Diagnosed with type 2 today

Hello, good evening and welcome! Lots of good advice in here
I've just started the low carb diet and am hoping to get my Type 2 more under control. There is a low carb forum and lots of info on the site

Hi Marion! I was in the same position as you 13 months ago, though am an underweight T2 diabetic. It's great that your GP seems clued up enough to point you to this site as you'll very soon get a stack of replies and support. I think you now have to forget calories and start concentrating on carbohydrates and how to reduce them as it's carbs that turn into sugar and being unable to use up the sugar creates the high blood glucose levels. Many folk on here follow a low carb high fat diet - LCHF. I'll tag @daisy1 and she'll post a very helpful 'primer' for you to read.
I note that you work with IT, so one thing you can start doing is recording your blood glucose readings in a spreadsheet with a graph - this will let you see your progress as well as finding what foods spike your BG. I do this with mine and find it quite good positive reinforcement as I see my average BG steadily falling.
Another thing you might want to look at is the Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (google it) it is in Excel format and has nutritional info on around 3000 foods. I've imported the data to a database so I can now search and sort the data.
A good book to read is Reduce Your Diabetes by Dr David Cavan, this is an excellent introduction to diabetes and what can be done to manage the condition. I found it invaluable when I was first diagnosed.
You'll find you are on a steep learning curve to start with, but very soon you'll adapt to a new dietary regime and it will become second nature.
BTW - I'm just on the the other side of the Tay.

Dave

Check out the Low Carb High Fat diet (LCHF).

There are some good recipes at dietdoctor.com or at thebloodsugardiet.com

See out Sarah Hallberg's video for an explanation of how it works ...

Hello and welcome to the forum @Dakkobear it's sounds like you've hit the jackpot with your GP. A diagnosis of type 2 diabetes can be a bit overwhelming at first but you will soon be an expert on all things diabetic. Daisys information which will be posted to you shortly is a very good place to start. I live in Stirlingshire, been type 2 for 11yrs, doing well with no diabetic complications. Diabetes doesn't have to limit your enjoyment of life. Welcome again Marion

welcome here Dakkobear

Hi @Dakkobear and welcome to the forum. Obviously you will know that you need to avoid sweet sugary food and drink. But you also should avoid or limit as much as possible starchy carbohydrates like bread, potatoes, pasta and rice. These turn to sugars in our system. You will soon get used to checking nutrition information on food labels. It's best to avoid foods with more than 10 gms of carbohydrates per 100 gms. Less than 5 gms of carbs per 100 gms is best.
Have a read round thethreads and ask anything you want to. The people on here are friendly and supportive.

Dakkobear said:

Thanks Dave. I was told I shouldn't monitor my blood glucose , I've to use the meter to check if I think I'm going hypoglycaemic on these tablets as apparently they can do that and I should take a reading and eat a mini Mars bar. I'm sure that I'll get the hang of it all. I'll check out the book you recommended and the spreadsheet. Thanks

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I'm also taking Gliclazide and was also given a monitor as Gliclazide may cause hypos. I've only had one and that was in exceptional circumstances last September after having eaten very little all day.

Hello there - my diagnostic blood glucose was over 17, and I just checked it now and it is 4.9, that is by eating low carb since diagnosis in mid November last year. My meals usually increase BG by about 2 whole numbers, so I am really seeing normal numbers now. I am just hoping and praying that it will continue to stay like this.
Eating low carb is so much easier than trying to do low calorie. It might sound strange, but I'd rather be eating low carb than trying to cure myself of diabetes, though the two might eventually prove to be the same thing the diabetes gives me the excuse to eat properly without cheats.

Hello Marion, well the good thing is you've been directed here and there is no better place for you. There is much to learn on your diabetic journey, I've been here since December so a bit of a newbie myself really. Once you've got over the shock of your diagnosis and read through Daisy1's email you can get started, try to be open minded and find what works for you food wise. As has been mentioned you need to take a serious look at your carbs intake and what amounts push up your blood glucose, then hopefully by learning this and cutting down or removing them you will see your number start to fall it's that simple. Oh and of course some exercise. There are lots of subjects covered in the forums and I've found there is always someone who can answer any questions, if not then they'll tag somebody who can so don't be afraid to ask anything.

Hi and welcome. Yes, keep the carbs way down. Perhaps below 150gm/day to start with and do use the monitor to check every so often. Gliclazide can cause hypos under certain conditions. What sort of BMI do you have? Gliclazide is usually started for those who are on the slim side where low insulin is suspected. Metformin is commonly started when overweight where insulin resistance is suspected so if the Gliclazide and lower carbs don't work well then do suggest changing to metformin.

Most people on here are going to disagree that you should only use your monitor if you think you might be going low. Testing before and after a meal is the only way to discover how much a particular meal affects you. We vary a lot in our tolerance for carbs, but also different types of carbs affect different people in different ways.

It may be in time that you can control your levels adequately just with low carb eating.

@Dakkobear

Hello Marion and welcome to the Forum As mentioned above, here is the Basic Information we give to new Members and I hope this will be helpful to you. Ask as many questions as you need to and someone will be able to 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 well over 147,000 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

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.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a free 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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 blood glucose 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.

Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. They're all free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.

Morning Marion,
It takes a wee while to assimilate all the facts be kind to yourself. It was a couple of weeks after diagnosis when the reality of how my life would be affected really sunk in. As you said in your previous post its pasta or a new low carb way of eating which will give you the best chance of avoiding diabetic complications. Here is a link to a website who's diet I follow, it's worth a look
www.dietdoctor.com
the best way to know which foods raise your blood glucose levels too much is to test immediately before eating then 2 hrs after, this way you can take control of the diabetes.

