weetabix and milk for breakfast, walked the dogs three miles, then office. Lunch one cheese and salad sandwich on seeded wholemeal bread and water, half a hour walk. By three a o'clock felt horrible, tired and sleepy, 17.3 when test by nurse at work. By the time I got home 14.3. No carbs for dinner just green salad and meat.

I tested this morning 8.9, one. Weetabix and milk, retested two hours later 14.8..

Where am I going wrong??

I called surgery spoke to diabetic nurse, no need to worry, exercise can rise your blood sugar.. WHAT..

Well I have to have blood tests today but want a week to see her..


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Hi Messy. It's all a bit bewildering at first, it's safe to say.

I know when I was diagnosed I was told to eat a healthy low fat diet and just to go back in a few months for more blood tests. I found that very confusing, because that's exactly what I had been doing for who knows how many years. it just didn't sit right with me.

I sulked a bit, then questioned my Nurse about a few things and asked her about home testing as something about what I was eating and drinking clearly wasn't doing me any favours, bearing in mind I'd been eating her prescribed diet for what seemed like forever.

I was told not to test, but decided I would anyway and the the learning really began. I could see exactly what in my diet was making my blood rise to the scary numbers, and what kept it a bit more steady. It was my immediate, real-time feedback, and helped me make a significant different.

Like many T2s, I found many carbohydrate foods impacted my blood scores, so I started eliminating them, once I could see for myself it was necessary.

The thing is, we're all different, and I can eat things some can't, and vice versa, so for me testing was key.

It looks like adopting your partner's diet isn't going to be quite right for you, for now, as you're seeing numbers higher than most would be comfortable with. I am assuming as a T1, your partner takes insulin to regulate his blood scores? We don't usually have that need. Most T2s produce plenty of insulin, but their bodies either can't use it well. Some don't produce enough insulin, but getting to grips with your numbers will all help sketch out the way forward for you.

If you can, I'd suggest getting yourself a meter of your own, so that you can tract things, and keep a food diary, so you can compare what's going on, and also be able to look back to see how you reacted to that food/meal last time. It doesn't have to be complicated. Some use a notebook, others make a spreadsheet on their laptops and others apps on smart phones or tablets. For my food diary, I use Myfitnesspal, which remembers what you've eaten, so once it's in there, you just recall it when you eat the same thing again.

Good luck with it all. Start learning and see what happens to those finger prick scores. Many find they can bring them down quite a bit.

Ask lots of questions; that's what most of us did in the early days. It's all part of the learning process.

Good luck with it all.

In the long run, exercise can reduce BG because trained muscles should become less insulin resistant. If a person is already active, they have less of a margin to achieve this effect. During an session of exercise, the liver releases glucose in response. The extra is supposed to feed the muscles, but if the muscles are insulin resistant, the result will be BG rising.

Type 2 is caused by the combination of progressive insulin resistance and progressive loss of insulin production. If the latter process is far along, insulin injections are one treatment option.

Here is a Webpage with tips for exercising safely: http://www.joslin.org/info/why_do_blood_glucose_levels_sometimes_go_up_after_physical_activity.html Divide these glucose numbers by 18 to get the values in European units.

After two decades of inactivity, I went walking 10 miles a day. After a year of this, A1c fell from 46 to 37. But now this quantity has risen. I walk less, and maybe I'm eating more sugar.