Dakkobear said:

thanks to everyone who replied. I am glad to have somewhere to go where folk are so kind and supportive.
@Daibell my bmi is in the 30s so definitely fat. The GP said to start with this tablet to see if my insulin could be boosted then it would be changed. Does that make sense?
@BarbaraG I thought I'd need to check it regularly but she definitely said not to. She also said to see dietician before dealing with diet but that appointment isn't until April and I'd ideally not want to make it worse before then.

I'm sure this is not as confusing as it all appears. Of course I'm sure all the food I love will be on the no go list and that will be hard but given the choice of pasta or diabetes I'll forego the pasta. I don't eat or drink a huge amount of sugary things. I do drink a lot of Pepsi max which is sugar free but are the sweeteners in it OK? I know there are a lot of hidden sugars in foods though and I do eat potatoes and pasta and rice rather than biscuits and cakes. I'd already cut back on bread, I eat two slices for breakfast and that's it.
I'm probably eating more healthily now than I ever have. I've lost 3.5 stones in just over a year and it saddens me that despite this I still have diabetes and at least some of the weight loss is down to this and not healthy.
Still onwards and upwards, it's a new day.

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Who am I to disagree with your GP, but it's a fact that many T2s with excess weight have insulin resistance where the pancreas keeps pumping out insulin but the muscle cells can't use it due to fat deposits. This means insulin levels in the blood may already be high. There is a test for this (c-peptide) but it's expensive and rarely done. I suggest you carry on with a low-carb diet and you should find that both your blood sugar and weight gradually go down. We would all say that using your meter every so often is essential. You may well have to fund your own test strips as I did and get a free meter from a brand name company or buy the SD Codefree from the web. My advice is not to wait to see the dietician before changing you diet. The more you read these forums you will see that reducing the carbs is the way to start and have enough fats and proteins to keep you feeling full. Many NHS dieticians, sadly, haven't a clue about diet and may well suggest having carbs with every meal and make your diabetes worse; it's a mad world we live in! So keep up the good work and perhaps tactfully suggest to your GP at some point about going over to Metformin. I had the opposite problem as a T1. I was started on Metformin and had to suggest to my GP to start Gliclazide which he readily agreed to! BTW I have sweeteners which in the quantities we have are not a problem. There is a current argument that they encourage the brain to seek out sweet foods. I haven't found that but just don't have things too sweet.

Dakkobear said:

thanks to everyone who replied. I am glad to have somewhere to go where folk are so kind and supportive.
@Daibell my bmi is in the 30s so definitely fat. The GP said to start with this tablet to see if my insulin could be boosted then it would be changed. Does that make sense?

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The tablet you're on is one which pushes the pancreas to make more insulin. There is a school of thought that all that does is accelerate the burnout of your beta cells, which means that some years down the line you will have even less insulin-making capacity and will be more likely to require insulin injections. By contrast, another drug called metformin makes you more sensitive to the insulin you do make, so if anything it preserves your capacity to make insulin. It also tends to be weight neutral or encourage weight loss, while the one you've been given promoted weight gain. That's because insulin is the fat-storage hormone. More insulin, more fat storage. Less insulin, less fat storage. How do we reduce insulin? By eating less of the things which stimulate its secretion.


However, it is stronger in the short run for getting glucose levels down, so it may be that your GP is only planning to use it for a few months and then switch you to metformin. That would be a good strategy.

Dakkobear said:

@BarbaraG I thought I'd need to check it regularly but she definitely said not to. She also said to see dietician before dealing with diet but that appointment isn't until April and I'd ideally not want to make it worse before then. [/USER]

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I'm sure she did... it's just that I disagree with that policy ;-)

I moved house in July, a few weeks after starting LCHF to try to lose some weight (I was over 20 stone) and better control my diabetes. Because I had lost a lot of weight some years ago I had been taken off my diabetes medications and was no longer prescribed test strips. So when I rolled up at the new surgery for review with an HbA1C of 62 and asked for test strips, I was told it was not policy to prescribe them unless there was a risk of hypos, which there isn't with metformin. But I could buy my own if I wanted to.

So I did - and went back 3 months later with an HbA1C of 40, which is NORMAL. My fasting glucose - the thing that yours was 27 and should be 7 - went from high 7's into the 5's and by that stage I had lost over 3 stone (I've now lost 4 stone and blood glucose is in the normal range almost all the time)

The nurse was absolutely ecstatic, told me I had reversed my diabetes and to carry on. But also told me not to test obsessively, since "we are keeping an eye on you".

Well, I'm sorry, but an HbA1C test every 6 months - which is what will happen once you reach what they consider reasonable control - will not help you to work out what this food rather than that food is doing to you. It may be you can cope with 2 slices of bread at breakfast.... but if you test and see your BG shoot up to 15, you might decide that one slice, or half a slice, or none at all, is preferable. HbA1C won't tell you that.

Testing gives YOU the information to make the decisions which will affect the health of YOUR body.

I'll shut up now.... it can be confusing, that's for sure, but we will try to make it less so. Be aware that one source of confusion is disagreement about the best way of treating T2D - the official recommendation from the NHS tells us to base meals and snacks on starchy Carbohydrate. People who do the opposite have better glucose levels, better lipids, lower blood pressure, weigh less, and take less medication.

I've had T2 for 19 years. The periods of best control correspond to the periods of most frequent testing. Funny, that.


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I would say do not become to obsessed with testing if you do not see the levels you want to as the same foods can give you different readings every time and people can be worried by that and start cutting out all kinds of food that they may not need to . We know the starchy carbs like bread pasta rice potatoes and sugar stuff are the worse for raising blood glucose so most here try to avoid those The high fat debate goes on as some have said in the media that saturated fat is not bad but that is not a general medical opinion so is something we all have to make our own minds up to eat a high, moderate or low fat diet it is whatever works for us personally